Reach Out Of The Darkness

Today is (now) my only day off this week. I did the laundry in the morning, as usual Caught some enjoyable Nick Jr shows. Today's Blue's Clues was one of Steve's episodes, and involved the things some of the characters love to collect. For once, Miss Blue and her stripes-loving human pal actually had me stumped until the last clue!

Dora and Diego both had interesting and fairly unusual episodes that dealt with memories and remembering. Someone at Nick must have read my blog entry from last Tuesday that complained about the sameness in Dora's episodes, because there was a mild format change this week. Dora recalls at a big family dinner how she first became an explorer and met her animal buddies Boots, Isa, Tico, Benny, the Fiesta Trio, and the infamous Swiper The Fox. I believe this is also the first (and only?) time the music-playing bugs and frog known as the Fiesta Trio, who normally herald the end of a game sequence, are in the spotlight. Also, Map and Backpack only make cameo appearances; Dora herself announces the game locations. (And given I find Map's voice to be annoying, I kinda like this better.)

Diego was once again at a beach, this time helping his whole family (including his rarely-seen parents) clean up garbage in preparation for a group of leatherback turtles to lay their eggs. Diego himself recalled how he'd once helped one of the mother turtles when she was young and helped her again when she and her friends became caught in a net, while Alicia and their folks stopped the careless Bobo Brothers from redistributing the trash. Another episode I can relate to. I've lived by the beach for most of my life, and many elementary school and junior high school kids clean up trash on the Jersey Shore for not only the same reasons as Diego and his family, but because they're the lifeblood of South Jersey - they're ecosystems, they provide seafood for locals, tourists, and fish-lovers around the world, and they attract millions of tourists a year.

I stuck around after the laundry was done for The Backyardigans. Superheroes and action films were the affectionate parody of the day. The mambo tunes were so infectious, I found myself dancing along as weather-controlling Uniqua and master builder Austin chased mad scientist shrinker Tyrone and goo-creator Pablo as they raced to the Tower Of Power, which held the Key To Rule The World! I especially loved how the kids' powers were, frankly, a lot more sensible than many real-life superheroic creations...and I REALLY loved Uniqua saving Austin and the key in the end. (And they must know Edna Mode - only Pablo had a cape.)

I did make it to the Camden County Library later in the afternoon for this week's volunteering session. Worked on the world and US history sections, which were a mess and took me the majority of the two hours I was there, then spent another hour looking for books on job hunting and college graduate degrees. Didn't see anything I liked about the former, but I did find a book about adults going to back to college that may be helpful. I also picked up a book of Weight Watchers recipes, a couple of Walt Disney Comic Books (I do love me some Donald Duck), and a Calvin and Hobbes comic book I haven't read yet.

I've had bike trouble for the past few days. The back tire keeps deflating, no matter how often I pump it. It was so deflated when I came out of the library, I had to walk it home. (I peeked at AC Moore for about 10 minutes, but while they had lots of fabric, they had no books or patterns for clothes for 18 inch dolls like Samantha, and only books on knitting clothes for fashion dolls, not sewing them.) The small bike shop on the White Horse Pike where I had my pedals replaced twice last year on the old bike was closed on "Teus" (the exact wording on the sign) and mostly seemed to be opened at the proprietors' convenience...which, of course, is in the afternoon and evening later in the week, when I usually work.

Sigh. I'll go to Uncle Ken tomorrow and borrow his or Bruce's bike until I can get an inner tube and get to the shop to have it fixed.