Buddy Foster

            On Monday at 4:00 I woke up to the overwhelming odour of bedbugs, but once again I think it was really the smell of rancid fat rising up from Popeye' downstairs, probably from them dumping the fat from their friers. I did a check just in case and there was still no sign of bedbugs thirteen days after the one I found. 

            My left shoulder was a little less sore than the day before. I finished working out the chords for "Brigade des stups" (The Drug Squad) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through it in French and English and then uploaded it to Christian's Translations where I almost finished preparing it for blog publication.

            During song practice the Washburn went out of tune almost as much as it did before being repaired. I assume it was because it was extremely humid and raining. Also the guitar started chafing against my strumming arm and near the end I had to put on a long sleeved shirt to soften the irritation.

            I weighed 89.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I returned to my oven cleaning project. There isn't much left to clean on the inside. There are almost unnoticeable black marks that I played search and destroy with. But the oven looks so clean now that it makes the oven door look like shit, so I spent some time scraping the black off the hatch. When I'd cleaned the door before tackling the inside I'd focused on the window because that was the worst part. Today I got most of the black off the door using the scraper. It might take at least two more sessions to finish that part and then I'll have to clean the storage tray below. 

            I weighed 88.8 kilos before lunch. I had kettle chips, salsa and skyr with a glass of orange juice.

            When I took my siesta I was able for the first time in a few days to sleep on my left shoulder, but I woke up halfway through and it hurt so took the rest of my nap on my back. 

            I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor and on the way back stopped at Freshco because I'd forgotten to buy toilet paper on Saturday which forced me to wipe myself with paper towels. My cashier Priscilla was wearing a leopard print mask and the customer ahead of me had one of glittering silver. I weighed 88.4 kilos after my ride. 

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." 

            I cut out several parts of my video of a hand plugging an electrical cord into my Pipe Dream Sculpture. I deleted a lot of the parts where the cord is not in the frame, when the sculpture is moving and when I'm adjusting the sculpture's position to get it more stable. There's quite a bit more to remove from that video next time. 

            I colourized some more bricks in my skateboarder photo. There are seventeen left. 

            Benji knocked on my door to tell me thwat the landlord asked him to inform me that the exterminator is coming on Wednesday between 8:00 and 12:00. Since I haven't seen a bedbug since the first one I found two weeks ago I don't know if the technician needs to do anything extreme. In case there are eggs it might be a good idea to steam. I don't feel the need to remove everything from the bedroom. I'll talk to the exterminator when they come and see what their advice is. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks for dinner while watching two episodes of Andy Griffith. 

            Both stories seem to be setting up the series "Mayberry RFD" that will replace "The Andy Griffith Show" which will be ending in a few episodes. 

            In the first story the head of the Mayberry City Counsel has moved on to a job in Raleigh and so Andy, Goober, Howard and Emmett are discussing who would be a good replacement. Everyone but Emmett complains that the previous councillor played too much favouritism. Emmett surprises the others by suddenly deciding to throw his hat into the ring. Emmett's friends don't think that he is the right man for the job and so they try to think of someone better. When Howard suggests Sam Jones the farmer the three agree and go out to his farm to ask if he'll run. Sam finally agrees but he has stiff competition from Emmett whose technique is to promise each potential voter what they want. Sam on the other hand wants what is best for all to benefit individuals. In the end Sam wins and Emmett is not a sore loser at all. But people begin to ask for favours and Aunt Bee tries to bribe Sam with a pie. 

            Sam was played by Ken Berry, who started out as a dancer and continued to entertain in that way in the army. His sergeant was Leonard Nimoy, who advised him to go to Hollywood. He worked for Abbot and Costello as part of their stage act and provided song and dance routines between performances by Andy Griffith and Jerry Van Dyke. He became a frequent guest on The Carol Burnett Show. He played Woody the bellhop on the Ann Southern Show. He played Dr Kapish as comic relief on the drama Dr Kildare. His first sitcom was "F-Troop", after which he starred in "Mayberry RFD". Later he co-starred in "Mama's Family." 

            In the second story Sam's son Mike is dealing with an older and bigger bully at school. Standing up to Edgar is not the answer and Mike doesn't want his father to intervene because the other kids would make fun of him. After Sam tells Andy about it Andy consults Opie, who had his own problems with bullies when he was younger. Opie says he'll take care of it and steps in the next time Edgar is bullying Mike. Opie warns Edgar to back off because he's watching and after that Mike attaches himself to Opie. Opie doesn't mind and when Andy expresses concern Opie tells him that Mike will eventually gravitate towards kids his own age. The two are inseparable until a pretty girl named Heather Campbell moves in next door and suddenly Opie wants to hang out with her. He doesn't push Mike away but suddenly doesn't want to play baseball with Mike and prefers to listen to records with Heather. Mike asks his father why boys like girls and Sam struggles to give an answer. When a dejected Mike is looking for Opie to give him back his baseball glove he meets Heather's little sister Claudia and suddenly Mike starts to hang out with her. 

            Mike Jones was played by Buddy Foster, who is the brother of Jodie Foster. They appeared together in the movie "Foxes." He was the voice of the little boy in the "How many licks does it take?" Tootsie Pop commercials. Buddy wrote a book called "Foster Child" which says things about Jodie that she was not happy with. She says he misremembered and made up a lot about her and their family.

            Heather was played by Diane Quinn, who didn't accumulate a very large TV resume. 

            Claudia was played by Kellie Flanagan, who played Candice Muir on The Ghost and Mrs Muir. According to IMD she became a producer but it doesn't say of what.