Rainy Afternoon In Oaklyn

Began a cloudy, humid morning with an episode of The Backyardigans as I ate breakfast and got ready for work. Pablo, the World's Greatest Detective, is asking "Whodunnit?" when Lady Tasha's jewels go missing. Could the thief be her butler Tyrone? Or Miss Uniqua Underhood, who knew about the theft before it took place? Or her neighbor Austin Frothingslosh, who rushed out for a rather shady reason? Or maybe the mysterious figure that the kids saw wandering around in the garden...

Headed to work just as the sun was coming out. Thankfully, it wasn't nearly as much trouble as yesterday. I was the only bagger when I arrived, but two (including a new recruit) arrived by the afternoon. It was so quiet, I barely needed to do carts or shelve items. I mainly did inside trash and outside recycling, gathered baskets, and bagged for a few folks.

This time, I rushed out as soon as I finished around 1 PM. Dark clouds had begun to gather again, but they weren't quite as threatening as yesterday yet. Charlie was working on replacing the wooden steps that lead up to my apartment, so I went inside through the door that leads into his side of the house. He wasn't inside, but I could still hear him cursing his brains out, even over his power tools. I changed, grabbed Chocolate Cream Pie Murder and the DVDs, and headed back out.

Had a far better lunch at Phillies Phatties. Even with soap operas going in the background, it was still a lot quieter. I enjoyed my slice of tomato basil, slice of tomato basil and fresh mozzarella, and can of Cherry Vanilla Pepsi in peace.

Took the long way across Newton Lake Park to Westmont. Despite the clouds, there were quite a few people out and about, mainly fisher folk and dog walkers. It's looking more and more like summer here. The grass and the trees are full and thick and very green. Clover and buttercups dot the banks of the lake.

The Haddon Township Library wasn't too busy when I got in. At any rate, there wasn't much to do. I tried shelving the kids' titles, but most of them still don't fit. A teen volunteer did the remaining DVDs. I just took out a few titles. Decided to give the two recent Amazing Spider Man movies a shot, along with last year's version of Robin Hood. The library finally got the rest of the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon in. I took out the last two volumes. Found a book called The Girl Stays In the Picture, on the friendship between silent screen star Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion, that I thought might be promising.

The clouds had just been getting darker and darker all afternoon, and it was growing more humid by the minute. I figured I'd be safer going straight home. Went online and on the computer as soon as I got in. Rudy and Charlie are eager to join their group. Rudy can make gadgets (and chats with Harris about several designs); Charlie can translate and understand almost any language. Even Chewbacca can bite people in the leg. Wedge not only adds that he and his friends would be willing to help, but offers to help Luke run Ben MacKenner's comics shop as well.

It started raining somewhere around 5:30. While the storms weren't as heavy as they were last night, they were still pretty noisy, with at least one major downpour. Charlie continued to work (and curse) until the rain got to be too heavy.

It was nearly 7 before I finally broke for dinner. Watched the first episode of the final season of Earth's Mightiest Heroes as I enjoyed a quick meal of leftovers. The Fantastic Four join the Avengers to help them take down one of the Four's regular villains, Doctor Doom. But Doom has something more sinister in mind when he kidnaps Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, and Janet Van Dyne the Wasp...

Moved on to Lego Pirates of the Caribbean after I ate. I had problems with "Norrington's Choice." While the puzzles weren't that hard to figure out, one of them glitched. I was supposed to be able to choose the tatooed sumo wrestler pirate, but for some reason, he just stood in a corner and did nothing. I ended up resetting the round and doing it over again, this time with no trouble.

Finished the night with The Big Broadcast of 1938. I go more into Bob Hope's first feature film at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

The Big Broadcast of 1938