Rainy Day Woman

It was just cloudy, windy, and humid when I rode to work this morning for my second early day in a row. It was even less interesting than yesterday. We were pin-drop quiet the entire morning. I rounded up carts right when I arrived, then spent the rest of the day doing returns and bringing cardboard to the recycling compactor. Also helped an old woman out to her car and briefly took a customer for one of the cashiers when she went to stop a shoplifter.

By the time I got out, the clouds that had been hanging around all morning had finally burst. I enjoyed a pretzel for a snack while watching the weather. After about ten minutes, I finally got bored and just rode home and got wet. And of course, as I was getting home, the rain was slowing down. It stopped shortly after I came in the door.

I ate lunch really fast, then spent the next hour and a half dusting. The dusting really needed to be done badly this month. While the men who fixed the plumbing did vacuum and wipe some things down, all the moving things around scattered dust everywhere. The entertainment (TV) area of the living room was especially bad. And my bedroom always gets really dusty, probably because of all the stuff I have in there.

Spent the rest of the afternoon writing. Even as Han, Leia, and Cecil (Threepio) flee in the snowy Enchanted Woods, they're still being pursued by the Imperial Army and their Battle Carriages. Leia uses her Force magic to outwit them, turning a comb into brambles, a mirror into a pond, and a stick into a heavy grove of trees. Alas, they've no sooner evaded them than Han accidentally runs over a rock and dents his wheels. He says he knows a place where he can have them fixed...

I had a quick dinner of leftovers and made a Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake for dinner while watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's 1957, and Indy (Harrison Ford) has gotten into big trouble with the FBI for helping the Russians, including their scary female commander (Cate Blanchett), find a valuable artifact. Just as he's leaving town, he's flagged down by a young Marlon Brando wanna-be (Shia LaBouf) who wants his help finding an artifact that his former mentor had been seeking. Indy once again finds himself caught up in danger...but this time, the path leads him not only to a truly amazing find, but his long-lost former love Marion (Karen Allen).

Most critics were rough on this one when it came out in 2007. Too jokey, too hokey, the sci-fi elements are out-of-place, and LaBouf doesn't belong. While I agree that LaBouf is rather out-of-place as the greaser kid, I kind of enjoyed the rest of this. Considering the 50's setting, the sci-fi finale seems rather appropriate. Allen's just as much fun as she was in Raiders, and Blanchett isn't a bad villain. The plot isn't really that much goofier than any of the others in the series.

While not the best entry in this series, it's far from the worst. If you're an Indy fan, jump right in. This isn't nearly as bad as many people make it out to be. (Those who are new to Indy's swashbuckling world will want to start with one of the 80's entries first, especially Raiders.)

And after it was sunny for most of the afternoon, the rain returned this evening. It's been raining on-and-off ever since, though it seems to be off for the moment.