Friday, March 20, 2020

Busy, Busy Spring

Began a warm and cloudy first day of spring with breakfast and Sale of the Century. Switched to "Springtime Serenade" finishing my tea. This is one of the very few color Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts made at Universal. Ozzie and his sister Fanny are delighted when spring arrives, even doing spring cleaning in their bed and breakfast house. A grumpy groundhog is determined to spoil everyone's fun with his predictions of cold weather, but he may be right.

Moved on to black and white Silly Symphony shorts as I did the dishes. "Springtime" is one of the earliest cartoons in the series, and it's pretty much just animals and flowers dancing and eating each other in time to classical music. Two adorable cubs are upset when a bigger bear steals their honey log in "The Bears and the Bees," but said bees aren't too happy to see any bear rears near their food supply!

Switched to writing after the cartoon ended. Meredith and Ethel hang all over Richard, wanting to know who he is and if he'll be at the ball. He tells them that he and his valet and court musician are recovering from fighting a sorceress, and that Ethel should treat Fannie better. Fannie gets fed up with their fawning and tries to pull them away, only for her stepmother to give her more chores and no dinner.

Returned to shorts while having a quick lunch and getting ready for work. "Birds In the Spring" is one of the first color Silly Symphonies. Two bird parents rescue their curious fledgling who fell out of the nest from a hungry snake. "The Goddess of Spring" is a full-blown mini-opera retelling of the myth of Persephone and Hades, complete with flowers dancing above for her and imps doing a jazz number underground.

Work was an absolute pain. I kept trying to get out to the carts or clean the bathrooms, and they kept putting me in a register. All I did was stress out. I'm no good with crowds or people. At least everyone was really sweet about it. Not to mention, the orders were all normal-sized ones that a family would buy for a week off at home, not huge orders people bought because they were panicking.

Goes without saying I have a busy schedule next week. On one hand, I'm very glad I got two days off, Tuesday and Friday. In fact, I'm shocked and pleased that I got two days off, given I have twice as many hours than I usually do, including 7 hour days on Monday and next Saturday. Thankfully, the other days are all normal four or five-hour shifts.

I also needed to do regular grocery shopping. The only things I had trouble getting were meat and milk. There was no meat. The only things I saw were pork, which I can't eat (it gives me indigestion), and big slabs of beef and big hams, which I can't carry home. I went with chicken sausages, even though they were expensive. For some reason, one of the dairy stock people told me they aren't making the quart milks anymore. I bought the only quart I could find, a "smooth & creamy skim plus" that was also expensive, but was better than nothing. Grabbed strawberries and block cheese on sale and got a bag of shredded cheese free with the online rewards program. Plucked bags of almonds and praline pecans and another gingerbread mix from the clearance shelves. Restocked aspirin, cake mix, Jello, yogurt, butter, soup, and cranberries. Treated myself to pints of the Acme's natural and coconut milk ice creams, since I had Monopoly coupons.

I was dead tired when I got home. Put on Match Game, put everything away, and flopped on the couch and rested with my big soft Pluto in in my lap until I felt able to move. I'd already pulled out hot dogs earlier in the day, so I just opted for hot dogs and cole slaw for dinner.

Called Mom while Sale of the Century was on. Today was her birthday. She's out a job as of Monday. They're cutting hours severely at the Ferry and are only going to be calling necessary personnel in. Mom's not too upset. She has plenty of money from Social Security checks, selling her house last year, and from spending most of her time at home. She admonished me to get lots of rest and constantly check and make sure I'm not sick.

Finished the night with two Match Game syndicated "premieres" and the next episode of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. "Murder on the Ballarat Train" has Phyrne and Dot heading to the title city to collect Phyrne's new luxury car. On the way, Dot witnesses an argument between a stout, grouchy older woman and a man with a little boy who annoys her. It becomes more important when Phyrne discovers the woman's daughter drugged and the woman gone. After convincing the police to look for her, she turns up hung from a water tower. Phyrne, with the help of a little girl pickpocket who found the woman's jewels, has to figure out who besides the man with the kid wanted that lady dead.

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