Maxine Semon

            On Thursday morning I started working out the chords for my song "Junk Shop Bizarre." It's the opening poem for my poetry manuscript that I hope to publish with the help of Albert Moritz when he recovers from his stroke. 

            I worked on memorizing the final verse of the original French "O Canada" and might have it done on Friday. 

            The gorilla tape that I used to cover the sharp ends of the frets of my Rocker guitar held down better during song practice than the electrical tape, but it's thicker and dulls the E string when I play a D chord. I think I'm going to have to just live with that until I get my Washburn back, since I can't think of a solution. 

            I weighed 89.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I started out on a bike ride and wished I'd worn my long sleeved shirt. I was halfway up Brock to Dundas when I realized I'd forgotten my mask. On a regular bike ride to Yonge and Bloor and home that wouldn't have been a problem, but I wanted to go to the supermarket on the way home, so I turned around and went back to get the mask and to also put on my long sleeved shirt. As I was riding up Brock again my bike felt like my back tire might be soft and at a red light I checked to find that was the case. I decided that it might not be a puncture and that I would just go home and pump it up. But as I was passing the Brockton Cyclery I thought it might be a good idea to stop and buy a tube. I did so and then used their pump. I decided to chance it after that and continue my bike ride. I went to Yonge and Bloor and the back tire stayed firm. 

            On the way back stopped at Freshco where the red seedless grapes were very cheap and so I got nine bags. I also bought strawberries, raspberries, cluster tomatoes, canned peach slices, orange juice and Greek yogourt. 

            My tire was still firm when I got home so there is no puncture but I'm glad I bought a backup tube. From now on I think I should always have one. 

            Just after I got home there was a knock on my door and it was Benji handing me an envelope on which he'd written "Thank you for your services." Last week I'd submitted his census information for him online when the government didn't send him a mailable form like he'd requested. Inside the envelope was $50. That's a pretty generous payment for ten minutes work. 

            I weighed 88.3 kilos before lunch. I had a slice of roast pork with barbecue sauce and scotch bonnet sauce. 

            Yesterday I took a photo of the number 3 on my apartment door and I manipulated the image on my computer to make it look like the Sanskrit letter "om." This afternoon I resized the image so it prints out the same size as the number on my door. My plan is to make it into a stencil, unscrew the number from the door and replace it with the om symbol. It'll still look like the number 3 but fancier. I wonder how my landlord will react. He might like it because he's a Hindu but he might hate it because he's a landlord. 

            I tried to post my blog but when I uploaded a photo I got an error message: "Sorry! An unexpected error occurred while processing your selection. Please try again later." I tried other photos but had the same problem. I searched the error and found that other blogger users had complained about the same issue over the last few hours. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos at 18:30. 

            The Blogger issue still hadn't cleared up at 19:00. I tried clearing my browser data but that didn't help and blogger.com was still not taking images by 19:30. It was a mistake to clear my browser history because I had a hassle getting on Facebook with the memory of my password wiped. Fortunately I had it written down somewhere. At 20:20 I still couldn't post my blog. 

            I weighed 88.5 kilos before dinner. I had a potato, a slice of roast pork and gravy while watching two episodes of Andy Griffith. 

            In the first story Goober is sitting in Andy's sheriff's car when a woman hits him from behind. he is slightly jarred and has a little crick in his neck but other than that he is fine. But later he talks to Floyd who tells him of someone who had a similar accident and felt fine but later died. Suddenly Goober feels stiff and in pain and can't put his arms over his head. Later Bee and Opie come to see him and Bee tells him about someone else who was crippled by a similar injury. Suddenly Goober collapses, almost paralyzed. Andy comes home to find Goober in his bed and wearing his pyjamas. The doctor says back injuries don't show up in x-rays and so one has to depend on how the patient says they feel. Andy has to give Goober deep massages and wait on him hand and foot. The next day Andy sits down exhausted beside Floyd on the bench in front of his barbershop. Floyd informs Andy that he saved Goober's life by informing him that his condition might be more serious than he thought. He might have gone for years before he realized it. Suddenly Andy has a theory that Goober's condition is psychosomatic. He walks in the bedroom and finds Goober asleep but happily tossing, turning and stretching every which way in bed like someone with a perfectly healthy back. He tries to prove to Goober that it's all in his head by throwing a football at him high so he will catch it and understand. But Goober doesn't fall for it. Instead he gets very upset and excitedly tells Bee what Andy tried to do. While recounting the situation he says, "He tried to get me to throw up my arms like this!" Andy says, "Look at your arms!" and Goober declares, "I'm cured!" Goober throws the football at Andy in celebration but in trying to catch it he dislocates his shoulder. Goober has to give Andy regular deep massages now. 

           The woman who rear ended Goober was played by Suzanne Taylor, who appeared on Night Gallery and My Favourite Martian. She was also a producer. 

           In the second story there is an opening for city councilman and Andy nominates Howard Sprague. Floyd and Goober agree he would be a great choice and when they put it to Howard he agrees to run. Meanwhile after Bee gives a speech at a women's club meeting about beautifying Mayberry the members all agree that she should run for city council. She accepts but when Andy hears that Bee is running he tells her he doesn't think she is the best choice. Bee thinks Andy is being sexist and treats him like garbage during her campaign. Andy organizes a town hall debate of the candidates with the audience asking questions. A new bridge and a new sewer are brought up and for each question Bee declares that if it's the will of the people they will have a new bridge and a new sewer. Howard disagrees and gives detailed statistics and costs of new bridges and sewers. He proposes cost effective alternatives such as building a new bridge on a different street and turning the old bridge into a pedestrian bridge. As for sewers he shows how the old sewer can simply be repaired. Bee is so impressed with Howard's research that she concedes and agrees he is the best person for the job. 

           Tilly Kincaid, one of Bee's team was played by Maxine Semon, whose screen debut was in a 1944 short film called Feather in Your Nest. She played Molly on Dragnet and Honeybee Gillis on The Life of Riley. She played Mrs Jillson on the Joey Bishop Show and Mabel Snark on Petticoat Junction.

            After dinner the problem with Blogger was resolved and I was able to post my blog. But there was another problem. All of the photos that I used for my blog disappeared from my picture folder after I closed Google Chrome. Normally once a picture shows that it's downloaded in the lower left hand corner of my screen it is in my pictures folder until I choose to delete it. Lately every picture I download is still downloading perpetually in Chrome Downloads and when I close that the pictures disappear. The copies that I uploaded to my blog are still on my blog but they disappear from my computer. The only pictures that stay are the ones I alter in Paint. I suspect all I would have to do would be to change one pixel for it to stay.