Bear-ing the Heat

The storm last night didn't do a darn thing to change the weather. It was as hazy, humid, and hot as ever when I finally got out of bed and turned on the last half-hour of the American Top 40 this morning. The summer of 1980 brought many changes in the music industry as disco began to lose its hold on the public. Hits from this week included "Funkytown" by Lipps Inc, "Little Jeanie" by Elton John, "It's Still Rock n' Roll to Me" by Billy Joel, the moving title ballad from the Bette Midler musical drama The Rose, and one of my favorite Bob Seeger songs, "Against the Wind."

The number one song of that week,  however, came from a long-time favorite. Paul McCartney and Wings had one of the biggest live hits of their careers, "Coming Up."

Between the heat and working at 2PM, I kept the Saturday errand run quick and fairly simple today. My stop at the bank took longer than I figured. There was an unusually long line when I arrived. Seemed an older man who loved to chat had gotten so caught up talking, he forgot there were other people who wanted to use the tellers before they closed, too! Thankfully, I came in as he was leaving, and the line moved pretty quickly.

I had an easier time at the Farm Market. Despite it being quarter of 11 by the time I arrived and still very hot, the crowds were as thick as ever. It's the beginning of the month, the Fourth of July is this week, and a lot of people may still be having graduation parties, too. The plums and snap peas were gone, but peaches, eggplants, fresh herbs, and green beans have made their debuts. I ended up with peaches, cherries, a creamy white eggplant (smaller than the plump deep purple ones), zucchini, and cucumbers, yellow squash, and a small bag of parsley from the organic booth.

I stopped by one yard sale in Collingswood today on my way home...and it turned out to be a dilly. They were selling plastic bins filled with stuffed animals of all varieties...especially bears! I just cleared out a lot of dressed collectible bears, though, and I didn't really want to add more. I ended up with one big, handsome fellow on all fours I named Big Boy and a pair of small flocked hard-plastic bears in country costumes I recognized as the Mama and Papa Bear of the Sylvanian Families/Maple Town/Calico Critters small-animals-in-outfits sets. I think they're cute, but haven't bought them because they're overpriced in stores. Not here! I got all three for 3.00, and I think that was mainly for the big bear.

It was only 11:40 when I got home. Spent the rest of the afternoon working on things online and watching the Backyardigans. I had leftovers for lunch, changed into my uniform, packed dinner and a snack, and headed out to work around 1:40.

Work was incredibly busy for the first half the night. We had plenty of help, for once - it was just really busy! And it didn't help that there were a lot of cranky people who'd been out in the heat. Not to mention, it's the beginning of the month, with all the chaos that implies.

Thankfully, the worst of the day waited until around 8:30, well after the crowds had subsided. Two young women, probably college students, wanted to split their orders. Trouble was, first of all, one didn't realize she couldn't get money back on a split order. The other girl could not find her credit card, no matter how much she looked. I had to shut down while they went to their car to find it. They never did dig it up; they had to take items off their order so they could play it. If I've said it once, I've said it too many times - always bring two methods of payment when you're out shopping! Paper money can run out; cards can be lost; checks don't always go through.

Otherwise, the rest of the night went fine. I put away the things the girls didn't want, then spent a half-hour doing candy.

Oh, and I'm thrilled that Andrew, my new landlord, corralled his brother-in-law into helping him clean up the front yard and Miss Ellie's garden. The garden's been weeded. The front yard has finally been mowed; it was starting to look like the Amazon! The trees and bushes have been trimmed. The gutters have been cleared out. I don't envy them doing all that in this heat, but the yard does look a lot better.