Glen Ash

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords to the instrumental of “Le vieux rocker” (The Old Rocker) by Serge Gainsbourg and the last two verses. I just have to place the chords for the final repetitions of the chorus and then run through it in French and English before uploading it to Christian's Translations. I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos at 10:30.

            At 8:30 I started getting ready for pest control to come to treat the place for bedbugs. I haven't seen any in eight and a half days and I only saw a total of five in October. Considering that and the fact that I have too much school work to do at home, I decided I was going to ask the technician just to steam and dust the relevant areas and not spray any poison today because I couldn't spare the time to leave my place for four hours. 

            I swept, vacuumed and mopped. I turned my futon couch frame on its end. I vacuumed both futons. The guy is supposed to come before 13:00. Steve from Orkin came at around noon. I told him how far apart in time I've been seeing bedbugs and he agreed that they can't be living in my place. They must be coming from another part of the building. He told me that the last time he was in David's apartment the bed was full of bedbugs although when he came three weeks before that he didn't find any. Caesar complained about bedbugs last year but Steve said he has never been given an appointment to treat his unit. Steve said that unless the whole building is checked the bedbugs are just going to move around from apartment to apartment. Steve steamed my bedroom and my futons. He'll be back on November 19. He was supposed to do David's place today but David must not have known about it because he didn't leave me his key. 

            When Steve left I called the landlord and told him he has to get the whole building checked. He said he'll put notices under everyone's doors. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos before lunch.

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Yonge and Bloor. I weighed 87.9 kilos when I got home. 

            I finished editing the parts of The Winter's Tale that relate to Autolycus that I'd pasted into my essay document. 

            I've been reading William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and I'm a little over twenty pages in. It jumps back and forth from the perspectives of several different characters as the matriarch of a family is on her death bed. She can see her coffin being built outside her window.

            I started analyzing the first song that Autolycus sings, “When daffodils begin to peer.” He seems to be carrying spring with him after the long hard tragic winter of the first three acts we now have comedy. 

            For dinner I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching an episode of Gomer Pyle. 

            In this story Gomer's old friend Moose Lewis from Mayberry is now a professional football player. His team is playing near Camp Henderson and he calls Gomer to invite him to the game and to sit on the players' bench. Gomer also gets an invite for Sergeant Carter. Meanwhile Carter is trying to buy a ticket for the game but when Gomer tries to tell Carter that he doesn't need a ticket Carter tells him to stop bothering him. Gomer goes to visit Moose in his hotel room and they sing the country song, “You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.” Later Carter realizes that Gomer said he could get him a bench pass. They go to visit Moose in the locker room but Moose has just been hit in the head at practice and doesn't recognize Gomer. So Carter goes ahead and arranges to buy the ticket. But then Carter sees Moose on the base with Gomer and gets a confirmation that they'll have bench passes. On the day of the game there is a bench pass for Gomer but not Carter. Gomer tries to give Carter his pass but the gate official won't accept Carter going in since he's not Gomer. So Carter goes to spend $50 on a last minute ticket but when he comes through the gate Gomer comes to him with a bench pass for both of them. They are on the bench watching the first play when a player chasing the ball rams into Carter. Carter is knocked out for the rest of the game, but Moose gives him the game ball and all the players sign it. However the gate official won't let him leave with the ball because he doesn't have a permit. Carter runs through and Gomer throws the ball over the gate. Carter catches it just before slamming into a tree and knocking himself out again. 

            Moose was played by Glen Ash, who was a multi-instrumentalist with a natural ear for music. He could play any song he heard. He was discovered as an actor by Don Knotts and made guest appearances on several TV series in 1969 such as “Petticoat Junction.” He was cast as a regular on “The New Andy Griffith Show” but only appeared twice before the show was canceled.