Herb Vigran

            On Monday morning I still couldn't press my left knee on the floor but I could bend it a little more. 

            I blog-published "It’s Nothing, I’m Done, I’m Gone", my translation of "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" by Serge Gainsbourg. I started memorizing his song "Le mal intérieur" (The Hurt Inside). 

            I weighed 85 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had an appointment for 11:00 at Parkdale Community Legal Services so I rushed to shave and shower before leaving. I was out of shaving gel and so I used shampoo-conditioner. It works but it dries out the skin a bit. I was there with five minutes to spare and Cole was on time to take me to a meeting room with someone named Terri who I assume is a student lawyer. I was there to discuss trying to organize the tenants in my building into a collective. I told him the story of my place, the landlord, the bedbugs and some of the other problems. I said the only two people who complain directly to the landlord are the two white people. They were familiar with my upstairs neighbour Cesar. I said I accept that maybe it's white privilege that gives me the power to complain but I want everybody in the building to have a sense of privilege and I'm thinking that a collective would help that to happen. 

            He asked if it was possible for me to organize a meeting of tenants for him to speak to them. I said it might be difficult to get everyone together. If the bedbug issue is fixed then there's less of a common complaint although I think everyone has complaints. He said one thing every tenant everywhere has in common is the potential threat of eviction, for instance if the landlord were to sell the place and a new owner tried to get everybody out. He gave the example of the place a little further east on Queen where four tenants, including a woman with terminal cancer, are being evicted. I agreed that might be something to use. I said that I'd talk to people and I might be able to get at least two other tenants to attend a meeting in my kitchen but we'd have to wait until David comes back from Africa at the end of February. I'll contact Cole by email when it looks like I can get people together. He suggested not to invite Cesar the first time if I think that he might start ranting and be disruptive. That makes sense. 

            I rode to Freshco where I bought eight bags of cherries, a jug of orange juice, a jug of limeade, and some shaving gel. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took another short bike ride twice around the block. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos at 16:45. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:52. 

            I finished reading David Copperfield. After his aunt hints that Agnes is about to be married, David asks Agnes if it's true. When he finds out it isn't he confesses his long standing love for her and she declares the same. They are going to be married and David's aunt says she was right after all. Years pass and David visits a prison that is run by his former school master Creakles. While he was cruel to the schoolboys he is quite nice to the prisoners. His two model prisoners turn out to be Uriah Heep and Steerforth's butler Littimer. Both declare that prison is a wonderful means of correction and everybody should be there, including David Copperfield. Mr. Peggotty comes to visit from Australia and of course he and all of David's friends who went there became wealthy. 

            I found out that we were supposed to read part of Vanishing Points by my Bildungsroman professor Audrey Jaffe, but she didn't post it anywhere. I managed to track it down and copied the section on David Copperfield. While reading it I realized that David Copperfield really isn't an active hero in this novel. He just moves like a ghost in many ways and his friends perform all the major actions. He is praised by all of them for helping them the most and yet his support was only moral the whole time. When Emily is being menaced by Rosa Daitle David hides outside the door and waits for Mr. Peggotty to arrive as if David is an ineffectual phantom unable to stop events from taking place. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two small chicken drumsticks while watching season 4, episode 17 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            After Jethro again attempts and fails to teach Granny how to drive, she crashes the truck into the house after taking a tree from the Drysdale's back yard. When Granny hears that Drysdale has gone to look at the horses she thinks he's going to buy one. Suddenly she has a dream of having a horse and buggy to get around in Beverly Hills. When Jane hears that Granny wants a horse she thinks she means a trotter racing horse and convinces her boss that it would be a good investment. The horse is delivered to the house merely to show them. Granny rides it bareback and is disappointed that it won't go past a trot. Elly teaches it to gallop and then enters it in a trotting race with Granny driving. Granny's horse wins against trotting horses while galloping but is of course disqualified. The Clampetts think she won fair and square. 

            The handler who delivers the horse was played by Herb Vigran, who was a law school graduate but chose acting instead of the bar. He appeared on Broadway three times between 1935 and 1938 and then went to Hollywood. He acted on hundreds of popular radio shows and appeared more than 350 times on television and in film. He played a villain several times on The Adventures of Superman. 

            I searched for bedbugs and for the sixth night in a row I found none, thus breaking this year's record so far.

January 31, 1993: My daughter tossed snow with her little shovel while we waited for the bus

Thirty years ago today  

            On Sunday I got up at 8:30. Nancy's mother brought my daughter down to me at around 11:00. Nancy hadn't sent her boots, which was a shame because of all the snow outside. We played and danced inside and played in the bathtub. She went to sleep at about 14:15 and got up at almost 18:00. We played a net game with marbles. I'd pick them up off the floor with a spatula and try to drop them into a coffee scoop that she was holding. It was challenging for me and fun for her. I bought her some soy milk. When I got her ready to go out to meet her mother she insisted on bringing her broom and shovel. She shoveled snow during the twenty minutes that we waited for the bus. Nancy met us at the stop.

Martha Hyer

            On Sunday morning my left knee was slightly less sore and a little more flexible. It still hurts to put my knee against the floor. 

            I finished working out the chords for "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s Nothing, I’m Done, I’m Gone) by Serge Gainsbourg. I didn't work them out exactly for the instrumental break because it goes on for too long to not be boring. I ran through singing and playing the song in French and English and then uploaded it to my Christian's Translations blog to prepare it for publication. I might have that done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 85.1 kilos before breakfast and that's the heaviest I've been in 27 days. 

            I got up to page 796 in David Copperfield. David's wife Dora dies. Mr. Peggotty and his niece Emily are going to start a new life in Australia. It is decided that the cure for the financial worries of Micawber and his family are for him to go Down Under as well. Dickens has used Australia before as a kind of far away heavenly unlimited bank machine for characters to either disappear to or to suddenly appear from. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of orange juice with limeade. 

            In the afternoon I went out for a bike ride. Pedaling was still difficult but not as bad as yesterday so I went around the block twice. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 16:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:20. 

