This time, Abilities Solutions sent a much younger counselor who met me inside. We spent the morning pulling dated items. She was a young woman in her late 20's, and we had an enjoyable chat about our families, our lives, our memories, and our childhoods as we worked through the bottled water, the cereal and granola bars, and the cold and flu medicines. We worked so quickly, we had all three sections complete by lunch time. In fact, all we did after lunch was check the end of aisle displays, and that barely took 20 minutes.
She let me go at quarter of 1. There's a lot to see on Delsea Drive...maybe a little too much. I thought of checking out an ice cream parlor across the street or a large Walmart down the road, but there's ice cream at home and I really don't need anything right now. Not to mention, traffic seemed rather heavy around that corner, even at 1 PM. I ended up calling Uber. They arrived within five minutes, a bit of a surprise given the traffic. Once again, I arrived home in fifteen.
Soon as I got home, I went down for a nap. I stayed up late last night and had no other plans for the day. I hadn't expected to get off so early. It must have really worn me out. I went down at 1:30 and didn't roll out of bed until almost 4 PM.
Took the laundry downstairs next, then went online to do some writing. Brett's had quite enough of examinations. So has Lee Merriweather, the Cheshire Catwoman. She appears as the guys make instruments appear, intending to sing a lullaby to the two queens...
Broke for dinner at 6:30. Came up in time for the second half of Let's Make a Deal. Almost everyone did rather well in this episode. A bride and groom won $400 dollars after they realized their calculations on a pairing price game were off. A slice of pizza won $1,100, avoided a stuffed Bugs Bunny, and traded it in for three TVs and a piano. A sock hopper in a pink sweater and circle skirt sobbed with joy when she won gorgeous living room furniture in the Big Deal of the Day.
Had dessert and finally remembered to bring up the laundry while Match Game '75 ran. This was the hilarious episode where Gene's spare microphone went missing, and almost everyone on the panel spent nearly five minutes in the opening searching for it. We're also introduced to contestant Carol Bartos in the last few minutes. She went on to be one of the series' major big-money winners.
Finished the night on HBO Max with The Dark Crystal. The cruel, vulture-like Skelligs and gentle Mystics have ruled the planet Thra for over a thousand years after their appearance...but now, both groups are dying. The Skelligs use the Crystal of Truth to continue their corruption and retain their youth, but a shard broke off when they first appeared. Jen (Stephen Garlick) is a Gefling, the last of an elf-like race whom the Skelligs and their crab-like army the Garthim tried to wipe out. He gets the shard from the astronomer Aughra (Billie Whitelaw), then goes on a quest to restore the shard to the crystal. Along the way, he gets the help of a female gelfling, Kira (Lisa Maxwell), and her little fuzzball Fizzgig (Percy Edwards).
Jim Henson's magnum opus actually used to show up quite often on cable in the mid-late 80's. Rose loved it; it's probably one of the reasons she's such a huge sword-and-sorcery fan. I...didn't get it. The story was just too dark and the characters too dull for me. Nowadays, I have a better idea of what Henson had in mind...but while I do like the creative and intense characters and appreciate Henson's work on those incredibly detailed puppets, I still find the story to be too dark and way too complicated. The very funny Aughra has always been my favorite character. I wish she was in more of the movie. I also like Kira, who frankly is a lot more interesting than the bland Jan.
This is another one where your mileage may vary, depending on how dark you like your fantasy...because this is pretty dark. Several deaths or near-deaths, violence, the scary uncanny-valley Skelligs and Geflings, and the general dreary tone make this not for young kids. For elementary school age fantasy-lovers on up, this is a fascinating look at a truly unique world.
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