Saturday, June 13, 2009

Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again

It was on-and-off cloudy and incredibly humid but not raining when I headed out for this week's Saturday errands. I was up a little late with Lauren last night and was later than usual getting out. The bank wasn't busy, but the Farm Market was. It was three and four deep at some of the tables, people ignoring the humidity and the clouds as they picked up their goodies before the next round of storms. I was able to get carrots, strawberries, mushrooms, little organic yellow squash (a dollar for four...and the farmer threw in a fifth free because it was the last one), and the first New Jersey cherries of the season.

Stopped at one yard sale on the way home, but there was nothing of interest, despite the proprietor's claim that "no one walks away from here without a sale!" I saw a sign for another, but the heavy clouds were starting to gather again, and the humidity was getting worse. I made a brief stop at CVS for cheap large eggs ($1.49), then just rode home.

It's probably just as well. I was right about the weather. Another thunderstorm rolled through about an hour after I got in. It wasn't as noisy as some of the ones we've had lately, but I'm still glad I wasn't out in it. It subsided just in time for me to ride to work. (I really didn't want to drag anyone out in a thunderstorm.)

The weather seems to have cleared out work. The Acme was on-and-off busy all day and downright quiet by the time I was finished, with no major problems. I was able to do my shopping in relative peace. Didn't need much anyway - yogurt, peanut butter (had a coupon and the Skippy Natural is still on sale), granola bars, chicken legs and cubed steaks (both were on good sales), and bananas. Supervalu, the Acme's parent company, just replaced the old Acme brand ice cream with a fancier packaging and name, and they're unloading the original brand for $1.99. I grabbed Light Rocky Road for a treat.

I didn't get lucky the third time around. A steady shower was falling when I walked out of the Acme. I didn't feel like calling for a ride (and trying to load the cruiser bike into someone's car), and I wasn't crazy about standing around and waiting for the rain to let up, either. I just rode home in the rain and got wet.

Oh, and I continued my Get Smart: Season 3 marathon. The pop culture of the swinging mid-60s makes its way into this batch of episodes more often than usual. "Don't Look Back" is a well-done riff on The Fugitive, directed by Don Adams himself. "The Groovy Guru" spoofs the hippie counterculture and Laugh-In. "The Little Black Book" features another famous Don - Rickles - as an old army buddy of Max's who gets tangled in a case when he mistakes Max's book of Kaos numbers for his bachelor address book. Apparently, Rickles and Don Adams really were good friends in real life, and their ad-libs drove the episode so over-budget that what was originally planned as an ordinary one-part story became a two-parter.

(Oh, and Rickles isn't the only comedian who shows up on this disk. I also counted Bob Hope, Milton Berle, and Larry Storch of F-Troop as "The Groovy Guru." It became something of a game of "name that famous 60s comedian" for a while.)

No comments: