Friday, November 01, 2013

The Weirdest Place On Earth

Began a windy, rainy morning with a spooky episode of Tiny Toon Adventures I wasn't able to sneak in before yesterday. In "Stuff That Goes Bump In the Night," we explore three stories of the things that drive fear into the hearts of Toons. Buster haunts Montana Max after the bratty mini-millionaire destroys his home in the first story. The second has an ever-clueless Elmyra demonstrating how not to take care of a bat that can turn into a vampire. The third has Hampton dealing with a less spooky blood sucking pest - a mosquito that just won't let him sleep.

Moved to Gravity Falls as I started to take down the Halloween decorations and put up the Thanksgiving ones. Debuting last year, this has quickly become one of the Disney Channel's most popular animated shows. Dipper and Mabel are twins who otherwise have little in common. Mabel is very feminine and always looks on the bright side. Dipper tends to be more suspicious. They're sent to Gravity Falls, Oregon to spend the summer with their Great-Uncle "Grunkle" Stan at his tourist trap museum The Mystery Shack. Also joining them are the Shack's slacker employees, slightly slow Soos and tough Wendy. They're not especially happy to be there...until Dipper finds a book that tells him that things are far from what they appear in Gravity Falls. Soon, the duo are dodging love-sick gnomes, revenge-minded wax figures, and bratty psychics and wondering just what in the heck they've gotten themselves into.

I can see why this one picked up a cult following so fast. Disney doesn't often move outside the box, especially on its cable channel...but when it does, the results can be a winner, as with Phineas and Ferb, Doc McStuffins, and Gravity Falls. I especially like upbeat Mabel and the two employees, sharper-than-he-looks Soos and sensible Wendy. Look this one up on The Disney Channel or online if you like unusual animation or paranormal stories.

I wish work was that fun. Today was my eight-hour shift. We were very busy for most of the day. It's the beginning of the month, which meant lots of demanding, annoying people who order you to bag first...and never say please, or even "hello." My second break was almost an hour late! Thank heavens we slowed down enough by 5:30 that I was able to spend the remaining night doing returns. My knees and heel spur are killing me. I could barely walk to do the returns, but it would have been worse standing.

Oh, and I got lucky with the weather. It rained for most of the morning, but was slowing down when I rode to work. The clouds vanished all together sometime around 4PM. By the time I headed home, most things were dry.

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