Heel Spurred Into Action

Since I had my appointment with the Foot and Ankle Center at 1:15, I did things around my apartment and in the area this morning. I started off the day with a short walk down to Goff Avenue and back. It was cloudy and damp, cooler than yesterday but still well above normal temperatures for this time of year. The riverside was a gray-green sheet of ripples, reflecting the gloomy sky.

When I got home, I went back out on the porch. It needed to be swept badly. Last week's heavy winds left piles of leaves up to my ankles. It took a lot longer to get rid of all that than usual! I got the thick cobwebs off the windows and siding, too. I don't know why I get cobwebs so badly. I guess it's because I don't really do much with my porch. The bugs get so bad out there in the summer, I often can't eat or read without getting bitten to death. I should look around for better porch furniture next summer and see if I can get someone to haul it to my place.

When I finished with the porch, I dubbed the last of the holiday specials I'm doing for myself. A Walt Disney Christmas isn't really a "special," but a series of Disney classic theatrical shorts that revolve around Christmas and/or winter. I love it because the tape is so old, it has the uncut versions of Santa's Workshop, The Night Before Christmas, and Donald's Snow Fight. I'd never seen those in their original forms until I found this tape. I picked this one up from Blockbuster around 2004-2005, when they were clearing out their videos. I'm guessing it's from the early 80s - it has the strange Mickey silhouette graphics "Walt Disney Home Video" opening and a thick, heavy white clamshell cover.

The last special I dubbed is a rarity from 1974. Though Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus won an Emmy for Outstanding Primetime Children's Special, the video I found at a yard sale about three or four years ago was the first time I'd ever heard of it. This is a retelling of the famous real-life Christmas story of little Virginia O'Hanlon, who wrote the editorial section of the newspaper The New York Sun in 1897 asking them about the existence of Santa. The letter the editor wrote in return is one of the most famous and touching essays on the holidays ever printed. Virginia went on to be a teacher and principal, and the Sun ran that letter every Christmas Eve until it went out of business in the 50s.

I'm surprised Paramount didn't pair this with one of their Peanuts DVD releases in the early 2000s. Though technically not a Peanuts special, it was made by the same people who did the Peanuts specials for years. The animation has the same look, and it even uses some of the same voice actors from the Peanuts specials done during that time period. To my knowledge, neither this nor A Walt Disney Christmas are currently available on DVD, though there was another retelling of the story of Virginia and her letter, Yes, Virginia, done about two years ago in more modern CGI animation.

My fried egg sandwich lunch took longer than I thought. I was a few minutes late for my appointment! Turns out they didn't have much to say. Yes, I had a very bad heel spur. My foot did look much better, so there was no need for a second injection. (Thank goodness.) All I had to do was sign a few things, show off my foot, and I was on my way.

I had quite a few errands to run this afternoon. My first stop was the Haddon Township Library. I had a pile of books and DVDs to return and videos to donate. There were plenty of DVDs and books for me to shelve, too. I ended up taking out another short Treehouse Max & Ruby set, Catch Me If You Can, the TV musical version of A Christmas Carol with Kelsey Grammar from a few years ago, and the Mickey/Donald/Goofy Three Musketeers again. (I didn't get to it last week.)

Made some quick stops at the Westmont Plaza next. I needed quite a few things at Super Fresh. I just ran out of maple syrup, and they have better prices than the Acme does (one of the few things they do have better prices on). They were having a big sale on cooking spray, and they have the Pilsbury Cinnamon Swirl Bread Mix, which the Acme no longer sells. (And that turned out to be on sale, too.) I always make the Cinnamon Swirl Bread for Thanksgiving. My brother loves it and would eat the whole loaf himself if permitted. Speaking of my brother, I also picked up his gift card. His birthday is Friday.

Ran to Dollar Tree for cards for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and my brother's birthday, then rode straight home. I didn't have a warm reception waiting for me. The Foot and Ankle Center had called. Turns out they didn't have enough information to process my claim! How? The secretary had called AmeriHealth herself to get the necessary info. At least, I thought she did. She wrote it down for me and everything. Maybe that's not what she did. When I tried to get into AmeriHealth's website, they claimed I wasn't even a member! Of course I am! They even said on their phone menus that Amerihealth handles Acme Markets. I'm so frustrated. I'm going to have to spend tomorrow morning before work getting all of this settled.

I cheered myself up by making Mint Meringue Cookies and watching The Three Musketeers. In this very, very loose Disney version of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel, everybody's favorite trio become Musketeers to protect Queen Minnie and her lady-in-waiting Daisy. Captain Pete and Clarabelle Cow, however, have more sinister plans in mind for the sweet female mouse, including giving her the most incompetent bodyguards possible...ie, the cowardly duck, very small mouse, and dog who is not known for his brains. The boys race to rescue two of their ladies and reform the third, all before the wildest performance of The Pirates of Penzance on record!

If you're a fan of the original Disney characters, by all means, jump right in. This is a lot of fun. The animation isn't up to the standards of the original shorts, the French turtle narrator is probably unnecessary, and fans of classical music may not be thrilled with the vapid lyrics added to the works of Beethoven, Strauss, and Bizet, among others. What I loved here is some hilarious slapstick, especially in the Pirates-wrecking finale, and the adorably silly romance between the boys and their ladies.