October 7, 1996: Contact lenses felt like broken glass in my eyes

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday I had an appointment with the optometrist and got a new prescription for glasses. My eyesight still hadn’t changed much over the years. I was still slightly near sighted and needed glasses to get a driver’s license or to focus my camera. I was considering getting contacts and so the eye doctor put some in my eyes to see how it felt but it was horrible, like having broken glass in my eyes. I went to Hakim Optical and ordered a pair of round wire rimmed lenses.

Arthur Franz

            On Sunday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint rolled the curtain between the bedroom and the living room and picked up quite a few bedbugs. I lint-rolled the top of my bed and found one but there were none on the pillow. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck and went to bed around 1:30. 

            I got up at 5:00 and after yoga I finished revising my translation of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. On Monday I’ll start working out the chords. 

            I weighed 90.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since September 19. 

            I played my Kramer during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I cleared some more stuff out of the storage shelf in the bedroom. My biggest Rubbermaid storage container has a lot of stuff in it that I can probably get rid of and then use it for other things I want to keep. 

            I weighed 91.95 kilos before lunch. I had peanut butter and five-year-old cheddar on saltines with a glass of lemonade. 

            I sent an email to the landlord that the thermostat says the heat is on but it isn’t. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 90.85 kilos at 18:45. September 5 was the last evening when I was so kind to the scale. 

            I was still two days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of 7 grain sandwich bread with marinara, tomato pesto, the last of the ham, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 5 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer arrives at a telegraph station and picks up his orders from General Terry. Washington has put their man Benton Conant in charge of operation 763. The telegraph operator asks Custer if his long hair is a bother. Custer says he’s waiting for Crazy Horse to cut it since he promised to do it for nothing.

            A train arrives with Conant on board and several large crates, which Custer’s men have to unload from the train and put on wagons. Conant sends a telegram that reads, “Taking overland trail to medicine creek and western end of track”. 

            After the soldiers and Conant head for the trail, a Sioux warrior named Grey Fox who has been spying at the station enters the telegraph office, kills the operator, and reads Conant’s telegram indicating the route. 

            At the first rest, Custer clashes with Conant. He’d told his men not to light fires so as not to draw attention from the Sioux in their territory, but Conant tried to make coffee. Custer kicks out the fire. Custer tells Conant that although he is in command of the mission he doesn’t have the right to put his men in danger. 

            Grey Fox arrives at Crazy Horse’s camp to inform him that the soldiers have changed their route and that they should attack now. Crazy Horse does not want to lose warriors in such a battle. Grey Fox tells him that what’s in those crates is worth the sacrifice. Crazy Horse points out that Grey Fox is a white man and only Sioux by marriage so he asks why he should trust him. Grey Fox reminds Crazy Horse that he’s proved his right to be trusted 100 times over the last 10 years. Crazy Horse says they will attack but not yet. 

            The wagon carrying the boxes gets stuck in rough terrain and so Custer orders it unloaded. One of the crates gets dropped and breaks open, revealing that they are not carrying ammunition but $2 million in gold. Conant wants to keep it a secret but Custer informs his men that they are guarding gold and that it’s part of the money the US is paying Russia for the purchase of Alaska. 

            Custer informs Conant that he’s taking full command of the mission and he can complain about that to General Terry after the mission has been completed. 

            They see a man on horseback being pursued by Crazy Horse. Custer and his men come to his defence and drive Crazy Horse away. The man they rescued is Grey Fox, now in white man’s clothing and saying his name is Bludsoe. Custer invites him to travel with them. He warns Custer that the Overland Trail they plan on taking is too dangerous because of Crazy Horse and about 100 warriors. So Custer changes the route north through Lost Canyon. 

            On the way, Grey Fox uses a mirror to flash a signal to Crazy Horse, indicating the change of route. 

            That night Grey Fox has a secret meeting with Conant as it turns out they are in league. 

            They make it through the canyon but then Crazy Horse kills one of the soldiers with an arrow and then disappears. They don’t see any Sioux but according to Bludsoe they are outnumbered. Custer decides to hold up and send somebody back to Fort Hays for help. Bludsoe volunteers and asks California Joe to join him. They head out but Grey Fox knocks Joe out and the Sioux take him prisoner. Grey Fox comes back to Custer to say they got ambushed by the Sioux. 

            Crazy Horse has Joe tied up and tells Custer to surrender himself and the wagons or Joe will die. He gives Custer until the moon goes down to decide. 

            Custer tells Trooper Cassidy he’s going to ask him to risk his neck by sneaking out of camp.

