Sanding the Plaster of Time

            On Thursday morning I went to my Christian’s Translations blog to edit “Bourrée de complexes" (Buried in Complexes) by Boris Vian but suddenly the'y'd switched me to the new blogger. I would have been fine with that but they still haven’t fixed the glitch of not being able to preview blogs that I'm editing. When I am on a draft and click preview I end up at the last file I published. Why would I need to preview something I’ve already published? I was finally able to switch back to the legacy version but I think on August 24th I might not be able to.

            I memorized the first three verses and the first chorus of “La ballad de Johnny Jane” by Serge Gainsbourg.

            Around midday I returned to door sanding project in the bedroom, this time mostly tackling the bottom half of the former exit. The lower half is going to take a lot more work because I slathered a lot of plaster at the very bottom to try to bury alive the bedbugs that I had five years ago. I also found out that in the places where I removed the lock and the doorknob there are still holes that I'll have to plaster and then sand again before I can paint the door.

            For lunch I had a sausage and lettuce sandwich with a quick dressing made of mayonnaise and ketchup.

            In the afternoon I skipped my exercises and took an early bike ride because I wanted to stop at Freshco on the way home. It looks like they have definitely painted the lines for a bike lane on Bloor starting just east of Brock and connecting with the already existing one that starts at Shaw. There are no lines painted on the north side so this one might be a two way lane. There were lots of cyclists going both ways on the south side.

            At Freshco I bought four bags of cherries; a bag of grapes; a pack of peaches; some old cheddar; a pack of chicken drumsticks; three bags of skim milk; some raspberry skyr; some coffee; a bag of naan; and a box of spoon size shredded wheat. The cherries were very expensive.

            I watched and listened to all of the video recordings of me performing “Person” and found that each time I did it was better than before and that the last one on July 3 was the best. If the voice recording came through without any glitches this is the one I’ll upload to YouTube.

            I grilled eight chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato, a sautéed orange pepper and gravy while watching two episodes of "The Adventures of Sir Lancelot”.

            In the first story Lancelot is training Cedric to be a knight when Cedric’s ladylove Lorraine comes to Cedric for help. Her father has been imprisoned by Torwald of the black castle. He asks Arthur for permission to go and save Lorraine’s father but the king at first reminds Cedric that he is still an apprentice and that he can’t allow him to go. But Guenevere reminds Arthur that he won her in a similar way and so Arthur gives in. Cedric and Lorraine ride out together but when Guenevere tells Lancelot that Cedric is going to face Torwald he says that Cedric is no match for him. Guenevere asks Lancelot to intervene without it appearing that he is helping Cedric. Lancelot and Brian follow Cedric and he tells Brian to catch up with them saying that Arthur has sent him to show them the shortest way to the black castle. But Brian’s real purpose is to slow Cedric and Lorraine down while Lancelot goes to fight Torwald enough to tire him out. When Lancelot arrives at the black castle he looks for an honourable way to confront Torwald and he finds it when he sees a serf cast out of the castle after having been beaten for asking for salt. Lancelot reminds Torwald that a lord is duty bound to provide salt for his serfs and to his surprise Torwald simply gives the peasant a bag of salt. But as Lancelot is leaving Torwald’s crossbowman tries to shoot him in the back. Lancelot demands satisfaction and so Torwald says he will armour and meet Lancelot in the guard room adjoined to his chamber. But it turns out that Torwald has a mercenary in his employ called the Welshman who disguises himself in Torwald’s armour and fights his battles for him. Lancelot defeats and unmasks the Welshman and then Cedric arrives at the castle gate  to challenge Torwald. Satisfied that this will be a fair fight Lancelot withdraws to watch from a distance as Cedric and Torwald fight on horseback. But Lancelot sees Torwald’s archer on the castle wall aiming for Cedric and he stops him before he can fire. Cedric wins against Torwald, and Lorraine’s father is saved.

            In the second story a village of shepherds is being regularly raided by the knights from a local castle that steal their sheep and eat their food. But on one occasion a knight tries to assault the head shepherd's daughter, her betrothed Chad tries to stop him. But Chad is easily knocked out and then Elsa’s elderly father attacks and is killed. Elsa changes her mind about marrying Chad because she does not want to bring a child into a world controlled by evil knights. Chad says he has heard of a king named Arthur whose knights fight to right wrongs done to people. He ventures to Camelot to ask for help but Arthur and his knights are in the middle of a war with Marhaus. Lancelot suggests that it is not practical to send knights to defend shepherds against regular attacks but that it would be valuable to teach them to fight not only for self defence but also to serve Arthur’s kingdom in the event of war. Arthur agrees and Lancelot volunteers to go with Chad. At first Lancelot goes to the castle of Sir Mador to appeal to him but Mador argues that his knights need to let off steam sometimes and knights are knights and shepherds are shepherds. Lancelot is then beaten by Mador’s knights and sent away. Lancelot proposes to the shepherds that he become one of them for a while. He dresses as them, shares their lifestyle and learns their trade. When one of Mador’s knights comes and demands a sheep Lancelot says he’ll have to pay for it. When the knight draws his sword the unarmed Lancelot pulls him from his horse and beats him with his fists. Then he binds his hands, throws him over his horse and sends it back to the castle. Now the shepherd’s have no choice but to learn to fight because the knights are bound to retaliate. Lancelot determines that as the village is surrounded by hills the knights can only come from the low direction and so he directs them to build a wall from spiked trees. He then teaches them to fight with their ordinary tools, such as staffs and bows and arrows. When they need more arrows Lancelot tells them to melt down his shield and armour. When the knights attack they are met by the shepherds at the wall and sent into retreat. When the knights turn to attack again Lancelot tells the shepherds to let them through at the lest moment so they are surrounded inside the wall at close quarters. Lancelot picks up a fallen sword and fights Mador until he yields. Lancelot makes him promise not to molest shepherds anymore, to swear fealty to King Arthur and to provide a dowry for Elsa. Lancelot later tells Merlin that he learned more than he taught and was educated in the strength of the common people without whom the knights cannot survive.