A Foggy Day In Oaklyn Town

I was up late talking to Lauren last night and didn't get up today until almost 10! When I did get up, I couldn't see much, anyway. A thick fog surrounded the Riverside Rest. I'd never seen fog like this in winter! It was thick and white, and it obscured everything.

Once again, it would seem that we got rain this morning and last night, and that's all we got. The blizzard that pounded the north and midwest was much kinder to us. I don't think we even got sleet or freezing rain this time. Heck, it wasn't even cold. It was probably in the 40s, slightly warm for what it usually is this time of year.

When I did finally get out around quarter of 1, I headed for the Oaklyn Library first. It was still a bit foggy, though not quite as bad as earlier in the morning. The Library was pretty busy when I arrived, considering it would close for the day at 2. (The Oaklyn Library is only open from 10 to 2 on Wednesday.) I organized DVDs and shelved children's books. Helped a mother and her daughter find picture books as well.

The Oaklyn Library is finally clearing out its large collection of videos. I already had a lot of the adult videos, but there were a couple of kid videos that interested me. I grabbed two Dr. Seuss specials from the 70s, The Cat and the Hat and Dr. Seuss On the Loose, and three Winnie the Pooh specials - the two Halloween episodes and a Valentine's Day show.

I next went to WaWa for a Cherry-Vanilla Coke Zero fountain soda and a pretzel, then took a walk around the neighborhood. Though the snow was rapidly melting and the fog was mostly gone, the sidewalks were still slushy and even icy in some places. It wasn't nearly as bad as earlier in the week or last week's blizzard, but still pretty messy.

I spent the rest of the day at home. I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed. For once, the kitchen may have been worse than the bathroom. I did a lot of eating at home and a lot of baking last month. I'll get the dusting done on Saturday. We're supposed to be getting our next round of bad weather then, though at press time it sounds like it'll be the same as today and yesterday - rain with a little freezing rain and maybe a tiny bit of snow.

Did two McBride mysteries and one I started last night. In Fallen Idol, Mac is devastated when a lawyer he admired is killed in what appears to be a robbery...but neither the crime nor the victim are what they seem to be. Anybody Here Murder Marty? takes us behind-the-scenes at a popular Jerry Springer-style talk show. The abrasive host is murdered on the night of his 10th anniversary show by a disgruntled guest...but it turns out there were plenty of other people working on the show who wanted the egotistical star off the air for good. And in Semper Fi, Mac gets into hot water with a none-too-happy Roberta when he investigates the death of a wife of an Afghanistan war vet whose sister has some ugly past history with Roberta.

Switched to the cartoons I picked up today while having tomato soup garnished with various leftovers in my refrigerator, including baked pasta and peas and carrots. Dr. Seuss On the Loose is my second favorite Seuss cartoon after The Lorax. The first two stories are based after the Seuss book of the same name. The Sneeches are ostrich-like creatures who live on the beaches. The Sneeches with green stars on their stomachs snub those who don't have them, but a salesman and his machines teach both groups a lesson in equality. The two stubborn Zax won't budge an inch for the other to move, even as the world continues around them.

The most famous of the On the Loose stories is Green Eggs and Ham. Sam I Am is determined to make a poor guy like his favorite food...and he'll follow him anywhere, from a house to a car to a train to a boat and beyond...to do it!

The tale of The Cat and the Hat is a bit simpler. Two kids and a fish find themselves bored and alone at home on a rainy day. It takes a crazy cat in a red-and-white striped hat, his two energetic companions, and the wild search for a "moss-covered three-handled family gredunza" to show the kids that fun is all around you, whether you're outside or in!

Un-Valentine's Day came last. In this episode from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit tries to stem the tide of valentines that were given to them by Pooh the year before by canceling Valentine's Day all together, much like he attempted to cancel Thanksgiving and Halloween when things didn't go right. When Pooh gets a special gift of honey, however, he can't help giving just one Valentine to a friend. That "one" Valentine turns into two cakes going "splat," a pile of paper Valentines, and a stage romance for Christopher Robin that goes comically wrong. But who DID send Pooh that honey?