July 31, 1990: I had a ham and runny egg sandwich

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy stayed over and since she was on her period we made love without a condom.

            After work I bought an August Metropass and some fresh frozen grapefruit juice.

            I got home at around 19:00 and didn’t do much. I shaved, showered, tidied up a bit, did some reading and worked on my "Ballerina Harvest in Hell" collage.

            For dinner I had a ham and egg with runny yoke sandwich.

            I left a message for Yvette and Cindy called to get my address so she could send me an invitation to her September 2 show at the library.

Conquering the East

            On Thursday morning I felt like I was still breathing plaster dust after sanding the day before. Later on I wiped down the surface with a damp cloth.

I made a slight adjustment in my translation of “Bourrée de complexes” (Buried in Complexes) by Boris Vian. There was a reference to Marie being involved with an withered and faded poppy and at first I thought it referred to her husband but the lyrics also state that he is a young man. I figured that it must be the marriage itself that is faded and so I changed the lyrics to fit that.

            I finished working out the chords for Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French and English.

            At around midday I washed and scrubbed another section of the kitchen floor, pretty much in the middle as I make my way east. This was a particularly black part of the room and there was a part with a lot of glue to scrape up.

            I had cucumber sticks with ranch dip for lunch.

            In the afternoon I skipped my exercises to take my bike ride a little early so I could stop at Freshco on my way home. After riding to Bloor and Yonge and back along Queen, I’d just arrived at the supermarket and I was looking at the Ontario peaches when someone called me byname. It was Mark Critoph, whom I hadn’t seen in years. Since I didn’t get home until 19:00 when I would normally have gotten back before 18:00, I must have chatted with him for at least an hour. We each got caught up on what the other has been doing. He’s made hundreds of paintings and even wrote a novel but has yet to do a show or get the book published. His daughter, whom I never met, is seventeen now and struggling with finishing high school. We conversed on a wide range of topics before elbow bumping and saying we’d have a beer when the pandemic is over.

            I had a potato, some steamed bok choy and the last of my steaks with gravy while watching the last two episodes of “The Adventures of Robin Hood”.

            In the first story Friar Tuck is arrested while walking to prepare the shrine of Saint Cedric for the special sermon he will be giving the next day. The sheriff’s men give no reason for taking Tuck into custody but when he arrives at the deputy sheriff’s office he meets his identical twin brother Edgar. The deputy forces Tuck to change clothes with Edgar and Edgar’s mission is to confess while posing as his brother that he is in league with Robin Hood and so is Lady Marian. Edgar goes to the shrine to perform Tuck’s duties but meanwhile Marian is out riding when she is thrown from her horse and injures her wrist. Will Scarlet seeks out Tuck because he has some knowledge about treating such injuries and so Edgar, in order to keep up the pretence of his disguise, is forced to come along. Robin is immediately puzzled that Tuck seems to have lost much of his medical expertise and when they later dine Edgar has a coughing fit to cover the fact that he does not know the Latin grace. Robin insists that Tuck stay the night at their camp. Meanwhile a message comes in that the deputy sheriff is in Sherwood Forest. The deputy meets with the bishop to escort him but suddenly Robin arrives and captures the sheriff and the bishop. Robin assures the bishop that no harm will come to him but that they must bring him back to their camp. The bishop’s reaction is that the whole affair is a delightful adventure for him. When the bishop sees what looks like Tuck at the camp he asks him why he is there and Edgar says that he came to repair Lady Marian’s broken wrist but that he has been there on many occasions in the past. Robin challenges Edgar to name the last time he came to the camp but of course he can’t. Robin also suggests that the sheriff visit this “Lady what’s her name” and ask her if she’s ever had a broken wrist since no lady ever came to his camp with one. Robin then asks the bishop if any friar should be able to recite the Latin grace. The bishop confirms that this is so. Robin then challenges the man claiming to be Tuck to recite the grace but he says he’s forgotten. Robin declares that the man is an impostor and the bishop asks the man to swear that he is or is not Friar Tuck. Finally Edgar breaks down and confesses his true identity and says that Tuck is in the sheriff’s dungeon. The deputy says that if one of his men has imprisoned Tuck he will suffer for it. Later after Tuck is freed Robin says that he began to have his suspicions when Edgar had claimed that Marian’s wrist was broken when anyone with much less knowledge than Tuck would know that it was only sprained.

            In the final story Robin is returning to Sherwood from another town when he runs across a fence on the king’s land. A man arrives who asks Robin if he built it when another hits Robin from behind. Robin wakes in a cell and learns he is about to stand trial for an unknown charge. Meanwhile back at the outlaw camp Robin is a day late returning. Marian decides to disguise herself as a serving girl and to travel along the same trail that Robin should have taken to return. When she reaches the fence she is also arrested. Robin is placed before the manorial court of Sir Hugo de Basque and is charged with trespassing. The two men that captured Robin offer testimony that Robin was on Hugo’s land. Hugo charges Robin ten marks fine but since he only has four marks he will have to work off the rest of the fine with six years of labour. Robin says he has the money in his boot but then he attacks the men and is about to escape through the window when he sees Marian being led in and he surrenders. Robin is sentenced to death and sent back to his cell while Marian is sentenced to work. Because Hugo finds her pretty he says she can work and sleep in the kitchen. Later Robin convinces Sir Hugo that since his men did not fight as well as him, instead of executing him he should hire him as a soldier. So Robin goes out on patrol with the other two men and they see the sheriff’s lieutenant ride up to investigate the fence. Robin shoots an arrow into the soldier’s saddle and he rides away. He shows the arrow to the deputy who recognizes the flight design as that of Robin Hood. The deputy and the lieutenant ride to Hugo’s estate and confront him about the arrow. While Hugo is trying to suggest that the deputy search the other estates for Robin Hood while he searches his own an arrow hits the table and Robin is standing in the window. When the men get up to fight Robin says, “Look to the door”. A crossbow is pointing at them through the partially open door but those inside can’t see that Marian is holding it. Robin says he needs Hugo to write a safe conduct for him to leave the castle without being shot. The deputy demands that he write the order. Robin has the lieutenant tie up the deputy and Hugo, then Robin ties up the lieutenant and he and Marian escape.

            This was a great TV series and it was groundbreaking in the UK because it was the first British show to become a hit in the United States. It was also the first successful British show not produced by the BBC.

July 30, 1990: Yvette said, "You're playin with your life! I'm on my period!"

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy and I watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" on video and then made love in her bed. I was a little limp and lost it when I pulled out to put a condom on. She told me she was almost on her period and so I went back in without a sheath. I had to come as soon as possible because I couldn’t stay hard unless she pinched my nipples and called out, "Fuck me you bastard!"

