Storming Into Labor Day

Ugh. I slept in again this morning and awoke to thunderstorms. Not a good start to the last major holiday of the summer. I was going to go to the laundromat this morning. Needless to say, I never made it. I went over old journals and watched Three Stooges shorts about jobs and working. "Ants In the Pantry" has them as exterminators who release pests into a swanky party to save their jobs...and end up being the hit of the party. In "False Alarms," they're firemen who are two steps from being kicked off the force, due to their laziness. While Curly sneaks out to see some ladies, Larry and Moe get locked in a closet, and then race to meet Curly in the chief's new car. They're "Slippery Silks" who inherit a dress shop from their late uncle...but it's their furniture-based designs that really have their customers' attention. In "Dizzy Doctors," when their wives say get a job or else, they become salesmen peddling a new medicine who create chaos in the hospital when they try to sell the stuff to patients.

It was still raining around quarter of noon, and I had to work at 1. I ended up calling for a ride. Jodie took me; she had grocery shopping to do anyway. Ironically, the rain was slowing down even as we drove to the Acme. By the time I finished at 5, it was sunny and hot and the storms were long gone.

I almost wish it had kept on raining. The Acme was a madhouse today. Not only is it the beginning of the month and a major holiday, but most kids return to school this week or early next week. If people weren't buying food for barbecues that were now back on or for their kids' lunches, they were buying what they needed for the month. It was a mob scene. I was glad my relief, one of the college girls, was on time, and Jodie picked me up on time as well.

I went straight back to Dad's house with Jodie. They were having a small Labor Day get-together with some of their neighbors, my sister Rose and her family, and an old friend of Dad's. Bill had known Dad well in college, in the Army, and later when Dad would make business trips up to Alaska. Bill had made the audacious undertaking of riding a big three-wheeled incumbent bike from Seattle to New Jersey, and was now going to take it down to Central Florida to visit his parents. He had some great stories about being a bush pilot in small towns in rugged Alaska.

We had green salad, tomato and mozzarella salad, macaroni salad, spicy hot grilled chicken, Jodie's so-tender-they-fall-off-the-bone ribs, grilled asparagus with lots of garlic, and fancy creme-filled donuts from MacMillan's Bakery in Westmont for dessert. It was all delicious. I tried everything but the chicken. (I've eaten a lot of chicken lately, and from what Jodie said, it was a bit too kickin' for my taste!)

I spent an hour or so watching Spongebob Squarepants with Khai while he played with his cars and ride-on firetruck. In one episode, Spongebob and Patrick do everything they can to keep Sandy the Squirrel from leaving the ocean, even putting on a party to remind her of her beloved Texas. In another, Spongebob and Patrick find a (real-life) pencil that was dropped by a live-action artist. The doodles they create on the ocean floor become real...including a Spongebob clone that's bent on "rubbing out" it's creator! A third story was a bit less dire. Patrick can't afford a vacation, so Spongebob tries to give him one at his home and Squidward's, much to the latter's annoyance.

I finally hitched a ride home with Rose, Craig, and Khai around 7:30, then jumped in the shower after I got in. I hope everyone else who celebrates Labor Day had a great end of the summer season, whether they celebrated it in the rain or not.