Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Have you ever read that book? Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs? It was one of my favorites as a kid and still is, really. It is a very creative story.

It is about a "tall-tale" that a grandfather tells his grandkids about the tiny town of Chewandswallow. It has three hundred people and the most unusual weather you have ever seen. The weather comes 3 times a day and accounts for all the food they eat. For breakfast, for example, it might rain orange juice, followed by low clouds of sunny-side up eggs and pieces of toast. A shower of milk would finish the meal.

This idyllic existence is shattered with the weather begins to turn violent. The food items grow in size until a gigantic pancake covers the school, forcing it's closure. It just gets worse and worse until the townspeople fear for their lives. They decide to abandon Chewandswallow.

They take some of the huge stale pieces of bread that fell earlier and caulk them together sandwich style with peanut-butter. Using pieces of pizza for sails, they set off into the unknown. After many days of sailing, they arrive at a quiet coastal town that welcomes them, and they gradually settle in to a new life, even learning how to shop at the grocery store. So it is a happy ending.

This book fascinated me as a child. It really fires the imagination. I remember trying to think how my favorite meals could translate into weather. Like my breakfast of cereal, milk and juice would become milk rain and Cherrio hail, followed by showers of orange juice. But how would the transition work? What if you got both orange juice and milk in one glass? That would be gross! And would the milk rain interfere with the Cherrio hail and make it soggy? These are important issues! I suppose it is all pretend so you can make up any rules you want, but I like to pretend it is real and imagine the problems that would come with that reality. So you see how my mind works.

Well I visited my grandparents today (they are fine) and got some reading done, so overall a very successful day. I hope your day was too.