Hot Times At School

Began the morning with breakfast and Pirates of Dark Water. In the first-season opener, the Wraith is damaged during a run-in with Bloth and his men. The closest port is the ruined city of Octopon, which turns out to be overrun with man-eating worms and "The Dark Disciples," servants of the Dark Dweller. The older woman who raised Ren is still there and helps him, Niddler, and Tula save Ioz from Bloth...but the head disciple ends up joining Bloth and his boys when he loses his position. 

Today, I looked up housing counselors. After what happened with PNC Bank and Camden County, I've realized that I'm really going to need more help in finding a home and figuring out home buying. Most of the HUD-certified counselors are based in Camden and mainly interested in helping city residents, but Clarifi in Cherry Hill and Financial Wellness Institute in Woodbury are for the entire region and may be a lot more useful.

Listened to classic Miles Davis albums while I worked and had lunch. I've had Basic Miles for so long, I'm pretty sure it came with the original 65 albums I got from Bruce in 2006. I believe it's my first (and for many years, only) jazz album. No wonder my first stepmother Kaye kept this one, and in perfect shape, too. Can't argue with great Davis performances like "Budo," "Sweet Sue, Just You," and "On Green Dolphin Street." 

Bitches Brew, on the other hand, is very, very 1970. This is Davis in his experimental phase, as he mixed jazz with rock and electronica to create something very wild, bold, and avante-guarde. The opening "Pharoah's Dance" takes up the entire first side. There's also the darker title song, "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down," and "Sanctuary." 

Once again, I called Uber to get me to the Thomas Sharp School. The first one took 11 minutes, and I got there just in time. The second took 13, not terribly surprising during rush hour. Thankfully, no trouble or traffic either way, not even around the White Horse Pike and Collings Avenue.

On one hand, we didn't have as many young kids today, the same 20 kids with 9 in my group and 24 older kids. We had to start in the library, thanks to the music class running overtime in the cafeteria. I'm guessing the kids didn't go outside today, because they were all antsy. Two of the girls and a boy spent so much time calling each other names and pushing at each other during snack time, I ended up moving them to three different tables...and even after we ate, they kept picking on each other. The two little girls tried hiding in the bathroom again and playing with the toilet. This time, I got the head teacher to bring them back. They ended up on top of the cafeteria table this time and hiding behind the dry erase board. 

They had to stay inside when the rest of the kids went out on the blacktop to play...for all of 15 minutes before we realized it really WAS too hot to be outside. The sun was sharp and sizzling, the sky so blue it hurt your eyes to gaze up at it. It was in the upper 90's, hot for adults on a blacktop, let alone kids. Even a nice breeze didn't really help matters. We brought them in, then took them out again when it was down to 8 older kids and 4 younger ones. By the time I left, they were all inside again, and there was only one younger kid and 5 older ones still there. (Two boys left when I did.)

Took out the trash when I got home, then took a shower, grabbed dinner, and put on Match Game. We began in 1973 with Charles Nelson Reilly playing a southern-accented Santa Claus on Christmas Day, to the amusement of Jack Cassidy and (in her only week) June Lockhart. They finished up with the beginning of the next week that brought in Bert Convy, introduced Lee Merriweather to the show, and let Gail Fisher of Mannix have her day in the sun. 

Finished the night with the pilot movie for The Rockford Files. "Backlash of the Hunter" introduces Jim Rockford (James Gardner), the ex-con private eye who takes 200 dollars a day for expenses, doesn't use guns, and only takes cold cases the police have already given up on. Sara Butler (Lindsay Wagner) comes to him with just such a case. Her father was an advertising agent who had fallen on hard times after his wife died. He'd been found dead under the boardwalk, strangled by an unknown assailant. The police figure he was robbed for money, but Jim thinks there's something else going on after he learns that a certain widow is willing to put his son through college. That widow inherited a lot of money after her husband died suddenly shortly before Sara's father did. Jim and Sara have to figure out the connection, before they end up being the next victims.