On Tuesday morning at about 0:30 as I was getting ready for bed I did my usual search for bedbugs and once again found none. That makes three days since I saw the last one. But I didn't sleep very well because I felt crawled upon and I kept turning the light on to see if there were bedbugs on my bed or pillow, but there weren't. I think it's psychosomatic sometimes when I feel bedbugs because I'm just so worried about having to deal with another infestation.
I reworked my translation of the first chorus for "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Two Step of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian. I had previously worked my rhymes around the word "gendarme" to refer to the policemen as he does because most people know what a gendarme is. But for immediate recognition by anglos I decided to change it to "policemen" and came up with "These are the hobnail boots / friends of all the chaste policemen / They sound a pleasant peace din / these are the charming reasons / for the hobnail boots."
I worked on memorizing the third verse of "Bébé Polaroid" by Serge Gainsbourg, but didn't quite nail it down. I may have the whole song in my head tomorrow.
The exterminator was scheduled to be here between 9:00 and 13:00 but I didn't start moving my furniture until a little before 10:00. I put my bedding and other laundry in two bags. I put the drawers from my desk on the window ledge and the drawers from the couch in front of the radiator. I moved the desk and the bookshelf next to it away from the wall. I flipped the frame of my couch on its end so there was more room to get around it. I propped the couch futon against the frame. I swept the bedroom and living room floors and started to vacuum the bedroom and the mattress. I did one side of the futon and flipped it to do the other side. By this time it was almost noon. I stopped to download a Carter Family music collection when there was a light knock on the door. It was my landlord telling me that the guy from Orkin had come at 9:40 and called him. Raja had tried to call me and my neighbour Benji but niether of us had answered the phone. The pest control technician left but he couldn't have knocked beforehand because I would have heard him since my windows are open and I'm directly above the front door. It also couldn't have been the regular guy because he has a key. Raja said he'd call them about next week but I was very frustrated because I'd done all that work for nothing.
Then Raja handed me a poorly written letter that was titled "Second Warning Letter" although I don't recall receiving any letter headed as "First Warning Letter." It said, "Pursuant to the lease agreement (there is no lease by the way), tenants agree not to damage the premise infrastructure both purposely and/or carelessly. Based on the assessment of a certified plumber it was noted that on July 22nd, commercial tenants of 1402 Queen Street West stated that there was a water leak originating from the ceilings beneath your apartment. Further investigation revealed that the leak had originated from water overflowing from the sink and/or bathtub and seeping into the floors and ceiling of the commercial unit below (If "investigation showed that the leak originated from my sink or bathtub" it would have been obvious that it was one or the other. Evidence of overflow from the tub would have been near the tub and evidence of overflow from the sink would have been near the sink. There was neither but Raja seems to be hedging his bets to be safe.) The leak caused by your negligence has costed the landlord both material and labour costs of $940.00. This letter is being issued to you as a warning. If this continues to take place, you will be expected to pay the expense of the material and labour cost associated with future damages to the building as well as a notice will be filed with the Landlord and Tenant Board for termination of tenancy."
The letter relates to the day when there was a leak downstairs and the landlord came storming and shouting into my place immediately threatening to evict me and charge me for the damage downstairs. He did this before checking to see that there had been no overflow of water in my apartment whatsoever. Even after checking and seeing it to be the case that there had been no overflow, when he left my apartment he still promised that he was going to charge me for the damage downstairs. Rather than to spend the money to find the real reason for the leak, which is perhaps faulty pipes underneath my apartment, he's decided to pass the buck and to just blame me. I took some photos of the letter because I want to make it into a pdf and contact Parkdale Community Legal Services about the issue. Because of the pandemic they are only doing telephone interviews but I thought I would get all the paperwork ready first. I don't appreciate being threatened with eviction because of the landlord's own irresponsibility. The warning letter worries me because if I don't come up with a legal response he could use it against me. Even though I did not cause the leak downstairs his warning means that I could be blamed the next time it happens and end up receiving an eviction notice.
Since I already had my laundry packed up I decided to go and wash it anyway. The attendant at the coin laundry was napping and seemed annoyed when I approached him about changing a $10 into two $5s. But niether of the $5s I inserted in the change machine would go in. He tried, admitted there was something wrong and got me $5 worth of quarters from the soap dispensor.
I weighed 88.3 kilos before a lunch an hour later than usual.