            Work was a drag because Lorne was on my back about how fast I was working. That pissed me off and contributed to my desire to find another job.

            I went to see “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" again, this time at the Revue with Yvette.

            Yvette had one great line, “You’re playin with your life! I'm on my period!"

Closing the Door on the Door

            On Wednesday morning I finished looking for the chords for Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg. I’d tracked down four sets of chords and then I started working out which one fit the best. I found that the first set, in the key of F worked best, but with some variations. I worked out the chords for the first two lines.

            Around midday I looked for and found right away the sanding block that my landlord gave me more than ten years ago and I started sanding the closed off door in the bedroom. I made a lot of progress and although I had previously guessed that it would take me all summer, I now think that it might be finished by the middle of August.

            I had cheese, lettuce and cucumber with ranch dressing on a toasted croissant for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Sapphire has just graduated from business school and she’s gotten a job as a buyer for a department store. Upon learning that company policy does not allow for the hiring of married women, Sapphire tells her boss that she’s single but she doesn’t tell her husband. After Kingfish comes to bring Sapphire a sandwich at work she tells her boss that he’s her brother. The boss has fallen in love with Sapphire and goes to Kingfish to ask for her hand in marriage.

            I took a bike ride. There were a lot of cyclists out riding and I had to pass a long line in the Annex. Because I was racing a young woman most of the way, although I left later than usual I got home sooner. It’s strange that I didn’t pass myself on the way.

            I had an egg and a loaf of warmed up naan for dinner with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Little John tries to rob a sweet talking peddler who instead sells him a set of dice that he calls “Pharaoh Stones”. He convinces Little John that the stones can predict the future and the first few times they seem to be right. Little John rolls them to find out about his friends and when the serpents come up they are supposed to indicate danger. Little John finds Will and Edgar attacked by three of the sheriff’s men and he thinks the stones predicted it with three serpents. Little John, believing that the stones are protecting him, single handedly attacks the three soldiers and defeats them. Later Marian is visiting the camp but after she leaves and Robin escorts her to the edge of the forest Little John rolls the stones and believes Marian will be in danger at the bridge. He rushes to warn her and just as she stops and turns a tree falls to where she would have been if she’d kept walking. It’s tax time and Robin wants to intercept the sheriff’s tax collectors with several coordinated raids, but Little John rolls the stones and declares that no one should go. Since the stones have been right twice in a row, every man but Robin and Will agree that they must not disobey the stones. Robin decides that a stop must be put to these Pharaoh stones and so he forms a plan which he implements with the help of Marian and Will. Later Will arrives out of breath at the camp announcing that Marian has been captured by the sheriff’s men at the old barn by the bridge. Little John says they must rescue her but Robin says they must roll the Pharaoh stones first. He deliberately has them turn up with all serpents. Robin says they can't go but, as Robin hoped, Little John breaks free of the stones’ influence and heads off to rescue Marian. Shortly after that Marian returns to the camp and tells Robin that there are soldiers occupying the old barn. Realizing that Little John will be captured Robin and his men head for the barn. Little John is indeed captured and bound in the barn where the tax collectors are counting everything they took from the poor people of Nottingham. Robin shoots out the lamps and before the soldiers can shut the doors and windows Robin and the men are inside. The ledger reads, "Sheriff's tax 1200 marks" but Robin adds, "Robin Hood's tax, 600 marks". Little John gives the stones to Will but Robin takes them and throws them into the forest.

            In the second story Robin and Will are in Nottingham being pursued by the sheriff’s men. They decide to split up and Robin enters a house where he is greeted by a handmaiden named Ann who acts like she was expecting him. She leads him into the house but at the stairs he is confronted by the master of the house, Bligh Denton the merchant. Denton thinks that Robin is Sir Peter Marston, who has been secretly courting his daughter Judith. Denton has called for priest and plans to put a stop to the sneaking around by forcing Sir Peter to marry Judith that night. Of course when Judith sees Robin she knows that he is not Peter but Robin convinces her not to reveal to her father that he is not whom he thinks he is. The priest comes down the street and he turns out to be Friar Tuck. But before Tuck gets to the door of the Denton house he sees Sir Peter trying to enter just as the sheriff’s men grab him and take him to the deputy sheriff. After learning of the complex circumstances from Robin, Tuck performs a marriage ceremony. Meanwhile Sir Peter is trying to convince the deputy that he is not an outlaw. The deputy finally agrees to take Sir Peter to the Denton house if only to prove that he is lying. When the sheriff’s men come to the door Robin takes Denton into another room. Then Robin emerges disguised as Denton, somehow having acquired a fake beard, and welcomes the deputy. Judith's embrace of Peter proves that he has been telling the truth. The deputy leaves but Peter is initially upset that Judith has married another man. Tuck explains that he married Judith to Peter Marston and so it was a marriage by proxy. All that he and Judith have to do is join hands and declare their marriage as valid and so they do. Despite having been tied up in the other room Denton is happy to have a knight for a son in law and the prospects it will have for his business.

July 29, 1990: Nancy heard I'd said that all women love me. I told her I must have been joking.

Thirty years ago today

            When Nancy got back from the barbecue she came over to my place for a while. She was a little drunk but also behaving strangely independent of that. She didn’t want me to touch her and it took me a lot of bugging to get her to tell me why. She said that Mia had said that I’d told her that all women love me. If I did say that it must have been a joke. Nancy said she realized that I couldn’t have meant it in that way.

            Mia was staying over at her place and so she went home for the night.

            I got up around 11:30 and went out to check out some lawn sales. I found a wooden spoon and bought a book on astrology. I picked up some stuff at Mr Grocer and then went home.

Susan Travers

            On Tuesday morning I finished memorizing “Marilou sous la neige" (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg and started looking for the chords. So far I found two sets for the song.

            During song practice I continued to struggle with playing the A chord with three fingers. I only recently noticed after all these years that some strings tend to be dulled when I do it. It doesn’t seem to be just a matter of pressing but more about the angle of my fingers. If I can only master the A chord then I will be able to truly undermine my enemies.

            Around midday I spent an hour washing and scrubbing another section of my kitchen floor in front of the bathroom door and beside the stove. This was not as bad as the previous area that I’d cleaned because there wasn’t any glue to scrape up but there were nonetheless paint splatters and a lot of very black, caked in dirt.

            For lunch I had ranch dip with some cucumber and potato chips.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This was another rehashed story and the only main difference from the previous one was that “The Lovebirds” is a TV show rather than a radio program. Sapphire loves the show called “The Lovebirds” because the Birds are the perfect married couple who are always happy together. But their example just causes negative comparisons for Sapphire and Kingfish and it causes them to argue even more. Kingfish tries to emulate Mr Bird but every romantic thing he tries backfires. Finally they both go to see the Birds to ask them their secret to a happy marriage. But while talking about it the Birds begin to argue about whose idea the show was in the first place and Mr Bird gets a vase smashed over his head. Their replacements on the show become Kingfish and Sapphire, “The Stevenses”. .

