Francesca Bellini

            Friday just after noon I did my laundry. The Korean or Japanese manager was lounging in a chair with his smartphone when I walked in. He seemed so comfortable I almost felt guilty about making him get up to change a twenty. He was gone when I came back to put my stuff in the dryer and the young, attractive and friendly woman was there. The things that I'd put in the vertical washer wee done but my shorts and my sweat pants that I’d washed in cold water in a top load washer were still spinning. I asked her how long the top load washers take and she told me 38 minutes, commenting that it’s a strange number. It seemed to me that the smaller washers should be quicker than the 32-minute vertical washers. She said, "You'd think so, but they're not."

            I started heating up a piece of chicken for lunch before going to pick up my dry laundry. It was ready when I came back.

            In the late afternoon I took my first long bike ride in several days and my first ride with my new rear wheel axle. It seemed to me that my bike went faster with the new part and I did in fact do my best time getting to Warden and Danforth. I explored the four blocks that run east between Danforth and Butterworth until Butterworth dead-ended before the railroad tracks. The houses are all at least fifty years old, small and working class. I continued along Danforth after the railroad bridge and except for Eastwood, which runs about a block north, there are no northbound streets before Birchmount.

            On the way back it felt like my back brakes were dragging a bit but it might have been the wind against me. There were mild splatterings of rain at various points on the home journey. I stopped to use the washroom at the Starbucks near Donlands and adjusted my brakes so the right pad wasn’t so close to the rim. The bike rode smoothly after than and the brakes didn’t drift.

            Around Logan there were a few people around the tributes to the people that were shot on Sunday, but the sidewalk looked a lot less crowded than it had been on Wednesday. I also didn’t see any cops around.

            I stopped at Freshco on my way home. All of the grapes were from the USA so I didn’t buy any. I got three packs of BC blueberries, a pack of ground beef and a rack of pork ribs. The Liberté Greek yogourt was more expensive than usual. The Oikos was thirty cents cheaper so I got four of those, plus a couple of cans of peaches. The cashier was very perky and friendly.

            I ate the last of my chicken for dinner and watched a couple of episodes of Dobie Gillis.

            In the first story Dobie and Gillis go on vacation to some made up Latin American country where they are caught up in a war between that benevolent country and the made up evil dictatorship next door. It turns out that Maynard is an exact double of the general, Ramon who rules the good country. When the general is kidnapped Maynard has to take his place. They end up defeating the dictator by all posing as Maynard and confusing the bad guys till they surrender.

            The sister of Ramon was played by Francesca Bellini who became the mother of Cindy Williams, who played Shirley on Laverne and Shirley. She is also the grandmother of Emily Hudson who is the half sister of Kate Hudson.

            In the second story Dobie and Mrs. Osborn’s niece Alicia fall in love with each other. Dobie, his father and Maynard spend the weekend at Osborn Manor. Dobie and Herbert see Maynard sleepwalking and later Mrs. Osborn announces that her diamond necklace has been stolen. Dobie and Herbert think Maynard may be stealing in his sleep. In the end we find out that Mrs. Osborn also sleepwalks and that she’s been stealing her own jewels.