I took a siesta half an hour later than usual and slept for eighty minutes.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. On the Bloor bike lane there was a guy intent on staying ahead of me and he went out onto Bloor to pass some other cyclists. But he got snagged in traffic and I got ahead by simply asking to pass the others. I could hear his squeeky brakes behind me a few times but he never caught up with me. I weighed 88.2 kilos when I got home.
I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug."
I inserted the 1926 silent Japanese film "A Page of Madness" into the Movie Maker project of the video I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." The movie opens with a woman in elaborate costume dancing on a fantastic set, at first gracefully and then her movements become very quick. The scene slowly changes to the same woman in a plain black dress doing the same dance in her cell in a mental hospital. I cut out everything but the scene of her in her cell and inserted it into the main video just after I sing "and if you think someone's ..." so that she is shown dancing as I finish the line with "insane". I still need to trim some of her dancing because I just need it for three beats up until I sing, "Why don't you drive some lightning through their brain?" and then try to synchronize that line in the studio audio with me singing it in the concert video. At one point Movie Maker crashed and I had to reopen it. It said it had saved the project and so I had to rename "untitled" to "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy" and then replace the original file. I had lost a few steps in the process but I can get it all back tomorrow. I really like the way the clip from "A Page of Madness" looks in my video.
I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks for dinner while watching the first two episodes of the second season of "Gomer Pyle USMC." This season is the first one in colour.
In the first story Sergeant Carter wants to go on furlow to Hawaii but he learns that six of his platoon, including Gomer, still have not taken the test to become PFCs. Carter doesn't want to leave until all of his men have become PFCs. Five pass the test but Gomer fails and the reason is that he likes being a private and remembers that Carter had said that the private is the backbone of the Marines. Carter forces Gomer to cram for the test and every member of his platoon has to take two hour shifts coaching Gomer. But the moment of the test Gomer falls asleep on the desk. Carter gives up and decides he's just going to go to Hawaii anyway. But when Gomer hears Carter is leaving he thinks he's transferring out because of him and so now he has a reason to pass. He begs the lieutenant to let him take the test again. The supervisor sees Gomer reaching into his pocket from time to time during the test and looking at a piece of paper. He thinks he's caught Gomer cheating but he's been looking at a picture of Carter for inspiraton. Gomer gets 100% and earns his stripe. Meanwhile Carter is getting ready to leave but he can't find his travel papers. Gomer tells him he was there earlier and since he passed the test he thought Carter no longer needed to transfer and so he returned Carter's travel papers to the colonel, who tore them up.
According to someone who posted on the Internet Movie Database there is no test for PFC. Commanders just decide and usually everyone is promoted after a certain time.
In the second story Gomer is going to be the best man at his fellow Marine Jim Purcell's wedding. Jim has a diamond ring for Christine that has been in his family for generations. He keeps misplacing it and at one point thinks he's dropped it in a hole he and Gomer dug for some explosives. He stops the test and every man in the platoon has to help look until Gomer finds it in his pocket because he'd put on Jim's jacket by mistake. Gomer finds a solution by putting the ring on his pinky finger but during inspection when Gomer presents arms the inspecting officer sees the ring and gives Carter shit for one of his men being out of uniform. Gomer and Jim are punished by having to work in the bakery all night making 600 loaves of bread. When they get back to the barracks Gomer realizes the ring is missing. They retrace their steps and realize that it must have come off in the dough and been baked into a loaf of bread. They sneak into the bakery and are trying to go through all the loaves when the sergeant in charge of the bakery catches them and threatens them with a knife if they touch his bread. Gomer wakes up Carter and persuades him to help them with Gomer's plan. He in turn gets permission from the colonel too and Gomer's plan is to use the mine detector to find the ring without opening any loaves. But after 600 loaves they still don't find it until the mine detector goes off near Gomer's back pocket. The ring is in his handkerchief which he'd used to wipe his hands after kneading the dough. At the wedding when Gomer is supposed to hand Jim the ring he can't get it off his pinky.
Jim was played by Ted Bessell, who started out acting in soap operas. He co starred in the short lived sitcom "It's A Man's World". As an actor he became best known as the boyfriend of Marlo Thomas's character in "That Girl." After that he was typecast as the nice boyfriend on several shows and so he became a director and producer. He earned an Emmy as a producer of The Tracy Ullman Show.
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