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.
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