Autolycus

            On Sunday after midnight I did my usual check for bedbugs and found none. It'd now been three days since I saw the last one. Between that one and the bug before it had been five days. 

            When I got up my computer's connection to Shankar's wifi network was still off. Like the day before I managed to get some stuff done on line by tethering the PC to my phone. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg.

            When I turned my computer back on after song practice the wifi had returned after almost three days. 

            I weighed 89.2 kilos before breakfast and 90 kilos before lunch when I had saltines with cream cheese and paprika and a glass of limeade. 

            I continued making notes on Autolycus for my Shakespeare essay. He arrives singing at the sheep shearing festival and begins selling printed ballads. Someone comments that if they are in print that means they are true. Some of the stories are impossible but he asserts to his customers that they are true. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride. My left knee has been bothering me a bit since I started a new yoga exercise a couple of days ago. I lay on my back with my feet flat on the floor and then I lift my bum and torso to try to bend back into the wheel. It puts some pressure on my bad knee but I don't think it would damage it. There have been other new poses that at first have created the same reaction until my knee got used to them. But today it bothered me a bit when I pedalled my bike. 

            On the Bloor bike lane near St George there was a gang of pre-teens on trick bikes riding hard and reckless, jumping from the bike lane to the sidewalk and back. One of them deliberately knocked over one of the posts that keep cars out of the lane. 

            I rode to Yonge and Bloor. During my whole trip I only saw two people in any kind of costume. One kid had a tomato or pepper outfit and a young man was wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. I saw more costumes early this morning during song practice as I watched people walking along Queen who were obviously leaving Halloween parties. I weighed 89.3 kilos when I got home from the ride. 

            At dusk there were more trick or treaters walking around. 

            I worked some more on my notes on Autolycus. He's fleeced most of the guests at the sheep shearing festival but the party is disrupted when the king finds out his son wants to marry a shepherdess. Autolycus is paid to switch clothes with Prince Florizel so he can leave Bohemia in disguise with Perdita. Autolycus is considering telling the king when he hears a conversation between the shepherd and Clown. 

            I made pizza on naan with red pepper sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story Sergeant Hacker bets Sergeant Carter $50 that he can't go 24 hours without blowing his top. Then Hacker keeps finding ways of putting Gomer in Carter's way. Carter starts getting an upset stomach from holding his anger inside. Gomer notices this and when he talks to Hacker about it Hacker tells him Carter is sick because he is holding his anger inside. He tells Gomer that someone has to do something to give Carter a release. He tells Gomer that in half an hour he will secretly switch a fake sword for Carter's prize sword that he won in the war. He tells Gomer to go to Carter's office and break the fake sword in front of him. Gomer does so but Hacker didn't replace the sword. Carter holds his anger inside and then learns about Hacker's plot. With ten minutes to go in the bet Gomer brings Carter an IOU for $50 from Hacker. Carter loses his temper and the bet but after Carter pays Hacker the $50 Gomer points out to Hacker that there is still an IOU that is legally binding and so Hacker has to give the $50 back to Carter.