Johnny Cash

            Having gone to bed very early the night before I woke up at 3:00 on Monday. I decided to get up and finish writing my blog, then I went back to bed at 4:00. But I still couldn't sleep and so at 4:45 I got up and did a search for bedbugs. I found one healthy one on the western wall just above the baseboard and about halfway between the north and south ends of my bed. It was fat with my blood inside. I wonder if it was just sitting there because after feeding it was too big to fit into any holes. The majority of the ones I've found have been in close proximity to the electrical outlet so I wonder if they are living inside. Maybe I can get plastic plugs to fill up the plug holes when I'm not using the outlet. 

            I revised my translation of the sixth and seventh verses of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "Quite discrete without pretension / during their interrogations / they assist the prosecution / give weight and swing to their wisdom / With full respect for the cadence /they break in their joyous dance / the bones of all the resistance / so thugs will give good confessions." 

            I finished working out the chords for "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it once in French. I'll run through it in English tomorrow and then upload it to Christian's translations. 

            I weighed 89.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            I called Amy at Topcuts and made an appointment for a haircut for tomorrow at 13:00. 

            I went out to the hardware store to buy some safety plugs to cover up the plug holes in my bedroom electrical outlet, but they were out. I walked over to Fullworth but they didn't have them. The Dollarama didn't have them either. But I found a pack of eight for a dollar at Budget One Stop on Queen at the foot of Brock. I plugged two into my outlet but they don't cover much more than the plug holes. There are still cracks around the plug holes and so I put duct tape over the whole thing. 

            I finished cleaning the top of the first of my two muffin pans while listening to more of Johnny Cash's discography from 1960. It's interesting that Cash's best known songs, such as Folsom Prison Blues and I Walk the Line were on his first album. As one of the early rockabilly performers he was far more "billy" than the rest. His appeal came from the fact that he had an everyman voice albeit a very deep one and wrote extremely simple songs that anyone could sing. That characteristic train rhythm beat of his songs also had universal appeal. His lyrics tended not to make for very good poetry but his choices of subject matter had wide appeal because he often brought forward the plight of the unsung. Some of his stuff really stands out while other songs about farming and Jesus and guns and bad women are just kind of annoying. But it is often the songs by others that he chose to sing that made him stand apart from other country singers, especially the songs of and his collaborations with Bob Dylan. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 89.1 kilos when I got home. 

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

            In the Movie Maker project of the video that I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy" I trimmed the four minute segment of "Rosemary's Baby" that I'd cut yesterday down to one minute. I only need about ten seconds and so next time I'll cut out all the parts that show Mia Farrow's face and that of anyone else. All I need is something to match the line "undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice" and so faces are not necessary, especially recognizable ones. Not that I care about the legality of it but recognizing a face diverts the viewer from the message of the song. 

            I made a new batch of gravy out of the drippings from the chicken I grilled on Friday. It turned out a little too thick so I might have to add some more drippings the next time I grill meat. 

            I worked on editing the graffiti in my photo "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" but instead of trying to figure out what it says I started just trying to make it say something. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story an attractive woman has won the title of Miss Camp Henderson. Sergeants Carter, Hacker and Lubik as well as Corporal Boyle are admiring her photograph when Hacker comments on her unattainability. Carter offers his theory that every woman is approachable. Hacker bets him $50 he couldn't make time with her. Carter says not him because he'd get in trouble with Bunny but assures Hacker he could coach someone else to get a date with her and end up with her at Lookout Point. Hacker gets to pick the man Carter coaches and chooses Gomer. Carter starts working on Gomer by telling him that Julie Myers must be sad inside because men only want to hug and kiss her. He arranges for himself and Gomer to visit her under the pretense of an interview for the camp paper, then Carter leaves them alone. As soon as Carter leaves, Gomer confesses he's not a reporter and he only came to tell her she has a pretty mind. He's about to leave but she asks him to stay. They sit and have a great time talking and then Julie asks Gomer to take her out on Saturday. Carter lends Gomer his car and tells him to take Julie to lookout point. He does so which makes Julie suspicious but then Gomer doesn't make a pass but rather sits back to listen to the silence. She's so impressed with Gomer that she kisses him on the cheek. But Carter and Hacker are watching and Hacker has lost the bet. The next day Hacker shows up at Julie's door thinking that if Gomer has a shot then he must have a better one. But Julie rejects him immediately. He tells her about the bet and Julie then invites Gomer over to tell him off. Gomer has Carter explain the whole thing and now that she knows Gomer is blameless she only throws a beer on Carter. The next time Gomer and Julie go to Lookout Point Julie tells Gomer he can kiss her if he wants to. He tells her he'll kiss her real good but first he wants to wait and listen to the 9:05 train go by because he can't kiss and listen to trains at the same time. 

            Julie was played by the lovely Susan Oliver. 

            In the second story Gomer is walking on a bridge at night when an old guy sees him coming and pretends he's going to jump. Gomer stops him and listens to his made up story about having once been rich, thinking it's real. He takes Mr Sinclair for a meal. Sinclair asks Gomer to call him "Dad." From then on Sinclair keeps on coming to Gomer for handouts. Carter notices this and thinks rightly that it's a scam but when Carter goes to Sinclair's room to straighten him out Sinclair acts like he's trying to jump out of his window. Carter stops him and falls for his story of having once been a Marine and leading Sinclair's Raiders during WWII. The next day Sinclair comes to see Gomer and Carter and learns they have to do a special Marine operation that night. But later the operation is canceled and so they go looking for Sinclair. When they can't find him Gomer is worried Sinclair might try to jump again so he drags Carter to the bridge. But since Sinclair thinks that Gomer and Carter are away, they see him now scamming a sailor and changing his story to having been in the navy. Carter goes to the cops and finds Sinclair's mug shot. He's a well known con man with several aliases. Sinclair tries the suicide trick again but this time he's arrested.

August 31, 1991: During my sidewalk sale I made big bubbles and floated them down the street

Thirty years ago today

            I slept at my place on Friday night so I could set up the sidewalk sale on Saturday morning. I got up at around 8:00 and went out for some groceries. While I was having breakfast at 8:30 an old German lady came in expecting the sale to be ready. She said that a lot of people start at 8:30. I began to put stuff out at 9:00. I mixed water, dish soap and glycerine to make bubble stuff. I forget what I used for a hoop to make large bubbles that floated down the street but they looked pretty cool. Since I'd advertised this as a Gwen Jacob inspired topless lawn sale I kept my shirt off all day. In the course of the day I sold eleven Playboys, the stereo cabinet, a Bible, some wallpaper and some glasses. I only made $26, which was $4 short of what I paid in total for the stapler and for copying the posters. 

