Monday was another day to prepare my place for bedbug treatment. When the Orkin guy arrived, just before 11:00, I realized in telling him of the current status of the infestation, that I have not seen a lot of the bloodsuckers lately. I had killed one on the bedroom door the previous morning, though very early on Saturday morning I’d gotten up and probed around the baseboards with a skewer stick, killing about fifty. The technician suggested that maybe we’ve caught a break and it’ll be over soon. I left my place in his hands and went to the library, as the streets were too wet to take a long bike ride.
At the library I read several chapters of Arthur Ransome’s “Swallows and Amazons” and got caught up on some writing.
After two and a half hours I went home t take care of my laundry. Since the sun was not out, if I hung my bedding out on the deck, the pillows would definitely not be dry for probably days. I had one toonie, so I decided to splurge. I took all my pillows, my bedding, socks and underwear to the Laundromat and put them in the dryer. I used all eight quarters to buy fourty-five minutes because pillows take a long time to dry. I went home for twenty minutes and then came back to find my sheets dry. I set the dryer going again and went home. When I returned, I discovered that the dryer had torn one of my pillows apart. Even after fourty-eight minutes, the other pillow and my socks were still a bit damp.
I finished watching the Roscoe Arbuckle film, “Out West”. A gang of bandits led by a blond cowboy named Black Bart rides into town to rob the saloon. When they charge in the door with their guns out, they shout “Hands up!” and everybody puts their hands up, including the clock on the wall. Roscoe is working the bar while a pretty Salvation Army lady is collecting money for charity. Black Bart begins trying to kiss her. Buster Keaton tries to stop him but he is fought off easily. Arbuckle hits Bart over the head with about twenty bottles and then he shoots him several times, but nothing fazes him and he keeps on trying to kiss the Sally Ann girl. Finally, Roscoe finds Bart’s weakness and they defeat him by tickling him. He’s even ticklish on the bottom of his cowboy boots.
I watched another silent film that was both written by, directed by and starred Roscoe Arbuckle, called “Moonshine”. He and Buster Keaton play “Revenuers” trying to bust up a ring of hillbilly moonshiners. One of the hillbillies is sweet on the chief moonshiner’s daughter. He tries to kiss her but she fights him off. Her father says, “Time enough for hitting him after you’re married!” She declares, “I will never marry that gorilla!” The father begins to spank her. Arbuckle sees this and comes between them, then he says to the girl, “How dare you treat your father that way!” then he chokes her for a while, lifts her over his head and tosses her in the lake. When she emerges from the water, she says to Arbuckle, “I love you!” and they begin to kiss. “The father says, “Wait a minute! You beat up my daughter and then she says she loves you? What’s going on?” Arbuckle turns from kissing the girl and explains, “This is only a two reeler and so we don’t have time to build up to a big love scene.” The father says, “Well, it’s your movie!” Later, Arbuckle is captured by the moonshiners and they decide to throw him in the cellar, but the cellar is a drawing room with really nice furniture and a bar.
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