            I took a bike ride. At Bloor and Spadina there was a road worker with a stop sign but an elderly cyclist kept on going. The worker sighed to me, “Thanks for stopping.”

            On Yonge Street south of Dundas a blonde woman was walking slowly in a tight green business suit. She looked around to see if anyone was looking at her and I was.

            At Queen and Spadina there was a busker that I usually see in front of the Eaton’s Centre. He’s usually facing the other way but this time I saw his big sign: “Jesus is Lord” and underneath was written Luke Prosser. At least he had his own name in bigger letters than Jesus, which shows that his priorities aren’t entirely crooked. Maybe he meant that Lord, the singer from New Zealand is Jesus.

            At Queen and Ossington two attractive young women were arguing. One of them smelled very good as I passed.

            I reviewed the best video recordings of me performing “Personne” and decided that the last one, from July 4^th, is the rendition that I’ll upload to YouTube.

            I had a potato, a warmed up steak and some gravy for dinner while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Will Scarlet tries to rob a man travelling on foot through Sherwood Forest but he turns out to be one of the best swordsmen he’s ever encountered. Boland has just returned from fighting in the Crusade and his intention is to capture outlaws and in particular Robin Hood.  Boland defeats Will but Robin intervenes with an arrow from the bushes and tells Boland to drop his sword but he escapes. Because Boland is such a great swordsman and a knight from the Holy Land, Robin is certain he can bring him to his side and so he cuts him off on his way to Nottingham. They duel for an hour before Boland finally defeats Robin. Robin is asking Boland to join him when two of the sheriff’s men arrive to. They had seen Boland fighting Robin and so they assume he’s on their side but Boland tells them to clear off. The soldiers attack both of them but Boland trips and one soldier has a sword pointed at Boland while the other tells Robin to surrender or Boland dies. Marian is in the woods watching and shoots the sword from the soldier’s hand. The soldiers run away and Robin once again invites Boland to the camp but he says no and leaves. Boland fights his way into the deputy sheriff’s office and says he wants to join him. The deputy is impressed and makes him his new lieutenant. In his new capacity Boland inspects the dungeons and does not like the fact that they are overcrowded and that an old woman prisoner has been left without food for two days because she is suspected of hiding grain from the taxman. The deputy wants Boland to teach him how to defeat Robin Hood. He tells Boland that if he captures Robin Hood the best he can hope for is to be made captain but if the deputy defeats him he would be promoted to sheriff. He tells Boland that he can keep the reward money but he wants it to be himself that beats Robin Hood. Boland teaches the deputy what he can and then a challenge is issued. The deputy says he will release the prisoners from his dungeon if Robin Hood meets him in combat. They meet at a place designated by Robin and fight. The deputy manages to wound Robin but ultimately Robin wins. The deputy expects Boland to attack Robin but instead Boland joins him. He tells the sheriff he doesn’t like the way he treats his men or his prisoners. The deputy is bound now however to go and release his prisoners. Meanwhile Robin and Boland begin fighting again, but this time for fun.

            The second story begins with Sir Nedrick being guided to Robin Hood by a tinker named Wilfred who is pretending he knows where Robin can be found. Wilfred leads Nedrick into and ambush by Sir Hartley and his men without realizing that Nedrick would be murdered. Sir Hartley finds a note from Duchess Constance the mother of Prince Arthur on Sir Hartley’s body asking Robin to meet she and her son at the Blue Boar and to escort them to safety in the north. Will Scarlet hears Nedrick’s death cry and runs to see his body being transported away on horseback. When Robin learns this he must find the murderer before he and his men are blamed. Meanwhile Wilfred, with half of his payment from Sir Hartley is getting drunk at the Blue Boar. When Robin comes to ask Joan the barmaid if any noble strangers had stayed at the inn she tells him that a nobleman had spent the night and had left with Wilfred in the morning. Knowing that Wilfred could not have acquired the amount of money he is spending by ordinary means, Robin questions him. When Wilfred tries to run he captures him and takes him back to camp where he is persuaded to reveal the location of the man that hired him. Will Scarlet goes to the Cross Keys Inn to find out the name of the knight that he saw with Nedrick’s body. He flirts with the waitress and gives her two crowns to reveal the name “Sir Hartley". When Hartley learns that Will is asking about him he and his man confront him and draw arms. Robin shoots an arrow from the window and kills the soldier while Will breaks free of Hartley. Robin sword fights with Hartley as Will fights off another soldier. Robin and Will escape at the same time but a crossbowman creases Robin’s head. Back at the camp the men pretend for Wilfred’s attention that Robin is dead and that they need to call the men off the roads to vote for a new leader. They let Wilfred run away and he tells Hartley what he thinks has transpired. Hartley heads in the direction of the Blue Boar but Robin and his men take a short cut. It’s there that Robin discovers Prince Arthur and the Duchess Constance and learns the contents of the note that Robin never received. Hartley and his men are met and defeated by Robin , Little John and Will, with Robin killing Hartley. Robin and Little John leave to escort the prince and his mother to Northumberland but Robin tells Will he can’t come in case there's another pretty serving wench on the way.

            The pretty serving wench was played by Susan Travers who played the wife of the lead character in the detective series Van der Valk.

July 28, 1990: Marva Jackson told me to call her at the station to discuss my idea for a radio show

Thirty years ago today

            Nancy and I were at the Claremont until about 2:30 while she watched me dance.

            I met the DJ, Marva Jackson and told her about my idea for a radio show. She told me to call her show on Thursday between 10:00 and 14:00 to discuss it.

            Nancy sat down someplace where I couldn’t see her and so I thought that she had left and ended up walking home without her. When she saw that I was gone she took a cab.

            She stayed over at my place. We made love in the morning and then she went for a run.

            We did some laundry and then Nancy got a call from Judy’s son Pancho that her date with him was that day. They went to a barbecue in Markham and Mia came along.

            I went to Now Magazine to place another personal ad and then I went to Kinkos to make some laser copies made of a collage. 

Sandus Interruptus

            On Monday morning I got over half of “Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg memorized.

            During song practice a woman seemed to have lost the key to her bike lock and two guys, one of them who seemed to be her boyfriend, were trying to help her but they didn’t have the tools. The couple stood near the bike being physically amourous with one another until the Dollarama opened. They were inside a long time but when they came out they didn’t seem to have anything that helped them. They left the bike alone for about an hour and then around 10:00 I started to hear hammering. Finally I dug out my hacksaw and brought it over to them and told them to just shout at my window when they were done. He used the saw a bit but mostly kept on hammering until finally a pickup truck arrived and a guy with a grinder had the lock off in a matter of seconds. I went back out and retrieved my saw the woman handed it to me without even looking at me but the man thanked me.

