In the Winter Sunshine

Got a quick start today with breakfast and Bluey. Chili, Bluey's mum, recalls the "Baby Race," when it seemed that every baby but Bluey was already crawling and walking. She kept consulting doctors, until the poodle mum of Bluey's friend Coco reminds her that every child growls and learns at its own speed.

Headed out to work after that. Uber was no trouble at all today. It took four minutes for a driver to arrive this morning, and seven minutes this afternoon just as rush hour began. Got to work and back in the usual time, even with going home during rush hour.

Work was no trouble, either. There were a few annoying people, probably due to it being the beginning of the month. Otherwise, I spent the entire day sweeping and pushing carts. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else. It was gorgeous out, sunny, breezy, and bright, probably in the mid-upper 40's. People may also have been stocking up for the weekend. We're supposed to get some kind of bad weather, though they're not predicting the massive snowstorms for here that they are in other parts of the northeast.

Soon as I got home, I changed and started taking down the Christmas decorations. I got everything that went in the third container, all of the smaller stuffed animals, the hanging paper decorations, the cards, the Winter Cinderella doll, the little tree, the porcelain bears and Santa and Mrs. Santa salt shakers. the candy tin and the wooden words Linda Young made for me years ago. After that, I put the bears and larger stuffed animals away in the Santa bag, and the ones that belonged on the bed back there.

Watched Rick Steves' Europe while I worked. Almost all of these episodes covered Eastern Europe, from the Czech Republic to Turkey. As vibrant as the cultures were in many of these countries, especially the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, these episodes were also fairly depressing. The Eastern European countries have pretty much been through hell for the past three centuries. He toured Auschwitz and several other concentration camps in the Polish episode, to give you an idea of just how dark these episodes get. 

On the other hand, these are among the few episodes where I was alive for some of the history discussed. I do remember hearing about the bloody war between the former Yugoslav countries in 1991 that they took ages to recover from, and how the Czech Republic and Slovakia managed to split from Russia and each other in the late 80's and early 90's sensibly and without bloodshed. It would seem Hungary and Poland managed to break from Russia with no trouble as well. I have some fond feelings for Poland from my childhood as well - one of my favorite books in the 1980's was The Trumpeter of Krakow.

Worked on writing for a while after I decided I'd do the tree and remaining decorations tomorrow. A plump lion with a curly mane pounces on the group! He's not happy when he can't dent Richard's cyborg body. He then tries to go after Charles, then Rover. Joyce doesn't like that a bit, though...

Broke for dinner and Match Game '79 at 7 PM. The first episode began with Gene trying to walk off with Audrey Landers and Bert teasing him about his two color suit. Charles is more nervous to help a lady with "__Horses" in the Head-to-Head. While the others try to figure out which cartoon character would make a good news anchor, Charles is more interested in reading the news. In the second, the crew helps figure out "Whadaya __" in the Audience Match, which brings in several jokes on New York accents.

Finished the night with Mystery Science Theater 3000.  I wasn't really up to much more than hearing Joel and the robots riff on Hercules Unchained. This Italian sword and sandal movie features Steve Reeves as the famous muscleman who drinks from a spring of forgetfulness and ends up in the clutches of Queen Omphale (Sylvia Lopez), who turns her unwanted lovers into statues. Meanwhile, the two sons of Oedipus have gone to war, and one intends to throw Hercules' wife Iole (Sylva Kocina) to the tigers.

Honestly, all of the Hercules movies are enjoyable cheese, with or without robot wisecracks. This is one of the earlier movies that retains its basis in Greek mythology. There are stories were Hercules drank from a spring of forgetfulness and became Omphale's slave. If you're a fan of Greek mythology or grew up watching those Italian sword and sandal epics, you'll want to check (and the other MST3K Hercules episodes) out.