Finally the Rains Came

Started off a gloomy, cloudy morning with writing. Betty asks Mr. Eldridge about the Guardians and the former ruling family of Wennaria. King Justin, the Dark Guardian, had been tricked by his adviser into giving up most of his power. His adviser ultimately turned on him and had him killed. The queen and the king's older sister the Dowager Duchess fled. The queen was later captured. When she wouldn't marry the adviser, she too was killed. The queen was pregnant when she fled; it's rumored that the Duchess and the queen's newborn child vanished, likely killed by the many bandits on the roads. Any Guardians who defended the king were stripped of their magic and killed. The other Guardians fled into the Western Kingdoms.

Mr. Eldridge wants to teach Betty to use light healing powers. Betty isn't certain she wants anything to do with magic...until Scott stumbles in, battered and bruised and bloodied. He tells them he was ambushed in the forest by "Sir Johnathan Arnold" and his men. Arnold is a mysterious turncoat from Wennaria who now leads the Shadow Realm's army.

Finished out one of the Popeye color featurettes as I quickly ate lunch before work. "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor" is the first and probably the best of the three 20-minute shorts the Fleischer Brothers did with the character in the late 30's and early 40's. Hoping to compete with their rival Disney, they used these as preparation for feature-length work. It was great prep, too. While the plot is just "Bluto/Sinbad tosses crazy monsters at Popeye," the animation is lush and amazing. The backgrounds make ample use of the 3-D perspective gadget the Fleischers used in some of their 30's cartoons to give them an extra-lush, detailed look. There's something bizarre and colorful in every frame.

It rained hard last night. Thankfully, the rain was long gone by the time I was writing. It was barely spitting when I rode to work at noon. I arrived dry. Not that it mattered. We off-and-on steady all day. It would be dead and they'd send extra people to go elsewhere. We'd suddenly get a spurt, and people would complain there was no help. We'd call for help, and the spurt would die down, and we'd send people away. This went on the whole six hours. It was starting to die again by 6 PM, though. My relief was right on time, and I headed out quickly.

It was showering when I went home, though not heavily. I just rode home and got wet. Started The Court Jester while eating leftovers for dinner; I'll finish it tomorrow.

(And that shower I rode home in has only increased since then. It's now pouring, and has been for a while. Good. We desperately need the rain. Not only has it gotten really dry, but when it does subside, it looks like the temperatures will drop into a more seasonable mid-70's.)