Before the Rains Came

Began the morning with breakfast and Pac-Man. When the Ghosts take over the Pac-Land World Series, "Southpaw Packy" and his family take to the field to beat them. It's Pac Baby who really ends up being the MVP when he shows his stuff at bat. Pac-Man gets into "Pac-Baby Panic" when the Ghosts accidentally grab his son along with a bag of Power Pellets. Pac Baby, however, proves he's perfectly capable of saving himself when he ends up driving Mezmeron crazy.

Listened to a record I started last night while I made my grocery lists. K-Tel occasionally did collections themed to one musical genre, like their many disco LPs in the late 70's. Super Bad goes back a bit further to 1973. The theme here is classic soul and R&B, and we have some really hot stuff here. Some of the most iconic R&B hits of the early 70's can be found here, including "Theme From Shaft," "Walkin' In the Rain With the One I Love," "Give More Power to the People," "Band of Gold," "Gimme Just a Little More Time," and the original "Everybody Plays the Fool." 

Hurried out to get my grocery shopping done next. Stopped at Sprouts first for dried mango slices, coconut milk, sparkling water, soda on sale, and vegan oatmeal raisin cookies off the bakery rack. The Westmont Acme was slightly busier, and I needed a lot more here. Restocked honey, oranges, apples, yogurt, granola, soda, and bagels. I had coupons leftover from when I got my vaccination shots back in November, too. They had Fresca again, so I grabbed that and the Diet Coke Lime. 

Cut through Newton Lake Park on the way home. It was gloomy and gray, chilly, but not overly cold or windy. It's been so warm, the frozen lake is melting along with the last of the snow. The leaves are long gone from the trees, and the only animals around are Canadian geese and people walking dogs. I took the short way over the hill, past the Haddon Township Environmental and Historical Center.

Watched Remember WENN while I put everything away and had lunch. When Victor and the cast leave the station to attend a radio convention, he leaves all the shows recorded onto glass discs. That's a great idea in theory, but it leaves Betty wondering "Who's Minding the Asylum?" after Mr. Foley breaks almost all of the discs, including the ones with the shows sponsored by kindly but fussy Mr. Medwick (Bob Dorian, who also did the show's intros). Betty has to find a way to let the shows go on with the remaining staff and keep Medwick happy.

"Armchair Detectives" is the station's Sherlock Holmes mystery show. Jeff thinks he's a pretty good Sherlock, but even he's thrown for a loop when a man comes to the station brandishing a gun and insisting they reopen his case. Jeff and the others reenact the death of the man's employer, and even discover a clue that someone working in radio would know about, but the police wouldn't.

I also got my schedule at this point. In good news, back to Wednesday and weekends, and Wednesday is the only weekday. Longer days on the weekend, but nothing outrageous, and at least the weekends are a bit later. 

It was still dark and gloomy when I rode out to the Thomas Sharp School. We did get the kids outside...for all of 20 minutes before the clouds burst and it started raining. The kids weren't too happy about being pulled in early. One of the girls just would not get off the swings! I had a hard time explaining to her earlier too that other kids wanted to ride. (The rain would last for another 10 minutes after we got in, then subside until much later in the evening.)

When we got in, we took the little kids to the library. I read Detective LaRue: Letters From the Investigation, A Beastly Story, and a book about bridges to a group of kids at a table. One of the littlest girls brought Detective LaRue to me. Another girl kept arguing that she wanted the book, it was hers, but the other girl did bring it to me. (Ironically, she completely ignored the book after I finished reading.) Spent the rest of the time in the library drawing a scene from the Remember WENN take on The Scarlet Pimpernel I have planned for hopefully later this year. The kids loved seeing Victor dueling with Rollie Pruitt while Scott and Maple looked on.

After I got home, I watched Match Game Syndicated while eating dinner. We finished out the wild Freeman King week, at least as much as they currently can. One episode of the week is missing, likely due to racial humor. No wonder King never came back. On just one episode, Betty Kennedy got a $10,000 Head to Head on her first go, Joyce grabbed Gene to dance to the "Old Philosopher" music, Charles stole Brett's name off the Star Wheel, and Bill Daily claimed he thought it was a rehersal.

Finished the night after a shower with Mystery Science Theater 3000. They covered a series of Italian sword and sandal films featuring the mighty Hercules of Greek mythology film during the early Joel years, of which I believe Hercules Against the Moon Men was the last. Hercules' (Alan Steel) attempt to save a kingdom from an evil queen and a race of aliens from the Moon who demand child sacrifice. This one is mainly known for the pointless five-minute scene of everyone wandering around in a heavy sandstorm that does nothing to advance the plot and isn't exactly easy on the eyes. Honestly, if you love the cheesy Italian Hercules movies, you'll get a kick out of this one too, with or without robot wisecracks...but do be ready to nod off during that sandstorm!