            Custer takes Bludsoe with him to try to rescue Joe. As they crawl, Grey Fox tries to knife Custer from behind but he detects him, they struggle and then Grey Fox falls on his own knife. 

            From the distance Crazy Horse hears a cavalry bugle call the charge and the sound of gunfire. Crazy Horse and his men head in the direction of the bugle except for three guarding Joe. California kicks one of them as Custer takes on the others and then unties Joe. 

            Crazy Horse realizes he’s been tricked and says he’ll attack at sunrise. 

            Custer tells Bustard to break out the powder. The men pour out trails of gunpowder and plant the kegs in various positions. Conant tries to set off one of the kegs to warn Crazy Horse but Custer stops him. They fight but Custer wins. Conant admits he was in league with Grey Fox and Crazy Horse. The Sioux would get half the gold and Conant the other half. 

            They are surrounded by Sioux, who attack. Custer sets off the fuses and the powder kegs blow up just as the Sioux are on top of them. That plus firing their guns causes Crazy Horse to retreat. During the battle Conant took an arrow in the heart. 

            Custer delivers the gold. 

            Grey Fox was played by Arthur Franz, who during WWII served in the US Army Air Forces as a navigator. He was shot down over Romania and captured to be placed in a POW camp. He escaped. He retired with the rank of major. he made his screen debut in Jungle Patrol in 1948. He co-starred in Tarnished, Eight Iron Men, Invaders From Mars, Sands of Iwo Jima, Flight to Mars, The Steel Cage, Battle Taxi, Bobby Ware is Missing, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Running Target, The Wild Party, Back From the Dead, and Hellcats of the Navy. He starred in Red Stallion in the Rockies, Monster On the Campus, The Sniper, New Orleans Uncensored, The Flame Barrier, The Atomic Submarine, and Sisters of Death.

Peter Palmer

            On Saturday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint rolled the curtain between the bedroom and the living room and picked up a few bedbugs. I lint-rolled the top of my bed and found a couple. There were none on the pillow. I shook out my sheet and my comforter on the deck. I went to bed at 1:42 and woke up at 4:41 to pee. I went back to sleep for 15 more minutes. 

            I revised a little over half my translation of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted a Little Money) by Boris Vian. I should have that done on Sunday and then I’ll start working out the chords. 

            I memorized the first verse of “L’île enchanteresses” (The Enchanted Isle) by Serge Gainsbourg. It has a nice melody by Jacques Dutronc. 

            I weighed 91.15 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the last of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            Around midday I rode to Freedom Mobile where I paid for my October phone plan. Then I rode to No Frills where only one bag of grapes was not too soft. I bought two bags of oranges, two packs of raspberries, a large pack of blueberries, a sack of red potatoes, lemon dish detergent, a jar of tomato pesto, a jug of lemonade, a jug of orange juice, ketchup, 3 containers of 4% skyr, and a bag of Miss Vickie’s chips. 

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 15:05, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon in a week. 

            I took a siesta and woke up too late for a bike ride. 

            I weighed 91.45 kilos at 17:55. I haven’t been that easy on the scale in the evening since last Saturday.

            I was two days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I made pizza on a slice of 7 grain bread with marinara, tomato pesto, a chopped slice of ham, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a glass of Creemore lager while watching episode 4 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer and his 7th Cavalry raid the camp of the Cheyenne leader yellow Hawk and capture him. General Terry is surprised when Custer brings Yellow Hawk in since his company was assigned to foraging detail. Terry says Yellow Hawk will be taken to Fort Riley for trial. Custer comes to see him in his cell and tells him the sun is setting on his people. He tells him he has to keep the treaty. Yellow Hawk argues that the white man does not keep the treaties any better. Custer says sometimes treaties are carried out by fools but we must try and make them work. 

            A little girl named Irene Maloney is wearing a small cavalry uniform and salutes Custer. She’s at the fort with her father to get supplies. They have a farm a few kilometers away. 

            Yellow Hawk is placed in a cage wagon to be transported to Fort Riley accompanied by a company of the 5th Cavalry. On the way they are ambushed and Yellow Hawk is freed. 

            California Joe tells Custer he doesn’t think the frontier will ever be tamed. Custer says it will, despite “savages” like Yellow Hawk and fools like President Grant’s brother (Custer testified against Orvil Grant accusing him of the illegal selling of trading rights at frontier military posts). 

            General Terry is sending the 5th Cavalry after Yellow Hawk and keeping Custer and his 7th Cavalry on patrol. 