            Around midday I moved my futon out of the bedroom and spent fifteen minutes taping down a drop sheet in the corner by the old exit door. I put on my covid mask and started for the first time using the belt sander that Nick Cushing gave me. After about five minutes sparks were flying inside the machine and about five minutes later it died. I’d made some progress smoothing down the plaster and sanding the old bedbug stains on the upper part of the door but it looked like it was going to take more than one day even with the sander. Now I’ll have to do it by hand now like the cave men used to do and it might take the rest of the summer. It gave me an excuse to mop the floor anyway.

            I had chips and salsa and then a spoonful of yogourt for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy but it was almost the exact same story as I’d heard a few episodes before. Sapphire’s brother Leroy had brought a letter that Kingfish wrote to Sapphire when they were courting. Sapphire finds the letter and thinks Kingfish is seeing someone else and Kingfish finds it and thinks she’s seeing someone else. Complications occur but it resolves itself in the end.

            I didn’t take a bike ride because there was a chance of a thunder storm.  

            I reviewed the last of the songs from my recent video recordings. Both songs were from July 19 when the camera was in the window and picking up more noise from the street. “Kenya” was not bad but I made a mistake on “Mamadu” and the camera cut off at the very end without allowing for a proper pause.

            Next I’ll have to decide which versions of "Personne" and "Person" to make into movies to upload to YouTube.

            I edited the set of scans I did of a set of negatives from probably the winter of 1993 that are mostly of my daughter Astrid at about one and a half, but there are two of her mother and some of my image in artwork in a studio at what was then still OCA rather than OCADU. All of the negatives are damaged and some extremely so.

            I grilled three strip loin steaks and had one with a potato and gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story the deputy sheriff is out collecting taxes. On approaching the village of the people that live on the estate of Lady Marian Fitzwalter he is jumped from above by a young man named Dick, who steals his golden chain of office. He has done so to impress Marian’s maidservant Jenny who is reluctant to marry him because he’s a swineherd. The deputy staggers in a daze into the village and is helped by a smith who does not recognize him. The smith says that he and the other men will form a hue and cry to chase after the man that assaulted him. The men gather but the sheriff notes that there are only nine men when he knows there are supposed to be ten. When asked how he knows the deputy reveals his identity. He tells the men that if their hue and cry does not capture and hand Dick then all nine of them will be hanged. When Marian learns of this she goes to Robin. Robin’s men find and take Dick into custody before the hue and cry can find him. Robin shoots a message to the deputy telling him he can meet him and return his chain. Robin meets the deputy near the village piggery and returns the chain on the condition that the nine men are set free. The deputy agrees but then asks about Dick, who he still wants to hang. Robin pretends to not know of any Dick. Suddenly Dick comes riding with Jenny on horseback with Marian chasing them. The pretence is that Dick had tried to run off with Jenny and that’s why he has been missing. Part of the ruse is that when Dick sees Robin he draws sword and challenges the outlaw. They pretend to fight until the deputy tries to have his men ambush Robin but Marian gives a subtle warning and Robin escapes, knocking the deputy into the pig swill on his way. But then the deputy makes the villagers pay double taxes because he says they’d been trying to cheat him. So Robin and his men stop the sheriff and his men before they get out of Sherwood and rob them of all their money.

            In the second story Marian learns from the deputy sheriff that her father has died in the crusade. He also reminds her that the law states that an unmarried woman cannot inherit her father’s estate and so Prince John has appointed Sir Guy to be her successor and to take over Fitzwalter Hall. Marian goes to Robin and learns from Tuck that her father is very much alive. Robin tells her that she cannot tell the deputy this news because she will be asked to prove it and it will only encourage him to move Sir Guy in more quickly. Meanwhile Marian’s elderly and eccentric Uncle Percy, who also lives on the estate has challenged Sir Guy to a battle. Since trial by combat still supersedes trials by court and since the deputy is sure that Percy will lose he agrees to allow the battle to take place. Although Sir Guy is not a particularly great swordsman he is thirty years younger than Sir Percy and he is confident that he will be the victor. Robin comes in disguise to visit Marian and after agreeing to spar with Percy he disarms him easily and concludes that Percy could not win this match. So Robin, Little John and Will come to Sir Guy asking for a doctor. Little John and Will are covered in bandages and Robin explains that they’ve just come from sparring with Sir Percy. Robin says that he only disarmed Percy twice out of four tries and convinces Sir Guy to let him take his place in the duel and so Robin, disguised under a helmet, takes on Sir Percy as Sir Guy and deliberately loses, thus saving Marian’s estate.

Getting Unglued in the Kitchen

            On Sunday morning I finished memorizing             “Meurtre à l’extincteur” (Murder by Fire Extinguisher) by Serge Gainsbourg and posted my English adaptation on Christian’s Translations. Then I memorized the first verse of Gainsbourg’s “Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow).

            As I began song practice some workmen were dragging the framework of a scaffold under my window and then they began putting it together. At one point while I was singing a middle aged guy climbed up to look in my window and wave at me before continuing to build the scaffold. He had a cigarette in his mouth and the place filled up with second hand smoke while I was singing, but fortunately he didn’t light another one when that was finished.

            About halfway through rehearsal my high E string broke but since one can still thinly play without that string I just kept on going.

            Later while I was at the computer I heard a noise behind me. I turned and saw that one of the workmen had run a rope in through one of my living room windows and out through the other, I guess to support the scaffold. But when he’d run the rope in he hadn’t seen the potted plant on my window ledge and he’d hooked the rope against the pot and didn’t notice it until he’d puloled the rope taut and dragged the plant halfway out the window, knocking it over and spilling some of the soil. I told him he should have let me know before running a rope into my window.

            Around midday I washed and scrubbed another section of my kitchen floor in front of the bathroom door and beside the stove. In the corner by the stove there was a lot of the same kind of glue on the floor that I’d had to deal with when I cleaned the living room.

            I had crackers and cheese for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This was another rehashed story. Sapphire's brother Leonard has just gotten out of the army after twenty years and is living in California but wants to visit Sapphire and his mother in New York. Meanwhile Sapphire and her mother are going to visit Sapphire’s sister in Chicago. Kingfish says he doesn't want Leonard to live with him and so they say they'll wire him and tell him not to come. Later at the lodge a man comes in and asks directions for the Urika Sanitorium because he wants to spend $500 to live there for a month and get some peace. Kingfish tells him that he runs a sanitorium and he’ll take care of him. But just as Mr Thomas is about to move in Sapphire calls and says their flight is delayed for one day. Kingfish puts Mr Thomas in Andy’s room for one night with Andy posing as a nurse and sharing the same bed. Then he moves Mr Thomas back to his place but Sapphire comes home early. Kingfish explains the deal to her and she agrees to pretend to be a nurse but when she’s alone with Mr Thomas she tells him to make sure he doesn't tell Kingfish that he's really her brother.