            I got up to page 849 in David Copperfield, so there are only thirty some pages left. David's friends leave for Australia, including Martha. David travels three years in Europe and spends a lot of time in Switzerland. He realizes that he should have married Agnes long ago but now they are so much like brother and sister he doesn't think they can go beyond that relationship. 

            I grilled four hot Italian sausages and had one on Bavarian sandwich bread topped by chili sauce, Dijon, and horseradish with a beer while watching season 4, episode 15 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Tracy Richards, the richest woman in the world, decides she wants to buy the Clampett house. She storms in without an invitation and thinks Jed and his family are domestics. She tips them $40, says she's buying the place and leaves. Jed thinks she's trying to pay that amount for the place. When she realizes her mistake she comes back to negotiate with Jed but he's not interested. That's interesting considering that in this season alone there have been a few occasions when they've been willing to leave the house behind and go back to Tennessee. Tracy is angered by Jed's refusal because she is used to getting whatever she wants. 

            She decides to start seducing Granny, Elly, and Jethro. She takes them for lunch at her penthouse and gives Granny and Elly each a fur coat. She gives Jethro her sports car and makes him think they are sweethearts. They are waited on hand and foot in her penthouse and they like it. Now they want Jed to sell but then they change their minds. Jed goes to talk with Tracy and she tries to seduce him. He enjoys the attention but then Jethro walks in and is jealous. Granny and Elly return the furs. Jed says he's not selling and she tells them to leave. 

            Tracy Richards was played by Martha Hyer, who I profiled in my blog about four years ago but not extensively. She was born into a rich and religious family. Her first film role was a small part in The Locket in 1946. She co-starred in Down Three Dark Streets, Showdown at Abilene, Battle Hymn, Wyoming Renegades, The Battle of Rogue River, Francis in the Navy, Mister Cory, Paris Holiday, Houseboat, Once Upon a Horse, The Big Fisherman, The Best of Everything, The Last Time I Say Archie, Wives and Lovers, The Carpetbaggers, The Sons of Katie Elder, Some May Live, The Happening, Ice Palace, and Some Came Running, the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination. Her last film was Day of the Wolves in 1971. 

            

            

           For the fifth night in a row I found no bedbugs.

January 30, 1993: My daughter screamed when I tried to take her away from her mother's place but didn't want me to leave

Thirty years ago today 

            On Saturday I got up to Nancy's place at around 11:00 and my daughter seemed glad to see me. We gradually got her ready to go with me but then she started crying and didn't want to. She wanted Nancy to go outside too and so she came out and my daughter seemed happy enough as she played outside. Nancy suggested though that I should bring her back that night but I refused. We argued and at one point she picked up the baby and said I couldn't take her at all and started heading for the house, but I blocked her way. She started crying but after a while she let me take her, while at the same time saying something about calling her lawyer. My daughter started crying as soon as she saw we were leaving and she began to scream as we got onto the playing field. So I turned around and with tears in my eyes I brought her back to her mother, but when we got there she didn't want me to leave.

Olan Soule

            On Saturday morning my knee was still too bruised to press it onto the floor but a little less so than yesterday. I was also a bit more flexible during yoga. 

            I looked for the chords for "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s Nothing, I’m Done, I’m Gone) by Serge Gainsbourg, but no one had posted them. I worked them out for the intro and all the verses. All that's left to do is figure them out for the instrumental before the penultimate verse. 

            During song practice it wasn't as uncomfortable to stand evenly on both legs but I wasn't dancing much. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast. 

            I went to the Vina Pharmacy to ask them to fax my doctor about renewing my Betaderm prescription and then I stepped over to Freedom Mobile and paid for February's phone plan. After that I rode to No Frills. 

            Yesterday it hurt a bit to pedal my bike around the block but today I barely noticed the aftermath of having slammed my knee into the pavement on Thursday. I notice it more when I'm sitting down or getting up from a chair at home. 

            At the supermarket I bought five bags of expensive cherries because the grapes were all soft, a bag of potatoes, two bags of kettle chips, a jar of salsa, and some skyr. I forgot to buy shaving gel. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            Since riding to the supermarket and back hadn't taxed my knee I decided to try another bike ride in the afternoon. But this time pedaling bothered me like it did at the same time the day before, so I just rode around the block again. I'm guessing that riding bothered my knee more in the afternoon because I'd just gotten up from a siesta and my knee hadn't received full circulation. When I went to No Frills at noon I'd already been up and moving around for seven hours. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos at 16:15, which is the most I've weighed at that time in seventeen days. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:00. 

            I got up to page 758 in David Copperfield. David has become a successful author like Charles Dickens. He and Dora are being continuously ripped off by any servants they hire and there is this classist notion that the solution is to take a firm hand with servants. Emily is found and then confronted by Miss Dartle who thinks she seduced Steerforth. At the page where I left, David and several other characters are engaged in confronting Uriah Heep and exposing him as a forger and a criminal. All of the people confronting Heep are of a class above him and all judgements about Heep's character up until this point have been mostly based on his appearance. I find that very disturbing. We have been groomed throughout the novel to distrust Heep based on a physical description of his body and mannerisms, and reminders that he is a class upstart. If David distrusted him the whole time and he turns out in the end to be a criminal, it doesn't mean that David was right about him. It's just another one of the many coincidences that happen in this novel. In many ways the good natured Micawber is far more dangerous than Heep because of how he is repeatedly financially ruining his family. Also ironically if not for Heep's employing him Micawber probably would have ended up once again in debtors prison. 

            I made pizza on a slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with Basilica sauce, a ground chicken patty cut in half edgewise, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 4, episode 15 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story Granny hears that Mr. Drysdale has a cold but is disappointed he goes to Dr. Clyburn instead of her, since she has a cure. The last time she encountered Clyburn she treated his baldness and grew a big mass of hair on his head, which since then has fallen out. She says she can only grow it but she doesn't have time to garden it. Clyburn throws Granny out of his office. She gets Drysdale to let her have the penthouse in his bank building for a doctor's office. He gives it to her but since she doesn't have a license he doesn't let any patients go up there. Granny goes back to Clyburn's office and gives a drug distributor exclusive rights to distribute her cure. But when she's asked how the cure works she says take one spoonful, rest, eat sensibly, drink plenty of fluids and in a week or ten days your cold will be gone. Most colds would be gone in a week or ten days anyway. 

