|
Barbara
Fritchman Thompson Diary
Week
of 18 August 2008
Latest Update: Sunday, 22 August 2008 1:20 p.m.
|
Monday, 18
August 2008
Business
as usual at work. Busy, busy, busy. I am up and down and on my feet so
much I have given up walking at lunch unless I go up the street for
something to eat. Tonight was gym night but otherwise nothing much
exciting going on.
We are still having unseasonable weather for August. Tropical Storm Fay
was predicted to come up the peninsula of Florida into Georgia, SC, and
NC going just west of Winston. Even that far west we should get some
rain. Now they have it turning more to the west once it gets to
Georgia. Guess we will have to wait and see what happens.
[Top]
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Despite some rain last week things are really
getting dry. Tonight when I mowed I set the deck down to fall grass
height. That is as low as I ever mow, which is about 2 inches. With the
dry weather the leaves are already beginning to fall. Last week when I
mowed on Monday after my trip to Chicago
I put the bagger on since the Bermuda was so high. Mowing it down one
more notch tonight I got a lot of dried grass, dirt, and leaves along
with what is left of the green grass.
The other reason for mowing it down is I called Scott's Lawn Service
today to be put on the list to have the yard aerated. It has been
several years since I had it done. They will do the seeding too but I
can do that myself after the punch little holes in the yard. That will
help to regenerate the grass for next spring.
I finished the Joanna Brady last night. As with the other books in her
series, this one was excellent. If you have not read either her Brady
or her Beaumont series I highly recommend both. Today at lunch I
started the new Peter Robinson, Friend of the Devil, an Inspector Banks mystery.
[Top]
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Work, gym home. After dinner Bob cleaned up
the kitchen while I went out to water what is left of my plants of
bushes. I am loosing several bushes to the drought. I can most likely
cut them way back and see if they will come back out at the root. My
flowers look horrible except, of course, for the lantana.
Tomorrow night I am meeting some friends for dinner at a great little
restaurant located uptown from where I work. They have nice outdoor,
patio seating which they close in during the winter or when it is
raining for those who would like to eat outside year round.
We've been watching some Midsomer Murders and more of Weeds.
[Top]
Thursday, 21 August 2008
[Last
Week]
[Monday]
[Tuesday]
[Wednesday]
[Thursday] [Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday]
[Next
Week]
No update.
[Top]
Friday, 22 August 2008
[Last
Week]
[Monday]
[Tuesday]
[Wednesday]
[Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday]
[Next
Week]
Friday again. The end of this week has been a
little slower and more relaxed at work which gave me a chance to catch
up on other projects. The weather continues to be cool but things are
really getting dry. Unfortunately Hurricane Fay is heading west out of
Florida instead of her projected path of straight up into Georgia, SC,
and NC. We could have used the rain. She has been sitting over Florida
for almost a week bringing lots of flooding.
Other than a couple of small areas of the US, North Carolina has the largest drought area in the country.
Not much else in the news. Dogs are fine and my folks continue to be doing well.
[Top]
Saturday, 23 August
2008
[Last
Week]
[Monday]
[Tuesday]
[Wednesday]
[Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday] [Sunday]
[Next
Week]
I snoozed in until 8:30, read the paper, ate
breakfast, etc. First order of business was to empty the downstairs
freezer for its annual defrosting. Because we do not open and close it
very much it does not get terribly frosted over. When the ice gets just
a little thick on the shelves, which takes about a year, I do the
defrost. It makes for a much easier task.
After putting what little food we have left in there in coolers, I
turned off the thermostat, put a towel in the bottom, one on the floor,
and one under the door where it hangs open.
I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up Alpo Snaps and Petco to stock
up on DentaStix's for the dogs. Petco sells them in a larger package
which cuts down on having to buy them so often. Both our neighborhood
pet store and the grocery store sell the small packages which are more
expensive anyway. Wal-Mart has the best price on the large boxes of
snap plus I stock up on a few food items I can buy there at a good
price. I also picked up the few things we needed for weekly shopping.
By the time I got back home the freezer was completely defrosted. I
mopped up the water, put the food back in, and that chore was
completed. Time to do a reorder from Southern Foods.
After lunch I took the dogs out to play. The neighbors behind us with
the three little Chihuahua's came out for a visit. My guys ran around
while hers just barked. It is another beautiful summer day.
Temperatures in the low 80's, 47% humidity. Good breeze, a few clouds.
The dogs enjoyed being out running around for awhile. After I put them
in the house I started on the yard chores. Of course it is too dry to
mow but I had some other things to do.
Though it is not quit fall the dry weather has moved up the time table
for doing a few things. The hosta is about spent, having turned brown
in places. I pulled all the leaves from the front and side bed of
those, cut by my balloon plant, etc. The front bushes that I thought
were dying due to the drought are but not because of lack of rain. The
hot, dry conditions created some type of white fungus which got on the
woody and leave part of the plant. I cut then three that looked really
back all the way down to the ground. The others like it I trimmed back
but they look unaffected.
After I finished doing some other plant trimming and pulling Bob mixed
up a dishwater solution in my empty outdoor Windex Window bottle. It
hooks up to the hose for alternating between detergent and clear water.
I was going to wash down the front shutters and gutter edges but Bob
came out and did that for me. The bottoms of the shutters where we had
the red bug infestation in the early part of the summer had to be
scrubbed to get the bug crap off. After Bob finished doing the windows,
shutters, and gutters, I used what was left to spray the bushes. It
can't hurt and might help to wash off the mold.
That's about it for today. Grilled steak and chicken for dinner with French bread.
[Top]
Sunday, 24 August
2008
[Last
Week]
[Monday]
[Tuesday]
[Wednesday]
[Thursday]
[Friday]
[Saturday]
[Sunday] [Next
Week]
We are actually having a rather lazy day today. Bob has purchased a new MP3 player for me from Sansa
for an upcoming 25th wedding anniversary present. I started out a
couple of a years ago with a MUVO that held about 2 hours worth of
music. From there I graduated to a Sansa that holds approximately 230
to 260 songs which I am using at the gym. The CD player in my car has
become finicky about what it will play. I can play a CD several times
but the next time I put it in will not play. I tried cleaning with both
a disc cleaner and canned air. We tried the old MUVO in my car to see
if it would play an axillary player.
With my new player we loaded up about 40+albums for my listening
pleasure. Instead of batteries it has to be recharged via USB port on
the computer but that's now problem. I will keep one CD handy to pop in
as a backup.
That done, I did the weekly house cleaning and had the dogs out to play.
[Top]
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003,
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
by
Barbara
Fritchman
Thompson. All Rights Reserved.