            That night when camping, Sergeant Bustard sees California Joe grooming his mule and wonders why he takes care of it better than he does his horse. Joe says his mule is a better saddle animal than Bustard’s horse. He says mules are smarter than horses because they don’t get spooked as easily. Apparently mules are smarter than horses.

            Custer is chatting with Joe when an arrow hits the tree he’s standing near. Custer is pretty sure it was a deliberate miss. Joe tells Custer it’s a Cheyenne death arrow and a message from a Cheyenne chief to someone that they are marked for death. If the marked person doesn’t meet the challenge then the chief will start killing off those who are close to him. 

            A mail wagon is ambushed and Yellow Hawk gives the cavalry soldier Sergeant Tuvey a chance to fight him, but he loses and dies. Later on patrol, Custer’s company see Tuvey’s mail wagon with Tuvey in it approaching them but Tuvey is dead and merely propped up in the driver’s seat. In his glove is another death arrow as a signal for Custer. 

            They continue the patrol and then Yellow Hawk appears on a hill firing a rifle at Custer. Custer doesn’t take the bait and continues the patrol. 

            Later they see smoke and follow it to the now burned down farm of the Maloney family. Custer finds little Irene’s cavalry cap. They also find the body of a dead Sioux carrying a skin with Sioux writing on it (the Sioux did have pictograph writing). Joe says it’s an invitation from the Cheyenne to the Sioux to join forces in a big fight at War Bonnet Gorge. Custer’s company goes there and observes a camp of maybe 3000 Cheyenne. If they ride through the gorge tomorrow to join the Sioux the 5th Cavalry won’t have a chance. Custer’s company of 16 men try to stop the Cheyenne from getting through. 

            Yellow Hawk rides forward and Custer rides to meet him, challenging him to a one on one fight. They charge at each other and are knocked from their horses to fight in the water. Yellow Hawk loses and drowns. 

            The Cheyenne attack and Custer’s company tries to fight them off until General Terry and the 5th Cavalry arrive. There’s a lot of close combat until the cavalry drives the Cheyenne to retreat.

            Sergeant Bustard was played by Peter Palmer, who while serving in the US Army entered and won the All Army Entertainment Contest and got to sing on The Ed Sullivan Show. The producers of the Broadway musical Li’l Abner heard him and immediately cast him as the star. He later also starred in the film adaptation. This got him typecast as a hillbilly and he worked hard to beat that by performing in operettas and in night clubs. He co-starred in the short-lived sitcom The Kallikaks. His main focus was stage acting. He was married to Aniko Farrell who was a former Miss Canada and a Broadway actor.

October 6, 1996: My daughter and I played video games and real games

                                       

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday my daughter and I played games on my new computer and we also played out on the back roof of my place. Her mother picked her up in the evening.

Wayne Maunder

            On Friday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress. I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and caught a few bedbugs. I lint rolled my bed and pillow and found none. I couldn’t shake out the sheet and comforter on the deck because it was raining. I went to bed around 1:40. It felt like it took an hour to go to sleep. I woke up at 4:00 to pee and then went back to sleep until 5:00. I got up without grabbing my phone as I would normally do. After washing up, before yoga I started yoga later because I went to get my phone. After starting yoga I was lying on the floor and realized I’d forgotten to turn on Radio Canada so I got up to do that. I fell behind a couple of minutes because of those slips of memory. 

            I finished memorizing “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. On Saturday I’ll start revising my translation based on understanding the rhythm and the meaning better after memorizing it. 

            I published “The Lucky Tap Dance”, my translation of “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg on my Christian’s Translations blog and posted the lyrics on Facebook. The next untranslated song on my Gainsbourg list is “L’île enchanteresses” (The Enchanted Isle). I listened to it once and tomorrow I’ll start learning it. 

            I weighed 91.25 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice for the first of two sessions and it stayed in tune most of the time. 

            I cleared some more stuff out of the storage area in the bedroom. I threw out some items but most of it is now crowding the kitchen. 

            I weighed 91.85 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 18:10. 

            I was still three days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I baked a salmon fillet and had half of it with wedge oven fries and gravy while watching episode 3 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer’s 7th Cavalry comes to escort a trail drive and stops it from being raided by Sioux warriors. The trail boss, Kermit Teller says they’ve been attacked more than once since they left Texas and wonders why the escort wasn’t there sooner. Custer argues that Teller is a week ahead of schedule. He has 1200 steers and 200 horses to deliver to the US Cavalry. 