            Booth the drug salesman was played by Olan Soule, who started working on stage in Chicago at the age of seventeen. In 1933 he started in radio and performed for eleven years on the radio soap opera "Bachelor's Children". Starting in 1943 he played the male lead in all of the plays presented for the eight year run of the radio show "First Nighter". He played such a range of characters people were always surprised to see that he was a skinny little man. He played Agent Kelly on the "Captain Midnight" radio series and later when it became a TV cartoon series he played Tut the scientist. When he moved to Hollywood he became a regular on "Dragnet" and later on "Dragnet 1967". He was the first actor to do the voice for a cartoon version of Batman and did so for 15 years on various animated series such as "Super Friends". 

            For the fourth night in a row I found no bedbugs.

January 29, 1993: Mike Copping argued that maternal instinct is always correct and I thought that was absurd

Thirty years ago today

            On Friday after midnight I told Mike Copping about my daughter getting her hand stuck in the subway train door last week. We argued until around 3:00 over a comment that I'd made about Nancy having been to some degree responsible for the fiasco. My main point was that the whole experience felt like it wasn't meant to happen. We also argued about Nancy's action of yanking the baby's hand out of the door. He said that because it turned out all right it had been the right thing to do. I told him that it was the wrong thing to do and it had only turned out okay accidentally. He asserted something about the correctness of maternal instinct, which I thought was absurd. 

            Mike got up at 4:45 and left for work. I got up at around 8:45 and decided to head right downtown to pick up my cheques so I would have money to eat before going to work. I wrote this on the way there.

John Hoyt

            On Friday morning my left knee was not bending very well twelve hours after slamming it into the pavement yesterday, but it was actually more flexible than I'd expected it to be. The main problem was not being able to put my weight directly on it during yoga but that's because of the bruise. I'm leaning towards thinking that the joint is not damaged and the cap is not fractured, but I'll just have to see if it improves over the next few days. It's already a bad knee because of a work injury in 1984 but that problem is under the kneecap so one may not affect the other. 

            I uploaded "J'ai pas d'regret" by Boris Vian to Christian's Translations and started editing to prepare it for publication on the blog. 

            I finished memorizing "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s Nothing, I’m Done, I’m Gone) by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I'll look for the chords. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I got up to page 637 in David Copperfield. Uriah Heep reveals to Doctor Strong that his much younger wife has been cheating on him with her childhood friend and cousin. It seems that Heep's intention is to cause a scandal and to render Mrs. Strong a social outcast so that Mr. Whitfield's daughter Agnes, who Heep loves, will no longer associate with her and influence Agnes against him. But the doctor receives the news with no great surprise and forbids the news to be spread further. When they are alone David strikes Heep hard on the cheek with his open hand for having done this. Heep says he forgives him. I left off at David's wedding as he is about to marry Dora. I can't imagine it going well since she is chronically naïve and far too immature to become a wife. 

            David's friend Micawber now works for Uriah Heep and he's become a darker personality as a result. I think that Micawber might be based on Sir Richard of the Lea from the Robin Hood legends. Either that or how Sir Richard is portrayed by Ian Hunter in the 1950s Robin Hood TV series is based in Dickens's Micawber. Maybe by that time Micawber's character had become a trope. 

            I weighed 84 kilos before lunch. 

            My knee felt a lot better after a siesta than it did in the morning. I decided to try a bike ride but the bend was a little too painful for me to go any further than around the block. I might only ride to the supermarket and back on Saturday and work my way towards being able to ride to class on Tuesday. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 16:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:28. 

            I made it up to page 693 of David Copperfield. David learns that Steerforth abandoned Emily in Naples and gave her to his butler. She escaped and so now all they know is that she is probably on her own. David and Mr. Peggotty track down Martha who they find about to throw herself in the Thames. It is hinted that she's been living a life of shame and so this translates as her being a self-righteous middle class Victorian's fantasy of a repentant sex worker. David figures that Emily might come to London and so he gives Martha a sense of purpose by looking out for her. 

            I grilled some chicken drumsticks and had two with a potato and gravy while watching season 4, episode 14 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Jethro's new kick is that he wants to go to West Point so he can be a five star general. Jed takes him to Mr. Drysdale to see if he can help him. Drysdale tells him that West Point is about 5,000 kilometers away and Jethro realizes he won't be able to eat at home. Drysdale convinces him to try Havenhurst Academy in Beverly Hills instead. Because this is a school for much younger boys, Drysdale dresses Jethro up like Little Lord Fauntleroy and tells him to walk with a crouch to make him look shorter. There is an entrance exam for the academy that Jethro probably couldn't pass but Colonel Hollis is willing to waive that because he's found out that the location of the Clampett estate is a perfect strategic location for his boys to fight from in their upcoming war games against a rival school that always wins. 

           Jethro is put into a platoon with an eight year old commanding officer named Captain Hogan who is always chewing him out. When the bus pulls up in front of the Clampett house and Jed hears they are fighting the Red Army, he thinks it's a real war and that the US army is in a sorry state if it's using kids that young as soldiers. They are fighting from the back of the house near the pool and when Jed hears they have the Red Army on the run he is especially impressed when he finds they did it with cap guns. 

            Colonel Hollis was played by John Hoyt, who was a graduate of Yale and served as an editor for the humour magazine The Yale Record. In the 1920s he did comedy routines in nightclubs doing impersonations of famous celebrities. He made his Broadway debut in "Overture" in 1931. He performed in The Rainbow Room in 1937 as The Master of Satire. He was especially known for his impersonation of Noel Coward, which led to him to star in "The Man Who Came to Dinner" on Broadway. He was a member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre until he left for Hollywood in 1945. His first film was "OSS". He co-starred in "The Sins of Jezebel". He appeared in both Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. He co-starred in the sitcoms "Gimme a Break" and "Tom, Dick, and Harry". 