            Nancy, her sister Susan, the baby and I went to Griffith's for dinner before heading back to Nancy's place.

Indigenous Ethiopians

            On Sunday at around 0:30, before going to sleep I checked the baseboards and walls for bedbugs and found none.

            After yoga I revised my translation of the third cop dialogue in "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "Officer Otis Pifre, you have the remains of brains all over your left shoe / I'm sorry sergeant / For the next time be sure that you wipe off the defendant's hair." 

            I worked out the chords for the first two verses of "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and for the first line of the chorus. 

            During song practice for the last few days the shoelace that I use to extend my guitar strap must have stretched because my guitar has been hanging low. To some degree it looks cool like that but it was getting difficult to hit certain chords. I was waiting to have time to shorten the shoelace but this morning I realized I could just buckle the strap up a notch and so after I did that it was much easier to play.

            While I was singing and dancing during one song there was a beautiful young black woman with natural hair high on her head like a flower waiting at the light across the street. She was pushing a toddler in a stroller and watching me. Then when she crossed the street she looked up at me through my window and gave me a sweet smile. 

            I weighed 89.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I worked on cleaning the top of one of my muffin pans. That's pretty well done now but the edge and bottom will be harder. 

            At noon my upstairs neighbour David came to take me to lunch. As we passed The Skyline where we had lunch last time I commented that it used to be in Parkdale but now it thinks it's in Rosedale. We went next door to Ali Baba's. We each ordered a chicken shawarma wrap and I got a Jones root beer. It was very hot in the restaurant and I suggested we take our food to the park, so we walked to Dunn Avenue where a block down is a little parkette. We sat in the shade on raised concrete around the ventilation grid of an apartment building and ate and talked. He said the guy that served us at Ali Baba's is from Ethiopia like him but speaks a different language and is Muslim. I asked him if his people are indigenous to Ethiopia and he said it's a complicated question. 

            According to my research the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia are the hunter-gatherer communities of the Majang (Majengir) who live in the forest and the Anuak agro-pastoralist people who live in the Gambella region. 

            David seems to want to take me to lunch every Sunday and so next week we're going to Ali's Roti. He has this idea that every week we will travel a little further west along Queen and have lunch at a different place each time. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 89.5 kilos when I got home. 

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

            I shut down and then started my computer to refresh it so it wouldn't be so slow in the evening.

            I imported Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" into my Movie Maker project of creating a video for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." I put the film at the end of the timeline and trimmed everything but the four minute scene just before Rosemary is raped by the Devil. I'll narrow it down more tomorrow since I probably don't need any more than ten seconds. 

            I worked on making the graffiti clearer on one of the bricks in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" photo. I still can't figure out what it says. 

            I made two pork patties, added olive oil, salt and pepper jelly and grilled them in the oven. I had one in a sandwich topped by ketchup, mustard, peri peri sauce and a pickle. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Gomer wins a trip for two to Las Vegas and invites Carter to come along. Carter thinks he's going to have it made gambling as he shows Gomer around. But Gomer has their stay all planned out and gambling in Vegas has not entered his mind. Carter invites his Vegas girlfriend Irene to join them, promising that they'll do the town soon but Gomer drags them to the Rock and Mineral museum, Hoover dam and a staged indigenous ceremony. Gomer has $20 left of his prize money and when he takes a nap Carter borrows it and heads for the crap tables. Gomer wakes up thinking he's been robbed. When he finds Carter he explains that he borrowed the money and turned it into $200. Gomer is glad to hear it because he'd planned on giving $10 to charity. So he takes the money, keeps $10 and gives the rest to the Red Cross. As they are getting ready to leave Gomer tries a slot machine and wins $40. He tells Carter he's giving it all to him to donate to the charity of his choice. 

            Irene was played by Joyce Jameson. 

            In the second story the base is ordered to be extra vigilant about behaving as Marines because an important group of journalists is coming to tour the facilities. But suddenly young Opie shows up in Gomer's barracks. He has run away from home to avoid his father's anger over his bad marks and now the twelve year old wants to join the Marines. Gomer, Duke and Frankie try to keep Opie hidden and keep trying and failing to sneak him off the base. Finally Opie is discovered by Carter and he has no choice but to help get Opie out of Camp Henderson. It is arranged for him to have a room at a motel and Andy is contacted to fly out and pick him up. But Opie would have to sleep by himself in the motel room and Gomer can't bring himself to leave him and so he takes him back to the base. Carter takes matters in his own hands and takes Opie back to the motel but he also can't leave him and brings him to his own duty hut to sleep in a bunk where he'll be safe, even though it is against regulations. The next morning the colonel brings the journalists to Carter's duty hut and Opie is discovered. Opie appeals to the colonel not to blame Gomer or Carter. He says he wanted to come out and join what Gomer has always said is the best platoon in the Marines. The journalists think this is a great story. Andy comes to get Opie and he looks very stern. Carter remembers being beaten by his own father and urges Andy not to be too tough. Andy leaves with his arm around Opie. I felt very tired at around 22:30 and so I went to bed much earlier than usual.

August 30, 1991: He said they wanted me to move out but I said I wouldn't

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday I called Michael Quinlan and he said they wanted me to move out but I told him I wouldn't. He said, "So you're not going to cooperate?" I answered, No." He said, "Nice talkin to ya" and hung up. Then he called back five minutes later and asked for a rent receipt, so I didn't know if they were collecting rent or not. 

            I was at St Clair and Bathurst for 11:00. Gary didn't show up until noon but while I was waiting for him I helped the woman put most of her boxes downstairs. Even after Gary made it there was a delay getting access for the truck to the alleyway. The lady gave me a stereo cabinet and two comforters. 

            I called Mike Copping and we arranged to meet at a bar at St Clair and Yonge. He drove my stuff to my place and then we went to see "Dead Again." It was one of the best films I'd ever seen. I wanted Nancy to see it.

Rosemary's Baby

            On Saturday after midnight before going to sleep I did my usual search for bedbugs and found none. But I've found a total of ten in the last fifteen days and there's no pest control appointment until eighteen days from now.

            I revised my translation of the third chorus of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "These are the hobnail boots / friends of all the shy policemen / best dressed but with the beast in / and those are the charming reasons / for the hobnail boots." 

