Saturday, February 11, 2012

Return to the Church on the Corner

Started today with the American Top 40, the first time I've heard that in a while. Casey moved us through early February 1979. Songs on the top of the charts in the last winter of the 70s included Olivia Newton-John's "A Little More Love," Barry Manilow's "Somewhere In the Night," Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive,"  the Bee Gees' "Too Much Heaven," and the Villiage People's "YMCA."

That weeks' #1 song and album was a major hit for Rod Stewart years before he went crooner (and an old favorite of my sister Anny), "Do You Think I'm Sexy?"

It was snowing heavily when I made my first trip today. If the snow had stuck to the street, I would have put it off. It wasn't sticking to the street. It was barely sticking to the ground. There was a light, slushy dusting as I rode the bike over to the Logan Presbyterian Church Thrift Shop. I had a bag of stuffed animals, a bag of tins, my old alarm clock, and various knick-knacks, a backpack filled with more knick-knacks, and a box containing the Tickle-Me Cookie Monster Lauren gave me for Christmas a few years ago. First of all, he doesn't work all that well anymore. Second, I thought he'd be better off with a real child who would play with him than an adult who mostly used him for display.

Despite the weather, the thrift shop was very busy when I arrived. The volunteers were thrilled to receive all of my donations again. Alas, I didn't get as lucky with my own finds this time. I ended up with two DVDs (the indie musical Once and the first Timothy Dalton James Bond movie The Living Daylights) and two books (the first two Winnie the Pooh anthologies).

It was still snowing as I crossed the White Horse Pike and rode back to Oaklyn, but not as heavily. I made a short stop at PNC Bank to deposit my paycheck, then went back across the Pike and to the next street over. There was actually quite a bit to do at the Oaklyn Library. I organized DVDs and children's books. I pulled DVDs that needed their labels fixed and kids' books that were scribbled in or had a page ripped out. I shelved kids' books and gave the librarian a copy of Molly's Surprise, an American Girl book that needed to be relabeled as a young adult series novel.

It was a little past noon when I rode back to my apartment. The snow was completely gone by then, both from the ground and the sky. It was cloudy and it still smelled like snow, but the weather was holding off.

I had a pleasant afternoon doing things around the house. I had lunch and watched more Walter Lanz cartoons. I put away a few things. I did one of those DDP Yoga DVDs Lauren sent me a while back, Fat Burner. I wanted a short workout that would let me sweat a little, but not a lot, since I had work in an hour. It worked quite well. I got my heart rate up without overdoing it, and the exercises here were easier to modify than in the Standing based one I did last month.

It was still cloudy and still smelling like snow when I rode to work. Work was exactly the same as yesterday - busy with people clucking over the weather and the big weekend sales going on right now. Thankfully, it went fast, and I was in and out with few problems.

I rode home in a light flurry. That flurry must have picked up sometime after I got in. It's incredibly windy out right now. There's more snow on my porch than there was this morning, though at press time, it still isn't sticking to the street and sidewalks.

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