            For the third night in the row I found no bedbugs.

January 28, 1993: When I paid with $1.50 in nickels and dimes the streetcar driver gave me a dirty look

Thirty years ago today

            On Thursday I got up after 11:00 and tried to bake some millet. I mixed some other stuff in that also looked like millet but it turned out extremely bitter and so I had to throw it out and eat more old Halloween candy for breakfast. I finished a black and white collage and cleaned up a bit. There was still no mail from Marie. I decided that I was going to try to call her next week to find out if she got my message. I left my place and cashed in a large Pepsi bottle so I could go to a payphone and call Mike Copping at work. He said he would meet me downtown at Dominos after I finished work that night. I dropped less than $1.50 in nickels and dimes in the streetcar box and the driver gave me a dirty look. I posed until 18:00 at George Brown College and then walked to the Ontario College of Art where I wrote this while waiting to continue the reclining pose that I'd started the week before and to sleep. There was a real grapefruit as a prop on the stage and I got to eat it when I was finished. I met Mike and we went for coffee.

Harry Chapin

            On Thursday morning I finished running through singing and playing "I've No Regrets", my translation of "J'ai pas d'regret" by Boris Vian. Tomorrow. I'll upload it to my Christian's Translations blog. 

            I memorized the fifth verse of "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s nothing, I’m done, I’m gone) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are two more verses left to learn. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in sixteen days. 

            At the beginning of the new year I started a new exercise. It's not one I've never done before but I haven't practiced it in years. In yoga it's called the Warrior: I stretch one arm over the same shoulder and down my back while bringing the other arm up my back to try to bring my hands together. I used to be able to shake hands with myself back there but not anymore. But doing the exercise must have changed some alignment, because recently while doing another exercise of stretching my arms apart my right shoulder popped a bit and I was in pain. I can still do it but I have to be careful how I ease into it. Today the shoulder was in more pain than usual. It might be just a matter of adjusting to the new motion. 

            I've been listening to the Harry Chapin discography. I've heard a lot of his songs before and was expecting him to have more interesting songs than he does. He was certainly a good songwriter and even a not bad literary writer and his lyrics were often funny but it's not the kind of artistic writing one needs to listen to more than once. Most of his songs have only one meaning and while each message has important face value, after you get it there's no more need to listen, so it becomes boring. As my Jamaican neighbour said when he overheard me playing Harry Chapin, "his voice has no colour". He certainly had a versatile band and his backup vocalist Big John Wallace had a four octave voice. So far his only really interesting song is "Taxi", which to some degree was an inspiration for the movie Taxi Driver. 

            I read another 28 pages of David Copperfield. David's boss finds out from Jane Murdstone that David is engaged to his daughter because Jane swiped his letters to her. He forbids the engagement. Shortly after that David's boss dies and it is discovered that he's left no will and it seems that he's not as rich as he seemed to be and is only worth about a thousand pounds. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I ventured out for a bike ride. I decided not to ride further than Bloor and Ossington because the bike lane was a bit slippery in places. Riding down Ossington I wiped out as my bike slipped out to the right and I landed hard on my left knee. I'm assuming that I only bruised my kneecap but it's pretty sore right now and probably will be for a few days. So much for riding a bike for my health. 

            I stopped at Freshco where I bought five bags of grapes, two packs of blackberries, one pack of strawberries, and some bananas. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:08. 

            I read another 45 pages of David Copperfield and got up to page 608. Dora has moved in with her two elderly aunts and David has requested an audience with them. They invite him over and offer him to come only twice a week, once for dinner and once for tea. He agrees to their terms. David runs into Mr. Peggotty who has received a letter from Emily postmarked somewhere in Germany and so he's heading there. 

            I had a potato with gravy and my last three pork ribs while watching season 4, episode 13 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Mrs. Drysdale's father is still interested in getting money from the Clampetts. Granny thinks that he's courting her. He wants her to come to Las Vegas with him to gamble but when he uses words like "proposal", "engagement" and "partnership" she can't help but get the wrong idea. Finally when she learns what he really wants it's no dice. Then Farquar asks Jed if he wants to go to Vegas and Jed thinks the man is desperate to marry anybody. 

            For the second night in a row I found no bedbugs.

January 27, 1993: I asked for my change in nickels and dimes so I could use them to fool the streetcar driver

Thirty years ago today 

            On Wednesday I got up at around 11:30. I boiled some buckwheat. I watched TV, I ate more Halloween candy, I went through more magazines and then I left for work. I snuck onto the streetcar again and I was very nervous about getting caught. I bought a lottery ticket with my $2 and asked for the change in nickels and dimes so I could use them to fool the streetcar driver on Thursday. When I got home I ate more Halloween candy. Mike Copping didn't come over. I watched TV and finally got through all of the Now Magazines that I wanted to. I felt weak from eating the wrong kind of food, or maybe I was simply adjusting to a different kind of food. I ate pretty much the same stuff for three years and had plenty of strength. I missed having a phone line so I could talk to my daughter.

Charlie Ruggles

            On Wednesday morning I ran through singing and playing the first half of "I've No Regrets", which is my translation of "J'ai pas d'regret" by Boris Vian. I'll finish that tomorrow and might have time to upload it to my Christian's Translations blog. 

            I memorized the fourth verse of "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s nothing, I’m done, I’m gone) by Serge Gainsbourg. There are three more verses left to learn. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I went up to David's place to check on everything. His rosemary still doesn't need watering and I think that David might have drowned the roots. I stuck a nitrogen stick into the soil to see if that would help. 

            I spent at least an hour reading David Copperfield. Barkis dies and then it is learned that Emily has run off with David's friend Steerforth because she wants to become a lady. This is treated by everyone as if it is a bigger tragedy than Barkis's death. Their reaction is disturbing considering that she is a young woman of age and should have the right to make her own decisions and mistakes. Mr. Pegotty is now going to search the world to find her and perhaps kill Steerforth when he does.

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before lunch. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of limeade. 

            In the afternoon there was a snowstorm going on and so I didn't take a bike ride. 

