Gloom and Rain

It was gloomy and pouring when I turned on the American Top 40 re-run this morning. January 1976 got people up and moving with country, disco, R&B, bubblegum pop, and novelty acts. Hits that winter included "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers, "Rock and Roll All Nite," by KISS, "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate, "Fly Away" by John Denver, "I Write the Songs" by Barry Manilow, "Times of Your Life" by Paul Anka, "Evil Woman" by the Electric Light Orchestra, "Love to Love You Baby" by Donna Summer, "Sing A Song" by Earth, Wind, and Fire, and "Country Boy" by Glenn Campbell.

Truckers and trucker culture were all the rage in the mid and late 70s. It's popularity helped propel the novelty number "Convoy," by C.W McCall, to the #1 spot.

Since the rain was still coming down, I spent the next hour or so putting up the remaining winter decorations. Some of my general winter items go up with the Christmas decorations. I used to put my three stuffed snowmen (one was from Amanda and has spindly wooden legs; one was from Mom and has wire angel wings and a wire halo; one was from Uncle Ken and sings and dances when you move his hat) on the music area table, surrounding the big red vase, but I had to move the Nativity there when I got rid of the cheap plastic shelves. Now they have to wait to go out. I taped up cardboard scenes of snowmen playing winter sports and having fun, and glossy cardboard snowflakes. (I got rid of the larger snowflakes. I no longer put anything on the windows for over a month. Besides, the windows in my bedroom tend to get covered with condensation in the fall and winter months and ruin anything that's on them.)

Ran one of the Sailor Moon hour-long movies as I decorated. In the third and final one, based around the fourth season, children are being kidnapped from around the globe by an evil witch who wants to create a black hole made from their dreams. When Rini is among the children captured and Darien is hurt, Serena and the other Soldiers join a "dream fairy" who has befriended Rini to figure out a way to dissolve the Black Dream hole for good.

Headed out to run some errands after Sailor Moon ended. The rain was gone, but it was still gloomy and wet. It had also gone from way too cold for anyone to too warm for this time of year, probably in the lower 60s. I was sweating in my green winter jacket, no scarf, hat, or earmuffs even remotely needed. The majority of people still had their outdoor Christmas decorations up, probably because of the crazy weather we've had this week. There were a few people out running errands like me, but most were taking down their own indoor Christmas things or trying to stay dry.

CVS was pretty busy when I arrived. I wanted to stock up on Pantene's curly formula (I couldn't find Herbal Essence's de-frizz formula, which is what I was going to get originally). CVS seems to be the only store that sells the brushes for my brush pick that I got from the dentist's office in 2008. I also found a nylon tote that could fold into a smaller bag. I've been looking for a travel bag that I could use for errand runs and short trips for a while now, ever since I finally got rid of the striped bag I bought from Bath & Body Works years ago.

Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by Dad's on the way home to see if he was in. He was, and so was Jessa, who was watching SpongeBob SquarePants and looking up things for work on her computer. Dad was taking the ornaments off the very dry tree. He invited me to the Super Bowl party he and Jodie are having. I hope I'll be able to come. I worked late during the Super Bowl last year (which turned out to be a moot point - thanks to that black out in the Super Dome, it ran long anyway).

When I got home, I had lunch and got ready for work while watching Chicken Run. The creators of Wallace & Gromit and Sean the Sheep take us to a British chicken farm in the late 50s. Ginger is different from most hens. She's determined to really taste freedom and life on the other side of the coop with her fellow hen-mates. They're about to give up when Rocky Rhodes (voice of Mel Gibson) seems to fly in on a tricycle. The chickens think they can fly, and Ginger thinks she's found the answer to their prayers. Rocky, however, isn't what he says he is. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tweedy, the nasty head of the farm, buys a machine that'll make her bigger profits than egg-selling...and threatens the chickens' lives. They're going to literally have to fly the coop if they want to avoid ending up in Mrs. Tweedy's machine!

I've always liked this spoof of prisoner-of-war tales, from The Great Escape to Hogan's Heroes. My favorite character is the constantly-knitting Babs and her goofy insistence that chickens are just on "holiday." She gets the best lines - "Me life flashed before me eyes! It was really boring."

Work was crazy-busy early on, mostly quiet later, when the rain started up again. It had been on and off all day. Thankfully, it was off when I finished at work. I bought generic Acme whipped topping on sale and three boxes of the Jello Pumpkin Pie Spice Pudding on clearance (for $.59 each). Used two of them and the whipped topping to make Pumpkin Mousse for dessert when I got home.