Whitney Blake

            On Wednesday morning when I got up it had been 24 hours since I found and killed the one bedbug. So far there was not trace of any more but for the next couple of weeks I'll be worried that it might have laid eggs. After that time if nothing happens then there's a better chance that I escaped another infestation. 

            I started memorizing "Le java des chaussettes à clous" (The Dance of the Studded Stockings) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for the first verse of "J'ai des locataires" (I Am A Landlord) by Serge Gainsbourg. They should be all the same but now I have to figure the transition cords. 

            I weighed 89.4 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I glued the top piece onto the handle of the "Troll" mug that my late friend William "Scooter" Baker made. This smaller piece was less difficult to get to stay on than the heavier bottom piece. There are two more parts to go. 

            I sewed together a bit more of my Frankenstein's Rainbow doorstop, which is part of an old and colourful woolen blanket wrapped around a concrete block. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos before lunch. I had saltines with five year old cheddar and a glass of orange juice.

            I had a restful siesta with still no sign of a second bedbug. 

            I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I had to go out on Bloor Street to pass two bike cops who were riding slowly side by side in the bike lane and chatting as they usually do. It was a hot day but not a sweat rolling off your forehead kind of day. 

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

            In my Movie Maker project for making a video for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy" I synchronized the first few words of the studio vocal with the concert video so that it shows me singing "Plug the female end of the cord ..." I extend the word "cord" a little too much in the concert for them to match at that point and so I may have to pull away to a video of the female end of a cord being plugged in. So far I haven't found any videos like that online. There are some old videos of electroshock therapy that I've bookmarked but nothing so far of the machines being pugged in. I'll search a little more for videos online but if all else fails I can make another video and plug in the female end of my printer cord. If I do it as a close up it won't be obvious it's the back of a printer. 

            I colourized a bit more of the brick wall in my black and white photo of the skateboarder from the 80s. 

            I grilled four beef burgers and had one between two halves of a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with ketchup, barbecue sauce, mustard, habanero sauce and dill pickle while watching two episodes of Andy Griffith. 

            In the first story Aunt Bee wins a trip for two to Mexico but she is torn between which of her two best friends, Clara or Myrtle to take. If she chooses one she will hurt the other's feelings. On Helen's suggestion she invites both friends if they would each pay half price. They happily agree but even before boarding the plane they begin to bicker over the window seat. They seem to argue the whole time they are there and are not on speaking terms when they return. When Andy goes to pick up Bee's photos of the trip he sees pictures of all of them having a wonderful time together. Learning that Clara and Myrtle's photos are also ready he comes up with a scheme to heal their friendship. He asks the printer to call each of the three women to come in at the same time without knowing the others will be there. As they separately look at their photos they begin to remember what a good time they had. 

            In the second story Andy is all ready to take Helen to the harvest dance when he is called away to Raleigh to meet with a lawyer to discuss a court case for which he has to give testimony. When he arrives at the lawyer's home he is uncomforatbly surprised to discover that Lee Drake is an attractive woman. They work by her pool and Andy gets a sunburn that he lies to explain when he gets home. He avoids telling Helen that Drake is a woman. He arranges to take Helen on a picnic to Myers Lake but then Lee Drake arrives saying that the judge requires further testimony from Andy. Helen meets Lee and she is pissed off that Andy lied to her. Andy tries to explain with a bizarre piece of logic: "I trust you because you don't lie to me. I lie to you because you don't trust me." Helen goes to the lake by herself and when Andy comes to make up with her the next day he finds that Helen has a sunburn. She says she spent the day with someone there and they talked about honesty and trust. Andy gets the lesson I guess but he sure does lie a lot for a guy that's supposed to be honest. 

            Lee was played by Whitney Blake who co-starred in the Mike Hammer film "My Gun Is Quick". She played the mother on Hazel and was the co-creator of the sitcom "One Day at a Time" based on her own experiences as a single mother. She was the mother of Meredith Baxter who played the mother on Family Ties. Whitney Houston was named after her.