New Wheels and Better Eagles

Started off a cloudy, cool day with Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes and music. The stage version of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical State Fair hit Broadway in 1997...where it was considered hopelessly outdated and didn't last long. While it's not great, the story of the romantic misadventures of a typical farming family at the 1946 Iowa State Fair does feature some nice music, including songs cut from other Rogers and Hammerstein shows and taken from some of their lesser-known musicals.

Worked on the fanfiction for about 40 minutes after that. Betty finally does convince the two men to let her find the other Guardians. Scott's not happy about it. He's worried she may get hurt...or worse, be corrupted by the Shadow Realm. And he doesn't want her to find out that he lied a bit about what he's doing with the money. Most of it is going to the poor...but he does need a little bit to settle a debt with a certain gangster...

I got off and ate lunch a little early. I wanted to see the bike my neighbor Richard found for me. It...looked like the baby of my old bike. It was a Murray in a brighter shade of blue than the old one, and the handlebars were thicker and a bit lower. The narrower frame made it much smaller and far easier to lift. I had no trouble getting it over the high curbs on Nicholson Road when I was crossing to go to work. My only complaints were the seat was way too low. My legs were cramped.

Work was on-and-off steady, busy but not too overwhelming. I had trouble with register 7 suddenly slowing down again. This time, the manager just shut me down and moved me to the register behind it. Other than that, there were no major problems. By the time my relief arrived at 5, it was nearly dead.

(Of course, part of the reason it was relatively slow for Sunday may have had to do with the Eagles actually playing well for the first time this year. I saw a little of the 3rd quarter in the back room. They crushed the Jets 24-17 for their first win of the season.)

Shortly after I got in, I got a phone call from Richard. I'd told him in my rent letter that the bike was great, other than the too-low seat. He came over to fix that, and see if he could find a better kickstand. The flimsy kickstand on the bike kept falling over. (Evidently, a friend of his owed him a favor and had never used the bike anyway. It was gathering dust in his garage.)

Spent the rest of the evening throwing together a tasty White Bean-Pasta Salad while listening to my copy of the The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack on 2-disc LP. This has long been one of my favorite films, and the music is part of the reason, especially the iconic "Imperial March" that makes Darth Vader sound that much more evil.