Thunder In the Winter

Ran cartoons and more Faerie Tale Theatre this morning during breakfast. "Hansel and Gretel" is a far more typical adaptation of the Grimm's Fairy Tale than the "grown-up" witch hunter story currently in theaters. Two popular TV stars of the early 80s headline this tale of two children (Ricky Schroder and Bridgette Anderson) who are abandoned in the woods by their hearbroken father and nasty stepmother (Joan Collins). A white dove leads them to a gingerbread house...but as tasty as it looks, it turns out to be the home of a witch (Collins) who turns children into gingerbread and eats them!

Don't judge this one by the two cute kids and an over-the-top Collins in Dynasty witch mode; it's one of the spookier episodes in the series. In the original story, it's just assumed that she eats the kids without getting fancy...but turning them into gingerbread adds a note of horror that makes me understand why someone wanted to do this as a flat-our horror story.

When I finally got out around 12:30, it was in the lower-mid 60s and windy as heck - much too warm for this time of year. It was so warm, I was hot in my mid-weight blue hooded sweater! I mainly went to the Oaklyn Library for my first volunteering session of the week there. I shelved children's books and organized the kids' section and the adult DVDs.

Went for a walk after leaving the library. It was too warm not to! It felt more like spring than winter, warm and much too humid for the time of year. It was also very windy; sticks and the last of the sticker balls were being blown helter-skelter. There weren't too many people out and about, probably because it was 1:30 and most were either at work or lunch.

I had scrambled eggs with tomatoes, escarole, mushroom, and Swiss cheese for lunch while running Three Stooges shorts. Curly rescues pretty Nell (Christine MacIntyre) from bandits who have her father in "The Three Troubledoers." The trio once again come to MacIntyre's rescue, this time from pirates and a greedy Govenor (with a little help from the Stooges' "Maharajah" routine), in "Three Little Pirates." Shemp joins in for "Fuelin' Around," as he, Larry, and Moe are mistaken for a professor and his three assistants by a European country that wants the professor to create a special rocket fuel.

I puttered around online until it was time to head to work. It was still cloudy, humid, and warm as I headed to work...but dark clouds were already building up on the horizon. Thankfully, I'd already been at work for a while when it started pouring. We were steady during rush hour, quieter later, thanks to the weather and my working late.

Once again, I timed things right. It was soaking wet outside when I finished my shift, but not raining. The storm didn't start up again until well after I'd gotten home. As of right now, it sounds like it's still windy out there, but it isn't raining or thundering.