Wednesday, August 19, 2015

More Ups and Downs Than a Roller Coaster

Began another hot, humid morning with more Scooby Doo. We move to the 1989 "spinoff babies" spoof A Pup Named Scooby Doo for "Scooby Dude." The (much younger) kids are visiting Velma's Aunt Thelma at her ocean research institute. She wants to find out why her dolphins are disappearing. The kids are more concerned with a Headless Skateboarder whose tricks are definitely not looking like a treat, not to mention avoid Red Herring bullying them.

I ran to Studio LuLoo around 11 for this week's volunteering session there and to donate another bag of stuffed animals. The kids were there again, though not quite as energetic as last week. The heat must have been getting to the poor things. Most of them did muster enough juice to perform a few song and dance routines for me. They loved it when I put the bag of stuffed animals down and let them roam through it. I loved watching them play with their new friends.

Since I got out a little earlier than I planned, I headed to WaWa to pick up a hoagie for lunch. I also grabbed eggs (they're cheaper there than at the Acme), a bag of carrot sticks for a snack this week, and a sweet frozen peach lemonade.

Had lunch at home while continuing the Scooby Doo set. The second season of the Scooby and Scrappy show was fully devoted to the antics of the two dogs and Shaggy. Most stories, like the fairy-tale spoof "Scooby-Noccio," didn't involve mysteries at all. Others have real ghosts and monsters that aren't humans in masks. "Scooby's Roots" introduces Scoob's grandfather, who is having trouble with ghosts in the family plantation. "Lighthouse Keeper Scooby" takes the trio to a deserted lighthouse, where they're chased by a ghost who wants them out - yesterday.

Work was...well, dead again, exactly the same as it was yesterday, last week, and all summer. In good news, I got a 5 dollar gift card from work for a compliment on how I handled a nasty customer. I even got a letter (with a hand-signed note) from an Acme vice president! I treated myself to some decadent mini sandwich cookies I've been wanting to try. They cost five dollars, too expensive for one container of cookies without a sale or a gift card.

I had more trouble with the WIC Checks in the end. First of all, the lady said she was in a hurry. She ran her cart into the register trying to get it out twice - and she was pregnant! I was glad she didn't hurt herself. Second, she was my last customer, and I wanted to leave. Third, she didn't have the checks organized correctly. I had no idea she had those juices there, and she never did find the last one. She complained to a manger, and a manager fussed at me. We're not supposed to rush the WIC Checks. I didn't mean to cause trouble! I was just hurrying, like she said to.

I was so frustrated when I got home. Every time I feel like I go two steps forward with that job, I end up being thrown five hundred feet back. I've said it before, and I'll say it until someone listens - I am not meant to be a cashier. No amount of gift cards can make me a saleswoman. I can't stand that job. I'm only there to make money.

I was going to work on my story, but I realized when I went on my computer that I forgot to do the upgrade to the new Windows 10. I ended up doing that instead while eating leftovers for dinner and watching the rest of the Scooby Doo episodes.

Scrappy, Scooby, and Shaggy are back to shorts with three more stories from their solo show. "Excalibur Scooby" has the trio avoiding a magician who needs their hair and fur to make a potion that'll get the sword from the stone. "Scooby's Escape From Atlantis" pits them against a centaur who is determined they stay in the ruined city of Atlantis forever! "Scooby's Luck of the Irish" moves inland to Ireland, where Scrappy traps a leprechaun, and they encounter a banshee who doesn't want them finding that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

"Cruisin' for a Brusin" is a real oddity, from just about the most bizarre Scooby Doo show ever, Shaggy and Scooby Get a Clue. Scooby and Shaggy are enjoying a vacation on a Mexican cruise ship. Unfortunately, so is their regular villain, Dr. Phibes. He tries to enlist his regular mooks to get rid of them, but all they do is repeatedly knock their boss overboard. He finally has them try to sink the ship instead...right as Shaggy and Scooby are about to help out with hot dog taco night!

"Hang In There Scooby" returns to the shorts format for some antics aboard a glider. Scrappy wants what he thinks will be an easy and fun way to get to the beach. His uncle and his uncle's best pal don't agree - and neither does a huge bird they encounter on the way down.

The next two are episodes from the mid-70's Scooby Doo Show. "The Creepy Case of Old Iron Face" has the crew going undercover underwater to find out what a strange iron-masked man has hidden on the former penitentiary Skull Island. "A Creepy Tangle In the Bermuda Triangle" has the kids stranded on an island that turns out to be the home base of a UFO and the alien, one-eyed skeletons who seem to be hijacking weather planes.

We skip ahead almost three decades to the new millennium and What's New Scooby Doo? for "She Sells Sea Monsters By the Seashore." A trip to a time share in the Pacific is waylaid by locals who are battling for spots for surfing and for sea turtles to lay their eggs. A huge green snake-like sea monster is frightening away locals, not all of whom are unhappy to see them go. The kids do a little underwater hunting of their own to find out what the monster is really after.

(The last two episodes on the disc are both from the the first season of the Scooby and Scrappy Show, which I just watched last week, so I skipped them.)

No comments: