Beautiful Rust

            On Friday morning I finished memorizing "Aéroplanes" by Serge Gainsbourg and worked out the first three chords of the intro.

            Around midday I cleaned my two metal sculptures that I put together years ago from objects that I’d found at the Leslie Spit.  I also cut the edge off of the round plastic draining screen of a small plant pot and used it to make a bottom for one of the sculptures so the wires wouldn’t slip out. I put the sculptures back together and placed them on my kitchen shelf. I still have more things to put back on the shelf but the sculptures took me until lunch time.

            I had red kidney beans mixed with salsa and the rest of a bag of jalapeno kettle chips for lunch.

            I took a siesta and woke up to the sound of a thunder shower.

            I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This was pretty much a remake of similar stories that had been aired before. Kingfish’s brother in law Leroy returns from South America. Kingfish reads Leroy’s mail and there is a notification that an oil well in which he’d invested has struck it rich and his stock is worth $4000. Kingfish keeps the news a secret from Leroy and tries to get the stock from his suitcase by the keeps the key pinned to his underwear. Kingfish plans to knock Leroy out to get the key. Leroy finds Kingfish sitting cross legged on the floor with a towel around his head. Kingfish explains that he is meditating because he’s a yogi now. Leroy says he wants to try it and Kingfish tells him to go in the dark closet and sit until a thought hits him. Andy is waiting in the closet with a baseball bat to knock Leroy out but Leroy knocks Andy out. Finally Kingfish simply offers to buy Leroy’s stock for $400. After the transaction Kingfish laughs and tells Leroy that the stock is worth $4000. Leroy says he knows it isn’t because he's the one that wrote the letter saying it is.

            I made a video of my rehearsal of my song Calendar Girl from my August 2, 2017 song practise and I deleted the rest. I’m sure I do the song a lot better now than I did then. I just have three videos left to make before starting to record again.

            I finished scanning a set of negatives from my daughter’s second birthday and uploaded them to my computer.

            I mixed chilli powder, chilli paste, cayenne, cumin, pepper, seasoned salt, mustard, and molasses and rubbed the pork ribs that I thawed out today. I baked them in the oven and added some honey garlic barbecue sauce halfway through. I had three of them with a potato and some gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Robin and Tuck arrive in France with Prince Arthur, the heir to the English throne and his mother, Constance. As they try to make their way to the shelter of Constance’s cousin's castle they see the road is blocked by the soldiers of King Philip. Suddenly a man named Jacques Chapeau, who claims to be the Robin Hood of France emerges from the trees to help them get around the soldiers. But he leads them to the camp of his band of outlaws and he says he will turn Arthur over to Philip in exchange for his brother, who is imprisoned in Paris and sentenced to die. Tuck asks Jacques if he thinks that he and Robin Hood together could break his brother out of the prison. Jacques asks if he is mocking him. Tuck reveals that his companion is Robin Hood but Jacques doesn’t believe it because everyone knows that Robin Hood is much taller. Robin asks what Jacques needs for proof and Jacques arranges an archery contest. When Jacques sees Robin’s accuracy he is convinced and Robin is surprised when Jacques kisses him on both cheeks. So Robin, Jacques and Tuck head for Paris. Robin says they need to speak with someone who has recently been released from the prison in order to find out what they will be up against. They find Raoul and buy him a flagon of wine. He says that it’s good to drink decent wine again as the wine they served in prison was like vinegar. While they are sitting there Tuck is absent mindedly using a stick to make black spots on his hand from the wax of the candle at their table. Jacques says that it looks like the black death. Suddenly Robin declares, “That’s our way in!” Tuck puts similar spots all over Raoul and then Robin and Jacques, posing as doctors carry him on a stretcher to the prison, with Tuck along to serve as final confessor. They show Raoul to the guards and Jacques chastises them for having released a man with the plague to infect all of Paris. They say the prison must be infected and so the guards allow them to carry Raoul inside. Inside Tuck locates Jacque’s brother and passes him something to mark his face with spots and tells him to play dead. Tuck calls to the guards that the man has the plague. They open his cell and Jacques confirms he is dead and that he is a hundred times more infectious because of that. They wrap him up and carry him out. Meanwhile the warden discovers that the spots on Raoul’s face are merely cosmetic and goes looking for the guards. Raoul, Tuck and Jacques’s brother climb out the back window of the prison while Robin and Jacques hold off the guards with their swords. Robin is the last one out as he dives into the Seine. It seems unlikely that there would be a big back window in the prison with no bars that a prisoner could break free and jump through. Jacques helps to escort Arthur and Constance to their destination in Brittany.

            The second story seems to take place at the same time as the first one, since Robin is not part of it other than it being mentioned that he is in France. This tale features the return of Lepidus the alchemist who we last saw seventeen episodes ago after he’d demonstrated to the Sheriff of Nottingham that he could make gold. We learn that the sheriff has set Lepidus up with a laboratory and equipment but six weeks have passed with no results. Lepidus claims he’s been ill and can't make gold with a cold. The sheriff gives him seven more days to produce gold or he will be executed. When Little John hears of this feels the band is responsible, since it was them that turned Lepidus over to the sheriff. He decides they will rescue Lepidus but doesn’t know how. He sends Marian to talk with Lepidus who says they can get him out by digging a tunnel from outside of Nottingham to his lab. His plan is to show that he can increase the amount of gold that anyone gives him. Marian spreads the rumour among Sir Peter and Sir Paul, two nobles loyal to Prince John, that the alchemist has this ability. He gets Marian to have a blacksmith construct a false bottom for his cauldron. She brings him one golden plate from the outlaw camp which he secretly places underneath the false bottom. The sheriff, Sir Peter and Sir Paul attend a demonstration and Paul provides Lepidus with a golden ring, which he places in the cauldron. When the pot is heated the gold plate under the false bottom also melts and Paul is presented with a larger amount of gold than he donated. Convinced that Lepidus can increase their wealth the witnesses bring all of their gold to Lepidus’s laboratory. He says he needs to be alone to work. Little John and the band break through the floor of the laboratory and escape with Lepidus and all of the gold to give to King Richard for his campaign.