Night of the Soaring Children

Began the morning with breakfast and Little Bear. Uncle Rusty is "The Big Bear Sitter" when Mother and Father Bear go out and he looks after Little Bear. Little Bear and his friends show him how to be a good babysitter. Father Bear and Uncle Rusty take Little Bear to "The Top of the World," or at least on a surprising journey hiking up a mountain. "The Campfire Tale" involves a certain little bear who wanted to bring his mother the moon and tried to carry it in a bucket.

By the time the cartoon ended, it was so late, I called Uber. Not that it helped going to work. Even with the driver taking less than the advertised 13 minutes, I ended up being three minutes late to work anyway. I did better later. The driver going to Thomas Sharp arrived in 7 minutes, and I called them early. The one going home took 8 minutes. Thankfully, no dodging road work this time (though the drivers going to the Acme and Thomas Sharp did report having to deal with it elsewhere, including on the highway). 

That was really the worst thing that happened all day. Work was so quiet, I helped the floral department manager reload the racks that hold plastic bags for the bouquets for an hour when there wasn't much else to do. The head bagger was there, too. Apparently, Acme wants more baggers on duty, even when they aren't really necessary. It did pick up enough by noon that we needed more help, but even that could have been worse. I was in and out with no major problems whatsoever.

Headed in the back next to have lunch at Tu Se Bella's. Even at quarter after 1, they had a long line of ladies deciding on what slices of pizza they were going to take home. I ended up with shrimp and broccoli and tomato-mozzarella-basil and a bottle of Diet Pepsi. Ate while watching Chopped on the TV over the soda cooler. The younger girl seemed to do the best on the smallest budget with the strangest ingredients. One of the guys who restarted his pasta dish three times when he realized how brittle the pasta was looked like he was on the verge of getting cut when I headed out. (The other guy's ground camel and vegetables bowl honestly didn't sound that bad.)

I stopped briefly at Sonic to check something on my phone, but decided I'd have something totally different for a treat instead. Chick Fil'A was still mobbed and still had a long take-out line even at 2 PM. Good thing I just decided to try their Dragonfruit Pineapple Frozen Lemonade. Oh, yum! Just what I needed. Lighter than ice cream, but heavier than Sonic's slushes, with a nice, sweet tropical flavor. Finished it while walking over to the Acme, where I used the bathroom and called Uber early. 

Thomas Sharp was actually a bit less crazy. We had 19 kids, 7 at my table. Good thing, too. We started out in the hall. The music class ran over again. This time, I avoided fuss over snacks by taking the kids to the bathroom right away. When we did get back into the cafeteria for snack time, we were there just long enough for me to read Steam Train, Dream Train and Angelina and the Princess to two enraptured girls before we got them packed up to go outside. 

The weather remains too gorgeous for anyone of any age to be inside for long. It's still sunny and dry, if a bit less windy than yesterday. They were all happy to run around on the slides and check the mulch and the tree for ladybugs, except for the three-year-old twin girls who kept trying to get on the swings no matter what we said. There was also the group that kept running over to a spider web attached to the chain link fence and running away screaming, even though no spider was in evidence. 

There was slightly less fighting over the swings today, maybe because one of the boys who insisted on staying on the whole time wasn't here today. Two of the boys and two of the girls spent most of the time switching off, but they did share. I think only one of the kids didn't get a turn, and he was the only one who was more interested in slides and drawing with chalk on the patio leading to the steps than the swings. 

It was quarter of 5 when we got the remaining 7 kids back inside. The kids colored artwork from Avengers and K-Pop Demon Hunters coloring books, while I worked on artwork of Joker Pruitt, Shadow Man Scott, and Lunar Lady Maple from one of my in-development WENN fanfics, Captain Victor, Shadow of Power (and got to tell the kids what I could about the story). By the time I left at 5:15, there was one younger kid and maybe five older ones left.

Took the trash out, then watched Match Game '76 and had dinner. Nancy Kulp of The Beverly Hillbillies made her only appearance this week...but while she played well, I think her brand of humor may have been a little too dry for this show. Avery Schriberer and Joyce Bulifant seemed more at home with the comedy, especially on a question asking what a lady did to a guy's mustache when she was feeling amorous.

Finished the night at Pluto TV with The Wild Wild West. "Night of the Druid's Blood" has James West on the warpath when he sees a professor friend of his burned to death after he warns him about a certain woman (Ann Elder) who had charmed him. James and his partner Artemis Gordon think they've stumbled onto a druid cult when they see the lady leading what seems to be a full-on druid ceremony. James finally discovers after he's attacked by a phony magician (Don Rickles) that there's more mad science than magic involved here, and that the lady has something more sinister in mind for the senator she's lured into her clutches.