Our three-day weekend ran the gamut from really awful to really awfully nice out.

The rain was still hanging on with skeletal damp and chilly fingers on Thursday morning, so we took the car to go shopping at Publix, and it got us damp, cold, and disgusted enough to just bring the groceries inside and stay put. Used the opportunity to collect another box of books to take to McKay's (if we ever find a nice day that we don't have anything else planned!). I'd had to rearrange some book piles yesterday anyway, to pull up reading for Women's History Month, so I had at least one to add myself. Swept out the foyer, did a few other tidying things, finished reading Mary Poppins, She Wrote (which did not make me fond of P.L. Travers at all; she struck me as self-absorbed and willing to follow any sort of philosophical mumbo-jumbo from men who were charlatans or Bronson Alcott wannabes). We had a new Young Sheldon episode this evening, then watched the next Babylon 5 film in the queue, Thirdspace. Not my favorite of the films, to say the least.

The rain cleared out late in the afternoon, and by the time Friday dawned it was bright, sunny, and windy enough for Mary Poppins herself to go aloft. I took Tucker for a long walk today, as we've been cooped up by the rain for three days. The birds seemed very happy to be shut of the rain, and a mockingbird was singing his head off overhead on a telephone wire. Then James and I went off to stroll Hobby Lobby for a half hour (bought some nice bright orange duct tape to put on the bottom of the chair lift in the desperate hope that it will help) before James and I joined Alice, Ken, Aubrey, Mel and Phyllis for lunch at Top Spice. Had some very nice pad thai with enough left over for a lunch, and equally good conversation.

We'd been waffling about what to do after lunch because President Trump was flying into town this afternoon (at rush hour, of course, every single President has flown into Atlanta at the worst possible traffic time for years) to meet with CDC officials about the coronavirus outbreak. He comes in at Dobbins Air Reserve Base which is just a few miles from our house, and then they shut down the freeway when he arrives and again when he leaves, which dumps more traffic on our local streets. So early this morning he was coming, and then he wasn't because a CDC employee was suspected of having coronavirus, and then by the time we had lunch the trip was back on because the test for coronavirus was negative. So we gave up and just went to Barnes & Noble across the street (nothing bought, just to look around) then came home.

This evening's B5 feature was River of Souls, followed by Hawaii Five-0. There are only two episodes left after this, with the series finale on the third of April. Alex O'Loughlin needs to quit because the back injury he sustained a few seasons back is now so bad that he can't even pick up his little kids, plus his and Scott Caan's contracts are up, so they are ending it. I'm sure Scott Caan will be glad not to have to fly back and forth to Hawaii every other week and be with his family instead. I will miss it, but it's no tragedy. One less program to have to remember.

Today was a brilliantly beautiful day, still with a bit of wind, but bright and blue. Tucker and I had another long walk, but had to dodge so many glass shards on the sidewalks the moment we step out of our street. There are broken beer bottles everywhere on the main street on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Instead of watching the spring creep in I have to watch the sidewalk so Tucker doesn't step on glass! I wish people would get drunk and wreck things in their own homes and quit spoiling the landscape for the rest of us.

So we braved the Saturday crowds and went to Walmart for this and that. Got more sugarless candy, more melatonin for James, other foodie items, etc. While wandering around just looking at the DVDs, discovered Peter Jackson's World War I film, They Shall Not Grow Old, in the rack for just five dollars! I love old newsreel footage, and that is what this film is comprised of, old film footage from British military sources that has been colorized with a narrative. It has gotten all sorts of fantastic reviews and I wanted to see it, but never managed. And the DVD is a lot less expensive than seeing at the movies would have been.

This particular Walmart was celebrating the opening of their new garden center, so we got a burger, chips, and a drink (water) for only $2 each (a lot bigger burger than one from Wendy's that would have set us back $4 each alone!). Then, since we were halfway there anyway, drove a few more miles out to Hiram, checked out the big Michael's there, bought Snowy more birdseed in Petsmart (they had several little groups of budgies, including a sweet yellow and green one who was almost a dead ringer for Bandit), and Five Below to get some dark chocolate Reese's peanut butter cups for desserts.

The last stop was at the Sam's Club at the far end of the shopping center which was selling gasoline for $1.969 a gallon!

I spent the rest of the day turning all the clocks (thirteen) and timers (six) ahead one hour, James made the humongous turkey wing we bought at Nam Dae Mun in the air fryer with a side of tater tots (also done in the air fryer and then kept warm in the oven) for dinner, and the movie du jour was the prequel movie to the Babylon 5 sequel Crusade, A Call to Arms. Alas, it's the last we see of Michael Garibaldi. Rest in peace, Jerry Doyle.

Tomorrow's our final day of cold nights (and, by extension, a good night's sleep) and by the end of the week it's supposed to be in the 70s. I don't suppose some year we could actually have a proper spring and have temps in the high 50s and 60s for three and four weeks at the time before it gets to the seventies and broiling point? Could we please? Please?

And now, because our clocks are already set back, we're going to goosestep to the command of stupid Federal law and Damn Daylight Effin' Saving Time and go to bed. Die, DST, DIE!

Labels: books, friends, health, movies, shopping, television, time, weather

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