Broken French

            On Thursday morning I opened all the windows because the heat was on. It's that time of year when it could still get cold so I'm reluctant to ask the landlord to turn off the heat. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Calypso Blues” by Boris Vian. 

            I transcribed the lyrics for “Tic tac toe" by Serge Gainsbourg and translated the first two verses.

            Around midday I was getting ready to go for an early bike ride when I met my upstairs neighbour David. He pointed out that there is a rust coloured puddle in the western hallway and I could see that it had probably run down from a similar hued stain on the ceiling. A couple of nights ago when I went to bed I could hear a loud dripping that at first was keeping me awake, probably mostly because I was worried about it being in my place. But I couldn’t find a leak. It sounded like it was nearby. I went to sleep and when I woke up the sound had stopped. I didn’t notice the puddle in the hall until today. 

            David is worried about the fighting that’s been going on back home in Ethiopia for the last nine months. There is a civil war of sorts between the Ethiopian government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. 

            I rode to Ossington and Bloor and stopped at Freshco on the way back. The red grapes were very cheap so I bought nine bags. I also got raspberries, Bavarian sandwich bread, canned peaches, sour cream and toilet paper. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos at lunch time. I had kettle chips, salsa and sour cream for lunch. 

            I finished the second reading of my lecture notes and started going through them again, this time paring them down to the most essential information. 

            I had a potato, a chicken breast and gravy while watching Andy Griffith. In this story Opie brings home a report card with all As and Andy is very proud. But the next day Opie finds out that his teacher made a mistake and in fact he didn’t get any As at all. He even got an F in arithmetic. Whenever Opie tries to tell his father about the mistake he keeps talking about how proud he is and Opie doesn’t want to disappoint him. Andy gives him a new bike and a raise in his allowance. Then Andy learns from Opie’s teacher about the mistake and he goes to talk with Opie but finds a note saying he's run away from home. Andy catches up with Opie and realizes that he’d put his expectations to high. He tells him that he's proud of him as long as he does his best. It’s off that Andy called Helen Miss Crump when they are already supposed to be dating since the end of the third season. Maybe this episode was filmed earlier. 

            When I was making coffee I knocked over and broke my French press. Just the top three quarters of it broke and so I was able to still press the coffee to filter it but I worry about getting glass in my coffee. I have the parts for about three French presses except for the glass and with the lock down I don’t know if I can buy another one anyplace. I noticed that a tin from a can of peaches is almost the right size but slightly too big. Maybe I’ll see if Fullworth has one tomorrow. I’m confused by the stay at home order and don’t know if Walmart is open or not. I think what I need is a stainless steel one. This glass one lasted seven years or so but there’s always a danger of them breaking. Plus metal retains heat better. I’ll look around tomorrow.