George Cisar

            On Friday morning when I got up to pee at around 4:00 I turned the light on and didn't find any bedbugs, although I didn't do a thorough search. When they are around it's usually on the old exit door and since I plastered it yesterday they haven't been there. 

            It was the eleventh day of my cold but it feels like it's almost over. I did get a little hoarse near the end of song practice. 

            I finished memorizing “Jet Society” by Serge Gainsbourg but I had to spend a couple of extra minutes on it to nail it down. Next I'll finish adjusting my translation and then look for the chords. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast. 

            I re-read most of the first chapter of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The idea of darkness seems to represent the unknown but its first reference is to the darkness of ancient England as would have been perceived in the savagery of the natives by Roman invaders.

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride to Bloor and Ossington. Since there had been some melting yesterday and since it was very cold today I had expected it to be more slippery but it wasn't too bad. I walked around those cars parked on Ossington again because I was worried about slipping between them and the streetcar tracks. I worry more about falling than I used to after all the injuries I've had. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 17:00. 

            There's a very bad smell in my kitchen but I'm not sure what's causing it. It smells kind of rotten like maybe a mouse died under one of the radiators or maybe something died under the floor, or maybe the smell is rising up from Popeyes downstairs. 

            I got caught up on my journal at 18:15. 

            I read the second chapter of Heart of Darkness. It seems the steamboat is a metaphor for rickety modernity and perhaps imperialism trying to penetrate and almost being defeated by raw nature. 

            I had two small potatoes with gravy and a chicken breast while watching an episode of The Addams Family.

            In this story Morticia's sister Ophelia has been abandoned by love once again, this time by her beau Montrose who has gone off to join the Peace Corps. Fester expresses interest in joining the Peace Corps and Ophelia thinks that's a great idea because then he could look for Montrose. The family helps Fester prepare for his Peace Corps examination but then Gomez gets word that no country in the world is yet ready for Fester. Rather than let Fester down Morticia and Gomez seek to convince him that the family needs him more than the Peace Corps does. Morticia persuades him that she needs him as a model for artistic inspiration and Gomez makes Fester believe that he needs his financial advice to keep him from going broke. Ophelia is very disappointed but suddenly Montrose returns. He looks and dresses a lot like Fester. 

            It only occurred to me in this episode that the daisies in Ophelia's hair actually grow from and have deep roots in her scalp. 

            Montrose was portrayed by George Cisar, who played more than a hundred roles throughout his television and film career. He was Sgt Mooney on the sitcom based on Dennis the Menace, “Just Dennis” and Donald Hollinger's father on “That Girl.”