The day is bright and sunny and cooler than yesterday. It is 70˚ right now, and the high is expected to be only 79˚. Yesterday it got to 90K˚. I have windows open this morning instead of using the air-conditioner.

Yesterday was a busy day. I washed the deck and cleared it of pollen and dead leaves then I went to Agway, big mistake. My back complained loudly as I pulled the huge wagon filled with all sorts of plants. I bought tomatoes, cucumbers and squash for the vegetable garden, basil and rosemary for the herb garden and deck boxes and all sorts of annuals for the clay pots I put on the deck. When I got home, I unloaded them to the front walk then sat on the front step until my back was better. The plants sit there still waiting to be planted but not today. My back and I need a day of rest.

One more trip to Agway for some perennials and  more herbs should do it for the garden this year. I’ll do that tomorrow. My landscaper wants to mulch, but he’ll have to wait until I shop one more time.

This morning I watched a fun, really great B science fiction movie, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It was made in 1953. The Beast, a pre-historic monster, was awakened from hibernation by-here’s where you get to guess the cause of his rude awakening. (I’ll pause a bit to give you time to think.) If you knew to say atomic bomb, you’ve watched far too many B&W 50’s science fiction movies.

This film had everything you’d expect: men wearing fedoras and coats running down the street away from the beast, women on fire escapes screaming and pointing but not thinking about going inside, horribly fake snow and backgrounds and corny dialogue. The general told Bazooka Man to fire. The poor guy had no name. The French scientist, the first to see the Beast, asked our heroine, ” What’s a girl like you doing being a paleontologist?” That girl paleontologist wore the most God-awful looking dress to the ballet. She even added long black gloves to complete her ugly ensemble. The cop shot at this enormous beast with his handgun. You can imagine the gun’s effect: none, and for all his heroics, the cop was eaten by the beast, head first into the mouth with the cop’s legs hanging from the mouth before he was totally devoured. The beast was wonderful because he was the first Ray Harryhausen monster special effect. As the movie was winding down, the poor beast was wounded, but he wasn’t done. His blood fell in droplets on the street and released some horrific prehistoric germ which killed more people. The beast was racking up fatalities. For the ending, the movie went full circle: a  radioactive isotope was shot into his wound by a sharpshooter who added drama by shooting from a car at the top of a roller coaster. The Beast writhed in agony before it died: end of rampage, end of Beast and end of movie.