Lightning Is Striking...Again

I spent a sunny, hot, humid morning crocheting and doing more dubbing. The Barkleys of Broadway is the last movie Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers appeared in together...and it happened on accident. Judy Garland was to have appeared in the movie as a follow-up to the massive success of Easter Parade, but her ongoing personal problems lead her to drop the role. Ginger Rogers, coming off of a decade of straight drama and comedy, jumped in.

Maybe it's just as well. The role seems to fit her better than it would have fit Garland. Astaire and Rogers play a married couple whose constant bickering lead her to break up the act and take the role of Sarah Berndhart in a new straight play. Oscar Levant is their ever-sarcastic songwriter buddy.

This is the only Astaire-Rogers musical filmed in color and at MGM. I like it, but fans who expect this to look exactly like their 30s romps will be disappointed. Doesn't help that the music is so dull, the Gershwins' "They Can't Take That Away From Me" was interpolated to provide the two with a duet.

After the movie ended, I realized that I was bored. Really, really bored. I think I've been bored for a while. That's why I can't think of anything to write and keep getting stressed at work. I feel like all I've done all summer is work, hide from the heat, and dub movies.

I ended up leaving for work early to pick up my paycheck and run some much-needed errands in the Audubon Shopping Center behind the Acme. I ordered new contacts from America's Best. I bought ink cartridges from Staples. I had pineapple and ham and broccoli rabe and caramelized onion pizza from Tu Se Bella's for lunch.

Work was steady up through about 6PM. It was still hot, sunny, and humid when I went shopping. The clouds had started building up again on the horizon even as I ate my pizza slices...and they burst around 6-6:30.

It was still raining when I finished work, and it continued to patter on the Acme's roof as I did this week's grocery shopping. Needed to restock quite a few things today, including brown and white sugar, vinegar, and cooking spray. Also grabbed things to make a pudding pie. Found Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit as a two-disc set for a very good price on the DVD rack. (I've had Chicken Run on video since it came out, but I'm trying to clear out as many videos as I can, and I don't have any Wallace and Gromit.)

Got my schedule when I finished. The good news - more hours next week and two days off, which I sorely need. The bad news - later hours, including a 9:30.

The weather remained stormy as I headed out. I stood around for a little while, watching the pouring rain and lightning. After about fifteen minutes, the lightning subsided...but the rain didn't. Oh well. I just rode home in the rain and got wet. I didn't really want to drag anyone else out on the weather, and I needed a shower badly tonight anyway. I kinda just got pre-wet.