Off the Shoulder

            On Tuesday I started memorizing Serge Gainsbourg’s “Elle est si”. It only has four verses and it’s recited, so I won’t have to work out any chord and it won't take long.

            I had a can of chickpeas with garlic and olive oil for lunch.

            My right hip still ached in the morning but not any more than before and so it didn’t feel like my bike ride to Broadview the day before had done me any harm. I decided to try riding to Coxwell in the afternoon. It was quite warm and so I just wore my tank top with an open shirt on top.  Before heading back I just rode with the tank top.

            I stopped at Freshco to buy toilet paper and grabbed the pack of twelve double rolls of Cashmere that was on display at the front. There were long line-ups, especially for the express. The one next to the express was shorter and I stepped behind a woman who really stood out in the crowd, especially when she stood sideways. She was wearing a tight, red off-the-shoulder sweater-top over a pair of very successfully surgically enhanced breasts. She had long, very straight light brown hair tied back in a tight ponytail and with an artificial red flower on the side. She had a tattoo on the back of her neck, one on one shoulder and another on one arm. Her body was slim and fit and she was wearing black tights. Her face seemed older than her body and while it had some nice attractive features that would have been enhanced if she’d been wearing makeup, I would not say that she had a strikingly pretty or beautiful face. She had more the kind of face one would appreciate over time. She looked at me a couple of times and when she put the grocery divider down for me and I said, “Thank you” she looked at me, looked down and smiled slightly, and said, “Your welcome”. After I put my toilet paper down she suddenly asked the very tattooed young bearded hipster in the baseball cap behind me to go over to where the toilet paper was being displayed and grab her a pack. He obeyed and she thanked him and then she said to me that I’d reminded her to get the toilet paper and thanked me as well. Her groceries, besides the toilet paper were a large pack of ground beef, a can of red kidney beans, a bag of tortilla chips and a case of Pepsi. She showed the cashier a coupon each on her phone for the toilet paper and the pop. She suggested to me that I could probably get the $2 discount on the toilet paper as well. I left while she was bagging her things. I wonder if I’ll run into her again and maybe have more to talk about.

            I boiled a potato, sautéed a green pepper with some onion and heated a chicken leg for dinner. I watched the last two episodes of the first season of Sea Hunt.

            The penultimate story of the season begins with a diver being murdered underwater by two other divers. They shut off his tanks until he drowns and then turn the tanks back on. After he is found Mike is hired to investigate. The drowned man had been working for a chemical company that makes important chemicals out of sea vegetation. The company is on an island and so they have a phone line running along the bottom of the sea to the mainland. It had been the drowned diver’s job to check the line. Mike discovers that the line has been tapped. The head of the company says that important phone calls are made at a certain time every day detailing their research. Certain equipment is brought in to detect when the line is being tapped and when they see it they look for the diver’s bought but find none. Finally Mike dives and follows the line where he sees the divers tapping the line with high tech recording equipment. Mike sneaks up and cuts one diver’s air tube so that he’ll only have to deal with one man. The other man swims away and Mike follows him to a large pipe that leads to the chemical company. He follows it to an engine room where he fights the other diver, finally knocking him out.

            In the final story of the season Mike has become a one-third partner in a manganese prospecting expedition. The main partner is a geologist named Pete Otis who has selected the area of search based on having dredged from the bottom a hunk of manganese. Mike is diving but finding nothing but sharks, one of which he has to spear. In an earlier episode Mike had insisted that sharks tend not to attack people but these seem to be hunting him every time he gets in the water. On another dive Mike gets his foot caught in a fake looking giant clam and has to pry it open with his spear gun. When he surfaces there is a storm approaching and they go to the nearest cove where they are met by a young woman named Pepita that knows Pete. She invites them to her house and feeds them and then her fisherman father Esteban arrives, who also knows Pete. It is revealed that Pete did not find the manganese rock sample but Esteban did. Mike accuses Pete of lying and they fight until Mike wins. When Pete comes to he explains that he hadn’t wanted to get Esteban’s hopes up but that he’d planned on giving him half of his two-thirds. They all become partners and Esteban guides them the next day to where he found the manganese. Mike finds lots of it. Pete says that first they have to set a marker to establish their claim and then register it. While Mike is below setting the marker, Pete hits Esteban over the head and throws him to the sharks. Pete tries to start the boat to head for shore but Mike had anticipated a double-cross and disabled the engine. When Mike surfaces Pete begins shooting at him. Mike submerges and then removes his tanks. He ties them to the marker line so that Pete will shoot at the bubbles while Mike holds his breath and swims to the other side. Mike climbs into the boat and aims his rifle but Mike gets him with the spear gun. He saves Esteban just before a shark gets to him and then saves Pete. He calls the police before he and Esteban file their claim.

            Pepita was played by Josephine Parra, who was credited at Jo Summers.

            One thing weird about Sea Hunt is the opening music. It feels like something better suited for a suspense show like something by Hitchcock. I would have chosen something more melodic and dramatic like the theme for Adventures in Paradise.