Mantle's Curve

            On Saturday morning I had a hard time finding the cold water with the floppy handle of my tap. Later I had just as much trouble locating the hot water because all I could get was cold. Sometimes when I found the right temperature I would try to carefully lift the lever to turn it off so it would still be the same temperature when I pushed it back down but it was often the opposite temperature in the same position.

I finished working out the chords for “Panpan Culcul” (A Good Spanking) by Serge Gainsbourg.

I washed a small section of my kitchen floor to the area just at the front left-hand corner of my mantle.

I tried to pay my rent online but I couldn’t access my account because the site wouldn’t recognize my bankcard number. The problem couldn't be the fact that I have a new bank card since I've had it more than two months and gone on line several times since then. I couldn’t call the bank to ask what was wrong because I hadn’t paid for my November plan yet. I had to go to the supermarket so the plan was to pay for the phone service on the way there. As I was getting ready I heard my landlord taking care of the garbage. He ever comes on garbage day and doesn’t seem to want to hire a superintendent to do the job. He puts the garbage in his van and takes it to the dump on his way back to Burlington. I told him about my faulty faucet and he came to look at it. To my disappointment he said it could be fixed and he said he’d bring someone in either Sunday morning or next weekend. Since it started to malfunction shortly after being installed I don't think fixing it is going to make it work for very long.

I paid the $28.25 for my phone plan on my way to No Frills. At the supermarket I bought five bags if grapes, three chicken legs, mouth wash, scotch bonnet sauce, salsa, coffee and an expensive container of all Canadian honey. It’s funny how it costs less for things that are shipped in from thousands of kilometres away.

I called the Bank of Montreal and found that since I changed my bankcard two months ago I haven’t been registered with online banking. That didn’t make any sense since I’ve done online banking several times since then. The phone teller told me that the system had just automatically remembered my old card number when I’d accessed my account before. I complained that they should have registered me with online banking the day I got my new card and not waited until I was shut out. She said she didn’t know why they didn’t register me. I had to pick a new password to replace the one I’d had for years because they have new requirements. There must be at last eight characters, including one upper case letter, one lower case letter and one symbol like a question mark or dollar sign. Finally I was able to register and pay my rent.

I had cheese on toast for lunch and a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie with yogourt.

In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy. In this story Kingfish tries to borrow from his insurance policies again but he is told that he’s borrowed so much already that when he dies his wife will have to pay the insurance company. He decides to sell hospitalization insurance himself by forming his own company. He tricks Andy into thinking he’s sick by pretending to take his x-ray. What he shows him is his own x-ray, which shows his belt buckle with his initials on it for “George Stevens" but tells Andy that the “GS” means he has gallstones. Andy buys the insurance for $10 but then Kingfish finds out he could go to jail for selling insurance without a license. He convinces Andy that he is the one that’s in trouble because Kingfish will plead ignorance and so Andy can’t because there is only one ignorant party allowed for every policy. Andy is now worried about his health and goes to a doctor. The doctor tells him that he’s healthy but that the person whose x-ray he showed him needs a gall stone operation.

I continued my research on the Woodstock First Nation and finally found out how they moved from Meductic. It’s a pretty interesting history with a lot of rough patches on the way but they seem to have a few successful businesses now. They have a casino, a truck stop, two gas stations and three fishing boats working at a profit. I'm also getting closer to formulating a thesis for my essay. The idea is that people or communities are places more so than actual land. People that live in relation to an ecosystem like a river are naturally in motion.

I grilled two burgers and had one on a toasted English muffin with a beer while watching the final episode of the first season of Wanted Dead or Alive starring Steve McQueen.

This story begins after Josh finds a wounded dog on the road. He brings it into town to be treated. Amos Carter, the dog’s caregiver arrives just after the dog dies.  He then leaves saying he is going to kill Chester Blake. Josh learns from the townspeople in the saloon that there has been an ongoing feud between the Carters and the Blakes for longer than anyone can remember. Josh says that if he lived in the town he’d try to put a stop to it. The men call his bluff and put up $200 to pay him if he can stop the feud. Josh goes to talk to Chester and his son Seth. Chester’s disgruntled wife Minnie Lee brings out a jug of moonshine and they begin to drink, as Josh is about to try to talk about the feud. Suddenly the jug is shattered by a bullet. There is an exchange of fire and then Josh compels them to form a truce long enough to talk. Minnie Lee brings out another jug and then sits watching and rocking from the porch. Seth confesses that he accidentally shot Amos’s dog when he heard something in the bushes while hunting rabbits. Chester says he’d never kill a dog. Minnie Lee says that her and Amos’s wife have made up their minds to stop doing chores unless they stop feuding. The feud is over but the townspeople say that the dead Carters and Blakes won’t be happy about the feud being over. Suddenly we hear the loud sound of thunder.

Minnie Lee was played by Peggy Webber, who started performing at the age of two during intermissions in silent film theatres. She was eleven when she started working in radio and by the time she was eighteen she was writing, producing and directing early television shows. She crated a drama anthology series called Treasures of Literature, which won the award that would later be known as the Emmy. She played Ma Friday on over a hundred radio episodes of Dragnet. She created a sitcom called "Oh Miss Tubbs" which was not produced but many of her ideas and characters were stolen and used for the hit show “Our Miss Brooks”. She wrote and directed some 250 stage plays, radio and television shows.

I like Steve McQueen but this series really didn’t stand apart from most of the other westerns on TV in that era. Bonanza was probably the best.

            Just before bed I felt extremely dizzy. I was worried that when I closed my eyes the room would spin but I was able to sleep.