Before the Rain Came

Much to my surprise, considering the weather people had been hyping rain for this weekend since last weekend, I awoke to blue skies and soft breezes. It was a beautiful, warm spring day as I put on this week's American Top 40 re-run. We jumped ahead a decade to late April 1982, as disco partied out and pop, hard rock, and country danced in. Hits from this week included "Ebony and Ivory" by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, "867-5309 (Jenny)" by Tommy Tutone, "Don't Talk to Strangers" by Rick Springfield, "Freeze Frame" by the J. Gelis Band, "We've Got the Beat" by the Go-Gos, and the theme from Chariots of Fire by Vangelis.

That week's big hit (and apparently the big hit for the last few weeks) was an old favorite of mine, Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll."

This time, I headed out right after the Top 40 ended. My first stop was a quick one to the bank to deposit my paycheck. After that, I rode up to Haddon Heights for their spring Community-Wide Yard Sale. I did pretty well at their fall community yard sale, and I was hoping for more luck this season. Alas, I didn't find as much as I would have liked. For one thing, I had to work at 2PM. I didn't have all day to wander around, like I did in the fall. Haddon Heights' narrow streets were jammed with cars from all over. They can be hard to navigate on a good day, but the crowds just made it worse.

I did finally find a few items. Picked up four records from two different houses:

Soundtracks to Flash Gordon and American Hot Wax

The Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits 1974-1978

And a Christmas record simply labeled New England Sleigh Ride - Music for the Christmas Season. It has some songs that appear to be unique to the recording.

Also found two cassettes (also picked up a locally-released baking cookbook at the same house):

Soundtrack to Cocktail (Never liked that movie, but the soundtrack was one of my favorite cassettes when I was about nine or ten years old.)

The Holiday Singers - White Christmas (More nostalgia - this cassette collection of instrumental and studio chorus holiday songs was another late 80s favorite of mine. There were also two cassettes of kid-oriented songs done by the same group that we had.)

My last find was probably my best. On my way home, there was a street that was nothing but yard sales...and one had the 1986 Christmas With Southern Living mint for a mere quarter. Mom has the ones released from 1981 to 1983, and I've always loved looking at them. My favorite sections were always the wonderful recipes, and in earlier books, the details on Christmas in various parts of the south.

I had just an hour to spare when I finally made it home. I swept the fuzzy-covered porch before the storms that were supposed to arrive added more. I finished Sally and watched cartoons. I opened another birthday present package, this time two books I ordered for myself. For some reason, none of the local libraries has Addy's mystery, Shadows on Society Hill, despite its local setting. I've heard in several places that it's by far the best American Girl character-based mystery novel. I also grabbed the newest Elizabeth Peters-Amelia Peabody book in paperback, A River In the Sky. The last Vesper Holly story I hadn't read, the European-based Drackenburg Adventure, arrived a few days ago.
Perhaps because of the lovely day, work wasn't nearly as bad as it has been the past week. It also helped that we had plenty of people working for once. It was very busy up until around 6PM, after which it died so quickly, I was able to leave a little bit early with no relief and no need for one.

The clouds everyone had talked about earlier had finally arrived by the time I left at 8PM. Thankfully, they waited to burst until more than an hour and a half later. I don't think it's doing anything right now, even raining. I don't even hear wind anymore, which I did before the storm arrived.