Galactic Sea Quest

Began a hazy morning with breakfast and summer-themed, black and white Silly Symphony shorts. "Summer" and "Night" are basic "animals dance and sing in time to music," in this case, frogs, bugs, and other summer creatures and nocturnal animals. "Frolicking Fish," "The Spider and the Fly," and the final black-and-white Silly Symphony "Bugs In Love" have small creatures rescuing a pair of lovers from a larger intruder - the spider in "Spider and the Fly," a crow in "Bugs In Love," an octopus in "Frolicking Fish."

Hit the laundromat after breakfast to get that done. I didn't have a big load; figured I might as well get it out of the way. I picked the right time. It was just me and the talk show on NBC when I arrived at quarter of 10. By the time Rachel Ray was explaining how to make the meal of the day and it was getting busier, my clothes were in the drier. I worked on story ideas and half-listened to Rachel.

Put everything away when I got home, then worked on my story. Henry's back on his feet and ready to join Leia, Charles, and the servants for the next mission. Mon Mothma explains that the Rebels and the League of the Crimson Hawk are now working together. Wedge and the Rogues and Langdon and his men will take down the Death Star from the air, after Henry, Leia, and the others pose as a rich couple and their entourage to get aboard the ship and shut down its defenses. But first, they have to find out where Vader's getting his supply of khyber crystals and shut that down, too...

Made turkey burgers and a green salad for lunch around 1:30. Watched an episode of Wonder Woman while I ate. "The Bermuda Triangle Crisis" from the early second season has the US claiming they want to make a nuclear testing ground on a certain island that's awfully close to Diana's homeland. While Diana decides what to make of her mother's words, she and Steve go into the heart of the Bermuda Triangle to figure out why planes are vanishing...and discover a master villain who intends to take over the world.

Work was pretty much the same as yesterday, this time without the crazy storm shortly before break. It remained hazy, hot, and humid all afternoon. I rounded up carts for a half-hour when I came in and an hour before I left, but there really wasn't that much to do. Gathered trash and baskets inside and did a short test on the store's harassment policies. We were on-and-off steady afternoon, with many people likely either hitting the Shore after their kids got out of school or avoiding the heat.

Ran Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as I soon as I voyaged home myself. After being court-martialed for stealing a ship and disobeying orders in the last movie, the former crew of the Starship Enterprise, including the reborn Spock (Leonard Nimoy), discover that the only creatures that can communicate with a probe that's wrecking havoc on Earth are humpback whales. The creatures are extinct in the 23rd century...which is why Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner) takes his crew back in time to 1986 San Francisco to find examples of the species while they were still alive. While Spock and Kirk convince a marine biologist (Catherine Hicks) that they're from outer space and they need whales, the rest of the crew tries to find a nuclear reactor to power their ship and build a space for the enormous aquatic mammals.

This is one of three Star Trek movies my family taped off cable in the 80's and early 90's. (Final Frontier and Undiscovered Country were the others.) As a kid, I considered it to be too weird for words, especially compared to the grander Star Wars saga, and thought it pushed its "save the whales" message a little too hard. Nowadays, I see this as a breath of fresh air, and possibly one of the most unique science fiction films on celluloid. This is more of an action-comedy than a typical Star Trek entry, and it's actually rather charming, especially the crew's attempts to "blend in" in the already strange 1980's.

Not for hard-core action junkies or those who prefer their sci-fi dark and heavy, but if you ever wanted to see how the Star Trek characters would interact with the "normal" world, or just wanted to try the lighter side of Trekkie-dom, this is better than you might think from the plot description. (However, I do recommend seeing Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock first to get a better understanding of the characters and situations.)