            I took a bike ride and it was a really hot day. On Queen Street there was a cyclist ahead of me riding close to the white line, even though he’d just cleared the parked cars and there was lots of room on the right. I told him I was passing on his left by the just kept on riding straight and only turned his head as I squeezed between him and the streetcar tracks.

            I noticed that the tent village at Queen and Dufferin now has two porta-potties.

            I got caught up on my journal and then put a new E string on my guitar.

            I watched and listened to the only video recording I have of me performing “Joanna”. It was okay but I screwed up on chord. Even if I hadn’t though I think I’d rather wait until the next recording session when I have several attempts to choose from.

            I made a naan pizza with the last of the can of sauce I’d opened and the last of the cheese and olives that came in the party tray that I got from the food bank. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Duncan of Stonykirk is still in the camp of Robin and his men and driving them all crazy. Derwent and Will had gone on a hunting trip just so they could get away from him. On their return Will sees someone in a kilt standing by the river. Thinking that it’s Duncan he pushes the Scot in the water only to find it’s a woman named Jessie, who happens to be Duncan’s lass come to fetch Duncan back to the Highlands. They take Jessie to their camp but Duncan seems unhappy to see her. Robin plots to try to make Duncan jealous by flirting with Jessie but the plan backfires as Duncan considers it permission to pursue Marian. One day Marian finds Jessie alone in the camp and they exchange words until Jessie attacks Marian. Robin breaks it up and proposes an archery contest between the two women and promises to put up a five crown purse. Robin’s plan is for Jessie to win but Marian is one of the finest archers in England and so Robin tries to give Marian crooked arrows. Marian’s keen eye recognizes that the arrow is out of true and asks for a good one. But Marian thinks that Robin must have a fgood reason for wanting her to lose and so she deliberately misses the target. Jessie wins the five crowns and suddenly she’s Duncan’s lass again and they head back to the Highlands together.

            I thought that the second story was quite unique and clever. The deputy sheriff calls a truce with Robin to ask him to surrender to be hanged. When Robin asks why he would do such a thing the deputy answers because he will arrest and hang two innocent serfs every day at sunset until Robin gives himself up. Instead Robin decides to give the deputy a taste of his own medicine. He learns that Lords Beaumont and Orford will be dining at Lady Marian's that evening and so bursts in on them with his men, abducts the two noblemen and pretends to abduct Marian. Back at the camp he tells Orford and Beaumont about the sheriff’s plan to hand serfs but they don't believe that the deputy would do such a thing. So the next morning Robin dresses the two lords in rags and sets them down the road through the forest towards the deputy’s soldiers. Despite Beaumont and Orford’s manners, the soldiers only see their clothing and arrest them, gagging them and binding them. When the deputy arrives he cannot hear the lords speak and tells his men to hang them at noon. The deputy goes the the arranged location to see if Robin will surrender. Robin is there but tells the deputy that if he does not free his captives the lords Beaumont and Orford will die. The deputy gives in but when Robin learns that the execution time has been changed, he orders the deputy placed in custody while he and the rest of the men rush to save Beaumont and Orford. They are just in time and after a battle they chase the surviving soldiers away. Beaumont and Orford realize that Robin had been right about the deput’s cruelty and vow to keep their eyes on him from then on.

July 27, 1990: Mia asked me to put holes in her jeans so I rubbed them on the concrete for her

Thirty years ago today

After work I cashed my cheque, then bought some mackerel and some Genesee Cream Ale.

Mia came over to my place because she wanted me to put holes in her jeans. I took them out back to rub them against the top of the low concrete wall at the entrance to the basement stairs and made five cool holes for her. Nancy came out to watch and she looked really pretty with her tied loose in a flowery silk bandana. When we went back downstairs together I grabbed her and pushed her into my door, backed her down onto my bed and began making love to her.

We ended up standing by the window with her leaning back and her head outside the apartment while I went down on her. Then I propped her feet up on two chairs and began fucking her. It was pretty wild!

July 26, 1990: Gale and I necked on the beach until 1:30 and then I crawled into bed with Nancy

Thirty years ago today

When Gale and I left Andy Kapp's we went down to Sunnyside Beach and necked on a bench until 1:30. I walked her home, then went to Nancy's place and crawled into bed with her.

After work I went home, tried to do some research but got tired and decided to take a short nap before getting ready to go and see "Aria" with Nancy. I woke up at 20:30 and thought at first that it was 8:30 and that I was late for work. Nancy came in just as I was slipping out of my daze.

I skipped my shower and so we made it to the movie in time. I'd seen "Aria" before but this was Nancy's first time and she thought it was a masterpiece.

We walked home from the Revue and Nancy stayed over at my place.

Food Bank Adventures: Eat and Run

            On Saturday morning, halfway through yoga as usual I shut down my computer to give it a rest. An option to “update and shut down” popped up and since that doesn’t usually take very long I clicked on it. But when I finished yoga the updates were only at 4% and so I was forced to go back to my old schedule. About a month ago, after many years of starting song practice at 6:00 I changed it to 7:00 because the young woman in the building next door complained that it was too loud and because I found out that the city bylaw states that there can’t be any noise before 7:00. But since I couldn’t access my computer to work on my memorization of “Meurtre à l’extincteur” (Murder by Fire Extinguisher) by Serge Gainsbourg, I went ahead and started song practice at 6:00. I deliberately held back from belting out the songs and instead of singing towards the window, ninety degrees from her apartment, I faced the mirror with my back to her place. For all I know maybe the sound bounced off the wall into her bedroom and it was even louder than ever, but that was the best I could do.

            The updates took two hours and finished almost exactly when my song practice was over.

            I memorized the first two verses of “Meurtre à l’extincteur” and there’s only half a verse left.

            At 9:45 I went to the food bank and found that Graham was two places ahead of me. I put my backpack down on my spot and went to chat with him from two metres away.

            I asked him if he was still working doing computer work for the health care company but he said he’d lost the job. They had initially laid him off because of the pandemic with the possibility of coming back but then his one year contract ran out and they didn’t renew it.

            We discussed the current situation at the food bank and he lamented the fact that he can no longer go downstairs to choose what he wants. He said that often we were allowed to grab as much bread as we wanted but now he finds they don’t put enough bread in the boxes that they bring upstairs. He told me that he would be quite satisfied if they just handed him a box full of nothing but bread. He declared that he needs carbs and recounted how his second wife had put them both on the carb-free Atkins diet and he’d fainted on the subway one morning on his way to work. He said he’d been standing on the crowded train and hanging on to the overhead bar when he just lost consciousness. He came to on the floor but felt lucky that he still had his laptop.