            Teller arrives with the herd at Fort Hays and says the Cavalry owes him $18 a head plus $20 for each horse. General Terry reminds him his contract states that the cattle must be delivered to Fort Wallace. Teller says he’s lost too many drovers to make that trip. Terry says Custer and his men will help with the drive and take orders from Teller. 

            Custer learns that Teller had been in the infantry in Michigan during the Civil War and has a grudge against Custer and the cavalry because they weren’t there when they needed them. 

            That night some of the cattle get spooked and stampede because the horse soldiers are wearing their swords and such which make clanking noises as they ride. Teller says that’s got to stop. 

            Custer and Teller get into a gratuitous fight. Custer beats him and then Crazy Horse’s warriors attack. Teller is wounded and so Custer takes over the role of trail boss. 

            Three Sioux not associated with Crazy Horse come begging for food, so Custer gives them a steer. When Teller complains Custer tosses him a $20 gold coin and says he owes him change. But when the Sioux men are preparing to slaughter the steer, Crazy Horse stops them and refuses to allow them to beg from the white man. 

            California Joe catches one of the drovers trying to escape the cattle drive and brings him back. Custer says the next man who tries to desert the cattle drive will be shot. 

            Custer tells Sergeant Bustard that if Teller tries to resume control of the drive, tie him to the supply wagon.

            Custer plans on taking the herd through Rocky Gorge but Joe sees 300 Kiowa and Sioux at the gorge cutting that route off. Custer says they’re going through anyway. He tells the men that when they get to the top of the gorge every man should fall back to the rear of the herd. They do so and as the Kiowa and Sioux start charging towards them, Custer has his men stampede the herd through the gorge. The warriors are overwhelmed and the herd gets through. 

            Custer returns control of the drive back to Teller the rest of the way to Fort Wallace where Custer and teller have the fight they’ve been itching to have. Custer wins and then they just continue dissing each other in a friendly way as they go for a drink. 

            Custer was played by Canadian actor Wayne Maunder, who was born in Four Falls, New Brunswick, about half an hour’s drive north of where I was raised. It’s very close to New Denmark where my father was brought up. But Maunder’s family moved to Bangor, Maine when he was 4 years old. I wonder if he was related to the Maunder family that were members of the rock band called The Common People that played at most of our high school dances. While studying Psychiatry in college in California he became interested in amateur theatre and switched to English and Drama. After college he decided to try it professionally in New York. He took lessons from Stella Adler and acted in stock theatre. He got signed to a studio in LA when a theatrical agent saw him in The Knack. He made his TV debut in a guest appearance on The Monroes in 1967. He then starred in Custer in 1968 but the show only lasted for 17 episodes. That was partly because indigenous groups protested their negative portrayal in the series, but mostly because it was defeated by being in the same time slot as both The Virginian and Lost in Space. He co-starred in the more successful western series Lancer. He co-starred in the short-lived police series The Chase. He starred in the movie The Seven Minutes. In his later career he produced independent films. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Luke Perry played a character who was based on Maunder.

October 5, 1996: My daughter got kicked out of Montessori for kicking the teachers

Thirty years ago today

            On Saturday my daughter began another weekend with me. I don’t know if I picked her up from Scarborough or if Nancy dropped her off. She’d started pre-school and was having trouble adjusting. On my suggestion Nancy had enrolled her in Montessori but she got kicked out for kicking the teachers all the time.

Michael Dante

            On Thursday after midnight I lint rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room and only one bedbug turned up. I also lint rolled the top of my bed and my pillow but there were no bedbugs. I couldn’t shake out the sheet and the comforter on the deck because it was raining. I went to bed a little after 1:30 and slept until 5:00. After yoga I found a couple of bedbugs trapped by the carpet tape on the floor. 

            I memorized the sixth verse of “Elle voulait toucher du pognon” (She Wanted A Little Money) by Boris Vian. There are two verses left to learn and the final verse is just two lines repeated. 

            I uploaded “La fille aux claquettes” by Serge Gainsbourg and my translation “The Lucky Tap Dance” to my Christian’s Translations blog and started to prepare them for publication. I should have it posted tomorrow. 

            I played my Martin during song practice for the last of two sessions and it went out of tune all the time. 

            I weighed 92.55 kilos before lunch. In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. I bought red grapes, two packs of raspberries, bananas, a container of Yoplait skyr (I’d never seen Yoplait skyr before so I thought I’d check it out, but it was as thin as regular yogourt), two packs of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of marinara, a jar of mild salsa, a lint roller, and two packs of Irish Spring soap (They had a “deal” of one pack of six for $11 but two packs of 3 were $10).