            I worked out the chords for half the first verse of "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            During song practice, about halfway through the seventh song my B string broke. I didn't have any new ones so I scavenged the one from my Oscar Schmidt. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            My upstairs neighbour David and I were scheduled to go for lunch today at noon. I should have suggested 13:00 because I always go to the supermarket at noon. I went at 11:30 and put a note on my door saying I'd be back in a few minutes. 

            At No Frills I bought four bags of cherries, two pints of strawberries, some 2 in 1 shampoo-conditioner, some Milanese pasta sauce, mango-lime salsa, skyr and Greek yogourt. When I got home it was 12:08. 

            I cleaned the cups in one of my muffin pans, so now I just have to finish the top and then do the bottom. These pans aren't as time consuming as the square baking pan was. 

            David didn't come around noon and so I thought that he might have mixed up the time and thought our date was for 13:00. But he didn't come then either and I figured he might have thought he'd said Sunday. 

            I weighed 89 kilos before lunch. I had four cream crackers with five year old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and when I got up and went to the kitchen I saw David in the hall just coming home from work. I called to him and sure enough he'd thought that we were having lunch on Sunday. I told him the plan had been Saturday but Sunday was better for me anyway. We're going to Ali Baba's.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. A couple of weeks ago they finally put up posts along the Bloor bike lane east of Spadina, but they're the cheap kind that are easily knocked down like the rest that run west of Ossington. Not like the solid metal posts they put up on the newest part of the lane east of Ossington. 

            The construction in the middle of Yonge just south of College has been going on for several months now and it's still narrowing Yonge for a block. I figure that it must have something to do with the subway since they wouldn't be raising a building in the middle of Yonge. I looked it up later and saw that they're building a second entrance to College Station and a concourse in between the two entrances. It won't be finished until 2023 but I assume they won't be blocking Yonge for that long. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos when I got home. 

            I took a few pictures of my full vaccination receipt because I need to convert it to a pdf and upload it to the ucheck website. U of T requires all students to upload proof of vaccination now, or proof of exemption, or else be tested every week. 

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

            I skimmed through "Rosemary's Baby" looking for something to extract for the video I'm making of my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy" that would match the line "Undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice." About 45 minutes in I found exactly what I was looking for. I might chop it up and change the sequence though. Tomorrow I'll import the film into my Movie Maker project and start trimming it. I'm pretty sure I saw Rosemary's Baby years ago but I'd forgotten just how amazing it is. Say what you will about Roman Polanski but the guy is a genius.

            Another powerful and totally bizarre film of his is "The Tenant", in which he directs himself. He moves into the top floor of a building into an apartment that had previously been rented by a woman who committed suicide. All of her clothes are still in the closet and he begins wearing them and then keeps trying and failing to kill himself over and over. Jumping out the window and limping back up, then crawling back up with broken bones. After finally thinking he's done it he wakes up toothless and immobile in bed and screaming as the camera slowly zooms in on his mouth. At least that's how I remember it. 

            There was a wicked rain storm near the end of the movie that continued afterwards. The leak from the inside top of my left window frame in the living room that I told the landlord about several months ago began again and I had to use several paper towels to mop up the water.

            I made pizza on naan with Milanese sauce, a cut up beef burger and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Gomer, Duke and Frankie are out on the town with very little money. They decide they have enough for a movie and so they get Gomer to spend his lucky dime calling the theatre to find out what is playing. But after he hangs up more than $41 in coins comes spilling out of the phone. Duke and Frankie think they've struck it rich but Gomer insists on returning the money to the phone company. However no one at the company knows what to make of Gomer wanting to give the money back. They keep passing him off to different people until finally he comes to Mr Corbett, the CEO, who thinks it's a prank and makes a joke of it. Finally Gomer goes to Sergeant Carter who advises him to simply go back to the phone and put the coins into the slot. But when he is doing that he drops some and while he is picking them up a cop comes along and thinks he's robbing the pay phone. At the police station the two detectives interrogating him don't even believe he's a marine. Gomer insists they call Sergeant Carter and when he comes they believe Gomer is a Marine but the circumstantial evidence against him is still overwhelming and Gomer goes to jail. Finally Carter brings down Corbett who clears it up. Later Corbett visits Gomer on the base and thanks him, asking how the phone company can repay him. Gomer arranges for each member of the platoon to get a free long distance call. 

            In the second story Duke shows that he has a talent for doing impressions. One night on the town Gomer, Duke and Frankie decide to take in the talent light at the Jade Club. When they walk in a female contortionist with a cold is performing. There are a few other acts and then the MC asks if anyone in the audience wants to come up. Gomer stands up and says Duke will do it. After some coaxing Duke gets up on stage and becomes quite comfortable at the mic. He does an impression of Gomer, but it's his impression of Sergeant Carter that really impresses the audience. Duke wins the $25 and gets invited to feature the next night. Three sergeants that know Carter happen to be in the audience and think it would be a funny prank on Carter to invite him down to be insulted. Gomer also invites him because he innocently believes that Carter will be flattered. Carter and Bunny arrive just as Duke takes the stage and so he doesn't know Carter is there. Carter does not appreciate Duke's impersonation of him and is about to leave when Gomer goes up to the mic and introduces Carter, saying he is a very good sport. When Carter hears everyone applauding him suddenly he feels better about the impersonation. He gets up on stage and hams it up, doing an impression of himself. Then he begins to sing in a very bad voice and clears the room. 

            My neighbour Benji knocked on my door to tell me that the landlord called to say there was another leak downstairs. I assumed it was caused by the leak in my living room. But when Raja came half an hour later he was uninterested in that leak because he said it was coming down below my bathroom. Once again I told him there was absolutely no overflow from that area. I also handed him my letter of response to his "second warning letter." We argued for a long time about the leak that he'd never fixed and he kept saying that he'd fixed it. We went around in circles because he said that I should have called him when it leaked again. I told him last winter that it leaked whenever there was heavy rain or snow so why should I call him over and over about it. I told him he should have told me he'd thought he'd fixed it so I could tell him he hadn't. If he'd been hired to fix it he wouldn't have come to do the repair without letting me know. It would be like fixing a radio without turning it on afterwards. He called me a "fucking idiot." I told him not to insult me. He once again tried to see if there was an overflow in the bathroom. When he came up with nothing he started to argue that my bathroom was going to cause health problems for the other tenants and that next time he would bring a camera to take pictures. I think he looked at the black stains that were in my toilet bowl and assumed that it was shit, but it was coffee stains that could be wiped away in two seconds.

