Saluting Our Veterans

I overslept and never did get to yoga today. It was just as well. I wouldn't have been able to get to the Collingswood Library, even if I hadn't overslept. Today is Veteran's Day. While many schools are open (New Jersey kids get enough days off in November as it is, between Thanksgiving and the Teacher's Convention), most government buildings and many smaller businesses aren't. I didn't get out of bed until after 9:30.

When I did finally get up and get dressed, I had breakfast, then made that low-fat Prevention Magazine recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. They came out beautifully, nice and soft.

Ran two East Side Kids movies while baking. Most of the East Side Kids movies were filmed while World War II were raging, and more than half of them involved the Armed Forces or war in some way or another. I finally chose two that were more war-oriented than most. Flying Blind is an earlier movie from 1942 that has the boys working at an airplane factory that's dealing with sabotage. Follow the Leader is from two years later. Mugs McGinnis isn't thrilled when the Army discharges him due to bad eyes...and he's even less thrilled when a member of his gang gets killed by spies right in the Kids' basement clubhouse!

It was such a nice day, I really couldn't waste all of it inside. I went for a walk for an hour while the cookies were cooling. My first stop was Uncle Ken's. He was sitting on the porch, so I decided to have a chat with a real veteran. Uncle Ken was celebrating Veteran's Day by enjoying the nice weather and supervising the repairs on his roof. Everyone else was out with kids or working.

Went to CVS next. They didn't have the conditioner I wanted...but they did have garlic powder on sale, which I've been meaning to get for ages now. Also picked up three baskets with fall foliage in them for general fall decorations in the living room.

The park was gorgeous today. It was a perfect day in mid-November in New Jersey. The sky was bright blue, without a cloud in it. It was breezy, but not as windy as earlier in the week. It was chilly, probably in the mid-upper 50s, colder than it has been but not too bad. The foliage is at it's peak, in bright shades of rust, copper, gold, lime green, red, orange, and even some deep purple and brown. It was like walking through a rainbow.

When I got in, I had leftover steak, fresh farm market spinach, and steamed Brussels sprouts for lunch while watching the "Donald Duck in the Army" cartoons Disney made between 1942 and 1944. I traditionally watch these every Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. Cantankerous Donald was the perfect Disney character for wartime audiences, who loved seeing the temperamental fowl give it to the enemies and to Drill Sergent Pete as good as he got.

Although the Oscar-winning "Der Fuehrer's Face" is probably the most famous of these, my favorite is "The Vanishing Private." Pete tells Donald that he needs to make a new cannon "hard to see." He does that, all right, via a special invisibility paint. The fun really begins when Donald lands in the paint...and a spooked Pete winds up chasing "the little man that you can't see" all over the base.

After the cartoons, I went on the computer for a while. I knew I was working late tonight, so I played WebKinz this afternoon instead. I also worked on editing the long Bowery Boys story Lauren and I are working on for the NaNoWrite program this month. It challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month. Look for the Bowery Boys' story by Thanksgiving and this month's Monkees story by the beginning of December!

I had a little bit of extra time before work, so I wound up my Veteran's Day by skipping from World War II to Vietnam. The Pink Panther joins the Army in "G.I Pink," but discovers that dealing with land minds, cranky drill sergeants, and nasty mascot dogs is even scarier than fighting in the jungle!

I left early for work. I'd been debating all day whether I wanted to eat out or not. I finally decided I didn't feel like cooking or having leftovers for lunch and dinner. I didn't work until 6, but I rode over to the Audubon Crossings Mall at quarter of 5.

Ended up at Chick Fil'A. I don't often eat there. First of all, they're very popular with families and are usually crowded. They often run specials, and they're the only one of the four fast-food restaurants at Audubon Crossings with a playground. Second, they're also the most expensive of the four fast-food restaurants. Arby's and Sonic are both much cheaper for some of the same food.

On the other had, I'd just had roast beef for lunch, and it was too cold to sit outside and eat Sonic's. I opted for a Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich with no condiments and a Carrot-Raisin Salad. There was a line when I arrived, even at just after 5, but it moved quickly.

I had so much time left before work, I made a brief stop at FYE to see if they had anything for my brother Keefe's birthday next week. I didn't really see anything good, so I finally moved on.

After all that, my 6-10 shift at the Acme was on-and-off steady when I came in, quiet as a mouse when I left. I found out why I'd gotten a rare late shift, too. The older woman who usually works late had apparently called last week and said she wouldn't be able to come in at all for a while. Ok, I can understand that. We are just entering cold and flu season. I don't often get really late hours anymore, anyway. I just hope they don't make it a habit. I don't mind the late work, but it's nerve-wracking riding home in the pitch-dark on my bike.