Sunshine State of New Jersey

Awoke to an utterly gorgeous, really too-warm day. It was windy, but otherwise as summer-like as we're going to get in early April, upper 70s and sunny. I managed to kick myself out of bed early. That left me with enough time before work to take down the Easter decorations and get them in the back room. (The general spring items will remain up until early June, after Lauren leaves.)

Not surprisingly, given the weather, work was steady but nowhere near overwhelmingly busy. First of all, I worked 10-2 and was long gone before the usual 4-6 rush hour chaos. Second, a lot of people may have taken one look at the sunshine and dashed off to the Jersey Shore. (And more's the pity if they did. The Shore is supposed to be ten degrees cooler for the entire week.) Fortunatly, those who remained seemed to be in good moods; there were a lot of parents taking their kids shopping, probably to give them something to do during their week off. My only problem today was the young man who is my relief is one of the kids with a second job who is always late. I shut down and just barely finished on time.

I made an extremely nasty discovery this morning as I left for work. Some feral cat or the other (there are tons in the neighborhood) had dropped the carcass of their last squirrel meal on my porch, near the steps, last night. It took me ten minutes to bring myself to even just knock the thing off the porch and bury it under the five million leaves in the backyard. It wasn't pretty.

The rest of the afternoon went far more quietly (and less disgustingly). I changed into a blouse, shorts, and sandals, grabbed some books, and headed to Dad's to do this week's laundry session. I've done it on Tuesdays for the past few months, but since I had off early today, I thought I'd do it without having to rush.

Dad was the only one home when I arrived. I just read Murder Has a Sweet Tooth for a while, then headed for the Oaklyn Library after the laundry went in the dryer.

The Oaklyn Library was slightly busier than the Acme. A couple of teenage girls showed up at the same time I did, looking for DVDs to amuse them during their week off. A large, plump fellow with a mustache and a young girl were behind the counter today. They didn't recognize me, probably because I don't usually volunteer in the afternoons. I don't know why they wanted my card when I returned my book. Can't they just return the book without the card? I guess they're both new.

It was too nice to be in the library for very long. Besides, my mouth got dry and I started coughing like crazy. That happens at work a lot, though not often elsewhere. I headed to WaWa next for a fountain soda with syrup (got a Raspberry-Chocolate Coke Zero), then went for a walk down the White Horse Pike and back to Dad's.

Uncle Ken, Dolores, and Jodie were all chatting on the porch when I arrived. It really was too nice of a day to be inside! I talked to them, then carried my laundry home.

The nice weather's supposed to continue through most of the week, which is a good thing. I have the rest of this week's library volunteering planned for tomorrow and more spring cleaning, too.