            I weighed 84.4 kilos at 16:10, which is the heaviest I've been at that time in two weeks. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 16:57. 

            I spent about three hours reading David Copperfield and made it to page 538. David and Mr. Peggotty go to see Mrs. Steerforth about her son running off with Emily. She says the idea of Emily becoming a lady is impossible because she is out of her class. She has no sympathy for Emily and has disowned Steerforth. Miss Dartle thinks Emily should be branded for her transgression and publicly whipped. David confesses his love to Dora and they become secretly engaged. David's aunt reveals that she is financially ruined so as David is an unsalaried apprentice at his job he has to find other work. He gets a job as a secretary for his retired old schoolmaster. He also begins studying shorthand so he can work as a court stenographer. Even Mr. Dick gets a job copying documents. 

            I made two patties from ground chicken and grilled them in the oven. I put one on a toasted slice of Bavarian sandwich bread with chili sauce, Dijon, and horseradish, and had it with a beer while watching season 4, episode 12 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story Mrs. Drysdale's father comes from Boston to Beverly Hills. Margaret prides herself on her family coming from Mayflower stock and valuing culture over money but Mr. Farquar is secretly a gambling addict. Mr. Drysdale knows about it but protects his wife from the truth. Meanwhile Margaret wants to shelter what she thinks are her father's refined sensibilities from the Clampetts, but when he hears they are hillbilly millionaires he thinks they are ripe for fleecing. 

            He goes over to the Clampett mansion and engages Jed in a game of poker for matches. He says each match is worth $1000 but Jed says he is getting robbed in Boston if that's the price for them there. Farquar wins a big pile of matches from Jed but then Granny joins in and wins everything back. When Jed tells Farquar about their billiard room, which they use for fancy eating, Farquar informs them of a game that can be played on the tables for matches. But Jed's deadeye shooting skills with a gun transfer to pool and he turns out to be a great pool player from the first time out. 

            Mr. Farquar was played by Charles Ruggles, whose first theatrical experience was as a superintendent for the Alcazar Theatre. He eventually started appearing on stage with the company. His first film appearance was in the silent movie The Patchwork Girl of Oz in 1914. His first talking picture was Gentleman of the Press. His mother was shot and killed in 1924 when she came between her husband and another man. He co-starred with Mary Boland in a series of comedies in the 1930s, such as If I Had a Million, Six of a Kind, Ruggles of Red Gap, and People Will Talk. He co-starred in Bringing Up Baby and It Happened on Fifth Avenue. He starred in the 1949 sitcom The Ruggles, and the 1950s sitcom The World of Mr. Sweeney. He won a Tony Award for his performance in the play The Pleasure of His Company and repeated his role in the film version. He was the narrator of Aesop's Fables on The Bullwinkle Show. He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

           

            I searched for bedbugs and found none.

January 26, 1993: I ate leftover Halloween candy

Thirty years ago today

            On Tuesday I woke up at around 10:45, got ready for work and left at 11:00. I wrote this while sitting in the drawing studio at George Brown College and waiting for class to start. There was a teacher there this time, whereas yesterday I posed without one. I did the same length of poses as the day before, for two classes until 18:00. I walked to Yonge and Queen to sneak onto the eastbound streetcar and go home. I scrounged in my fridge for the dregs of food that were there, like leftover turnip from the weekend baby food, and spaghetti. I ate Halloween candy. I tried to make fudge with cocoa, coconut, honey, water, and corn flax. I ate corn flax by itself. I watched TV and went through old Now Magazines.

The Enemies

            On Tuesday morning I finished revising my translation of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I'll run through playing and singing the song in English to make sure everything fits. 

            I memorized the third verse of "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s nothing, I’m done, I’m gone) by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of the final verse. 

            When I went into the bedroom to get my guitar I saw a black spot on the upper hinge of the old exit door at the head of my bed. It was in a small hole there so I dug my toothpick in and killed another sick looking bedbug. I'm hoping that the spores are going to do more than make them sick and that I'm going to see zero bedbugs soon. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I left for the Bildungsroman seminar at 11:10 and took the same route as last week: College to St. George, north to Hoskin Avenue, east to Tower Road and then south to lock my bike beside Hart House. I sat on the floor in front of the classroom for a few minutes and read a few more pages of David Copperfield, up to 412. David goes to visit his old school chum Traddles, who as a child got beaten by the schoolmaster more than any other student for no particular reason. Traddles is now a lawyer or law student. 

            We looked at the autobiographical fragment in the back of David Copperfield. It was unfinished. It was begun in the 1840s when he was already famous. John Forster was supposed to be Dickens's biographer and he promised not to publish it until after Dickens's death. It was a secret.

            What is literally true? Dickens's father went to debtors prison. Dickens did work at Warren's Blacking as a child and the business is mentioned in Great Expectations. Stephen Marcus wrote Who is Fagin? 

            I suggested that perhaps one reason Dickens didn't want the autobiography published while he was alive is that people might think he was less creative if they thought he was lifting ideas from his own life. I thought also that if the autobiography had been published while he was alive he would have to go through David Copperfield bit by bit to say what parts were true or not. Otherwise people might think it was all true. 

            Putting secrets into a novel. Confession. Most of Dickens's famous books were published before David Copperfield. Treat the autobiography as a fiction too. Not facts but narrative. He was world famous at the time. 

            Even if you were to copy the phone book it would be about you. 

            Novels with an emphasis on childhood were new at the time. 

            We talked about the situation in Jane Eyre when Jane is mistaken for a beggar. I said that calling her a beggar is an insult to beggars. If someone drove a truck a couple of times one wouldn't call them a truck driver. I don't think anyone got my point. 

            Dickens suffered in secret.

            He uses a genuine child's voice. 

            We looked at the first paragraph of the novel. He suggests that anybody else might be the hero of his story. I said being born and crying when the clock is striking midnight poetically suggests that he is a victim of time. 

            Both David's mother and Peggotty have the first name Clara. 

            Frozen moments. Scenes he returns to. Who is he in each place? What does it mean to leave a self behind? 

