Big April Showers

I awoke to the gush of rain on the roof. It was cats-dog-and-chickens pouring. Thankfully, it had begun to slow down by the time I was eating French Toast Crunch and grapefruit for breakfast. I ran WENN episodes as I ate and got ready for work.

"Close Quarters" is one of my favorite episodes of the second season. Maple's interviewing a doctor who sees a spot-covered Mr. Foley and thinks he has a rare disease. The cast finds themselves spending a week quarantined in the station. Things start out well - Hilary makes spaghetti-and-ketchup dinner, there's a cute dance, and a sweet exchange between Scott and Betty. However, as the week drags on, everyone starts to get on each other's nerves...at least until it turns out the doctor was wrong about Mr. Foley's condition.

We move backwards a little in the second season to "Don't Act Like That." Giles Aldrych (Roddy McDowell), Hilary's former acting mentor, now has an acting school near-by. Scott and Betty suggest that his students work at WENN for free as their first interns. The cast doesn't mind the well-meant acting lessons from Giles, but they rebel when they realize they'll have to share the air with amateurs.

It was down to light showers by the time I headed to work. The weather must have scared everyone off. It was quiet for most of the day, and never more than mildly busy. I now understand why my hours were so bad this week. We weren't even busy when the sun finally came out around 1, or even at rush hour. I was able to shut down quickly with no relief and no need for one.

The sun was still out when I headed home. Since Mother Nature was holding on for the minute, I ignored the traffic and took the long way home down Nicholson. It was rush hour and the traffic was fairly heavy, but I wasn't sure what the road repair would be like on the Black Horse Pike.

When I got in, I did one more episode of Remember WENN as I had leftovers for dinner. The first WENN episode I ever saw was "The Emperor Smith." African-American waiter George Smith (Howard Rollins) takes over for Mackie when he gets laryngitis. Trouble is, this is early 1940. A man of color playing a sexy role in the soap opera "The Hands of Time," no matter how hunky he sounds, isn't going to fly with the general public. It's almost scary how the cast manages to keep his name under wraps, even when an annoying reporter comes snooping around, by letting the reporter think he's the "invisible man" society considers him to be.

I finished out the night with Sailor Moon. Other than de-emphasizing Rei's interest in Tuxedo Mask, the episodes that introduce hot-tempered Sailor Mars remain more-or-less the same. My favorite out of this batch is still "Nightmare In Dreamland." Ami, Rei, and Usagi investigate a wildly popular new theme park that's been seeing reports of people vanishing. Serious Rei and fun-loving Usagi have to learn to work together in order to discover Dreamland's secrets and save Ami from the Negaverse.

And this morning's storms have returned in force, even as I type this. Hopefully, they won't be as bad for the next few days. I'd like some decent days off. It is supposed to get colder, which might not be so bad. It was really too warm for April last week.