Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Messy Marshmallow World

Began a cloudy, wet morning with the second of three hour-long Backyardigans specials. "Tale of the Mighty Knights" is a rock opera, and their second foray into knights and fantasy. Uniqua and Tyrone are the knights in question, who are assigned by King Pablo to keep an eye on an egg. They think this is going to be a boring assignment...but when the egg bounces off, they have to keep it out of the hands of Grabbing Goblin Austin and Flighty Fairy Tasha!

It was raining, not even heavily, when I headed to work. The snow didn't start until around 11, and it didn't stick on the street until a half-hour later. Before that, work had been steady, not overwhelming. After that...well, the customers cleared out, but everything else was a mess. It took me so long to shovel the big, fat flakes off the front and side entrances, I was over an hour late for my first break...and the snow just piled up on them again anyway. It was so bad by 11:30-noon, the afternoon bagger called out. Thankfully, the evening bagger was able to come, and he and one of the teen boys were able to help me drag carts out of our parking lot later.

The parking lots were a rather big problem. Just like the last time we had significant snowfall, they hadn't been plowed properly. They'd plowed right in front of the Acme and on the side by the liquor store, and that was about it. The side near Nicholson Road hadn't been touched. It took me 20 minutes just to force two carts out of the piles and piles of slush. My coat was so saturated, one of the cashiers covered it with an Acme raincoat so I wouldn't catch pneumonia. Every time I'd hoped my pants and boots were something like dry, I'd be sent back out in the slush, and they'd get sopping wet again.

By the time I was out in the snow the last time, the blizzard was long-gone, and the sun was trying to come out. Didn't make it any warmer, but at least it wasn't adding more. (They originally said it was supposed to start at 2 and last until 9. It started around 11 and lasted until I'm guessing about 3 or 4.) I spent the first hour and the last hour doing returns.

It's probably just as well that I did work 8 and a 1/2 hours. Most of the roads had been plowed by 6. Not very well - they were slushy and mucky, and many were flooded - but they were passable. I didn't have an easy ride home. The water must have gotten into my bike's gears. I heard a grinding sound for much of the ride home. I walked the last few blocks. I'll put more WD-40 on it tomorrow.

Pan-fried crab cakes for dinner with a simple spinach salad, topped with homemade apple cider vinegar dressing, and the last of the prickly pear sorbet for dessert. Ran another Backyardigans episode while I ate. This time, Pablo is pretending to be "The Yeti" as he leads Tasha, Tyrone, and Uniqua on a merry chase across the Frozen North. Uniqua is determined to get a photo of a real, live Yeti. So-called Frozen North expert Tasha insists there's no such thing. Tyrone wishes the girls would quit bickering and just keep following that strange sound.

Did some Lego Star Wars after dinner. Got the rest of the pieces on "Dagobah" and "Escape from Echo Base" and True Jedi on the former. "Falcon Flight" was tougher. I did get most of the pieces and True Jedi, but I still can't find the red brick.

Ended the night with The Princess Bride. A grandpa (Peter Faulk) reads his sick grandson (Fred Savage) the tale of Buttercup (Robin Wright), a beautiful peasant who is intended to marry a prince (Chris Sarandon) whom she doesn't love. Her true love Wesley (Cary Elwes) was killed by a pirate...or so she thinks. When a man in black rescues her from three bumbling thieves, she thinks it's the pirate. It's really Westley, who took over for the pirate years ago. He manages to get her through the swamp, but is captured by the jealous and rather obnoxious prince as they leave. But true love has a way of winning out, with the help of an affable giant (Andre the Giant), his Hispanic friend looking for the man who killed his father (Mandy Patikin), and an old man who can make miracles (Billy Crystal), this story will have enough action and romance to entertain even an elementary-school-age boy.

One of my favorite movies. My family's original copy was recorded off cable during a thunderstorm and had drops, and we still watched it constantly. Patikin stands out as the revenge-minded swordsman, but the entire cast is obviously having fun with the fairy tale spoof. If you have kids who are fans of fantasy or princess tales, they may enjoy this one as much as Fred Savage and my family did.

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