            I said that when David's infant half brother is buried with their mother and David imagines that it is him, that is a mirror scene. Professor Jaffe adds that he erases the baby at that moment. 

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco where I bought three bags of black grapes and some bananas. 

            I weighed 83.6 kilos at 15:00, which is the lightest I've been at lunch in a week. 

            I had a late siesta. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 17:20. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. 

            I spent at least two hours reading David Copperfield and got up to page 448. There are a lot of coincidences in this novel. It reminds me of the philosophy that a world where time travel exists would be fraught with coincidences. It turns out that Traddles's landlord is Mr. Micawber. David has Traddles and the Micawbers over for dinner. We learn that Micawber is once again deeply in debt. David hears that Mr. Barkins is dying and so he goes to Yarmouth to see him and Peggotty. 

            I had a potato with gravy and three pork ribs while watching season 4, episode 11 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Jethro asks Jed for advice on how to get a girl and he tells him that he used to sit in front of the market whittling. Jethro tries it but it doesn't work. Jed decides that they need to throw a wing-ding for the kids. He asks Mr. Drysdale to arrange it and so Drysdale enlists Jane to find a musical group, but he suggests she get Guy Lombardo. She informs him that what is popular now are groups like The Beatles but Drysdale doesn't know who they are. He's suddenly interested though when she tells him that they made $14 million last year. She mentions Herman and the Hermits, The Animals, Freddie and the Dreamers and The Byrds but says they are probably not available. She suggests she may be able to get The Lizards, The Frogs, or The Termites. Drysdale says, "Get them. What ever Granny wants to cook."

            To audition bands Jane takes Jethro with her on the town. They go to The Whisky a Go-Go to hear the real garage rock band The Enemies, who play "Mojo Woman" and "Pretty Woman". The music is so infectious that both Jane and Jethro are overwhelmed and can't stop dancing. Jethro goes out the next day and buys a wig, some mod clothes and an electric guitar. That night the Clampetts decorate their house for a barn dance and The Enemies show up, along with everyone that had been at the Whisky the previous night. Jed tries to teach them to square dance and play Turkey in the Straw but when they do it just sounds like rock and roll. Granny in frustration goes for her jug to sit in the parlour and Drysdale joins her, but Jed and Elly stay to dance. 

            The Enemies played themselves. They were from Buffalo, New York and were originally called The Vibratos. When Cory Wells left the air force he joined the group as their very talented lead singer, and they moved to LA where they renamed the band The Enemies. They were the house band at The Whisky a Go-Go for a year. Their first single was "Sinner Man". They also appeared in the movie "Riot on the Sunset Strip", which I think I saw with my mother at a drive-in when I was about fifteen. Danny Hutton produced their version of "Hey Joe". Later Wells and Hutton would form Three Dog Night with Chuck Negron. 

            I searched for bedbugs and didn't find any on the bed or walls but there were some babies caught in the sticky trap that Steve from Orkin set near the head of my bed. I don't know how long they'd been there but it's the first time any bedbugs have gone into one of those glue snares.

January 25, 1993: I found a piece of bread in my fridge and had it with some of my daughter's baby food

Thirty years ago today

            On Monday morning at around 11:00 I was awakened from a sweet sleep by a building inspector. He said he'd come to look for cockroaches and so I let him in, but he only found one. After he left I tried and failed to go back to sleep. I was out of coffee so I had toast and water for breakfast. I cleaned up some newspapers and then left for work. I wrote this on the streetcar on my way to George Brown College. I posed there until 18:00 and then walked to The Ontario College of Art to work from 18:30 to 21:30. I walked to Yonge and Queen where I snuck on the streetcar, looking out for inspectors at every stop. I was looking forward to payday on Friday. At home I found a slice of bread, toasted it and had it with some of my daughter's baby food. I watched TV and went through some old Now and Eye magazines.

Sebastian Cabot

            On Monday morning I had salmonella from the salmon I had last night, but as usual it was mostly gone during song practice. 

            I revised my translation of the sixth verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. 

            I memorized the second verse of "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s nothing, I’m done, I’m gone) by Serge Gainsbourg and revised my translation of some of the verses. 

            I weighed 84.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in twelve days.

            I wasted a lot of time in the morning trying find a quote in my documents, so I didn't get a lot of David Copperfield read before lunch. I made it to page 359. David's aunt suggests that he become a proctor. Steerforth explains that a proctor is like an attorney who deals with cases of both nautical and ecclesiastical law. Aunt Betsey is taking David to the company that would employ him when she is accosted by someone who looks like a beggar. David wants to get rid of him but even though she is visibly upset she insists on riding off with the man in a carriage. When she returns she asks that David not ask her anything about it. 

            I weighed 84.9 kilos before lunch. That's the most I've weighed at that time in two weeks. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:15. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 17:52. 

            I spent about two hours reading David Copperfield and made it to page 405, which is about twenty pages short of the halfway point of the novel. David has begun working as a proctor for Mr. Spenlow. David's aunt has set him up in a handsome apartment and so David throws a housewarming party, inviting Steerforth and two of Steerforth's friends. David proceeds to get drunk for the first time and then they all go to the theatre where he runs into his beloved Agnes who he embarrasses with his drunkenness. But she forgives him when they meet next. She tells him that Uriah Heep is going to become her father's partner in the law firm. David doesn't like Uriah and so this is not good news. Agnes begs him to be nice to Uriah and so he invites him to his place. Uriah confesses he is in love with Agnes. That gives David the urge to kill him but he remembers his promise to Agnes. Spenlow invites David to his home for a weekend where David falls in love at first sight with Spenlow's daughter Dora. By bizarre coincidence Spenlow has hired David's cruel step aunt Jane Murdstone to be Dora's companion. Jane speaks with David in private and suggests that neither of them say anything bad about the other. He agrees. Dora doesn't like Jane. 

