The Frug

            On Tuesday morning I sang and played through my translation of “Aux armes et caetera" (To Arms Etcetera) by Serge Gainsbourg and uploaded it to Christian's Translations to begin editing it before blog publication. 

            During my second song of song practice my D string broke. I loosened the wound strings to reach under and push the peg out but it wouldn’t budge. I had to put one of my leather gloves inside and use it to push before it finally came out. After changing the string I was tightening the strings back up when the G string broke and so I had to change that as well. I rushed through song practice to finish late. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            My morning got half an hour behind normal because I spent some time digitally repairing a photo of me and my newborn daughter from thirty years ago. 

            I had hoped on cleaning some more of my oven but by the time I’d shaved, showered and done the dishes it was almost time for lunch. 

            There was a tap on my door at around 13:00 and it was my neighbour Benji. He was looking helpless because he wanted to fill out his census form but they hadn’t sent him a hard version like he’d asked. He wanted to know if I would go online and do it for him. I offered to lend him my laptop but he was sure he wouldn’t know how to do it that way, so I did it. Some of his information was on record but other questions like name and birth date they ask for every time. After I went to his door to ask for the info a few times he came into my place and sat in the kitchen. I hadn’t invited him in but it wasn’t that big a deal. It only took me about ten minutes because it seems he had the short form. My census had more questions like the one about the age of the building where I live. He told me he would give me some money later on to buy a case of beer. I told him it wasn't necessary but he insisted he doesn’t do things that way and if somebody does something for him he has to do something for them. I said if it makes him happy I'll take payment. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before lunch. I had kettle chips, salsa and yogourt with a glass of orange juice. 

            In the afternoon while getting ready for my bike ride I decided to wear shorts for the first time this year. It was a good decision as I felt cooler and lighter and faster riding to Yonge and Bloor and back. I weighed 89 kilos when I got back. 

            I worked on my poem series “My Blood in a Bug.” 

            I finished converting the rest of my MOV files of the electrical cords to MP4. I was worried about the last file because it was the biggest of all of them and a couple of the next smaller files had to have their conversion restarted during the last two sessions. But this last one came through fine. Now I can focus on editing them in Movie Maker to see which ones will fit in between the clips of the snakes.

            I colourized a bit more of the brick wall from my photo of the skateboarder from the late 1980s.

            I had a potato, a slice of roasted pork and some gravy while watching two episodes of Andy Griffith. 

            In the first story Aunt Bee decides she wants to buy a car and learn to drive it so she’ll be more independent of Andy. Goober has a convertible that he fixed up for sale for $295 and he offers to teach Bee to drive. Andy is against it because he doesn’t think Bee has the concentration but everyone else thinks it’s a great idea and so he gives in. The first lesson does not go well and there is a lot of jerking but she improves. Her driving test is approaching but when a man comes to trim some trees he asks her to move the car ahead three metres. She accidentally backs up against a tree and dents her car. She is reluctant to tell Andy because she is afraid he’ll say I told you so. But later Andy comes home and is distracted while yelling at a young cyclist and he drives into the back of Bee’s car. When he sees the damage he thinks he caused it but Bee confesses that it was her. Andy says if he can dent a fender then she can have a little accident. The next day Bee passes her test. In the final scene everyone piles into Bee’s car to go for a drive and she jerks again as she heads out. That doesn't make sense since she already passed her test. The storylines get screwed up in this series quite a bit. In the very first episode Bee drove to Andy’s house from out of town in a pickup truck with no problem. 

            In the second story Opie is looking forward to the class party until he finds out it’s going to be a dance. Opie has had bad experiences with his initial attempts at dancing and so now he doesn’t want to go. Andy doesn’t want to force Opie but when he sees how badly Opie feels about his inability to dance he finally gives him a strong suggestion that he should go. At the dance Andy and Helen are chaperones. All the kids are doing the frug while Opie is sitting by himself. Helen gets Andy to get up and dance and he doesn’t know how to do this kind of dancing. Opie feels encouraged when he sees his father struggling and so he gets up to ask Sharon to dance. It doesn’t take him long to catch on.