Scrape, Scrape, Scrape

            On Sunday morning I memorized the chorus and another verse of “Sensuelle et sans suite” (Sensual and Senseless) by Serge Gainsbourg. There’s just one more verse left that isn’t repeated, so I should have it in my head on Monday.

            I worked on my journal.

            I washed another section of my bedroom floor near the northwest corner of the room. There was so much splattered paint to scrape up that it took me almost two hours to clean an area one metre long and twenty-three centimetres wide.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This story finds Sapphire and Kingfish in financial difficulties. Kingfish hears from his rich uncle that he’s coming to visit. The only problem is that several years ago the uncle gave Kingfish money for tuition because he told him he was going to medical school. Of course he never went to medical school but now Kingfish has to find a way to convince his uncle that he is now a practicing physician. Andy has a job one night babysitting an eight-month-old baby and so Kingfish pretends that he’s become a paediatrician. He takes his uncle on a house call as Andy pretends to be the child’s father. The complaint is that the baby has been crying all night but when they arrive they find the baby laughing. Kingfish says that’s even worse because it’s a symptom of laughing seizures. When Kingfish walks into the nursery he says right away that he can see the baby has yellow jaundice. Andy says, “You’re looking at the teddy bear”. Kingfish takes the child’s temperature and his uncle cautions him that the baby might swallow the thermometer. Kingfish says, “That’s all right, I have another one in the office!” The baby’s temperature is 98.6. The uncle says that’s normal. Kingfish says, “In Fahrenheit but I was measuring in centipede.” Kingfish’s uncle wants to come and see him in his medical office and so Kingfish has to find a medical office to occupy fast. His lawyer Stonewall has a doctor friend whose away and left him the key. Kingfish can use it but it’s such a ritzy office that he’s going to have a hard time convincing his uncle that he needs money. He pretends that he is so broke he’s going to have to sell everything in the practice. His uncle says he’ll help him out. Kingfish is expecting cash but his uncle tells him later that he has paid the rent on his medical office for the next five years.

            I started a Movie Maker project for my rehearsal video of Les Feuilles Mortes recorded on August 5, 2017 and synchronized the audio from the mic with that from the video camera. The mic audio is slightly later, creating an echo. Next time I’ll listen when I’m fresh to hear if I want to keep it that way.

            I worked on My Blood in a Bug.

            I had an egg, a toasted bagel and a beer while watching the penultimate episode of the first season of Zorro.

            This story begins with a Russian diplomat named Count Kolinko arriving at the home of Don Diego looking for Varga. Wanting to extract information from Kolinko, Diego does not tell him at first that Varga has moved to Los Angeles. Thinking that Diego is part of the cause, Kolinko reveals that he is bidding against Britain for influence over California after Varga has united it under his hand. Diego’s father Don Alejandro enters the room and innocently reveals that they are indeed not part of Varga’s cause. Kolinko leaves and goes to Los Angeles where Varga has rented a house and is in the process of having a large collection of vases delivered there. Zorro breaks one of the vases to discover that they hold cannon balls. He sneaks into the house to investigate and sees a large amount of cannonballs has already been accumulated. He is detected and has to fight his way out. He has learned that there is one more item arriving but it is on a wagon with a broken wheel. He deduces that is the cannon and that it has been taken to the blacksmith shop ant the edge of town to be repaired. He anticipates that the blacksmith is also an Eagle agent and he is right. When he arrives the blacksmith runs to warn Varga. Zorro would like to use the cannon to defend Los Angeles but the wagon is still broken and so he has no choice but to blow up the cannon. He and Bernardo prepare gunpowder to explode the cannon but suddenly the broken wagon collapses on Bernardo, trapping him just as the fuse is lit. Zorro manages to get him free and Bernardo is thrown through the window but Zorro is caught in the explosion. Varga arrives and is pleased to see Zorro’s cape and bent sword in the rubble. He assumes he is dead. But after Varga leaves, Bernardo finds Zorro buried by debris, but uninjured.