            I had a potato with gravy and three pork ribs. I added to the gravy the leftover butter and lemon from the salmon I cooked yesterday. I ate while watching season 4, episode 10 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Jethro has a chemistry set and fancies himself to be an inventor now. He thinks he's invented a pill that turns water into gasoline. Jed needs Jethro to drive him to Mr. Drysdale's bank for a meeting, but the gas pill not only fails on the way but it also destroys the engine, and Jethro has to push.

            Meanwhile at the bank, Mr. Sebastian the billionaire and two of Drysdale's colleagues who think that Jed is a genius are waiting for him. Sebastian shows them a film about his underwater farming project, which he says is the future. He gives Jane a giant sponge that he harvested from the bottom of the ocean. 

            Jed is late and Sebastian has to leave before he arrives because he has an appointment for a massage at his club. Jane tells Jed that Sebastian is a farmer and urges him to go to the club. At the club, Sebastian has given his trainer Joe orders to be a hard taskmaster, not matter how he begs. When Jed arrives at the club he misunderstands the situation. He sees Joe appearing to beat up Sebastian as he massages him and tells him he has to pay for the donuts he had this morning. Jed thinks that Sebastian is extremely poor if he has to be punished to pay for some donuts. Jed knocks out Joe and stuffs him in a locker. 

            Jane takes the giant sponge to give to the Clampetts. Granny thinks it's food and tries to cook it. Jethro finds it in the pot, thinks it's a giant mushroom and eats it. 

            Lucas Sebastian was played by Sebastian Cabot, who quit school at the age of 14 to work in a garage. He became a chauffeur and valet for the actor Frank Pettingell and that led him to try the theatre. His first film appearance was as an extra in Foreign Affairs at the age of 17. The next year he had a credited part in Alfred Hitchcock's "Secret Agent". He moved to the United States in the 1950s and started appearing in Hollywood films. On television he co-starred in the detective series Checkmate. He did a lot of voice work for Disney. His most famous role was as the butler Mr. French on Family Affair, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. Both he and his co-star Brian Keith found the show extremely boring to act in. He did an album in which he recited Bob Dylan lyrics. He lived in his later years just outside of Victoria, British Columbia. 

            I got up to page 408 in David Copperfield, which is about 15 pages shy of the halfway point.

            I searched for bedbugs and for the first time in about a week I didn't find one.

January 24, 1993: My daughter watched some boys play football and then followed a dog

                                       

Thirty years ago today

            On Sunday I got up at around 11:00 and my daughter crawled out of bed an hour or so later. After breakfast we went for a walk in the rain through the nature trail. She watched some boys play football and then followed a dog. She was almost asleep when we I got home and then went right to sleep. I got Nancy to give me some busfare.

William Bakewell

            On Sunday morning I revised my translation of the fifth verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. 

            I blog-published "From a Payphone", my translation of "D'un taxiphone" by Serge Gainsbourg. I memorized the first verse of his song, "C’est rien, je m’en vais, c’est tout" (It’s nothing, I’m done, I’m gone) and revised my translation of some of the verses. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos before breakfast. 

            I checked on David's place upstairs and everything is still fine. He must have drowned his rosemary plant before he left because the soil is still wet. I wonder if he would be interested in putting some of his stuff in a storage unit. He could probably pack quite a bit into a tiny unit for $25 a month. 

            I sat down to spend an hour and a half reading David Copperfield, but I fell asleep. When I woke up I only had half an hour of reading before lunch. I made it to chapter 20, which is almost at page 300. David has finished school but doesn't know what to do and so his aunt gives him money to travel for a month and think about it. He runs into his old school chum Steerforth. 

            I weighed 84.5 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I've been at that time in eleven days. 

            It was snowing in the afternoon but I felt the need for exercise and so I ventured out for a bike ride anyway. I made it to Bloor and Ossington before my ass started getting wet and so I headed home.

            I went out to the liquor store to buy a six-pack of Creemore and then I went to the corner store to buy a lemon. The guy behind the counter who I used to buy Christmas trees from asked about my daughter. That's interesting because most people that remember her ask about my "son". Maybe he understood something that I didn't back then. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos at 16:45 and that's the most I've weighed at that time in almost two weeks.

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I got up to page 346 in David Copperfield. David spends a couple of weeks in Steerforth's home, meeting his mother and their relative Miss Dartle who lives with them. Dartle is an interesting character because she always cuts through to the heart of a matter that everyone beats around and yet she does it in a roundabout way. Such as when she hears Steerforth making snooty fun of David's salt of the earth friends and says, she's glad to hear that such people don't suffer and feel. David and Steerforth travel together and Steerforth meets all of David's friends. He goes sailing with Peggotty and then buys him a boat. He also meets Emily and Ham and they learn that they've just become engaged. Steerforth doesn't think Ham is good enough for Emily because he senses she was meant to be a lady. 

            I fried a salmon fillet in butter and lemon and had it with a warmed up naan and a beer while watching season 4, episode 9 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            A new neighbour moves next door to the Clampetts and Granny laments that they are probably snooty like every other Beverly Hills rich person. But when Aggie the housekeeper knocks on the door to ask to use the phone, they think she is the owner of the mansion and are impressed at how down to earth she is. Granny tries to matchmake between Jed and Aggie. When Mr. Drysdale also learns that Mrs. Carrington is moving in and that she is worth $24 million, he also starts to play matchmaker, also mistaking Aggie for Mrs. Carrington. Granny goes to visit Aggie and is impressed to find her mopping the floor. When she complains of an aching back Granny invites her to come and have some of her rheumatis medicine. Aggie proceeds to get drunk and then the Carrington chauffeur announces that Mrs. Carrington has arrived. 

            The chauffeur was played by William Bakewell, whose first film appearance was as an extra in the silent film "Fighting Blood". He played the German soldier Albert Kropp in "All Quiet on the Western Front". He co-starred in the movie "Playing Around". He was one of the original fifty members of the Screen Actors Guild. He co-starred in the Hop Harrigan movie serials. He started his own successful real estate company. 

            I searched for bedbugs and my toothpick killed another one on the lower left side of the old exit door at the head of my bed.

