Jonathan Hole

            On Wednesday morning it was 9 degrees and I switched the heat on from the thermostat. It said "heat on" but the furnace didn't kick in. It must be turned off in the basement. I called the landlord and he said he'd come tomorrow. 

            I posted "In the Good Old Days", my translation of "Au bon vieux temps" by Boris Vian on Facebook and I listened once to his 1947 song "C'était une pauv' gosse des rues" (She Was a Poor Street Youngster). It's in the style of a French folk song. I'll start memorizing it tomorrow. 

            I worked out the chords to all but the final verse of "Une chose entre autres" (One Thing Among Others) by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have that done tomorrow and maybe uploaded to my Christian's Translations blog. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar for song practice and had to tune it twice. That happens often lately and it cuts in on my practice time. Because of that I have to do shortened versions of two or three of my songs. 

            I weighed 84.7 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I've been in the morning in a week.

            At 12:15 I left my place to ride to The Rebel House restaurant in Summerhill. I was looking for 1099 Yonge Street. I was surprised by the number because I'd thought that I'd passed a place called Rebel House on the west side on more than one occasion. I didn't see the number and found myself in the 1100 block so I crossed the street and backtracked. I found 1099 but it was a fancy bakery or some such thing. I looked up Rebel House on my phone and saw that it was at 1068 Yonge and so I crossed again and went south where I saw my friend Brian Haddon waiting for me in front of the place. It was exactly 13:00 when I met him, which is when we were scheduled to meet. We went straight to the patio of the tiny place. The patio is almost bigger than the main floor of the building. Brian and I shared a pitcher of Creemore. He had a sandwich with kettle fries and I had something called "Daily Bread" which was basically a ground bison pizza with sautéed vegetables. I had recently posted a video featuring concert footage of Christian and the Lions playing my song Sleep in the Snow, with Brian on synthesizer. He said he has had the song in his head since then. We were there for two hours and decided we'd get together one more time before the patios get too cold, maybe at Mezzrows in Parkdale.

            I got home just before 16:30 and took a siesta. 

            I weighed 84.8 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:13. 

            I reviewed my performances of "Megaphor" from August 22 to 27. On August 22, and 25 to 27 I played the acoustic guitar. August 22 was done in one take and not bad. I'll compare it to August 11 later. On August 25 the take at 3:00 was okay but one chord was off. August 26 and 27 were pretty good, especially 27 because the light was good and I looked good. On August 23 and 24 I played the electric. August 23 was pretty good but there was a lot of traffic noise and maybe one chord slightly off. August 24 was good but other previous takes are better. There are nineteen more sessions to review and then I need to re-review the takes I've highlighted and compare them to settle on the best. 

            I made pizza on a slice of seven grain bread with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching season 6, episodes 24 and 25 of Petticoat Junction. 

            In the first story Hank Thackeray, the owner of the Pixley House Hotel says he can beat the Cannonball from Hooterville to Pixley with his car, even though the road route is the long way around. It will put both the Cannonball and the Shady Rest out of business because he'll be able to transport passengers directly to his hotel. Joe says he can't and so they challenge each other to a race. The day before the race Hank discovers that the wood fuel for the train has been soaked in oil to make it go faster. He replaces the oily wood with green wood so during the race the Cannonball loses pressure. But when they have to stop for Jug Gunderson and his still, Joe confiscates the still and soaks the green wood with Jug's moonshine, thus making the train go at lightning speed. Joe falls out of the train as it goes around Dead Man's Curve but waves it on and it wins. 

            Hank was played by Jonathan Hole, who started on Vaudeville in the 1920s and expanded his acting career to theatre, radio, television and films. His first film was The Two Dollar Bettor in 1951. He worked mostly on television in supporting roles. He also worked as an employment claims assistant for the California Employment Development Department that provided unemployment cheques to actors like Cary Grant, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn who had yet to be paid for whatever movie they were working on. 

            In the second story Dr. Craig gets an offer for a job in New York working with one of the world's top neurologists so she decides to leave. No one wants her to leave and so they try to make her feel needed but she already knows that. When a very handsome forest ranger named Ted Thorsen sprains his ankle everyone hopes that Janet will be smitten and decide to stay. Ted sure likes her but she's still determined. Joe, Sam and Bert switch Ted's x-rays with those of Bert's uncle from when he had a bad accident, but Janet recognizes the x-rays show a shoulder and not an ankle injury. Janet is about to leave when Betty Joe and Steve announce they are going to have a second child and then she decides to stay. It seems odd that would be the motivation since it can't be the only pregnancy in the valley. If she was determined to leave before despite her attachments to the Shady Rest family, why would a coming baby sway her? I figured out what was wrong with the thermostat. When I changed the battery a couple of months ago I didn't snap the casing firmly into place. Tonight I took the casing off and reattached it and the heat came on.