August 29, 1991: Bill started calling me "Chris" to bug me. I warned him if he did it again I'd walk off the job. He did so I left

Thirty years ago today 

            On Thursday morning I worked with Paul loading the stuff of another gay couple. I found two turntables and a stack of architectural digests in their garbage. When we were done we took a swim and each got a $50 tip. I took the stuff that I'd found to Nancy's place and then I went to work again, this time at King and Spadina, where I was an hour late. The job was a small one and I was working the elevator. After a couple of hours Bill started calling me "Chris" just to bug me. I hate being called "Chris" and so I warned him that if he did it again I would walk off the job. I guess he thought that I was bluffing and so he did it again and I immediately left. Later Wayne called to ask me why I walked off the job. I explained my reasons and he told me that he would deal with Bill.

Christine Matchett

            On Friday at around 0:30 I did my usual search for bedbugs before going to sleep and was disappointed to find two living next door to one another in little caves at the bottom of the baseboard near the northwest corner of the room. I dug them both out with a skewer stick and like the last three that I found these ones looked like they were sick and dying as they were dark and greasy inside. I guess I should be encouraged that I didn't find ones containing my fresh blood but I'd rather not find any at all. I'm going to have to do more plastering to fill up more holes. 

            I revised my translation of the fifth verse of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "Their tools are very sociable / they use them to be loveable / from the high horse or the boot level / of the most useless reporter / Fixing problems of the young / by adding propagandic fun / to the stomachs or the gums / of punks in the Latin quarter." 

            I finished memorizing "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and looked for the chords online but no one had posted any. I worked them out for part of the introduction. 

            I weighed 89.9 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday, since I'd seen those two sick bedbugs last night I figured the holes I'd pulled them from could harbour healthy ones in the future, I mixed some polyfilla. I worked until lunchtime filling up holes in the baseboards and walls, especially any spaces between the baseboard and the floor, which seems to be a favourite hideout. 

            I weighed 89.3 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. That grinding sound when I pedal that I had a couple of months ago but went away is back again. I weighed 88.6 kilos when I got home. 

            I received a follow up email from the Parkdale Legal Clinic today advising me to write a counter letter to my landlord's "Second Warning Letter" of a couple of weeks ago. The day of my interview I'd asked about that and I was told it wasn't necessary but I guess the student lawyer talked with his supervisor and learned it was a good idea after all. So I spent about half an hour composing a response to my landlord and I'll hand it to him when he comes by at the end of the month. 

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." I looked for a full version of "Rosemary's Baby" on YouTube because I thought that I saw one yesterday but I couldn't find it today. I went on Pirate Bay where there is a long list of torrents of the film . At first I picked the one at the top but it didn't start downloading. It was listed as a "Windows Application" and I found it suspicious, thinking that I'd be asked for a code after downlading it. I deleted it and chose one lower down that was just listed as a movie. That started downloading right away and looked like a more legitimate torrent. It should be downloaded in an hour but I won't look at it until tomorrow. 

            I cut up a whole chicken and rubbed the parts with olive oil, salt and chili powder, then grilled them in the oven. 

            I worked on trying to make the graffiti clearer on one of the bricks in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" photo, but I still can't figure out what the word is. 

            I had a potato with butter and a chicken leg while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story a visiting colonel has a young daughter named Margaret. She meets Gomer when he drops a button during inspection and she picks it up for him. A dinner party is being held for the colonel and Gomer volunteers to help out. While delivering supplies Gomer meets Margaret again and seeing she is lonely he stops to play with her for a while. He gets in trouble with Sergeant Carter and she gets in trouble with her governess. At the dinner party Gomer is such a clumsy bus boy that Carter kicks him out. As he's leaving Margaret calls from her bedtoom window and asks him to come up to say goodbye. In Margaret's room Gomer starts dancing with her but the noise above the dinner party alarms the colonel. At first Gomer is about to get punished but the colonel realizes the situation and thinks Gomer should be commended for giving Margaret attention and kindness. 

            Margaret was played by eight year old Christine Matchett, who appeared on several TV shows as a child actor and was a regular as the daughter of the lead character on the short lived series "Owen Marshall, Counselor At Law. " Some episodes were directed by Steven Spielberg. She also appeared in "The Illustrated Man."

            In the second story some film makers want to make a movie of Sergeant Carter training his platoon because he's tough and drives them hard. But once Carter knows there'll be hidden cameras everywhere he starts to lose the natural qualities the film makers are looking for and begins to pose and speak politely to his men. He moves his men so that the camera will always be on him. But he feels Gomer speaks up too much and hogs the attention so he starts giving him work details away from the cameras. But the filmmakers notice this and start secretly filming Gomer. When they tell Carter they are changing the focus of the movie to the life of a Marine private Carter gets upset and starts yelling at Gomer. They film that too and that's just what they want. They change it so both Carter and Gomer are the stars of the film. 

August 28, 1991: It would be a Gwen Jacob inspired lawn sale and anyone that came topless would get half off

Thirty years ago today

            On Wednesday morning I worked with Dave moving a couple who were both seperating from their spouses and moving in together. We finished at around 14:00 and I went to my place. I made up some posters for my lawn sale. I referred to it as a Gwen Jacob inspired lawn sale and said that anyone who comes topless would get everything half off. I went to the library to make copies but then I had to rewrite them to fit the copier. I bought a staple gun and went to visit Marcus who was in a frazzle over getting packed to go back to England. I went out and put up some of my posters, then I went to my place and got a book by Leonard Cohen and another by George Gurdjieff and brought them back to Marcus as going away presents. Tom Smarda and I went for a beer and he told me he was leaving town tomorrow because the city made him neurotic.

Bobo Lewis

            Before going to sleep after midnight on Thursday I did my usual check for bedbugs and found none for the third day in a row. The real test would be to check when I get up to pee since if bedbugs have been out and feeding it would be around that time. But I didn't get up this morning until the alarm went off. However I am a fairly light sleeper and I've been woken up by bedbugs crawling on me so it seems like a good sign that hasn't happened. 

            I revised my translation of half of the fifth verse of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the first two verses and the chorus of "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and the final verse is just made of of lines from the first and second verses. I probably would have nailed down the whole thing this morning but it took fifteen minutes to open the document. 

            I weighed 90.8 kilos before breakfast.