            Since the energy from carbs comes from it turning to sugar in the body I asked if fruit works just as well. He informed me that the sugar in fruit runs through the body very quickly while the sugar in carbohydrates goes straight to the muscles. He said that’s why all marathon runners load up on pasta before every race. I’d had no idea that they did that. I’d recently seen an old comedy skit that showed the Italian Olympic broad jump team eating a big spaghetti dinner before the competition and I’d thought that was part of the joke.

            Looking this up I see that carb loading is a big deal for marathon runners but the preference seems to be things like chicken sandwiches or bagels with peanut butter than pasta. Kenyan runners drink a lot of tea loaded with milk and sugar and their main dinner tends to be corn meal with chicken or beef stew.

            I asked Graham how he go into marathon running and he said that he started it as therapy for his bipolar and obsessive compulsive disorders. He said he ran 16 kilometres every day, five days a week for several years and ran in the Toronto marathon. He tried to qualify several times for the Boston marathon’s forty two kilometre distance but he could never do it in under three hours. He said his running life ended in 1986 when his back was injured in a car accident.

            A tall, young man in a Tilley hat came down the line with a clipboard taking our card numbers. I know mine by heart now. A few minutes later they came and handed out the milk cartons full of food. I took mine over across the sidewalk from Graham so I could give him my bag of buns and make his day. He also accepted my pasta, my six eggs and the three little packs of crackers and cheese. I couldn’t get him to take the canned mushrooms, the jar of sugared peanut butter or the box of Lucky Charms. He said he had been about to offer his Lucky Charms to me.

            We each received another face mask and Graham said he was puzzled by the note on the bag that stresses that “This face covering is not intended to be personal protective equipment”. I said I think it means that one wears a mask to protect others from you and not you from others. But I added that I think they only say that to save their legal asses since anything that covers one’s will protect one to some degree.

            An elderly woman bent down and picked up the peanut butter. Maybe she’d seen me already offer it to Graham. I told her she could take it and gave her the mushrooms as well. I had a hell of a time getting rid of the Lucky Charms. I held the box up to several people that were in line behind me but no one wanted it. I jokingly argued, “But they’re lucky!” One guy said, “Yea but they’re horrible!” It’s amazing that it’s consistently one of the top ten best selling cereals. It seems that food bank clients have better taste than the general populace. A passing woman finally took the box off my hands.

            I took four chewy chocolate chip granola bars; a can of garlic pasta sauce; two half litres of milk; two small containers of fruit bottom yogourt; two eighty five gram tubs of ranch dip; a frozen double chicken breast; two potatoes; a large onion; a bag containing four small bok choy and two orange peppers; a head of romaine lettuce and a bag of grapes. The chicken was a good score and so was the fruit, since we rarely get grapes at the food bank.

            I took my food home and headed back out to the supermarket. At No Frills I bought three bags of cherries; three bags of grapes; a half pint of Canadian raspberries; a pack of three strip loin steaks; a container of yogourt and some mouthwash.

            In the line-up for the checkout the customer ahead of me had moved to the other side of the Plexiglas barrier, four metres away, to pay and I moved to the beginning of the belt to get ready to put my food down when the cashier asked me to step back behind the yellow line. That seemed to me a bit extreme and so it pissed me off a bit but I did what I was told.

            For lunch I had a toasted croissant sandwich with lettuce, cucumber and cheese.

            In the afternoon I skipped my exercises and a bike ride to work on writing my Food Bank Adventure. I finished it before dinner.

            I made a naan pizza with tomato sauce and the last of the shredded cheese. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Sir Geoffrey is a scholar intending to do research on outlaws in Sherwood Forest and Herbert is his manservant. They are posing as outlaws from the north, Tom of  Tedworth and Jim Stark in hopes of joining Robin Hoods band. They are stopped by Robin along the path and Robin is curious enough to pretend to let them join even though he doesn’t believe they are who they say they are. They are put to work and since Robin has heard of Jim Stark and knows he is renowned as both an archer and a wrestler, he puts him to the test. Just by luck Herbert hits the bull’s-eye on a target when he can barely hold a bow properly and he also has his eyes closed. Then he gets tossed around by Little John in a wrestling match until Robin tells him Little John’s weakness and he's able to throw him. Geoffrey secretly writes in his journal about Robin and his men and Little John happens to overhear Herbert calling Geoffrey “Sir”. When Robin announces that they will be ambushing some of the sheriff's men to free a captive outlaw and to also acquire collected tax money, Sir Geoffrey wants to inform the sheriff. But Herbert has begun to sympathize with the noble outlaw cause and he begins to assert his own will. When Geoffrey sneaks away to get to Nottingham Herbert follows and stops him. He knocks him out and brings him back to camp. Meanwhile the outlaw that Robin rescues is the real Jim Stark. Herbert confesses their true identity and Geoffrey agrees to tear up the insulting page about Little John.

            The second story features the return of Duncan of Stoneykirk. Will Scarlet accidentally shoots Duncan's bagpipes while deer hunting. Marian is brought in to mend the instrument. Duncan uses the word Sassenach which is kind of a derogatory Scottish word for an Englishman. Duncan is there for revenge against Tam McKinnon who murdered two of his kinsmen. Tam plays bagpipes for a friend of the sheriff’s named Sir Fulke Devereaux. Duncan is going to compete against Tam on the bagpipes and he wants Robin to pose as a Scotsman to go to Devereaux's castle and to help him in case there's trouble. Robin is embarrassed about having to wear a kilt. Duncan brings Devereaux a chest of gold to hand him over Tam. Devereaux asks Duncan to play the pipes and Robin to dance. Tam says of Robin, “If he’s a Scotsman then I’m a Dutchman!” Tam tosses a coin at Robin and he brings his knees together to catch it. Tam says a Scotsman would’ve spread his knees. Tam says he recognizes Robin and tells Devereaux that he could get a bigger reward handing over Robin than him. Devereaux says Duncan can take Tam and so the two Scots draw swords on one another with Duncan killing Tam. But then Devereaux says he’s going to hand them both over to the sheriff. Robin and Duncan fight Devereaux and his men with Little John and Will coming in at the last minute to help out. Robin takes the casket of gold as payment for his troubles but says he’ll give Duncan half. Duncan says it’s all his clan’s resources and so he wants it all. It looks like this story might be continued next time. 

Machine Beheaded

            On Friday morning I finished posting my translation of “Variations sur Marilou” by Serge Gainsbourg and started memorizing his “Meurtre à l’extincteur” (Murder by Fire Extinguisher). This one is only two verses long and the background is just drumming and so I won’t need to work out any chords. It’s a brutal song taken by itself but it’s part of a concept album about a man who is going insane while fixating on his girlfriend’s uncontainable sexuality.

