Thursday, July 23, 2026

Night of the Summertime Ride

Started off the late morning with breakfast and Shirt Tales. "T.J's Visit" wrecks havoc when Tyg's little nephew turns up and causes trouble. He does bond with Kip and convinces her to join him on a hot air balloon. The others go after them when they have no idea how to bring it back. "The Big Set-Up" is the Shirt Tales' attempt to sign Dinkel up for a pen pal dating service. Dinkel is nervous when the lady he's been writing sends a photo of a gorgeous blonde and wants to meet him. He sent her a picture of a handsome movie star. The Shirt Tales try to tone him up and show him how to be more romantic, but it turns out his girlfriend has been doing some fibbing of her own.

Let Tubi continue with the Shirt Tales as I got organized. "Kip's Toy Caper" gets her and Bogey into a heap of trouble after they discover toy shops have been robbed. She follows a remote control teddy bear and finds a robber intends to make them all robots who will steal money and priceless relics for him. The other Shirt Tales try to follow Bogey's broken signal and rescue them. "Dinkel's Gift" is a briefcase the Shirt Tales bought for his surprise birthday party. When the briefcase gets switched with one that holds a top-secret formula, the others have to switch it back while Digger keeps Dinkel busy.

Headed out after the second episode ended. Dropped a few books at the kiosks down the block, then made my way down to Collingswood. Grabbed a Bodyarmor drink at Haddon Culinary before heading across Collingswood to Cooper River Park, then over the bridge to Route 70, or Marlton Pike. It was too nice of a day to drop my bag of donations at the Audubon Goodwill and ride home again. The weather was stunning for mid-July, breezy, sunny, warm but not too hot, slightly humid but nothing overwhelming. There wasn't a cloud to be seen in the soft blue sky that beamed over the waving green Cooper River waters. Lots of people out on bikes or walking their dogs, too, including a lady in a wheelchair. Besides, I hadn't taken my bike over here since the last time I went to this Goodwill in April 2024

This time, I rode through the parking lot for the luxury apartments 202 Park before heading across the Marlton Pike to the Goodwill. After I dropped my bag in one of the boxes outside, I took a look around the main store. It's twice the size of the Goodwill in Audubon, but not even as slightly organized as that one. The books, CDs, and DVDs are all lined up or thrown every which way in a wooden bin as you enter. 

I didn't see any clothes I liked this time, but I did pick up a CD, the DVD for the Alfred Hitchcock comedy thriller Family Plot, and a Squishmallow. I've been wanting a stuffed shark since I started working at Thomas Sharp. Their mascot is a shark. Gordon the Shark is apparently one of the original Squishmallows released in 2019 (though the version I found has a 2021 tag). Ironically, Gordon's tag said he's a friendly fellow who loves to help others and wants to start his own nonprofit. So that's what he was doing at Goodwill. He was doing market research!

Oh, and the CD is:

Diana Krall - Quiet Nights

After that, I figured it was time for lunch. I originally rode a few blocks down to Kaighns Avenue. Not only was there not a whole lot there other than a florist and a liquor store, but I didn't feel like dodging traffic further down looking for the Cherry Hill Mall. Went back to the Marlton Pike and rode two blocks in the other direction, finally coming across a small, slightly dilapidated shopping center. Had enormous slices of cheese and Hawaiian (pineapple-ham) pizza at Gaetano's while watching The George Lopez Show. (George's teen daughter ran away with her boyfriend to San Francisco, and he was having nightmares about what she was doing there.) Gaetano's was a pretty typical hole-in-the-wall with Formica tables and counters, but the guy who worked there was really nice, and the pizza delicious, with giant slices and soft crusts.

Continued riding down to WaWa, until I realized that the highways crossed here and I could go no further on my bike. I just turned around, crossed at Goodwill, and headed past 202 Park and back over the bridge to Collingswood. I got turned around in the back roads of Collingswood, but I finally came out at the small park next to Grooveground. They still haven't finished remodeling (I would love to know what's the hold-up there - they started in April 2025), so I ended up at the Candy Jar after I used the library's bathroom. Bought a small bag of mini fruit slices (I usually get them at Peanut World in Atlantic City, which burned down last year) and a cup of Cherry amaretto gelato. Yum! Sweet, refreshing, and very cherry. Returned briefly to Haddon Culinary for a Diet Coke this time before I finally made my way back to Oaklyn.

Rested while watching Enchantment when I got in. This lovely 1948 romance starts with American ambulance driver Grizel Dane (Evelyn Keyes) coming to live with her great-uncle Rollo (David Niven). She falls in love with a handsome pilot (Farley Granger), but waffles on getting closer when he receives his orders and she worries about losing him. Rollo tells her not to give up on love so easily. Flashbacks reveal how he had fallen in love with his sweet cousin Lark (Teresa Wright) 50 years before, only to lose her when his manipulative and spoiled sister Selina (Jayne Meadows) lies about him taking a position overseas and she ends up marrying a Marchese (Sheppherd Strudwick) instead. Rollo never saw her again, and he wouldn't return home while Selina was there. He encourages Grizel to find her love, before she loses him the way he lost Lark. 

This is such a lovely, sweet movie. Though Niven, Keyes, and Wright are all good as the star-crossed lovers and the ambulance driver dealing with her own romance, Meadows steals the movie as the nasty sister who doesn't want to share her power over the household and her brothers with anyone. If you only know Meadows from her work on TV and cartoons, this will certainly be a revelation. Highly recommended for fans of doomed romances and the other fantasy-oriented romances from the mid-40's like The Enchanted Cottage and Portrait of Jennie

Switched to Match Game '75 during dinner. The entire two-hour stretch covered the week with Rona Barrett and Clifton Davies. Sweet single middle-aged aunt Dorothy was the big winner that week. Richard and Charles brought her tissues the first time she won. She also got to hear some of the hilarious answers to whom Richard Dawson wouldn't be happy to marry.

Finished the night with The Wild, Wild West. "The Night of the Watery Death" has James West investigating a "dragon" that somehow managed to blow up the ship he was on, and the mermaid at the bar (Jocelyn Lane) who led him there. Artie is pretty much the only person who believes him. Turns out it's a plot by a crazed sea-loving French nobleman (John van Dreelen) to destroy the US Navy and create his own country under the Pacific Ocean. 

Oh, and here's the review of the live-action Moana that I saw on Thursday!

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