            In the late morning after a couple of tries I got through to the dental clinic at Parkdale Community Health Centre and got an appointment under the Ontario Seniors Dental Plan. The earliest I could get was Friday October 8 at 10:00. 

            Around midday I worked on cleaning the inside and top of the first of my two muffin pans. I got it pretty much clean but there's still some brown at the bottoms of the muffin cups. I don't think I'll spend more than another session on the top. 

            While I was working I listened to the first of the albums from the Johnny Cash 58 album discography that I downloaded. The first one is called the Million Dollar Quartet featuring Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash just hanging out at Sun Records in 1956 and singing songs together. This spun out of a Carl Perkins recording session. Jerry Lee Lewis, who was unknown to the radio public at the time, had been brought in to play piano. Johnny Cash had come in just to listen to Perkins while Elvis, who had already left Sun for RCA, had just dropped by for a social visit. I can't discern Cash's voice at all in these songs but maybe he sang a low harmony. The most prominent voices are Elvis and Jerry Lee and they sounded amazing together as Jerry Lee harmonized and filled in the spaces. There are lots of gospel songs but they also do "Don't Be Cruel" and Elvis says he heard Jackie Wilson do a much better version than his own in Las Vegas. They also sing Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and are full of praise for Berry and his songs and lyrics. I wonder if it was clear to everyone there that by a "brown eyed handsome man" Chuck Berry means a black man. 

            I weighed 90 kilos before lunch.

            In the afternoon just before I was leaving for my bike ride it started raining. I had washed my shorts earlier and had put them out to dry on the roof. I got them inside just before they got a little damp again. I wanted to go to Freshco and so I just headed there. I bought four bags of cherries, a pint of strawberries, a pack of ground pork, two cans of peaches, some lemonade, a can of coffee and a big pack of toilet paper. As I was packing up my items the guy after me saw the cherries and asked, "Cherry pie?" I said, "No, just cherries." He said they're good and I said, "And they're Canadian." He asked, "You mean because we eat them a lot?" I said, "No, they're Canadian cherries." My shorts had almost gotten dry again while I was at the supermarket but the rain was pouring when I left. During the four minute bike ride home I got soaked. 

            I weighed 90.7 kilos at 18:15 but it probably would have been less if I'd made it out for a bike ride downtown and back. 

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

            I researched YouTube clips of "Rosemary's baby" to see if there's something that fits with the line, "Undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice" from my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." There are hints in some scenes that there might be parts of the film that would work but that just weren't put into clips. I'm going to have to just skim through the full movie on YouTube to see if I can find what I'm looking for. 

            I worked on making the graffiti clearer in another one of the bricks on the wall behind the skateboarder in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow:" photo. So far I can't figure out what it says or even what most of the letters are. I might have to just forget about it and make it into a brick with no graffiti. 

            I had a potato with butter and my last two chicken drumsticks while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Gomer comes to spend the weekend with his friend Frankie Lombardi and his mother, father and sister Rosa. But they arrive at a point when Frankie's mother is frustrated with the fact that Rosa has been dating Leo for two years but he has yet to propose. Leo comes over for dinner like he does every night and hints are dropped about marriage. Leo has his own butcher shop but he doesn't want to get married until he's made all his payments. Gomer agrees and says his mother always said, "A man's got to settle up before he settles down." Mrs. Lombardi says, "Your mother didn't have any daughters did she?" "No ma'am." "I didn't think so." Leo leaves and Gomer sings a song for Rosa. He sings the only Italian love song he knows and to Mrs Lombardi he sounds like he's singing every word to Rosa from his heart. Suddenly she thinks that Gomer is her future son in law. Frankie decides to try to use that to get to Leo but it only upsets him because he sees it as a trick and that he's being pressured. But that night when Frankie and Gomer are coming home Frankie realizes he's forgotten his keys. He goes to the back to look for an open window. Meanwhile Gomer sees one at the front and grabs a ladder. But Leo is walking by and thinks Gomer is trying to elope with Rosa. He says if anyone is going to elope with her it will be him. 

            Rosa was played by Gigi Perreau. 

            Mrs Lombardi was played by Lillian Adams, who played Mama Kowolski in Bruce Almighty.

            In the second story the base is having an open house so the men can invite relatives and there will be a dance at the end. Gomer says he'll be inviting his cousin Bridey and also ivites Sergeant Carter to help entertain his cousin. But Carter expects Bridey to be a female version of Gomer but with no shoes and so he declines. But later Duke asks Gomer to take his girlfriend Francine out because he has guard duty. When Carter sees Gomer with a gorgeous woman he assumes it's his cousin. The next day he tells Gomer he wants to meet Bridey after all. But the night of the dance when Carter sees Duke with Francine he thinks it's Bridey. Duke explains the mistake. Now Carter is worried that Bridey will be unattractive and hides so he can slip away just in case. Then another private walks in with his not conventionally attractive sister Cynthia. Roger goes to check Cynthia's coat and while he is gone Carter sees Gomer standing and talking with Cynthia. Carter sneaks out the window. Later Boyle catches up with Carter to tell him that wasn't Bridey. Carter goes back to the dance. Then a gorgeous blonde arrives and Carter sees Gomer embracing her so he goes over to meet his cousin. But it is Bridey's friend Flora. Bridey comes from the powder room and she is everything that Carter had been running from. Later Carter says he got called away for an emergency and Gomer says that's too bad because he wanted him to spend some time with Flora. Carter loses again. 

            Francine was played by Warrene Ott, who was in "The Invincible Six" and "If A Man Answers". She co-starred in "The Undertaker And His Pals." 

            Flora was played by Arlene Howell who was Miss Louisiana in the 1958 Miss USA pageant. She was the third runner up in the Miss Universe competition. She co-starred in the series "Bourbon Street Beat." 

            Bridey was played by Bobo Lewis, who won a drama desk award for the musical "Working" in 1978. She is best known for playing the gossip Midge Smoot on Shining Time Station from 1989 to 1993.

August 27, 1991: While the baby was sucking on my finger I felt her first tooth coming in

Thirty years ago today 

            On Tuesday morning I went back to 130 Bloor West to unpack the antiques we'd delivered on Monday. The middle aged gay customers bought us lunch and made us take breaks. When we were done at around 14:00 they gave us each a $20 tip. 

            I called Mike Copping and he said we couldn't get together but told me to call on Thursday. 

            I went to my place and found that the upstairs apartments were now all open. I'd been taking all the leftovers of the tenants that moved out. There were lots of dishes, silverware and a nice desk. 

