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.