Somewhere In the Snow

It was just cloudy when I put on this week's American Top 40 re-run. We jumped back a year to 1979, just two months before I was born. Hits that mid-February included "Somewhere In the Night" by Barry Manilow, "Lotta Love" by Nicolette Larson, "September" by Earth Wind and Fire, the live version of "Soul Man" by The Blues Brothers, "Fire" by The Pointer Sisters, "Every 1's a Winner" by Hot Chocolate, "Le Freak" by Chic, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor, and "YMCA" by The Village People.

That week's number one song was a favorite of my sister Anny many years later, "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart. I have fond memories of her blasting that in her car as we'd drive back to my apartment in Wildwood a decade ago.

I went online to look up the weather as the radio continued in the background. It was still saying rain, then rain and snow, then a little snow. At that point, it was just starting to rain lightly. I decided I'd be fine running the errands I'd planned for today.

Headed to the Oaklyn Library for this week's volunteering session there around 10. They hadn't been open that long when I arrived. I totally forgot the Lego Building Club is today, though. I didn't have a lot of time to organize DVDs and take a look at the children's section before the kids arrived to make masterpieces. I made my way out less than a half-hour later.

I had over an hour before the bus was supposed to arrive. I stopped at Dunkin' Donuts and had a blueberry bagel and vanilla chai. (Their chai had some nice vanilla flavor and was sweet, but not as bad as WaWa.) I hiked down to Cuthbert in the rain and sat on the empty wooden risers stashed in the outdoor seating at Kayla's Garden Center/Ice Cream Parlor to avoid the worst of the weather. At this time of year, the place is closed - the only things there besides me was a truck and two leftover bales of hay from the fall.

Crossed Cuthbert to pick up the bus at quarter of noon. It finally showed up around 12:20. I had no problems traveling after that. There was surprisingly little traffic in Haddon Township or Cherry Hill. I got into the Market Place at Garden State Park around 1.

The Market Place is really a fancy "lifestyle center" with luxury apartments situated over big box stores. Among the businesses housed here are Bed Bath & Beyond, Wegman's, Best Buy, the Christmas Tree Shop, Dick's Sporting Goods, Talbot's, Nordstrom's Rack (probably for the cast-offs from the Nordstrom's in the Cherry Hill Mall) and one of the only remaining Barnes & Nobles in South Jersey. I started at Barnes and Noble, but it was a bust. They didn't have the book I was looking for, and I didn't see anything I couldn't live without. I did have lunch at their Starbucks. I had peppermint tea with half of a Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich and a very tasty bowl of spicy Mediterannian Lentil Soup.

The weather was getting uglier by the minute. By the time I got out of Barnes & Noble, snow was starting to mix with the rain showers. I kept the rest of my trips brief. I took a peek at two toy stores, with no interesting finds. I bought more color ink for my printer (the empty light for the magenta was on) and two inexpensive USB drives at Best Buy.

Dick's had a much better sneaker selection than the Modell's in the Cherry Hill Mall. The New Balances I bought there in September with the fabric sides were giving my feet such horrible calluses, I can't really walk in them anymore. I bought the kind I wanted in the first place, simple white leather New Balances with navy trim. (I still think the neon looks silly. I want to walk in my shoes, not look like a movie marquee.)

I forgot canned pineapple and peaches at the Acme yesterday. Since I was at Wegman's, I figured I'd just pick them up there. That was probably a mistake. The rain was slowly changing to all snow as I made my way a few doors down to the upscale grocery store. The place was packed to the rafters with people panicking yet again over the weather. I could barely elbow my way through the crowds. It doesn't help that Wegman's shoves all the normal food in the back, behind fancy health food brands and the kind of housewares that Bed Bath & Beyond sells for cheaper across the mall. It's probably a good thing I can't drive. Their parking lot is infamous for being impossible to navigate at the best of times, never mind during a nor'easter.

Their sidewalks weren't much better. I got soaked slogging through the slushy mess, especially around where the bus stop was. The bus, however, was on time, and once again, there were no problems getting home, even in the weather.

The snow was picking up - and sticking to the sidewalks - as I made my way home. I hiked over the hill where the train tracks is. I slipped twice going down, laughing both times. The first time, since I was down, I made a snow angel. I think I may have bruised my rear going down the second time, but it was still pretty funny.

I wasn't as happy when I got home. There was no package waiting for me. My American Girl shipment was supposed to arrive TODAY! I went online and discovered that my package was now listed as being delivered on Tuesday...which is when we're supposed to get the next round of bad weather, of course.

I dubbed Blood Alley and did chores around the apartment and made Whole Wheat Bread to cheer me up as the snow continued to fall. This 1955 action drama is pretty much The African Queen crossed with Casablanca in Communist China. A captain (John Wayne) who was imprisoned by the Communists is released by a village of fisher folk who are tired of the new Chinese rule and the daughter of an American doctor (Lauren Bacall) who is attached to China and its people. They want him to drive them all out in a leaky, temperamental old ferry boat - kids, adults, animals, even a Communist family who is only along so they don't get killed for letting refugees escape. Wayne ultimately decides he has no choice and takes them along the deadly Formosa Straits ("Blood Alley"), using a chart he concocted from memory to avoid the Communist gunboats and the bad weather and get them all to Hong Kong.

I liked it but didn't love it. While the intense story was interesting and the lush photography gorgeous to look at, the story is hardly original, and the Asian stereotypes and several main roles being filled by whites playing Asians didn't make things better. Wayne does better dealing with the boat and its occupants than with a frosty Bacall (he would come off much better with her over 20 years later in The Shootist). Mostly recommended for fans of Wayne or Casablanca-esque dramas.

Lauren sent me a couple of CDs of sketches from various episodes of The Red Skelton Show for Christmas. I finally ran two of the discs as I baked chicken breasts, carrots, celery, and lemon sauce in aluminum foil pouches. For twenty years, Red's sketch show was one of the mainstays of American television. Like Carol Burnett, I really wish I could have seen him in his heyday. Favorite skits on these sets included Freddie the Freeloader capturing a criminal who holes up in his shack (Raymond Burr) and George Appleby holding a garage sale to earn money to pay gambling debts, much to the annoyance of his wife Grace (Martha Raye).

Oh, and the snow was long gone by the time Red and his many personalities were swinging across my TV screen. For once, it looks like we got the originally advertised two inches. Let's hope Tuesday's weather, which is also supposed to be about 2-3 inches at press time, isn't bad either.