Joan Tompkins

            On Thursday morning before going to bed I noticed that drawn into the dirt on the outside of the upper left side of my living room window is a circle larger than the average clock with eight lines about three centimetres in length drawn on the inside, tilted toward the centre of the circle and arranged symmetrically to one another with four on each side. Someone would have needed to have been up on a ladder to have drawn the circle and it had been well over a year since anyone had been up there. The last would have been when the painters were preparing for Popeyes to move in. It felt kind of spooky, arcane and invasive. I went to bed feeling creeped out but hours later it wasn't even visible in the daylight and even when it was night again it didn't show up until it was absolutely dark and even then one had to focus to see it. So it's possible that it's been there for years without me noticing since I haven't risked my life to clean that window on the outside for at least ten years. 

            After yoga I finished working out the chords for "Adieu California" by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it in French. Tomorrow I'll try it in English and then upload it to Christian's Translations. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I scraped my heart shaped cake pan under the rim and on the sides. I still have the bottom to do and then there's another baking pan under the oven that will probably take a couple of days to clean. What with the stove, the shelf underneath and the kitchen shelves and cabinets that I have to clean, it doesn't look like I'll return to my floor scrubbing project this summer. 

            I weighed 89 kilos before lunch. I had kettle chips with salsa and yogourt and a glass of orange juice. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. I found some books in a box and took Huckleberry Finn, Faust, a Bone graphic novel plus Unto This Last by John Ruskin. I got past half of a long line of slow cyclists on the Bloor bike lane but when I tried to go out onto Bloor to pass the rest I got snagged in traffic and the whole line got ahead of me again. I passed them all a couple of blocks later. I rode to Yonge and Bloor and weighed 89.4 kilos when I got home at 18:00. 

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

            I ran four electrical cords out through rips in the leather covering that I sewed over my Roland amp towards its role in the video I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." I stuck the other ends of the cords into the underside of my Martian Bouquet sculpture on top of the amp. I searched through all my spare bike flashers and found one red one. I removed the back flasher from my bike and cleaned it up. The batteries have long run out on that one since because of the pandemic I haven't worked at night or had any night classes for over a year. I replaced the batteries in both flashers and they work fine. I'll place one flasher inside each mouth of the sculpture when I shoot the video and I think I'm ready to do that tomorrow evening. I'll just have to move the couch out of the way and move the bookshelf on which the amp is standing so it's centred in the corner of the room. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching two episodes of Mayberry RFD. 

            In the first story Pamela Bennington, the fashion editor for the Mount Pilot Clarion declares Millie Swanson to be the best dressed woman in the county. Millie begins to think in terms of trend setting and believes that the midi dress is the latest style. When she starts wearing them instead of mini skirts the men of the town become upset because they want to see women's legs. But also the married men are angry because their wives suddenly want to get rid of their short dresses and spend their money on longer ones. Howard asks Pamela to be the guest of honour at the Mayberry dance and Millie is surprised when she shows up in a mini skirt. She explains to Millie that she thinks the mini and the midi can be in fashion together as a woman's choice. As every man is asking Pamela to dance she says she has more fun in a mini. Millie expects Sam to ask her to dance when their song "Moon River" begins to play, but Sam walks right past her to ask Pamela. Millie goes back to wearing mini skirts. 

            Emily, one of Millie's friends, was played by Joan Tompkins, who started out in local theatre and then Broadway before working in radio. She starred in the radio soap opera "This Is Nora Drake." She and her husband Karl Swenson founded an acting company in Beverley Hills. After he died she became an author and started a writing group that spawned many successful authors. After WWII she adopted a disabled Polish boy who grew up to be a successful photographer. Their story is told in the documentary "Child From A Catalogue." 

            Pamela was played by Judith McConnell, who won the Special Talent award in the 1965 Miss America pageant. She played Yeoman Tankris in the Star Trek episode "Wolf In The Fold." She had a recurring role as a bank secretary on The Beverly Hillbillies and played Eb's girlfriend on Green Acres. She was in the movie "The Weather Man." She co-starred on the soap opera "Santa Barbara" from 1984 to 1993. 

            In the second story Howard is going to play host to his sixteen year old nephew Spud because he's going through a period of trying to find himself. When Spud steps off the bus Howard is shocked to see that he is a hippy. He asks him to scrunch down during the car drive to his place because he doesn't want people to see him. Howard learns that Spud has dropped out of school and has rejected clocks and the nine to five snakepit. He wants to go and live off the land like Henry David Thoreau. Sam offers to Spud a shack in the woods on his farm to test his commitment to this romantic lifestyle. After a few days Spud gets boored and starts to feel the desire to participate in society. 

            I went through a similar thing when I was sixteen but since I was already raised on a farm I had no desire to live off the land. I wanted to live off the street. I was more committed than Spud. 

            Spud was played by 23 year old Brad David. He didn't look 16 but he was short. He tended to be typecast as hippies and druggies but he did land a regular part in the series "Firehouse," which was canceled in the middle of its first season.