            I masturbated and went back to Nancy's place. 

            That night Nancy, the baby and I went to the Ex. We watched bungee jumpers, I took pictures while walking around and also from one of the rides. Nancy ate a lot. We tried to win a big, spotted elephant for the baby. The baby was sucking on my finger and I felt her first tooth coming in. We stayed there until late.

Nancy Hadley

            On Wednesday at 0:30 I did my usual search of the baseboards and walls for bedbugs and found none. That's two days without finding any and the last three I've found seemed sick. I still haven't heard anything about an appointment with pest control since they failed to get into my building a week ago. 

            I revised my translation of some of the fifth verse of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the first two verses of "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg and there's only really the chorus left to learn. The song compares writing a hit song to finding a new way to give pleasure to a lover. It has a nice melody which is not by Gainsbourg. 

            I got an email from Albert Moritz agreeing that we should wait until George Elliott Clarke gets back from Nova Scotia to help us before deciding on a different publisher for my book than Exile. He said that if Exile doesn't pan out George might be able to help me with Guernica since he's been published by them as well. I really appreciate having Albert in my corner. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            In the late morning I called Orkin to find out if my landlord had booked an appointment with a pest control technician to treat my place for bedbugs. It turned out he hadn't, even though eight days have passed since the failed appointment last week. I called Raja and he said they hadn't called him back. I told him not to wait for them to call him back but to wait on hold and get through to somebody. I told him I reach someobody within ten minutes every time I call them. It's incredible that he would wait this long while bedbugs may be multiplying in his building. 

            I called up Smile City to find out if they are covered by the Ontario Seniors Dental Plan but they aren't. The receptionist suggested I call Public Health. I called the Public Health clinic at 380 College but the person said I should call the place in Parkdale at Dufferin and Queen. But the website there said they were closed until 13:00. 

            Benji knocked on my door to say Raja called and said he'd booked an appointment for September 15. That seemed rediculously far away considering that bedbugs lay hundreds of eggs every ten days. I called Raja and he said that was the earliest they had. They obviously would have come earlier if he'd called them last week. They're scheduled to come September 15 between 9:00 and 13:00. Hopefully they'll come after that first hour because I have an online Shakespeare class between 9:00 and 10:00. 

            Phone calls took up a lot of my cleaning time but I managed to get the dishes done and to start cleaning one of my muffin pans. I got all the old olive oil off of it that had turned to guck. 

            I called the Parkdale Community Health Centre but the dental clinic people were on lunch break until 14:00. I'll call them tomorrow morning. I hope they don't send me to the clinic at Bathurst and Queen because I did not like the dentist there. 

            I weighed 89.6 kilos before lunch. I had four cream crackers with five year old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            I took a siesta and halfway through there was a knock on my bedroom door from the hallway. It was my upstairs neighbour David, who'd already tried knocking at my open apartment door. He had a small pizza for me and wanted to know about pest control. I told him they are coming on September 15 and he said he'd leave me his key. Hopefully his place will be on their schedule when they come. Maybe he should call Raja to make sure. I put the pizza in the freezer for another day because I was planning on making my own tonight. 

            I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor in the afternoon. It was cloudy but still hot. I weighed 89.5 kilos when I got home. 

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

            I researched movie clips of ritual human sacrifice to see if any of them match the line "undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice" from my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." Nothing came up but I'm thinking that I might find what I'm looking for in Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby." If I don't then I might just settle for the scene of Olivia DeHavilland being compelled to lie down for shock therapy in "The Snake Pit." 

            I made pizza on naan with the rest of the sauce I made on Sunday, a cut up beef burger and some extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Gomer is at his favourite restaurant in town when he sees and hears the waiter being verbally abused by her boyfriend Sergeant Arthur "The Beast" Henchley. Thinking that Ginger might be upset and needing a friend to talk with, Gomer waits for Ginger after her shift and offers to walk her home. They have a good time and she feels better. The next day when Arthur comes into the cafe Ginger tells him off and then she asks Gomer to take her to the movies tomorrow night. When Gomer comes to pick Ginger up at work she tells him that she and Arthur made up and he's going to take her to the movies. But she leans over and gives Gomer a kiss on the cheek just as Arthur walks in. He takes Gomer out in the alley to beat him up but then Gomer starts giving Arthur a lecture on kindness and explains how hard Ginger works all day in those high heels and that what she really needs is understanding and sweetness. The unlikely result is that Arthur has an epiphany and realizes Gomer is right. He apologizes to Ginger and turns over a new leaf. Even back on the base when Arthur hears Carter yelling at Gomer he tells him he should be more kind. 

            Ginger was played by Nancy Hadley, who co-starred in "Frontier Uprising." She played Barbara Simpson on the Joey Bishop Show. 

            In the second story Gomer gets a visit from Grandma Pyle, whose purse is full of lucky charms and folk remedies. Gomer asks her to tell his fortune with cards like she used to. She reveals that something bad is going to happen to someone close to him and it will be his fault. The next day Gomer is being yelled at for his messiness by Sergeant Carter when Carter loses his voice. The doctor tells him not to speak for a day. Grandma gives Gomer a small bottle containing alum, molasses and vinegar. She tells Gomer to give it to Carter and it will cure his voice. But since Carter in his anger won't take anything from Gomer he has to sneak it into his coffee. The result is that Carter can speak again but his voice sounds high like as if he's inhaled helium. Carter is too embarrassed to give commands with a high voice and so he takes another day off. Later when grandma reads Gomer's tea leaves she says there's danger for anyone who is Taurus the Bull and they shouldn't go anywhere. Gomer says Sergeant Carter's birthday is May 4. Meanwhile Carter decides to go to a crap game in town to take his mind off his voice. But when he goes to his car his tire is flat. He changes to work clothes and changes the tire but when he comes back his pants are missing. He borrows Corporal Boyle's pants and heads for his car only to find Gomer trying to remove his carburator. While yelling at Gomer his voice changes back to normal. Then Boyle comes and tells him he's lucky he was delayed because the crap game was raided by the cops.

August 26, 1991: We unloaded a trailer of antiques for a middle aged gay couple with lots of money

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday morning I went to 130 Bloor West to unload a trailer of antiques from California. It took an hour just to get the truck backed in. The customers were a middle aged gay couple with lots of money and one of them was a set designer for movies. We finished at around 16:00 but would have to come back on Tuesday to unpack their stuff.

