Called Uber soon as the episode ended. Though it wasn't raining, it was humid and cool. I didn't trust the weather. Unfortunately, I couldn't trust Uber, either. They took almost 19 minutes to come, and I was 10 minutes late. It went better later in the day. The driver going to Thomas Sharp came in 8 minutes, the one going home in 6 minutes.
Good thing the Acme wasn't busy anyway. In fact, we were pretty quiet for most of the morning. I returned some cold items, but other than that, I swept and pushed carts. Even the carts could have been worse. It was just starting to pick up slightly when I finished. I changed, then bought Persil laundry detergent while it was still on a really good online sale and a bag of soft sugar cookies from the bakery clearance racks before heading out.
Had lunch at Applebee's. I was too tired to hike anywhere else. They were surprisingly busy for quarter after 1 on a Wednesday. Several couples and families came in just as I did. I listened to their chatter while enjoying a juicy Grilled Chicken Bacon Ranch Sandwich with fries and an unsweetened iced tea. Strolled over to Sonic afterwards for a small banana milkshake. They were much quieter. Everyone must have been getting lunch in their cars and avoiding the humidity. I walked back to Acme after I finished to pick up Uber.
I'm glad I got to Thomas Sharp slightly early. We had 24 kids today, 9 at my table, and they were all excited about Stuffed Animal Day. I saw Chase the dog from Paw Patrol, the Incredible Hulk, a little blue unicorn, a much-loved white tiger, and a knitted brontosaurus who was almost bigger than his owner, among others. The kids were absolutely wild today. They messed around in the bathrooms. They wouldn't calm down in the cafeteria and kept running around and hitting each other. The boys were especially bad. They continued hitting each other even when we got them outside. I had to calm one boy when another literally kicked him in the rear and separate several fights. Those who didn't jump on each other admired the baby brother of one of the boys and danced to "I'm Still Standing," several Taylor Swift songs, "Try Everything" from Zootopia, the themes from Bluey, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and PJ Masks, and numbers from Frozen, Sing, and Moana.
We finally ended up taking the kids inside early, not because of fighting, but because of the humidity. It wasn't that hot and there was a nice breeze, and everyone, including the kids, were still sweating to death. A few of them went back outside to play with the older kids on the blacktop, but others remained to build with "BrainFlakes," plastic flower-shaped pieces that can be pushed together. The plastic jug that held the flowers had a slit in its top reminiscent of a piggy bank or a money jar. Two of the boys played bank and slid the flowers in the slot, until I told them that, to paraphrase Hello Dolly, money was no good unless you spread it around. That finally convinced them to give some to the other kids building, too. All but one of the remaining 4 kids had finally gone back outside when I left, and that kid left when I did.
Put on The Price Is Right when I got home. I came just in time to see a woman barely win The Range Game, to her considerable shock! She was so close, the judges thought she'd lost at first. She said all she'd wanted to win was a teddy bear. There was some surprise over the Showcases, too. The first showcase revolved around video game-based prizes. The second had the models as cheerleaders who cheered the prize names. The lady continued to be lucky, just barely getting a second car.
Match Game '74 had its own excitement as I ate dinner. Alas, the final two episodes of the Kaye Stevens/Jimmie Walker week are currently missing from the Goodson-Todman Archives. They went straight into the next week, and it was a big one. Laugh-In comedian Arte Johnson appeared for the first time on the show, joined by Broadway ingenue Michelle Lee in her only week. In one episode, Richard Dawson didn't give the answer the contestant expected to "__ Canyon" on the Head-to-Head, sheepishly admitting that he was British and didn't know much about American topography. Charles Nelson Reilly was late in another episode. Head boss Mark Goodson, "the kid who owns the block" as Richard called him, sat in for him.
(Oh, and the rain held off until around 7 PM. In fact, it poured at one point...but it was short-lived. Not only did the sun reemerge, but we had a rather lovely pink and gold sunset.)
Finished the night at YouTube with The Swamp Fox. I enjoyed Dr. Syn's tales so much last week, I decided to dig into YouTube for other Disney historical action miniseries. My sisters and I loved them when we were kids and they turned up on the Disney Channel. Rose preferred the dashing Hispanic heroes Elfago Baca and Zorro. Anny always looked forward to Texas John Slaughter. I loved Gallagher the newsboy, Dr. Syn, and The Swamp Fox. The Swamp Fox was a real life American Revolution general who turned American Robin Hood in the swamps of his native Carolinas to chase the British out of the south. Leslie Nielson may seem like an unlikely Francis Marion, but he's honestly not bad. I enjoyed "The Birth of the Swamp Fox" and will certainly dig around for the rest of the series.
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