January 23, 1993: I was taking a shower after midnight when my daughter banged on the door because she wanted to play in the tub

Thirty years ago today

             On Saturday we were in the emergency ward until 3:00 and it had been a waste of time. I could see that my daughter's hand was all right after getting stuck in the subway door. She was moving it freely and so we decided finally not to get it x-rayed. Nancy took her home. 

            In the early afternoon I picked up my daughter at Nancy's place and since my busfare was limited I transferred to the Steeles bus to take her back to my place. The round trip from when I left home was four or five hours. She didn't go to sleep until around 19:30 and so I thought she was going to stay down for the rest of the night. But when I was taking a shower at 1:30 on Sunday she yelled and banged on the bathroom door because she wanted to play with me in the tub. After that she finally went back to sleep at around 3:30.

Van Williams

            On Saturday morning I revised my translation of the fourth verse of "J'ai pas d'regret" (I've No Regrets) by Boris Vian. 

            I finished working out the chords for "D'un taxiphone" (From a Payphone) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through the song in French and English. I uploaded it to my Christian's Translations blog to prepare it for publication. I should have that done tomorrow. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I've been in the morning in ten days.

            In the late morning I went to No Frills where the grapes were on sale so I got seven bags of red ones. I also bought a pack of chicken drumsticks, cinnamon-raisin bread, strawberry-rhubarb pie, Sunlight dish detergent, Folgers coffee, and skyr. The Folgers price wasn't marked and so I went to the automatic cashier to scan it. It was still on sale but I couldn't figure out how to cancel the transaction. I asked an employee and she said to just leave it. 

            I ran into Justin Zaza at the checkout and he reminded me that Kevin Pierce had died. That was a couple of years ago and I knew about it, but I hadn't known it was suicide. Apparently he jumped from a building. Suicide is understandable if one is in continuous pain but the problem with people who suffer from bipolar disorder killing themselves is that the desire to die is part of an episode that will pass. I assume he went off his medication. 

            I read a bit more of the short biography of Charles Dickens in the back of David Copperfield. 

            I weighed 84.3 kilos before lunch, which is the most I've weighed at that time in a week. I had rice crackers with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of lemonade. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. At Bloor and St George a child in a stroller was crying over and over again, "Mommy! Mommy! Why not?" It was probably over some unimportant thing but it's amazing how hearing a child crying tugs at my emotions and makes me want to cry along with her, especially when there are already tears in my eyes from riding in the cold. 

            At the Cameron House tonight there is a band called "The Spadina Monologues". 

            On Queen west there is a restaurant called "6ix Pizza". It's pretty pathetic that Toronto has so little of a history of coolness that it has to resort to referring itself by a name that Drake called it five minutes ago in order to appear cool. I don't think there's another city anywhere that is so insecure about its international identity as Toronto. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:00. That's the most I've weighed at that time in ten days. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I finished reading the autobiographical excerpts from Charles Dickens and returned to David Copperfield. I made it to page 266. David is doing well living with the lawyer and going to classes at Dr. Strong's school. The lawyer has a daughter named Agnes and David seems to be sweet on her. Dr. Strong has a wife far younger than he and she seems quite worshipful of her husband but there is indication that a young man who has just been sent off to India had the better part of her affections. 

            The lawyer has a skeletal and annoyingly humble assistant named Uriah Heep, after whom was named one of my favourite seventies prog rock bands. Uriah Heep formed in 1969 just as the hundredth anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens was approaching. I guess since it was Christmas time and everyone was talking about Dickens, the band members thought that Uriah Heep would be a cool name for the newly formed band. I suspect that there was meant to be some irony with a progressive rock band having an old sounding name, similar to the name Jethro Tull for another band that came together around that time. 

            I had my last egg sunny side up with a warmed up naan and a beer while watching season 4, episode 8 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            Granny is making a special love conjure to bring forth a beau for Elly May. Since she is past the age of fourteen she is past her prime for marrying and now needs assistance. Meanwhile Mr. Drysdale has hired a handsome escort named Dean to court Elly. Jane is appalled at the idea of hiring a gigolo until she starts talking to him and finds he is a PHD student and very intellectual. They hit it off and go to a cafe together to discuss the plan for courting Elly. But Jed sees them together and thinks that Jane has landed a man.

            Later Granny throws her conjure into the fire and immediately Dean shows up at the door. But Granny has dressed Elly up like a little girl to make her more attractive and it puts Dean off. Elly hates walking around with a big bow in her hair, carrying a lollipop and playing hopscotch. When Jed sees Dean he tells Granny that he's Jane's man. She tries to reverse the spell but it doesn't work. Jane comes over and Granny dresses her up as a little girl to turn Dean's head, then she dresses Elly in a slinky dress. Dean grabs Jane and leads her away, saying that seeing her in a little girl dress is the sanest thing he's seen all day. 

            Dean was played by Van Williams, who majored in animal husbandry at Texas Christian University. He was running a scuba diving school in Hawaii when he was spotted by Elizabeth Taylor and her husband Mike Todd who wanted to make him a star. Todd died before that goal could be realized but Williams went ahead. He might have been better managed if Todd had lived but Williams did become a TV star. He was cast to co-star on the short lived series "Bourbon Street Beat" and when that was canceled his same character was moved over to the series "Surfside Six". He then co-starred in series "The Tycoon". That was followed by his most famous role as "The Green Hornet" with Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato. He pushed for more screen time for Lee but the producers rejected the idea. Williams was a best friend and next door neighbour of Adam West of Batman. Williams went on to become a successful businessman. 

            I made it to page 281 of David Copperfield. David has tea at Uriah Heep's and Heep's mother's home. It's interesting because so far David has become like family with everyone who has been friendly toward him except for Uriah Heep. Perhaps he finds him too cloying. There in Canterbury David runs into his old landlord who is once again deeply in debt. David turns seventeen, gets in a fight with a butcher and loses, falls in love several times, especially with an older woman. She chooses another, then he fights the butcher again and wins. 

            

           

            

            I looked for bedbugs and my toothpick mashed one in a small hole to the left of the old exit door at the head of my bed. Every one I've found on the wall since pest control treated the place last week has been in that area.