Deborah Walley

            On Wednesday after midnight before going to sleep I did my usual search of the baseboards and walls for bedbugs and found none. My appointment with pest control will be two weeks from today. 

            I ran through singing half of my translation of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian. I should have the other half done tomorrow and ready to upload to Christian's Translations.

            I finished posting my translation of "Chavirer la France" (Bowling Over France) by Serge Gainsbourg. The last song of his listed for 1979 is a jingle for men's cologne called "Cool Men, Men de Mennen." I found the audio for it on Sound Cloud but I don't know if I'll be able to find the written lyrics. 

            I weighed 89.6 kilos before breakfast but after eating some peaches and cherries I didn't have a chance to eat anything else for a few hours. There was a knock on my door and I was surprised to see Steve from Orkin standing there. I had thought that they were coming on September 15. He said the 15th will be the follow up and so the landlord misunderstood when he booked them. I was mostly prepared from last time because I hadn't put anything away and so I just had to pull the sheets off my bed, flip the couch frame on its end and pull the book shelf out from the wall. The last two times Steve had been here in late June and early July I had only seen that one first bedbug and so as far as he could tell back then I had none. I told him that I'd found 17 bedbugs since he was here but half of them had been sick. He told me to take the duct tape off the outlet and said he would put some dust inside. I asked him if apartment 7 was on his list and he said it wasn't but that if the landlord calls the company David's place can be put on the list for September 15. David has already agreed to leave his key with me. I told Steve that on September 15 I have an online class from 9:00 to 10:00 and asked if he could come after 10:00. He said he could do that. 

            I got dressed and gathered up my stuff and left. I went to Vina Pharmacy and asked them to call my doctor about renewing a prescription, then I stepped into Freedom Mobile and paid for my September plan. I went home to pee and opened the kitchen windows so the poison would clear out sooner. I chatted with Benji and Shankara in the hall for about half an hour and then I took an early bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. 

           When I got home the poison was still a bit too strong for sitting in the living room. I opened the living room windows and had a late breakfast while standing on the deck. 

            I weighed 90 kilos before lunch but only actually ate breakfast an hour before that. 

            I called the landlord and he didn't know that Orkin had been here. When I told him he thought it was just for their monthly inspection. I told him that he's got to call Orkin to arrange for them to treat David's place when they come to do mine on September 15. He said he would. I went up to see David and advised him to call the landlord as well. 

            I weighed 89.7 kilos at 17:45. 

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

            I inserted the eleven second clip from "Rosemary's Baby" into the main video I'm making for my song "Instructions For Electroshock Therapy. I trimmed a little more of it as well as some of the concert video so that it synchronized with the studio audio at the point where I sing "sacrifice." After that the video is again out of sync with the audio, so I have to find some video to match my line, "to avoid any bruises let no metal touch the skin." It might take a long search but then again I still have "Rosemary's Baby" and just before the part that I extracted is a scene where Rosemary's husband is removing her wedding ring before he sacrifices her sexually to Satan. I might just place the movie back to the end of the timeline and trim everything but the scene of the ring removal. It fits with shock therapy because all jewellery has to be removed before the procedure. That should be all I need for this part. 

            I worked on fixing the graffiti on one of the bricks in my "Anti Gravity's Rainbow" photo. I couldn't figure out what it was really saying and so I just started making it look like something that fits.

            I digitally repaired a photo of my newborn daughter breast feeding in 1991.

            I made pizza on naan with Milanese sauce, a cut up pork burger and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the first two episodes of the third season of Gomer Pyle USMC.

            In the first story Gomer takes a tour of the homes of Hollywood stars. He asks the driver to let him get off for a few minutes to take pictures of his favourite movie star Tina Tracy's house. But Gomer takes so long that the driver leaves without him. Gomer goes around the back to where the pool is and a woman working in the garden there says hello. After Gomer reveals what a fan he is of Tina Tracy the woman reveals that's who she is. She's very friendly and invites him in for lemonade. They spend a pleasant afternoon chatting and then Tina invites Gomer to bring some of his buddies back to her place for a barbecue the next day. The whole platoon comes but when they ring the bell the butler tells them Tina is in Europe. They all leave mad at Gomer for having lied to them and won't even give him a ride. Seconds after they leave Tina comes home saying her butler was only protecting her and realizing that she should have let him know they were coming. Gomer tries to call Carter from Tina's place but he hangs up. Later when Gomer says he's bringing Tina to the base Carter decides to teach Gomer a lesson about lying. When Tina walks in the men are standing at attention in their underwear and all give Pyle the raspberry. But then when they see Tina they are embarrassed and behave as if they are naked and hide. Later they all attend a party at Tina's house. 

            Tina Tracy was played by Deborah Walley, the daughter of ice skating stars Nathan and Edith Walley. She performed on ice with her parents at age three but decided to persue acting instead. She was chosen by Photoplay Magazine as the most popular actress of 1961. She starred in "Gidget Goes Hawaiian", and several bikini movies but was not very interested in acting in films. She played Eve Arden's daughter in the series "The Mothers In Law." She starred in the film "Arch Oboler, the Bubble". She did theatre, wrote film scripts, produced her own films and opened a theatre school for Native Americans in Arizona. Her first book was Grandfather's Good Medicine. She was a friend of Elvis after they made "Spinout" together and she said that he introduced her to Eastern Philosophy. I didn’t see that coming.  

            In the second story Sergeant Carter is in regular competition with Sergeant Hacker. They have contests pitting the men of one platoon against the other. But Hacker always wins and so Carter has to every time buy Hacker a steak dinner. But when Carter learns that one of his men is a competitive and prize winning archer, Carter is sure he's going to win next time. But Hacker finds out from Gomer that the next competition will be in archery. So Hacker has an Indigenous American named Charlie Yellow Bear transferred in who is an expert at the bow and arrow. He easily defeats Carter's man. But then Carter discovers that Gomer is a very fast runner and he's sure Hacker would never guess that Gomer is good at something. Carter ups the ante, calls for a foot race and tells Hacker to pick the man from his platoon for his man to compete against. Hacker picks Gomer as Carter expected. But later Hacker discovers that Gomer really is fast and decides to manipulate him into losing. He says Yellow Bear is leaving soon and will be shamed before his people if he loses. Carter overhears this argument and is sure Gomer is moved by it and will throw the race. Carter decides to bet against Gomer. But during the race Gomer is ahead from the start and beats Charlie. Gomer tells Hacker that before the race he had a talk with Charlie and when he learned from Gomer how sympathetic Hacker is towards him Charlie decided to reenlist to continue under his command.