            I weighed 91.6 kilos at 18:40. 

            I was now three days behind in my journal and worked on catching up. 

            I had wedge fries with gravy and the rest of the whole chicken, mostly the wings and spine, while watching episode 2 of the TV series Custer. 

            Custer orders Lieutenant Rudford on a scouting mission with a few men and specifically tells him not to take offensive action if he encounters hostile Sioux. But he does take offensive action, killing several warriors who were just trying to get away. One gets away though and rides back to report to Crazy Horse. Custer tells Rudford he slaughtered a Sioux hunting party but he doesn’t see the problem since it’s a war. Custer says it is not an official war and their orders are only to control and contain the Sioux with less than 1000 troops to cover 800,000 square kilometers of territory. They can’t afford to provoke more trouble than they already have. Rudford reminds Custer that four dead miners were found but Custer says those miners were killed by Cheyenne and no Sioux. Rudford thinks they are all the same and they should all be wiped out. Custer says this is not a mission of extermination. 

            They are attacked by Sioux warriors and take shelter. Custer tells Rudford to take Sergeant Mason and his detachment south by Thunder Ridge. Custer says he’s going to draw their fire by heading north through the canyon. He orders Rudford to rendezvous with him at Broken Pine Summit in three hours. He warns him to not attempt to fight under any circumstances. Custer and his men get to the Summit but Rudford has not arrived. Custer sees through his binoculars Rudford’s men dead off route from the way he ordered him to go. Custer’s patrol is attacked again and they head back to the fort. General Terry says on hearing there were casualties that any expedition into the Black Hills is a slap in the face to the Sioux. Custer says he only counted four bodies from Rudford’s unit and requests to take a patrol to look for possibly two survivors. Terry says no. He tells Custer that Rudford’s father the powerful newspaperman has been condemning him in print. Now Rudford senior is there at the fort. He came with orders from Washington releasing his son from military service. Custer tells Rudford his son is presumed dead and he immediately accuses Custer of killing him with his inept command. Rudford says Custer murdered his brother during the Civil War. Custer says his brother died in the same battle he was in the thick of. 

            Meanwhile Crazy Horse says two of the soldiers got away and one is an officer, so they will hunt them. Custer disobeys orders and takes a patrol to search for the missing men. Rudford hears of this and insists on coming along. 

            Then we see that Lieutenant Rudford and Sergeant Mason are the two survivors and they are in the middle of Sioux territory. Rudford plans to sneak up on a Sioux camp, steal some horses and get away. Mason has more experience and tells him it won’t work but Rudford insists. They attack two Sioux and kill them but the horses run away and Rudford is wounded. 

            Mason helps Rudford to a cave on the hillside. Rudford has a fever and Mason cares for him. He also reminds him that he disobeyed Custer’s orders and attacked what he thought were only three Sioux but turned out to be a 50 strong war party of Crazy Horse’s men. Mason tells Rudford he hates his guts but he’s there because his uniform is bigger than he is. 

            Custer makes camp at the foot of the hills. Rudford senior tries to bribe some of the men with $1000 each if they’ll go with him into the hills that night but there are no takers. 

            Mason tries to get Rudford out of there under the cover of night. They stop at a watering hole where Mason is killed by two Sioux. 

            The next day Custer plants dynamite on top of a hill. 

            They find Lieutenant Rudford tied up in the middle of a clearing. It’s a trap and they lose some men but manage to rescue Rudford. They ride away with the Sioux in pursuit and Custer sets off the dynamite fuse so that when it explodes an avalanche comes down between Custer and the Sioux. They make it back to the fort and father and son Rudford are reunited. 

            Rudford senior expects Lieutenant Rudford to blame Custer but he says it was his own fault. His father wants him to quit the army but he says he’s going to stay and try to live an honourable life. 

            Crazy Horse was played by Michael Dante, who out of high school began as a professional baseball player when he signed a $6000 bonus contract with the Boston Braves. During spring training he took drama classes at The University of Miami. He made his film debut in Somebody Up There Likes Me in 1956. He starred in Westbound and Winterhawk. He co-starred in The Naked Kiss, Apache Rifles, Missile X, Beyond Evil, Return From the River Kwai, Seven Thieves, Cage, The Big Score, and Arizona Raiders. He played Maab in the original Star Trek episode Friday’s Child. He hosted the Michael Dante Classic Celebrity Radio Talk Show for 12 years (later called On Deck). He wrote From Hollywood to Michael Dante Way, Winterhawk’s Land, Six Rode Home, and My Classic Radio Interviews with the Stars.