Dragon Tree

            On Wednesday after yoga I finished working out the chords to my song "Dashine" and ran through it. 

            Since it was my birthday, during song practice I just did certain songs I prefer to sing and others that absolutely need practice, and so I finished earlier than usual. The electrical tape that I put over the sharp, rough ends of my frets worked to keep the inside of my index finger from getting cut. But the tape sometimes curled up and touched the E string, dulling it, and so from time to time I had run my thumb over it to press it down. Obviously the longer it's there the less it will stick and so I might go see if the hardware store has a stickier tape that's still smooth for sliding bar chords. 

            After song practice I tried to open a Word file and it wouldn't load. All I got was the Word logo and then after that it froze. Usually a restart corrects that problem but it didn't this time. I tried shutting down and starting again but it still wouldn't open. None of my other Word documents would open either. I tried reinstalling Word from the original Word 2000 CD but there was a missing file. Finally I found I could open all Word files in Open Office and so that might be what I'll have to do from now on.

            I weighed 88.9 kilos before a delicious breakfast. I had a toasted Montreal style bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon candied in maple syrup while watching the first episode of The Addams Family. It really was one of the best shows ever on television. 

            In this story a truant officer comes to see the Addams's to get their children to go to school. The Addams's unintentionally nearly scare Mr Hillier to death. They receive a letter insisting that Wednesday and Pugsley go to school and although Gomez is against it, Morticia seduces him into realizing that mother knows best. But after the first day Wednesday comes home crying because in school they read a Grimm's fairy tale about a knight in shining armour that murdered a dragon. They also learned of two juvenile delinquents named Hansel and Gretel that pushed an old woman into an oven. The Addams's protest to the school board about the violence and the school board relents.

            Wednesday was played by the six year old Lisa Loring, who started modelling at age three. She played Cricket Montgomery on the soap opera As The World Turns. She was the makeup artist and uncredited writer for the adult film Traci's Big Trick when she met her third husband, porn actor Jerry Butler. She made him quit porn but he secretly went back to it and when she found out she moved on to her fourth husband. 

            I heard Benji and Shankara chatting in the hallway so I opened my door and joined them. Whenever Benji finishes relating something he looks off in the distance, rocks on his heels and declares, "So that's the way it goes!" We talked for over two hours. 

            I weighed 88 kilos before lunch. I had potato chips, salsa, skyr and a beer for lunch. 

            I carried my guitar over to the hardware store and stood in line on the sidewalk for ten minutes. I showed the guy the tape I was using and asked for something just as smooth but stickier. He said there's nothing smoother than electrical tape but gorilla tape is stronger so I got a roll of that plus a can of black spray paint. 

            On the way home I stopped in the corner store and bought a dracaena plant. The tag didn't specify which of the 200 varieties it was but this one has three canes braided around each other and leaves that stick up in the air. As far as I can tell it's a dracaena marginata or dragon tree. I also bought a big bag of potting soil. When I got home I dumped all the old soil;d from the planter between the bathroom and the hallway and filled it up with soil. I planted the dragon tree in it and watered it. I made a mess because the water overflowed and I had to soak up the wet dirt from the floor and then wash the area. The plant looks pretty good. I might plant something in the living room as well. It's been quite a long time since my lemon tree died.

            While we were chatting I had told Shankara and Benji that it was my birthday and later Shankar knocked on my door to give me a gift card from the liquor store. 

            I took a siesta about three and a half hours later than usual. 

            I weighed 88.1 kilos at 19:00. 

            I changed the tape on my guitar. So far it's sticking better. 

            I watched some porn. 

            I heated four mini spinach quiches and four potato and pea samosas for dinner and had them with two beers while watching the second episode of The Addams Family. In this story Pugsley is going through a horrible phase. He's joined the Boy Scouts and started playing with puppies. Morticia and Gomez consult a psychologist who tells them to indulge his whims and assures them that it's a phase he'll get over. When Pugsley continues to lose interest in the dark pastimes of the family they call Dr. Black and urge him to make a house call. He thinks that the strange things he sees in their home are the result of Pugsley's parents indulging him as he advised. He spends some time in Pugsley's room and gets him to express his inner feelings, resulting in him setting off some dynamite like he normally would. The treatment is a success. 

            Earlier I made chocolate chip pie. When I bought it I hadn't realized it had to be baked. It spent a little too long in the oven when I went to the hardware store and so the crust got overdone. Nonetheless the slice I had for dessert with ice cream while watching another episode of The Addams Family wasn't bad. 

            In this story Uncle Fester has decided to put an ad in the lonely hearts club column in the paper. Gomez takes a horrifying photograph for Fester's profile and after a day he is impatient for a response. When a cosmetics saleswoman shows up at the door he thinks she is answering his ad. She is beautiful be normal standards but of course not by Fester's. As she keeps pressing to make a sale the family thinks she's a sex trade worker. When she realizes this she leaves. Fester takes up Zen Yoga instead.

            Miss Carver was played by Merry Anders, who started modelling in LA and while taking acting lessons she was spotted by a Fox scout. She signed with Fox and did several low budget, mostly western, science fiction and horror films. She starred in "Escape From San Quentin." Then she went freelance and worked on television. She played Joyce Erwin on the Stu Erwin Show. She co-starred in the TV series version of "How To Marry A Millionaire." She was in the cast of the short lived sitcom "It's Always Jan." She played cop Dorothy Miller on on Dragnet 1967. She was in the first English film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. She had a recurring role in the soap opera Never Too Young. She had a supporting role in Women of the Prehistoric Planet. She had a recurring role on Lassie. She retired in 1972 to become a customer relations coordinator at Litton Industries.