Sandus Interruptus

            On Monday morning I got over half of “Marilou sous la neige” (Marilou Under Snow) by Serge Gainsbourg memorized.

            During song practice a woman seemed to have lost the key to her bike lock and two guys, one of them who seemed to be her boyfriend, were trying to help her but they didn’t have the tools. The couple stood near the bike being physically amourous with one another until the Dollarama opened. They were inside a long time but when they came out they didn’t seem to have anything that helped them. They left the bike alone for about an hour and then around 10:00 I started to hear hammering. Finally I dug out my hacksaw and brought it over to them and told them to just shout at my window when they were done. He used the saw a bit but mostly kept on hammering until finally a pickup truck arrived and a guy with a grinder had the lock off in a matter of seconds. I went back out and retrieved my saw the woman handed it to me without even looking at me but the man thanked me.

            Around midday I moved my futon out of the bedroom and spent fifteen minutes taping down a drop sheet in the corner by the old exit door. I put on my covid mask and started for the first time using the belt sander that Nick Cushing gave me. After about five minutes sparks were flying inside the machine and about five minutes later it died. I’d made some progress smoothing down the plaster and sanding the old bedbug stains on the upper part of the door but it looked like it was going to take more than one day even with the sander. Now I’ll have to do it by hand now like the cave men used to do and it might take the rest of the summer. It gave me an excuse to mop the floor anyway.

            I had chips and salsa and then a spoonful of yogourt for lunch.

            In the afternoon I did my exercises while listening to Amos and Andy but it was almost the exact same story as I’d heard a few episodes before. Sapphire’s brother Leroy had brought a letter that Kingfish wrote to Sapphire when they were courting. Sapphire finds the letter and thinks Kingfish is seeing someone else and Kingfish finds it and thinks she’s seeing someone else. Complications occur but it resolves itself in the end.

            I didn’t take a bike ride because there was a chance of a thunder storm.  

            I reviewed the last of the songs from my recent video recordings. Both songs were from July 19 when the camera was in the window and picking up more noise from the street. “Kenya” was not bad but I made a mistake on “Mamadu” and the camera cut off at the very end without allowing for a proper pause.

            Next I’ll have to decide which versions of "Personne" and "Person" to make into movies to upload to YouTube.

            I edited the set of scans I did of a set of negatives from probably the winter of 1993 that are mostly of my daughter Astrid at about one and a half, but there are two of her mother and some of my image in artwork in a studio at what was then still OCA rather than OCADU. All of the negatives are damaged and some extremely so.

            I grilled three strip loin steaks and had one with a potato and gravy while watching two episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

            In the first story the deputy sheriff is out collecting taxes. On approaching the village of the people that live on the estate of Lady Marian Fitzwalter he is jumped from above by a young man named Dick, who steals his golden chain of office. He has done so to impress Marian’s maidservant Jenny who is reluctant to marry him because he’s a swineherd. The deputy staggers in a daze into the village and is helped by a smith who does not recognize him. The smith says that he and the other men will form a hue and cry to chase after the man that assaulted him. The men gather but the sheriff notes that there are only nine men when he knows there are supposed to be ten. When asked how he knows the deputy reveals his identity. He tells the men that if their hue and cry does not capture and hand Dick then all nine of them will be hanged. When Marian learns of this she goes to Robin. Robin’s men find and take Dick into custody before the hue and cry can find him. Robin shoots a message to the deputy telling him he can meet him and return his chain. Robin meets the deputy near the village piggery and returns the chain on the condition that the nine men are set free. The deputy agrees but then asks about Dick, who he still wants to hang. Robin pretends to not know of any Dick. Suddenly Dick comes riding with Jenny on horseback with Marian chasing them. The pretence is that Dick had tried to run off with Jenny and that’s why he has been missing. Part of the ruse is that when Dick sees Robin he draws sword and challenges the outlaw. They pretend to fight until the deputy tries to have his men ambush Robin but Marian gives a subtle warning and Robin escapes, knocking the deputy into the pig swill on his way. But then the deputy makes the villagers pay double taxes because he says they’d been trying to cheat him. So Robin and his men stop the sheriff and his men before they get out of Sherwood and rob them of all their money.

            In the second story Marian learns from the deputy sheriff that her father has died in the crusade. He also reminds her that the law states that an unmarried woman cannot inherit her father’s estate and so Prince John has appointed Sir Guy to be her successor and to take over Fitzwalter Hall. Marian goes to Robin and learns from Tuck that her father is very much alive. Robin tells her that she cannot tell the deputy this news because she will be asked to prove it and it will only encourage him to move Sir Guy in more quickly. Meanwhile Marian’s elderly and eccentric Uncle Percy, who also lives on the estate has challenged Sir Guy to a battle. Since trial by combat still supersedes trials by court and since the deputy is sure that Percy will lose he agrees to allow the battle to take place. Although Sir Guy is not a particularly great swordsman he is thirty years younger than Sir Percy and he is confident that he will be the victor. Robin comes in disguise to visit Marian and after agreeing to spar with Percy he disarms him easily and concludes that Percy could not win this match. So Robin, Little John and Will come to Sir Guy asking for a doctor. Little John and Will are covered in bandages and Robin explains that they’ve just come from sparring with Sir Percy. Robin says that he only disarmed Percy twice out of four tries and convinces Sir Guy to let him take his place in the duel and so Robin, disguised under a helmet, takes on Sir Percy as Sir Guy and deliberately loses, thus saving Marian’s estate.