Fruits of Summer

When I awoke, the storm had swept away yesterday's heat and humidity for the second Saturday in a row. It was hot, in the upper 80s, neither as hot nor as humid as the past few days. I turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows.

Ran American Top 40 while eating breakfast. Late July 1976 was in the spotlight. Despite this being the beginning of the disco era, most of the songs on the chart that summer were jazz, R&B, or basic pop. They included the Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight," Queen's "You're My Best Friend," the Bee Gees' "You Should Be Dancing," Paul McCartney and Wings' "Let Them In," Starbuck's "Moonlight Feels Right," Lou Rawls' "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," Elton John and Kiki Dee's classic uptempo duet "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart," and George Benson's "This Masquerade." (The album that song comes from, Breezin', was the number one album that week. Good choice - there's just something about that album that says "breezy summer afternoon.")

I headed out as soon as the show was over. Made a quick-stop at the bank first, then went looking for yard sales. It took me a while, but I found the first one on Merrick Avenue in Collingswood. Alas, it was all baby toys and items and turned out to not be worth the effort. I moved on.

The Farm Market was the next stop. It was a lovely day for it. There were more dogs out than there had been last week. I saw a handsome labradoodle, a cute black pug puppy, a tiny black-and-white terrier, and a grouchy-looking dachshund who belonged to a snooty lady in a fancy suit, hat, and sunglasses.

The summer crops are out in full force now. Yellow squash is gone, but there's tons of everything else. I bought peaches, tomatoes, blueberries, small yellow apples, an ear of corn, a head of Boston lettuce, a red onion, a small Italian eggplant (the regular ones take forever for me to eat), a green pepper, honey, and the first Italian plums of the season. (I saw blackberries, too, but I thought I'd try something different this week.)

Rode around for a few hours after that, looking for more yard sales. Since I had more time and yard sales are harder to come by in the summer months, I went further afield than usual. A sale on Taylor Avenue near Collingswood's Theater District didn't yield anything of interest. Nor did a flea market at the Auction House on Market Street in Audubon. (Though I did stop across the street at Desserts By Design for a cupcake and a chat with the owner.)

I finally made a nice little score at a sale on Princeton Avenue in Audubon. A lady was selling, among other things, a huge container filled with bags of various yarn remenants. She told me she was a long-time crocheter and wanted to get rid of the ends and balls leftover from various projects over the years, like Mom did when she sent that big bag of yarn to me last winter. I bought a few bags of yarn balls ranging from a quarter to $1.50 and two Cooking Light cookbooks for 50 cents each. I had a nice chat with the lady about crocheting and getting around in the area, too. She was really sweet.

After I got home, I ran the first disc of the last Danger Mouse set while having a Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich and a salad with farm-market tomatoes, cucumbers, and Boston lettuce for lunch. Lengthening Danger Mouse's adventures from 15 to 30 minutes only makes them weirder. We've seen everything from an ink well that gives you wishes when you throw in a copper coin to a spoof of Murder On the Orient Express that starts with the Venice Grand Canal being paved over! And that doesn't even count the whole strange episode involving Count Duckula and a Dr. Frankenstoat, who has created a machine that can unleash a hoard of maniacal vampire bats on the world...cricket bats, that is.

And what's with all the really bad puns in this set? They're pretty lame, even by this show's standards. Even Danger Mouse and Penfold are starting to notice the constantly repeated jokes and stealing each other's lines.

I spent two hours after lunch trying to get both sound and picture on the DVD recorder again. It just would not work, no matter how hard I tried or what I plugged in. I went online for another half-hour to see if anyone had any suggestions. Tomorrow, I'm just going to try unplugging the VCR from the TV and let it play through the DVD recorder and see what happens.

I really needed a nice walk after all that. It was a very pleasant late afternoon when I finally headed out, this time on foot. I needed milk at WaWa. I treated myself to a fountain Coke Zero with vanilla and raspberry syrups and a pretzel to try to feel better after the incident with the electronics as well.

I was so thoroughly fed up with the DVD recorder, I thought I'd try something different during dinner. I ran The Lone Ranger and Let's Pretend old-time radio CDs while I made pepper steak and green beans for my meal, instead of watching anything. It was so nice. Felt like a real, old-fashioned summer late evening.