            During song practice I was struggling with the machine head for my B string when it suddenly popped off in my hand. I heard the little screw hit the floor and I was on my knees with my head down for five minutes looking for it until I turned and found it behind me. I fished through my tool drawer and found my smallest star headed screwdriver but it didn’t fit the screw. The one that fit looked too big for the head but it seemed to get a grip on it. While working on the couch I found two tiny washers which I wasn’t sure were part of the machine head but I picked them up, lost them, found them and put them together. I finally figured out that they had to be part of it and I screwed the machine head back on. The stiffness in tuning the B string was gone and so it must have been related to what had resulted in the machine head coming off. I shortened the length of some of the songs so I could catch up.

            Around midday I went over to Home Hardware with the partial pack of sandpaper that Nick Cushing had given me along with the electric sander. I wanted to start sanding the bedroom door soon and I wanted to make sure I had enough sandpaper. The pack I showed the staff wasn’t the kind of sandpaper they had. The woman said the kind I had uses Velcro but they had the kind one would have to clip on. I went home to get the sander and saw that it had clips as well and so Nick must have just clipped on the Velcro paper. Back at the hardware store I was told they only sold squares that I could cut to fit the sander and so I bought five, which would make ten. I asked if I needed a mask or goggles to sand and the guy said I could use them and some do but they didn’t have them. He said he didn’t use masks or goggles. I guess since my covid masks are washable I can use them and I might still have my daughter’s chemistry set goggles lying around somewhere. I asked if I needed a drop sheet and he said it would save time cleaning up and so I got one. Maybe on Monday I’ll start sanding the door.

            For lunch I had a can of cream of chicken soup with salsa and potato chips.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. This listed as being part of the 1954 season but it was a re-run of a 1939 episode. It was an entirely different type of show, it was only fifteen minutes long and it had no comedy. It featured the wedding of Andy Brown and just showed his nervousness and Amos trying to calm him down. The wedding ceremony goes ahead and he marries Violetta Green but just as the priest is about to pronounce them man and wife a shot rings out and Andy is wounded in the arm. I guess it was continued in 1939 but not in 1954.

            I went for a bike ride. At Bloor and Bay an elderly man with a walker had an old toy poodle with no leash and they were waiting to cross. The dog was standing about a meter off the curb. I imagined some turning car turning the dog into a furry potoodle pancake.

            On Yonge Street a Sikh bike courier had his white face covering extending from of his purple turban and it seemed to be wound up with it.

            I watched and listened to four video recordings of me performing “L’accordion” and five of my translation, “Accordion”. Only one of the French performances and two in English made it through before the camera cut off. On “L’accordion” I hit the B chord wrong a few times as I did on performance of “Accordion”. One English version was okay but there were some that seemed better before they were cut off and so I’d like to wait until the next set of recordings when more attempts at this song will be captured.

            I worked on my poem collection, “My Blood in a Bug”.

            I edited some of the photos that I recently scanned from a twenty eight year old and damaged set of negatives.

            I had a potato, a chicken leg and some gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood from the fourth and final season. I had already seen the first half of the fourth season because it was mixed up with the first season in the first torrent that I’d downloaded. I watched the first episode anyway to get some perspective.

In the story the Earl of Steyne on his way to the Holy Land to join King Richard with a letter of introduction from Robin Hood. Baron Onslow murders the earl and assumes his identity with the intention of assassinating Richard. That night the sheriff holds a banquet and Ali the Juggler, secretly in the resistance, is the entertainment. Ali’s assistant Sybella demonstrates photographic memory and can answer any of 1000 questions from a book. Ali eavesdrops on the plot to kill Richard. The juggler is caught but uses exploding powder as he and Sybella disappear. In their escape Ali is killed but tells Sybella to find Robin. She is caught by a guard but Robin kills him. Sybella can only say, "The new Earl of Steyne, three days, murder.” Robin decides to go to warn the earl but Marian says she will go under the pretence of having the earl take a message to her father in the Holy Land. Marian rides to the Falcon and warns the impostor Baron Oslow of the plot to kill the Earl of Steyne. Meanwhile Sybella’s memory returns and she says, "The Earl of Steyne is dead and Baron Oslow has taken his place. In three days Oslow will sail for the Holy Land to murder King Richard." Robin rides to The Falcon, reveals that Oslow is a fraud and he duels with and kills the baron and his squire.

In the second story we jump to halfway through he final season. Marian catches a fast talking peddler named Hugo hawking charms to her serfs, claiming that some of them are pieces of Noah’s ark and the bulrushes among which baby Moses was found. He claims that these items will bring good luck for their crops but Marian urges the peasants not to waste their money because if they come up short on their taxes the deputy sheriff will imprison them. But they ignore her and buy the charms anyway. Marian goes to the deputy sheriff to remind him that he licensed the peddler and so it’s his responsibility to protect the people from fraud. She tells him that if the jails are full than there will be less people to pay his taxes and she threatens that if he does not do something she will go to a higher authority. He finally says that he will arrest the peddler but he does not mention that he and Hugo have a deal whereby the deputy gets half the peddler’s profits. Meanwhile Friar Tuck is also aware of the peddler’s antics but he goes to appeal to Robin for help. Robin decides to give Hugo a taste of his own medicine by disguising himself as an old peddler, setting up nearby and claiming his own useless items are ancient charms. The serfs find Robin’s claims more interesting and so the crowd gathers around him. One of Robin’s objects is a tiny skull which he says is that of Julius Cesar and when a villager argues that the skull is to small to be from a man Robin tells him that it’s Cesar’s skull from when he was a small boy. The deputy arrives and, seeing two peddlers, decides to arrest both of them. They are thrown in a cell together and told they will hang at dawn. But when the lieutenant protests a morning hanging because he doesn’t want to get up that early the deputy tells him he can execute them that night. Meanwhile Robin reveals his true identity to Hugo and they combine their wits to coax the guard and the lieutenant into their cell by claiming to be in possession of an enormous ruby. They knock the guards out and put on their armour. They lead the soldiers to Sherwood and blindfold them to take them back to Sherwood for supper. Robin takes Hugo’s profits from him to give back to the poor but also invites him to a meal. He agrees and says he’ll turn over a new leaf.

July 25, 1990: We were both uncomfortable as we shared a beer and I stood there naked looking at her

Thirty years ago today

Nancy stayed over and was still in bed when I left for work. When I came home I found that she had tidied up and vacuumed.

