All In the Mind

Started off a quick morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Dan says "Thank You, Grandpere Tiger!" when he comes for a visit. He's disappointed that Grandpere can't stay for the big neighborhood Thank You Day feast, but there's a surprise waiting for him at the Enchanted Garden. Everyone comes together for "Neighborhood Thank You Day," when they hang cards on the Thank You Tree that thank someone important to them. Daniel doesn't know whom to make a card for, until Mr. McFeely saves the cards from blowing away in the stiff wind.

Called Uber shortly after Daniel ended. They picked me up in 7 minutes. No problems here at all. In fact, the guy moved pretty fast. Got into work only a minute or two late.

Work started out the same as yesterday, with me pushing carts, sweeping, and checking the bathrooms alone. At one point, I was told to clean the men's bathroom again, even though I emphatically told them I refused to do that after the mess I found last time. Oddly, this time, there was no mess, or anything out of the ordinary. Don't know what all the fuss was about. 

After the afternoon bagger arrived, I spent the rest of the day cashiering. We were busy for most of the afternoon. It got really hard to keep up with. At one point, a lady couldn't get her food stamp card to work. She called her friend who owned the card, and it turns out, she had the wrong number. Even with the right password, she still couldn't get in. I tried to explain she maxed the amount of times she can punch in her number, but she refused to listen. Even after she called the food stamp office and they told her she maxed out, she just stormed over to the self-checkout line and tried to use them. (And I could hear her complaining behind me that it still wouldn't work.) Thank goodness my relief was right on time!

I have a rather odd schedule next week. Getting Sunday off is a pleasant surprise - I didn't ask for it this time. One 8 hour day on Monday that worries me after my 8 1/2 hour shifts this week were royal pains. Everything else is 7 or 6 hours, with one 4 hour day next Saturday. Slightly more hours. 

Went straight into grocery shopping after work. Had online coupons for yogurt, peanut butter, white flour, and clementines and a free coupon for two cans of diced tomatoes. Found small packages of turkey breasts the meat department listed as "turkey London broil." I grabbed the three cheapest. Dug cans of grapefruit and salt-free chili beans with clearance labels. Restocked butter, milk, bananas, cranberries, tomato sauce, and black beans.

I guess it must have been really busy around 5:30. While it didn't take me long to get an Uber driver, it took them 25 minutes to arrive. And then I had to direct the guy the long way around Oaklyn to Newton Avenue, thanks to the Final Friday block party finally taking place on West Clinton.

Threw on Match Game '77 when I got in. They got mired in two tiebreakers in a row in the first one with questions even Patti Deustch got onboard with. The episode ended with Gene doing a darn good imitation of Louis Armstrong (several times in a row) as filler. 

Moved on to a quick leftovers dinner as the second episode began. Buzzr skipped the final episode of that week and went straight into the first show of the next. Avery Schreiber is so shocked when he gets a match on a question, he falls off his seat! Meanwhile, Gene's more than happy to introduce "new kid on the block" Jo Ann Harris with a kiss...and she may be even happier. 

Tonight's Match Game PM began with a blackout and stayed wild from there.  Comedian Ronny Graham and sweet Susan Richardson, along with Arte Johnson, joins in to figure out whom Old Oscar had his first date with and what Dean Martin asked for with his gasohol. Later on, everyone tries to figure out the Audience Match "Talk to the __," and Fannie tries to help the contestant with "__ Miss" on the Head-to-Head.

Rested on the couch during Sale of the Century. They jumped back to the summer of 1988. The prizes are now chosen off a smaller board before moving on to the Bonus Round. The champ made enough to buy a refrigerator early-on, but he kept missing question after question and did poorly on the Speed Round. The one lady bought the other Instant Bargain and a Fame Game, but the younger guy won the Instant Cash and killed at the Speed Round. He had a far harder time with the Bonus Round.

Finished the night online with the pilot episode of St. Elsewhere on Hulu. The fellow on YouTube who posts the Match Game-Hollywood Squares premieres is currently in the midst of putting up the week devoted to the cast of St. Elsewhere, so I figured I'd give that show a try. I used to hear adults talking about it all the time as a kid, but I was too young for it during it's heyday. 

It's a day in the life of fictitious Boston hospital St. Elgius, nicknamed "St. Elsewhere" for being the place that gets the weird patients no other hospital will take. Dr. Jack Morrison (David Morse) fights for a teen who first needs a kidney biopsy rather than the surgery recommended, then is to be moved to a better hospital by her mother. Surgeon Dr. Mark Craig (William Daniels) wants to advertise when they end up caring for the victims of a terrorist bombing, but Dr. Westphall (Ed Flanders) is less receptive to the idea. Meanwhile, goofy Dr. Wayne Ficus (Howie Mandel) is more interested in pursing a pretty pathology doctor.

I'm not a fan of medical procedural shows, but I could see why this went over so well in the 80's. Top notch writing put over by an amazing cast that included Denzel Washington, Ed Begley Jr, and later, Mark Harmon. Hulu has the entire series; I may have to check out more eventually. 

Oh, and the Match Game '77 episode Buzzr skipped is on YouTube. It's pretty easy to see why it got a miss. There's a question about why the orange growers are in despair, and it's because orange juice makes you __. Almost everyone said "gay," a backhanded reference to anti-homosexual singer Anita Bryant, who apparently advertised orange juice in the 70's. Charles, himself gay, refused to even answer the question at first. I'm actually a bit surprised this one passed on Game Show Network, let alone Buzzr.