Started the morning with breakfast and a Bowery Boys movie, Spook Busters. The Boys are exterminators who get a job in a house that was once owned by a magician. That's the least-spooky thing about it. Lights turn on and off at will, words appear in a mirror, and pianos appear and disappear, and so does their friend Gabe's new French wife. Sach ends up discovering a mad scientist who wants to put his brain in the body of his gorilla! Now Slip has to get all his friends out of there, before they have even fewer brains than they started with.
Put up the Halloween decorations while the movie ran. I'm not the biggest horror fan; the scariest decoration I have is a Beanie Baby wolf with red eyes. Most of my stuff is more cute (the bear in the vampire cape cardboard hanging, the little witch vintage card cover, the porcelain bear in a witch hat, another in a vampire costume, my Webkinz and Beanie Baby bats and ghosts, the quilted bat table runner Mom made) or cartoony (the McDonaldsland character figures and McNugget in Halloween costumes, the goofy Frankenstein cardboard hanging, the scarecrow witch and Eckard's stuffed cauldron, the stuffed crow witch). There's also a long black-and-orange tinsel garland for the big window and a Mom-made one of stuffed fabric moons and bats on a raffia rope for the window in the kitchen.
Went straight to work as soon as the movie was over. Work was a pain in the rear. Every time I tried to get something done, I'd get called to do something else. I started the returns, only to get called to the register. I started putting cold returns away, only to get called to bag. Finally got to the gift card mall in the last hour, only to be called to do cold returns and barely get the bottom of one almost-finished box done. The only things I actually finished were the bathrooms (which just needed to be mopped) and the carts (which weren't that bad - we didn't get busy until later).
I was so glad to head out into the glorious early fall sunshine. It was blue and warm, not as hot as early last week, but not as windy as over the weekend. It was so nice, I took the long way home down Nicholson Road to cheer me up after all the trouble at work. It was 3:30 by then, almost rush hour, and a bit busy on Nicholson. Everyone must have been on their way home. I barely saw anyone in Oaklyn.
Richard met me as I arrived. He said he had the tire I put in the garage the last time I saw it open...but I forgot to give him the inner tube. Oops! I did have one. I picked it up from Target when I was there last month. Headed inside and brought it down to him.
Changed into regular clothes, then spent the next couple of hours writing. Ben and Yoda tell the rest of the story. Adam never got his family. Patti Mae died in childbirth, and her child died with her. He lost custody of the twins to their aunt and uncle after the police found out he was involved in several local arson cases. He was burned beyond recognition in the fire. Palpatine had his face and arms reconstructed, then turned him and the Imperial Gang loose on the South Jersey area to do even more of his dirty work.
Luke and Leia are even more determined to take part in the surfing contest now, especially after Ben tells Leia he got a call from her idol, Senator Mothma. She'll be judging the contest, along with Yoda, two prominent small business owners, and a City Council member who is for the mall construction.
(And I finally decided that Yoda might be more useful here than just dying of presumably old age.)
Broke around 6:30 for dinner. Put on a semi-spooky Backyardigans episode to celebrate the beginning of October as I enjoyed leftover Italian Casserole. In the second season episode "Scared of You," Mad Scientist Tasha has invited Mummy King Tyrone, Werewolf Uniqua, and Vampire Pablo to a party. Austin Igor is tired of all the secrets the kids are keeping from him, and is really tired of the trio of monsters being absolutely terrified of each other. But it turns out that Tasha's party is rather special...
Called Mom after I finished eating. Talking to Rose yesterday made me realize I hadn't touched base with her in a while. I got her as she was getting out of the shower; she called back a bit later. Not a whole lot going on in her neck of the woods, either. Dad finally went back out fishing after he'd been in since July for cancer treatments. All my nephews went back to school. (Skylar, my oldest nephew, is in 8th grade this year. He'll be graduating middle school.)
Finished the night online with The Graduate after I took a shower. Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) is just out of college. His obnoxious parents expect him to go to graduate school, but he really has no idea what he wants to do. Although he's embarrassed by it at first, he ultimately ends up having affair with the bored wife of his father's business partner, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Truthfully, he's more interested in her daughter Elaine (Katherine Ross), even though he's a jerk to her at first. Mrs. Robinson's absolutely incensed and does everything she can to destroy their relationship, including claiming he raped her. But love has a way of winning out, whether it should or not.
Definitely not your typical romantic comedy. Some great performances here, especially by Bancroft and Ross as the two very different Robinson ladies and an impossibly young-looking Hoffman as the flustered college kid who has no idea what he's doing, either with his love life or life in general. The folksy soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel produced the hits "Scarborough Fair," "The Sounds of Silence," and "Mrs. Robinson." Mike Nichols' revolutionary direction won the film it's only Oscar.
If you're wondering what love looked like in the late 60's, or how the film revolution of the 60's and 70's applied to comedy, or are fans of the cast or Simon and Garfunkel, this is one of the great comedy classics of American cinema and is pretty much required viewing.
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