Friday, 21 September 2018

Fallen in the Line of Service



            On Thursday I had to return my french grammar exercise books to OISE and then borrow them again. I can renew them online every two weeks three times but after that I need to physically bring them in. If my Romantic Literature class hadn’t been cancelled on Wednesday I would have just brought them back for renewal a day early, since the library is in the same building.
            In the middle of the locked maintenance driveway of OISE was a fallen bike post ring. One doesn't see them uprooted very often so I took a picture from behind the barbed wire, as it looked so tragic that way.
            On the way back I took Bloor all the way to Brock and then went south to stop at the back of the Dufferin Mall. I went to Walmart to look for a new Waterpik because mine has definitely died. The one my daughter gave me for Christmas about four years ago was the more expensive kind with the tank. I decided to go this time with the cheapest version, which is a cordless            model for $54.20 after tax. It’ll take some getting used to because it only holds thirty seconds worth of water so I’ll have to refill it in mid- use but if I don't like it I can always get the kind with the tank again later on.
            Some people really like to shop at Walmart. They go all over the store and just fill up their carts with junk. I like to get in and out as fast as possible. I feel the same way about the Dufferin Mall and malls in general. I don’t like the atmosphere of the corridors nor the food court. I can’t see how someone can enjoy eating in a place like that, even if the food is good.
            Since the item I bought was small enough to fit in my backpack I went straight to Freshco before going home. I bought grapes, nectarines, blueberries and yogourt.
            I tried out the new Waterpik when I got home. There’s a lot less water pressure than with the big one. One changes the pressure by changing the tip and I had to go online to figure out how to do that.
            I had Pringles and dry cottage cheese with hot sauce for lunch.
            The donut shop downstairs changed their password again and soI had to go downstairs to buy a tea to find out what it was. They added the number 8 to the old one.
            I finished reading all of the Wordsworth poems in the Norton Anthology and re-read the first three out loud. His Lyrical Ballads are more interesting than his attempts to put his autobiography in poetic form. 
            I roasted some pork ribs and had a couple with dinner while watching the second episode of Perry Mason.
            The story begins with a flashback to an incident when a man named Peter Cole is sleepwalking, takes a carving knife from a drawer and enters his wife Doris’s bedroom. She wakes to see him there and screams. Peter’s niece Edna runs in and wakes him. Doris is convinced that Peter is faking and really wants to kill her and so she files for divorce. The real time story begins one day before the divorce is final. She becomes the lover of Peter’s business partner Frank, who tells her that there’s $100,000 in it for her if she doesn’t finalize the divorce. Frank goes with his lawyer Ralph Duncan to see Peter and their third partner Philip and asks to be bought out of their partnership for $500,000. They remind Frank that his share of the company isn’t worth that much but Frank tells Peter that Doris will stop the divorce if he doesn’t agree. Peter needs the divorce because he plans to marry his fiancée Lucille. On seeing that her uncle is being blackmailed, Edna calls Perry Mason. Mason goes to Peter’s home and tries to negotiate with Frank and his lawyer but they get nowhere. Mason promises a decision on their side by 9:00 the next day. Frank and his lawyer have to be with Doris to block the divorce in Santa Barbara at 10:00 the next day if his price isn’t agreed upon and so they wouldn’t be able to go home, come back to Peter’s and then to court in time. Mason suggests that Frank and his lawyer stay at Peter’s place that night. Mason later tells Peter to be in court the next morning to sign the divorce decree and then to immediately fly to Las Vegas and marry Lucille because in Nevada there is no three day wait between divorces and new marriages. Mason says he’s going to send his private detective, Paul Drake to watch Doris’s house but Edna’s fiancé Steve offers to do the job for him. Mason agrees immediately, which seemed off to me. Why would a professional like Mason be satisfied with the reportage of an amateur that he’s only just met unless he has some ulterior motive for agreeing to the arrangement.
            Before they retire, Frank switches bedrooms with Philip because he wants a bigger bed. That night we see someone take the carving knife from the drawer and the next morning after Peter and Lucille have left, it is discovered that Philip has been stabbed to death. Peter is arrested for murder. During the trial though, when Steve is on the witness stand, Mason shows him a picture of a house and asks where he had stood outside when he was watching Doris. He points where he had been but then Mason reveals that the picture is not of Doris’s house. He proves that Steve never went to watch Doris’s house but rather stayed at Peter’s place to murder Philip because if Peter got the electric chair, with Philip also dead, Edna would inherit the company after Steve became her husband and he would be rich.  
            Before bed I used the new Waterpik. I used a quarter cup of mouthwash and filled the rest with hot water so the mixture would be warm. It filled the barrel twice and there was a little bit extra. I think this Waterpik is more suited to travel than home use but I’ll keep using it.  

      

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