Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Miss Redmer and the Blustery Day

It was gloomy and gray when I got up this morning. Ran the first mildly horror-themed special of the year to brighten things a bit. I picked up a DVD with a couple of relatively spooky episodes of The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh on eBay a few years ago. "A Knight to Remember" sends Tigger, Rabbit, Pooh, Piglet, and Eeyore to the attic to find something to do on an equally damp day. They want to play chess, but can't find all the pieces. Pooh suggests they dress as the missing pieces...which scares poor Piglet silly, since he's the night. He ends up daydreaming that he's a real knight who is supposed to fight a "fearsome" dragon.

"Rock-A-Bye Piglet" also involves Piglet and his many fears. He has a nasty nightmare about all of his friends vanishing. Now he thinks if he goes to sleep, his dream will come true, and he'll be alone. The others try various things, including pretending he's asleep, to get him to realize that dreams are just in our head, and are nothing to be afraid of.

Spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon working on writing. Since my previous short Star Wars genre spoof was so well received, I'm taking time out for another one. One of my favorite fairy tales when I was little was Snow White & Rose Red. Rose and I used to beg Mom endlessly to read us that. It's a story about sisters and a bear, and one of them is even a tomboy named Rose! It was made for us. I have seen a Force Awakens version on Archive of Our Own that was very sweet, but I thought I'd try something with the Original Trilogy cast.

Luke White and Leia Red are twins who live with their guardian Obi-Wan in a cottage deep in the woods. One winter day, they're out gathering nuts when a handsome man in blue rides over to them. Prince Lando reveals that his kingdom was attacked by an evil sorcerer who stole their treasury. His adopted younger brother Han disappeared while defending them. Luke and Leia have no idea where the missing prince is. Lando doesn't mind flirting with them. Luke blushes. Leia ignores him and asks him where the prince was last seen.

The two just make it home on the heels of a snowstorm. They're listening to Obi-Wan read fairy tales when there's a knock at the door. Leia thinks it's a man at first, but it turns out to be a big brown bear. He's not in good shape. He's battered and singed and has lost so much blood, he faints the moment he steps in the door. Obi-Wan insists Luke bring fresh water to wash his wounds and Leia brushes the snow off his fur. He rubs healing poultices on the bear's wounds. Leia and Luke wonder whom could have made burn marks like that...

I got off so late, I barely had enough time to change and eat lunch before dashing off to work! Work was a bit of a pain. It was off-and-on busy, thanks to off-and-on showers all afternoon. I got out to do carts once. They didn't send me again until 10 minutes before I left...and I was alone my entire shift. I mostly did returns. Also ran into the "two managers giving me orders at the same time" problem. Early on, one wanted me to find the customer service manager. She had an urgent call. Another wanted me to go in for a cashier who was going on break. I did look for the manager briefly, but it turns out she'd already gone home. Ended up in the line.

When I got home, I made a jelly omelet and Cucumber-Tomato Salad for dinner, then threw together Cranberry Apple Bread from the Pillsbury Cranberry Bread mix. Watched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while I worked. This anthology of the first three Pooh featurettes was the first full-length Pooh "movie" on the big screen.

The first story has Pooh trying to trick bees into thinking he's a rain cloud, then getting stuck in Rabbit's front door after an eating jag. The second introduces Piglet and Tigger as the residents of the 100 Acre Woods deal with some very blustery and scary fall weather. The last focuses on Tigger. Rabbit's tired of his inconsiderate bouncing all over everyone, but his efforts to make Tigger stop  fall short...until Tigger gets himself and Roo stuck in a tree. Rabbit eventually learns that a little bouncing now and then isn't a bad thing, .as long as you're careful around others.

This cute collection of the first three Pooh shorts mostly remains cute, though there are a few spooky moments in "Blustery Day" (notably the infamous "Heffalumps and Woozles"nightmare  musical number). If you're a fan of Pooh or some of the more laid-back Disney films, this is a must for your collection. Great "starter" Disney movie for young kids, too.

The DVD copy of Many Adventures I have includes a fourth Pooh short released in the early 80's. Winnie the Pooh and a Day For Eeyore introduces the game of Pooh Sticks and puts everyone's favorite gloomy donkey in the spotlight. The gang is playing Pooh Sticks when they run into Eeyore in the river. Tigger bounced him in, which only made him sadder than usual. It's his birthday, and no one's remembered. Pooh and Piglet do their best to try to make up for forgetting with small gifts and a party.

And...damn it. I got so into writing, I forgot my bread was in the oven. The outside is very burnt. Thankfully, the inside tastes pretty decent. I'll probably just have to cut off the crusts or eat around them somehow.

Oh, and the weather sure matches my mood. My nose is running like mad, my head hurts, and I have this throbbing between my eyes that won't go away. Didn't help at work today, that was for sure. It's been raining off and on - sounds like it's on for now, and pretty heavily.

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