Runners and Sunshine

I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was this morning when I rolled out of bed. Sunny, breezy, warm but not humid. Couldn't have been a nicer day in late May. Even though I was late getting out, I still enjoyed my rides to work. In fact, I took the long way home to be able to spend a little more time in the sunshine. I wasn't the only one, either. There was traffic coming and going. In fact, the traffic on Nicholson was fairly heavy at 9 and at 5. 

And that was the worst that happened all day. It was just plain too nice for grocery shopping. We were dead almost the entire afternoon; only got slightly steady during the noon rush hour. Even the evening rush hour could have been a lot worse. I spent most of the afternoon shelving a full cart of loose items customers didn't want. Was in and out without any due fuss. 

After I got home, I changed and went straight into writing. Brett finds a giant nest on the cliff plateau. It's the home of the jub-jub bird, a monstrous creature with sharp feathers and a toothy beak. It's ready to use Charles as a meal for its children. Brett knows she has to get them out of there, but she's not sure how...

Broke for dinner at 6:30. For some reason, Buzzr skipped a few episodes of Match Game '74, beginning in the middle of Gary Burgoff's first week sitting in for Charles. Mike Evans of The Jeffersons and Good Times made his only appearance on the show as well, helping everyone figure out what Stanley had to teach his none-too-bright pooch to do. 

A handsome Naval officer livened up Match Game PM. Susan Sullivan and Nipsey Russell joined the others to figure out what the Snow White balloon looked like at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. Later, Richard tried to help out with "Blunt __" in the Head-to-Head.

Speaking of Richard Dawson, I finished out the night with The Running Man on Amazon Prime. Cop Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is arrested for sparing innocents during a riot in a futuristic dystopic society. He escapes with two members of the underground, only to be caught when he finds a young composer named Amber (Maria Conchita Alonzo) living in his brother's apartment and takes her hostage. She alerts the security guards to his presence, and he winds up arrested. 

Ruthless but magnetic game show host and producer Damon Killian (Dawson) forces Richards and the underground members to appear on his huge show, The Running Man. "Runners" must flee from mercenary "stalkers"; those who survive are pardoned. When Amber sees the original footage of the massacre and realizes Killian lied about what really happened, she ends up on the show, too. Now all four must dodge the stalkers and reveal what Killian's been hiding...that this star-studded match is a  sham. 

My stepdad loved Schwarzenegger's vehicles when I was a kid, and this one was no exception. I remember watching it with him on cable in the late 1980's and not understanding a word of it...and I'm afraid my opinion is largely the same today. I'm just not a big fan of dark futures, whether it's a teen girl or an Austrian muscleman being stalked. It's too bad this is so ridiculously campy and over-the-top, because Dawson puts in one of his best performances as the nasty-yet-charismatic host who will do literally anything, including killing people, to get ratings.