Yup, it's still cold here, though thankfully not quite as bad as earlier in the week. I slept in and got up to a sunny, slightly breezy late morning. Watched the Sailor Moon season 3 hour-long "movie" Hearts In Ice while eating nice, warm oatmeal with peanut butter and a fruit cup for breakfast. Serena's talking cat mentor Luna falls for a handsome astronomer. Unfortunately, he already has a girlfriend, an ambitious astronaut who doesn't believe in his insistence that he's found the piece of a comet or that there was once a princess on the moon. The comet belongs to the evil Princess Snow Kaguya, who wants to freeze the Earth and keep it for herself!
I was hoping the sun would melt the snow on my porch steps; they're in direct sunlight in the winter. They had, to a degree, but not really fast enough. I finished the job for Mother Nature, sweeping what I could get off and breaking up what was frozen, then sweeping that. This snow is the powdery, dry kind that can be easily swept or blown away after it's fallen.
It took me so long to finish that, it was past 12:30 when I finally made it out on my errands run. Since I wasn't sure what the roads would be like, I walked and pushed the cart instead of taking the bike. This also allowed me to bring a big pile of books, CDs, and DVDs to the Haddon Township Library.
It was a lovely day for a walk. It was still cold, but not quite as bad as the last few days, probably in to the mid to upper 20s. The wind was gone, too...and with it, the single-digit wind chill factor. Most sidewalks were shoveled, but there were some that were still icy and snow-covered, especially on less-used roads. The side streets, including Manor, were clogged with congealed salt and snow, but the main streets were clear.
My first stop was a quick one at the Oaklyn Library to return DVDs and do some volunteering. There wasn't a lot going on there besides people doing work on the computer and one fellow going over papers. I organized the adult DVDs, gave the children's titles a look, and went over the kids' books. I was out in a little over a half-hour.
I had a harder time getting to the Westmont Plaza. Some sidewalks on Cuthbert and the White Horse Pike hadn't been shoveled or treated (especially the ones around the empty plot of land that used to be the Newton Diner). It was such rough going on the Plaza side of Cuthbert Road, I crossed back over to the side with Rite Aid (and more houses and that apartment complex) until I got to Westmont.
Once I got to Westmont Plaza, things were fine. The Plaza's sidewalks and parking lot had been very heavily salted, far more than even the Acme's. I easily made my way up the hill and past Wells Fargo to Friendly's for lunch. Despite the late hour (it was almost 2 when I arrived), they were relatively busy, with kids looking for milkshakes, an elderly couple, and a large group of families who looked like they may have been having a birthday party.
I had a tasty Citrus Grilled Chicken Sandwich for lunch. It didn't taste much like citrus, and they overdid the mayo, but it otherwise wasn't bad. The elderly couple gave me a coupon for 20% off a meal. I thanked them, even though I didn't have the heart to tell them that the reason I was eating there was I had 3 similar coupons from the bag of store flyers people get on their stoops every week.
Went straight to the Haddon Township Library next. They were far busier than Oaklyn had been. For the first time in ages, the return cart was overwhelmed with DVDs. I had plenty to do while I was there. A lot of people must have taken DVDs out during the recent round of bad weather. I actually managed to fit all of the kids' DVDs on the shelves (except for the usual doubles). Shelved a lot of adult titles too, then pulled foreign and kids' discs and put them in the right places. Looked over their board books and did some organizing. Took out five discs - new episodes for The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot About That! and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and the movies Beasts of the Southern Wild, Super 8, and The King of Marven Gardens.
Oh, and I'm glad I brought those donations. I was mostly clearing out books and CDs. I gave them more than half of my children's picture books, including all of the 80s Care Bears books and all of the Strawberry Shortcake books but one, along with the Golden Books, the Pac Man maze book, the She-Ra book, and the Muppet Babies stories. One of the librarians was utterly delighted with the haul. She said her granddaughter loves reading and would enjoy the stories, especially She-Ra and the Care Bears. I'm glad. I realized that as much as I enjoy the pictures, I really don't have anyone to read these books. I kept the Disney, Paddington, and Raggedy Ann & Andy treasuries, the Rose Petal Place series (who knows when those will turn up again), the copy of Oh, the Places We'll Go! that I got from my high school newspaper's staff for my graduation (they all signed the front cover), and The Muppets Take Manhattan.
My last stop of the day was at Rite Aid across from the Westmont Plaza. I needed contact lens solution. They have the area's best prices for my usual brand. Since it was past 4PM at that point and getting late and cold, I decided to save myself a trip to WaWa and pick up milk (their skim half-gallon is only $2.19) and money for the week there, too.
Took me a while to get home. It was rush hour by that point. The traffic on Cuthbert was so bad, I turned down side streets to avoid it, ice or no ice. It turned out that most of the snow on the former Newton Diner plot had been blown away; it was easier to cross than some sidewalks. I crossed the busy White Horse Pike at the Ritz Theater and went home down Kendall to try to avoid some of the worst of the ice.
Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening at home. I ran the newest episodes of The Cat In the Hat Knows A Lot About That while having leftover tuna casserole from dinner. I wasn't the only one indulging my sweet tooth. "The Last Chocolate" is the first episode of this series I've seen that didn't deal with animals. When the Cat eats the last chocolates in the box that the kids intended for their moms, he takes them to a Spanish candy world to show them how chocolate is made. "Marvelous Marbles" is similar, this time with the Cat introducing the kids to a kindly pirate who introduces them to the art of glassblowing and how glass is made from sand.
Switched to the first Valentine's Day specials of the year while making Snickerdoodles. This recipe from a baking recipe book I took out of the library called Sweet Chic, which likens baked goods to clothes and fashion accessories. Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers is a Looney Tunes compilation special that uses clips from various shorts to show how Cupid turns his arrows on the Toons, and how Bugs thinks he's meddling. There's No Time For Love, Charlie Brown has Chuck, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and Sally mistaking a grocery store for an art museum. Chuck has even less luck pursuing the Little Red Haired Girl (while Peppermint Patty and Marcie pursue him) in A Charlie Brown Valentine.
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