Sometimes You Need the Rain

It was pouring when I awoke this morning. I didn't mind. It suited my mood. I rode to work in the rain this time. I have no idea who's around this week.

Work was a pain in the rear. On one hand, it was so quiet, especially early in the day, there was barely a need to gather carts. By the time the carts did need to be rounded up, they had another bagger to do it. I ended up doing everything else. I gathered baskets and what little trash there was. I filled spray cleaner bottles with cleaning fluid for the registers. I did returns. The shelves are really empty. I had to chase a lot of items for people who were occasionally obnoxious about it.

I wish people would show me how to do things before they shove them in my face. I had no idea paper trash had to be loaded into boxes before it's put into the baler. (And the back room manager who told me was really rude about it, too.) And that new manager shoved a full stock cart of boxes in my face and said "recycle these." Great, but the boxes were HUGE. I had no idea how to get them all in. One was coated with broken cookie icing bags and dried, lumpy icing. I had to toss that. I had to ask someone from the bakery how to work the baler. When the manager tried to push another one at me later, while I was obviously doing something else. I told him 'no' this time.

Went straight home after work. Thankfully, the rain was gone by this time, down to clouds and damp chill. I got home perfectly dry.

Had lunch while watching more winter-themed Backyardigans. Pablo is "The Yeti" who hikes across the frozen north, dropping raisins and yelling odd sounds. Uniqua thinks he's a real Yeti and keeps taking pictures of the "evidence." Tasha thinks she's crazy. Tyrone wishes they'd stop arguing and just keep following that strange sound.

Worked on writing for a while after lunch. Re-wrote the beginning to give Han more of a backstory. He's an indentured servant to Jabba and his men. His father had gone so heavily into debt before his death, his wife and son were forced to become servants to the ugly old troll just to pay them off. Even after his mother's death, Han's still trying to pay off the last of them and finally get free of Jabba's clutches. His only real friends are Chewbacca, the faithful old mutt he rescued from an abusive miller, and Falcon, his ancient but speedy horse.

(And not only was the rain gone for good by this point, but there was a rather nice deep-red sunset tonight.)

Broke around 6 for dinner and to make Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. Ran History of the World Part I as I worked. After the last few days...heck, the last few weeks...I figured I desperately needed a laugh or six. This is a Mel Brooks anthology of historical spoofs. Some segments work better than others; my favorites are the Spanish Inquisition musical number and the two longer segments, the Roman Empire (Madeline Khan is a riot as the Empress Nympho) and the French Revolution. (Look for Harvey Korman playing evil again as Count De Money...De Morney.)