Jennifer was supposed to have called at 19:00 about me coming over to her place but she didn't and when Gale phoned me I made a date with her for 20:30. Jennifer knocked on my door just as I was about to hit the shower. We were both uncomfortable as I stood there naked looking at her while we shared a beer. She was pissed off that I hadn't called her but I couldn't think of anything to call her about. She took back her negatives and returned my albums but not my Vonneguts.

I met Gale at Andy Kapp's and we had a few beers.

July 24, 1990: I told her I saw her as an undefiled temple and a private heart

Thirty years ago today

Nancy was finally home at around 1:00 when I got through and said I needed to talk with her. She told me she was in bed and so I would have to come over there and so I did. I told her I was uncomfortable about her going on dates with other guys but she said that if she couldn't have me she would have to be with somebody else. I told her that she could have me but that I would also need to be with others. She said that she was sexually curious about other men but I said I saw her as an undefiled temple and a private heart. We made love.

That night Nancy's mother drove Nancy, Mia and myself downtown and Nancy and I took Mia to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She and I liked it but Nancy wasn't very impressed. After the film we went for pizza at The Big Slice and hung out on crazy Yonge Street for a while.

White Room

            On Thursday morning I finished running through my translation of “Variations sur Marilou” in English. It took almost forty five minutes because it’s such a long song and I always attach the chords to the French lyrics so I kept going back and forth from memorizing four lines to scrolling up in order to sing and play them.

            Around midday I washed and scrubbed the kitchen side and the edge of the bathroom door. I cleaned all the grease and hair off while listening to Disraeli Gears by Cream. Jack Bruce was such a great singer and songwriter!

            For lunch I had half a bowl of cocktail peanuts and some yogourt.

            In the afternoon I skipped my exercises and took my bike ride half an hour early so I could stop at Freshco on my way and still get home at the same time. There was a strong smell of rotting garbage on Bloor Street between Christie and Bathurst. A lot of restaurants have fenced off patios two meters onto the street that obviously won’t exist when the social distancing is done.

            At Freshco the cherries were very expensive but I got three bags anyway. I also grabbed three bags of grapes, a pint of blueberries, a bag of naan, a strawberry-rhubarb pie, two containers of Greek yogourt, another of raspberry skyr, dish detergent and a pack each of toilet paper and paper towels. I wanted a bag of kettle chips but all they had on the shelf were low sodium. Low sodium is not a big deal for most products but one can’t really add salt to potato chips. Overhead I saw a box of regular kettle chips underneath another of salt and vinegar. I reached up, moved the salt and vinegar carton over and took down the ones with salt.

            The cashier reminded me that the cost of the cherries was $44 altogether, but she said she was going to do a price match. She needed someone with a key to come and adjust the price but told me that if she asked for me to say that I’d already shown her a coupon. She saved me $17 on the cherries. That was nice of Khushnuma. I’d never had a cashier do that for me before.

            I watched and listened to nine video recordings of me performing “Un jambon, un violon” and  eight of me singing and playing my translation, “Hang Above Your Doorway A Ham and a Fiddle”. The camera cut off four times on the French version and three times on the English but all the ones completes were very good. This seems to be the one song that I rarely screw up and so I’ll have a hard time deciding which recordings to upload to YouTube.

            I worked a bit on my collection of poems “My Blood in a Bug”.

            For dinner I had a potato, a chicken leg and some gravy while watching the last two episodes of the third season of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story Little John is depressed about the prospect of spending a fourth winter in Sherwood and so Robin takes him on a hunting trip to cheer him up. Meanwhile Marian comes to visit the camp and takes charge, getting the men to tidy up and helping them with the cooking and the mending. When Marian learns that Lord Northeave will be holding an archery tournament with a ten crown prize she suggests that the men have a shoot off to determine which one of them will go. When everyone else has shot they offer Marian a turn and she out shoots everyone. She goes to the contest disguised as a boy although she just looks to me like a woman in men’s clothes but then again Clark Kent looks obviously like Superman with glasses on. But the twist is that Prince John has come to visit Lord Northeave and when he hears of the archery contest and knowing that the Northeave state is not far from Sherwood Forest, he is sure that Robin Hood will come to compete. Prince John prepares to capture Robin. Meanwhile Robin returns early from his hunting trip and when he hears that Marian has entered the contest he decides to go there in disguise. He arrives just in time to see Marian win the competition. He asks her if she is game for an additional competition and she is and so it is announced that the winner will be challenged. Meanwhile Tuck collects the prize money on Marian's behalf and overhears Prince John say he is certain the challenger is Robin Hood. Marian shoots her arrows and as Robin is beginning Tuck tells Marian about Prince John. Marian signals to Robin as Tuck prepares horses and they escape back to Sherwood in a big chase scene.

            In the second story the new archbishop visits the Sheriff of Nottingham and tells him he is looking for a priest to put in charge of Sussex parish. The sheriff suggests Friar Tuck would be perfect for the appointment, although his motive is to get rid of him. The sheriff pretends that he dearly loves Tuck and will hate to see him go. Tuck tries to gently argue that he would rather stay in Nottingham but his dedication to his flock in Nottingham only proves to the archbishop that Tuck is perfect for the job in Sussex. Tuck accepts his fate and begins to say goodbye to everyone and all of his friends and the common people are sad to see him go. But when Robin learns that it was the sheriff that suggested Tuck to the archbishop, he knows he has to foil his plan. Robin forges a letter from the sheriff to the archbishop inviting him to a private going away dinner for Friar Tuck. When the archbishop responds to the sheriff that he will come, the sheriff has no choice but to pretend that he sent the letter. During the dinner some serfs come to tell Tuck how much they will miss him. Suddenly Robin Hood bursts in to threaten and rob the poor serfs. Tuck stands up to Robin and forces him to give back the money and to go away. The sheriff suddenly blows his cool and declares that this scene had been all a sham and that Tuck is in league with Robin Hood. The archbishop says that what he saw was that when the people needed protection it was the friar and not the sheriff who stood up for them. The archbishop decides that Nottingham needs Friar Tuck and he withdraws appointing him to Sussex. After the sheriff storms away the archbishop says he knows that Robin Hood does not rob the poor and that his pantomime of cruelty was performed to convince him that Tuck should stay.

            

July 23, 1990: I didn't know how I would feel when she finally had sex with another man

Thirty years ago today

Nancy said she wouldn't be seeing that guy again who made the date with her after copying her number off of an application form. She spent the night at my place and we made fantastic love in her favourite position with me entering her from behind. It was delicious watching my cock go in and out of her.

After work I found Nancy at home getting ready to go out with a guy from work that I'd never even heard about. I was really jealous and didn't know how I would feel about it when she finally made love with another man.

From 22:00 on I must have called her number every fifteen minutes. I went to her door and listened and I went to her window and peeked in. I went to bed but I couldn't sleep and kept calling her until after midnight.