Ken Russell

            On Tuesday at 0:30 I did my usual search for bedbugs before going to sleep and I was glad to find none. So that's still eight bedbugs I've found since August 13 and the last three have looked sick. I still want Orkin to come to treat the place though and hopefully that will happen soon. 

            I reworked my translation of the second cop dialogue in "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap Dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished posting my translation of "Bébé Polaroid" by Serge Gainsbourg and sang along once with his song "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France). 

            I got an email from Albert Moritz saying he still hasn't heard from Exile Editions. He said he wanted to get in touch with George Elliott Clarke to see if he can connect with Michael Callaghan but George is on holiday in Nova Scotia. Albert wondered if we should move on to another publisher. I wrote back that it seems to me that if George is a card in our deck he should be back to teach in Toronto within the next three weeks so we might as well wait until at least then before considering another publisher. 

            I weighed 90.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sawed a small piece of floorboard to make it thinner and then shorter to fit into the hole in the corner of my bedroom floor that I'd filled a couple of weeks ago. The piece of wood I'd glued there back then was slightly lower than the rest of the floor and I thought I could raise it a bit with another piece but I realized after trying to fit the wood that it's not that much lower and so it would be better just to buy some wood filler. So I went to the hardware store with an old dried up tub of Elmer's wood filler that I'd bought ten or more years ago. They didn't have Elmer's in stock so I got a tube of Le Page's tique coloured wood filler. The cashier was having a moment with her teenage son who was having a bad day and gave him a hug. She took the time to explain that to me at the counter. I had put the ten year old Elmer's tub down on the counter and she grabbed and scanned it. It still scanned at $3.59. That was funny. Of course she subtracted it once she knew. I filled the hole and smoothed it to the level of the rest of the floor. It's a bit red, so maybe I should have bought the oak tinted tube. The hole is sealed better now so I can worry about the aesthetics of the floor when I get back to fixing up the bedroom at a future date. 

            In the final twenty minutes before lunch I scraped the last of the black off the bottom of my square baking pan. Now I can move on to cleaning my two muffin pans, which hopefully won't be as time consuming. 

            I weighed 89.8 kilos before lunch.

            Before taking my siesta I put my computer to sleep as well. I turned it on when I got up and because of that posting my blog was much quicker. I got away for my bike ride 45 minutes sooner than yesterday. It was hot like an oven outside although the official temperature wasn't any higher than the day before. I stopped at Freshco on the way home because I'd run out of both cereal and milk and I wanted some for breakfast tomorrow. I also grabbed a bag of kettle chips. I weighed 88.7 kilos when I got home. 

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

            I continued to try to find a video clip relating to shock therapy that could match the line "Undress the patient and then lay them down just like a sacrifice" from my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." So far the closest thing is just when Olivia de Havilland is compelled to lie down for shock therapy in "The Snake Pit." I skimmed through Ken Russell's "The Fall of the Louse of Usher" and it looks like a fun movie to watch but it's too bizarre for my purpose in this project. I think I'll look for clips of human sacrifice to see if there's anything that fits. 

            I worked on making the graffiti clearer in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" photo. 

            I had a potato, the last of my gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Carter's platoon is on war games and Carter is ordered to have one of his men captured in order to feed the enemy false information. Carter figures he will just feed Gomer false information and then send him out to be captured. He figures that Gomer will be tricked into leaking the info he has so he doesn't have to be told the truth. But he doesn't tell Gomer he's to be captured but rather just sends him towards the enemy in hopes that he will be. He tells Gomer he's heading for the ammunition dump but it's really the enemy camp. However Gomer doesn't get captured and comes back to inform Carter where the ammunition dump isn't. Carter sends Gomer back to spy on the enemy camp to find out where the ammunition dump is. Then he sends Duke to follow Gomer and to make sure he gets captured. Gomer does get captured but he tricks the two enemy soldiers by pointing and yelling "Here comes the cavalry" then he grabs their weapons and captures them and ties them up, then he sneaks on a truck and comes back to Carter. But Carter tells him that since he didn't report his two captures to a referee they wouldn't get credit. So Gomer goes back and this time really does get captured. At the prison camp Gomer is bribed with a turkey dinner to spill information. He pretends to give in and gives false information but he ends up giving the right information because Carter had fed the wrong info to him. But Gomer is now sick from eating too much and so he is sent to the doctor. After the doctor leaves the room he finds the captain's uniform in a closet and sneaks out the window, getting away in a jeep. On the road Gomer comes across a whole platoon of the enemy and captures them all, earning both Carter and himself citations. 

            In the second story Gomer is driving Carter nuts with one screw up after another. He decides that he needs a vacation and so he arranges for Gomer to have a one week furlow. But Gomer doesn't want to go and so during his leave he takes a civilian job as a bartender on the base. But while serving Carter beer he spills it all over him. Carter reveals that he was trying to get rid of him and since the last thing Gomer wants to do is to hurt Carter he puts in for a transfer. Carter seems thrilled at first but then the platoon seems empty without Gomer there to screw up. Carter gets irritable because he needs someone to yell at. Finally on the day Gomer is supposed to leave Carter tears up Gomer's transfer papers in front of him, making him very happy. Gomer screws up right away and Carter starts yelling and I guess everyone is happy.

August 25, 1991: We were talking about sex and the redneck at the next table told us to put a sock in it so I spit at him

Thirty years ago today 

            On Sunday when I got up I called Marcus's place and Sue answered. I asked about us all getting together for a drink and she said they'd call back. A little later Tom Smarda called and we arranged to all meet at around 14:30. Nancy brought the baby and her sister Susan came as well. We met at Marcus's and then Tom, the baby, the girls and I went ahead of Marcus to The Lion On The Beach. We talked, took pictures of the baby and had something to eat, then Marcus arrived. 

            After three or four glasses of draft I started getting "that feeling" and so I ordered a coffee. We were discussing sexuality and Tom was getting loud and colourful. The people at the next table started making comments. Finally one of them said, "Put a sock in it!" I turned and asked, "Are you talking to us?" When the red headed redneck with the beard said "Yeah" for some reason I went "hock to" and spit at him. The guy was pissed off and wanted to fight but told me, "You're lucky I'm tired!" They and we got kicked out and barred. It was lucky that Marcus was going back to England because this was his favourite pub in the Beaches. 

            We went back to Marcus's place where he and Tom kept drinking. We listened to Marcus's home made music and I danced while holding the baby. For some reason relating to "tense vibes" she thought she was picking up Nancy wanted to take her from me and into the other room. I resented her emotional fascism of motherhood and refused to let her take the baby. Tom wanted to hold the baby and I let him because trusted him even though he'd been drinking. Nancy took her away from him and retreated to the other room. I was pissed off.

