Pippa Scott

            I woke up on Tuesday a little after 2:00 because I had to pee. After that was done I did a quick scan of the bed, the pillow, the walls and the baseboards. Seeing no bedbugs I went back to sleep. I haven't seen any since the the unhealthy looking one I found on Saturday morning. I'm thinking that the pyrethroid dust that the exterminator spread around may be the reason I've only seen six bugs since July 27, so maybe they are all gone. 

            After yoga I tried to open my Boris Vian song document but it wouldn't load. After fifteen minutes I went into the Task manager and closed at least twenty non-responding Open Office files and then the document would open. I found another set of chords for his "Le java des chaussettes à clous" (The Dance of the Studded Stockings) by Boris Vian. All of the sets I've found have the song in the key of C. Tomorrow I'll do one last search and then find out which chords work for me. 

            I worked out the chords for the rest of "Manu Manuréva" by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it a bit. I'll finish that and upload it to Christian's Translations tomorrow. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            At around 10:30 I started getting my place ready for the pest control technician. I gathered my bedding, the bedroom curtains and all the extra bedding that's stored in the two drawers under the couch and put them all into my last three garbage bags. I moved my guitars out of the bedroom. I removed the drawers from my desk and piled their contents up in the kitchen, then moved the desk out from the wall. I removed everything from the bookshelf next to the desk and put all the books in the kitchen, then I moved the shelf from the wall. I moved the couch out from the wall as well. While I was working I felt something in my hair and when I pulled it out I got stung by a wasp. 

            Mike the Orkin guy came at around 13:00. He agreed with me that the dust had probably killed the bedbugs but wanted to spray poison anyway. He said he was also there for apartment 7, which is David's place above my kitchen, but David was at work and had made no arrangements to give them access. He should have left me his key. I had to leave my place for four hours but as I was loading three bags of laundry onto my bike to take to be washed, Mike was coming out. He said I didn't have to wait four hours since the windows were open and so two hours would be enough. 

            I washed my bedding and the clothes I'd been wearing this morning, plus all the stuff from under my couch. While the things were in the washer I sat out on the deck and ate some watermelon while talking with Benji. While the things were in the dryer I had kettle chips, salsa, yogourt and a glass of orange juice while chatting on the deck with Benji and Shankar. 

            Benji said the guy I'd read about in the news who burned to death in the apartment fire yesterday was just down the street in that apartment building on Dunn Avenue. I said he would have had to have been drunk or stoned to have been so unaware as to not to be able to get out before the fire got him.

            Benji told a story about a Rasta in Trinidad who had scorpions build a nest in his dreadlocks. One of them eventually stung and killed him. I said it was stupid of the scorpion to render itself homeless like that. 

             After picking up my laundry I wanted to give the poison more time to clear so I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. On the way down Yonge Street I passed Queen to avoid the construction at Bay and went straight to Richmond to take that to York and then up to Queen. I weighed 88.1 kilos when I got back at 16:00. 

            I posted my blog, put the couch back in place, got out my clean sheets, put the bedroom curtains back up and took a very late siesta after 17:00. I weighed 88.6 kilos at 19:00 when I got up. 

            I started a second draft of my manuscript for my poem series "My Blood In A Bug" and reworked the beginning of the first poem. 

            I was going to download the YouTube video of the ECT scene from American Horror Story but then noticed that it has the FX watermark on it and so I can't use it. I started looking for another example of a movie in which legs and arms are strapped to a bed or table. I found a couple where a belt goes across the chest but I've got to keep looking. I guess I could just download the Asylum episode of American Horror Story and then extract the clip from that.

            I had a potato with gravy and a small steak while watching two episodes of "Gomer Pykle USMC." 

            In the first story there is competition between Sergeant Carter and Sergeant Whipple for winning the most points during inspection. Whipple however is not above sabotage and has his men dirty up the area around the bunkhouse of Carter's platoon just before inspection. Carter takes his men on a hike and they run across a snake on the road which Carter thinks is a ratlesnake and wants to shoot it. But Gomer informs him it's not a rattler but rather a kingsnake and demonstrates how harmless it is by picking it up. Next they encounter a skunk and Gomer also demonstrates that it is harmless. He feeds it and says it reminds him of his Uncle Ralph. Depending on how many uncles Gomer has, it's possible that Ralph is Goober's father. But Ralph follows Gomer back to the base and it won't leave. Carter tells Gomer to put it in a box and says he's going to take it out back and shoot it. They hear the gunshot and Gomer is very upset but then Ralph shows up again, Carter says he must have missed. Just before the next inspection one of Whipple's men sneaks into the barracks and loosens the straps on some of the equipment of Carter's men, causing them to lose points when inspected. Gomer gets an idea and sets Ralph loose in the Whipple bunkhouse, causing the men to panic and make a mess. This makes Carter happy and suddenly Ralph is great. On the next hike Gomer lets Ralph loose where he found him. 

            The second story is a bit fucked up in how it represents women. A female Marine named Captain Martin is angry that Gomer tips his hat rather than saluting lady officers. She orders him to come to work in her office every day for a week so she can teach him that a captain is a captain no matter their gender. But Gomer tells her that it's going to take her some time to override the training that his mama gave him on how to behave towards a lady. Captain Martin's nickname is "Captain Ironpants" because she is so tightassed but Gomer finds that disresepectful. Gomer brings her candy and flowers and keeps reminding her that she was a lady before she was a captain. She is attracted to her commanding officer and under Gomer's influence she starts to wear perfume and begins to try to make herself more attractive until her commander begins to notice. She tells Gomer that if no one is looking he can tip his hat to her if he wants. 

            Captain Martin was played by Pippa Scott, whose father wrote all of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. She had recurring parts in "Mr Lucky" and "The Virginian" and a regular role in "Jigsaw John." With her husband she co-founded Lorimar, one of Hollywood’s most successful production companies, which produced the TV series "Dallas", "Falconcrest", "The Waltons", "Knots Landing" and "Eight Is Enough." It also produced the films "Moonstruck", "A Fish Called Wanda", "Sybil" and "Being There." In the 80s she founded IMI, an organization that tracks down evidence of war crimes. She had a critically acclaimed role in the film "Footprints." She wrote, directed and produced the movie "King Leopold's Ghost."