Winds of Winter

Began a sunny but windy and cold Sunday with Brunch With the Beatles. The Beatles' Second Album was in the spotlight. If you've never heard of this one, you're in good company. Until I started listening to this show and doing more research on the Beatles, I hadn't, either. Apparently, Capitol chopped up their first few English albums, rearranged the cuts, and dropped a few. The Second Album mostly seemed to be covers, including "You Really Got a Hold On Me," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Devil In Her Heart," "Money," and "Shout." To make up for the fact that The Second Album is the shortest Beatles record, there was a lot of filler, including John's original demo of the song "Real Love" that would be released with his former bandmates' vocals in the 90s and several live cuts from late 64-early 65.

I went tropical with breakfast. Made Pineapple Honey Pancakes with some of the crushed pineapple leftover from baking. They were delicious, very sweet and tender. Had a blood orange and some Egg Noggin' tea. 

Called Mom as I finished my meal. Mom was on her way into the shower. She was in a good mood. Dad had just gone out for the day, and she planned on spending the rest of the day cleaning  now that he was no longer underfoot. For once, they actually saw more snow than we did this week. The clouds that produced flurries here gave them an inch of wet snow that Mom said was already disappearing. My brother Keefe got his orders; he and two Navy buddies will be moving to a base in upstate New York in early March. And my sister Anny lost her job as a manager at the North Cape May Big Lots. She applied for unemployment and is taking the time away from work to be with her sons. (She's posted many adorable pictures of them on Facebook.)

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Yesterday's American Top 40 inspired me to stay in the late 70s. I ran Barry Manilow, Donna Summer, Earth Wind & Fire, the Bee Gees, the Eagles, and one of my Have a Nice Day: Forgotten Hits of the 70s Rhino CDs. I cleared out a few records and DVDs. I took a good look at that Clara's Kitchen cookbook Linda Young gave me for Christmas. The Pasta With Escarole sounded tasty and a good idea at this time of year, when escarole is often one of the cheaper lettuces. I added some of the leftover Sloppy Joe sauce and made a complete skillet meal out of it.

Work was pretty quiet for most of the night. It was just starting to flurry when I came in. It briefly turned into a blizzard just as I started...for all of five minutes. There was sun on the horizon even when the snow was at its worst. Ultimately, all it did was look pretty. We were so empty after that, I spent almost the entire night doing returns.