Kathleen Hughes

            On Monday at around 0:30 I did my usual search for bedbugs before going to sleep. While digging around with a skewer stick I pulled one out of the north west corner of the floor where I'd glued down a small piece of floor board to fill up the hole that had been there. Like the last two that I found this one seemed like it was dying as it had no fresh blood inside when I crushed it. That makes eight that I've found since August 13. 

            I reworked my translation of the second chorus of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap Dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian: "These are the hobnail boots / friends of all the bright policemen / curing tears in west and east end / and those are the charming reasons / for the hobnail boots." 

            I positioned the chords for "Bébé Polaroid" by Serge Gainsbourg in Christian's Translations in preparation for blog publication. I should have it published tomorrow. 

            According to my digital scale I weighed 91.3 kilos before breakfast. That must have been one heavy pizza I made last night. I don't think I've hit 91 since the winter. 

            At 11:00 I received the call from the Parkdale legal Clinic for the interview that I requested. While talking with the student lawyer I emailed him the "warning letter" from my landlord. I sent him the jpg of the letter when I'd thought I'd made a pdf. It turned out I'd forgotten to move the pdf from my downloads folder but I didn't notice that until later. I also sent him the document that I'd made from my journal entries of the dates in question. He told me the warning letter doesn't have any power over me and if he were in my place he'd ignore it. I should only be concerned if I get an eviction notice and then I should contact them immediately. 

            After hanging up I tried to call Orkin to find out if my landlord had made an appointment for bedbug treatment, but my phone wouldn't make the call and a message came up that said, "Emergency calls only." I also noticed that my call record was empty. I walked over to Freedom Mobile but the guy said they don't fix phones. I said I just needed some technical help. I told me to leave the phone with him for an hour. When I came back an hour later he said he needed another ten minutes. When I came back it was his colleague who'd fixed it. He explained that sometimes the sim card goes out of sync. He said he'd just changed the code. 

            There was mail for me and Benji that had been slipped under the front door of the building. Apparently our regular mail person is on holiday and the substitute doesn't have a key. My mail was from the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program telling me that I'd been accepted into the program. Included was a cheap paper identification card I would have to cut out of the letter. It's good for a year but they'll notify me when it's time to reapply and I assume there won't be a complicated form. I'll just have to write in any changes to my financial status. 

            I weighed 90.4 kilos before lunch. 

            When I got up from my afternoon siesta I went to post my blog as usual but my computer was running so slow that it took ninety minutes to do what should take no more than fifteen. I usually restart my computer after posting my blog so it's fresh for the evening but I think from now on I'll turn it off before my siesta. 

            I left for my bike ride more than half an hour later than usual. It seemed to be a day for delays as I waited at more lights than usual and was trailing behind two buses on Queen. I passed the buses at Bathurst but just barely made it as the light turned red. I weighed 89.3 kilos when I got home. 

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

            I continued researching "mental hospitals in movies" and looked through a Wikipedia page with a long list. There's nothing however in the descriptions that indicates there is anything specific in any of the movies to match my line "Undress the patient and then lay them down just like a scarifice" from my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy." I'll have to either refine my search or just start looking at some of the movies. 

            I worked on making the graffiti clearer in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" photo. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two chicken drumsticks while watching two episodes of "Gomer Pyle." 

            In the first story Sergeant Carter needs to fly to San Franciso to pick up an AWOL Marine but he needs someone to drive his car home from the airport and then pick him up when he returns. He settles on Gomer because no one else is available. Carter's car is his pride and joy and he gives Gomer instructions while they're walking from the airport parking lot. But as soon as Gomer returns to the car it's gone. He goes to the police and finally the car is found abandoned near a construction site. Gomer goes to the phone booth to tell Duke but as he's talking he sees a wrecking ball drop right on top of Carter's car and crushing it. The owner of the construction company feels so bad that he gets Carter a new car. Carter returns with his prisoner in handcuffs and is pleased to have a new car but he chastizes Gomer for leaving the keys in the old car. While he's doing so the prisoner escapes. He's caught in Arizona and so now Carter has to go there but this time he makes sure his car can't be stolen because he handcuffs Gomer to the steering wheel. 

            In the second story Carter and Bunny have a fight over him never taking her dancing and they break up. Gomer and Frankie see Carter in a bar looking dejected. Gomer decides he has to show Bunny how upset Carter is and she agrees to come to the bar. But just before they get there Toby Comstock, an old girlfriend of Carter's arrives with her husband. She sits alone with Carter for a few minutes to catch up but when Bunny walks in and sees Carter smiling with an attractive woman she turns around and leaves. She says she's going to be by herself at home reading a book. Gomer convinces Carter to come and see how sad Bunny is but before they arrive Bunny's upstairs neighbour is having a party and decides to bring it downstairs to Bunny. Carter arrives to see a party going on and so he leaves. Carter hasn't slept for three days and so he goes to a hotel to sleep for a long time. When Gomer hears this he thinks Carter is going to commit suicide. He tells Bunny and they go to Carter's room. He's wearing earplugs so he can't hear them knock. Gomer takes a fire axe and smashes through the door. Carter wakes up with Bunny crying over him. They make up. 

            Toby Comstock was played by Kathleen Hughes, who had a famous scream scene in "It Came From Outer Space." She co-starred with Edward G Robinson in "The Glass Web" and Rock Hudson in "The Golden Blade." She says she gave Hudson his first onscreen kiss. She played Mrs Coburn on The Ghost and Mrs Muir" and Mitch on "Bracken's World."

August 24, 1991: All day on the moving job Mike and Alfred made silly jokes about bungee jumping

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday morning I was half an hour late to meet Mike and Alfred north of Islington and Lawrence because of one bus delay at Cummer and my mistake of going to Eglinton instead of Lawrence. On top of that I got off the Islington bus too soon and had to walk. But when I got there they only had a bunch of boxes on the truck. 

            We finished loading and then went for rotis and beer. All day long they were making silly jokes about bungee jumping. At the end of the day we each got a $10 tip. 

            I caught the Finch bus to the station and then headed down to my place for a while. I ran out to the variety store for a minute and when I came back Marcus and Sue were sitting on my steps. They came in briefly and told me Tom Smarda was coming to town. We arranged to get together for a drink before they left for England.