Grace Albertson

            On Monday morning I worked out the chords for the repetitions of the phrase “Toute la vie” (All our lives) in the song “On fait des rêves” (We Keep Dreaming) by Boris Vian. All that’s left is the bridge back to a repetition of the first verse, which I think has the same chords, then a repletion of the second verse and then the same repetitions of “Toute la vie”. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Aberdeen et Kowloon” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through it in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog. 

            When I switched the audio plug from the back of my computer to begin song practice there was a wicked hum. I spent a few minutes trying to find the source. I checked the two cords that link on their way to the back of my amp and I checked the back of my amp. Finally I pulled the plug from the headphone jack and re-inserted it, then the humming stopped. I played my Kramer electric guitar for the third of four sessions. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since March 1. 

            I took an early bike ride to Yonge and Bloor, went south on Yonge then west on College to Spadina. I went into Canada Computers to ask about external hard drives, which I knew very little about so the guy who answered my questions looked bored out of his skull. I don’t give a fuck because I learn what to buy by asking questions to real people, even if later I go and buy the item online I can make a wiser purchase that way. Mechanical hard drives are about half the price for the same amount of terabytes of storage than the solid state drives (SSD). The mechanical drives they have are the Passport. Mechanical drives have moving parts. I asked , “Wouldn’t something with moving parts break more easily?” and he confirmed that it would. He said a mechanical hard drive might last seven or eight years but a solid state would last much longer. I asked what he uses and he said solid state but he needs it because he’s an engineering student. They had a single terabyte Samsung SSD for about $250. I’ve read online that Samsung is currently about the best. He said they will probably be phasing out the mechanical hard drives, so they will be going the way of the compact disc. It would have taken me hours or even days of searching to have gotten all that information by looking online. 

            I went next door to The Urbane Cyclist to ask about the Burley market bags for the Burley trailer I bought there at the end of April. I decided to buy the bottom bag and the smaller top bag and the smaller one was only slightly less expensive. After tax I paid $412 for both bags, which is almost as much as I paid for the trailer. I think it will be useful and it will make shopping quicker than it would be to fiddle with straps every time I go out. I can save the straps for big items like my amp. 

            On the way home I stopped at Freshco to buy shaving gel, grapes and cherries. My favourite cashier Amelia, who’s been there since before Freshco was Price Chopper, told me that her uncle has a cherry farm outside of Fresno, California. She says she visits every year or so and will be going again next month. There are also figs, which she always stocks up on. 

            I might have weighed 86.2 kilos before lunch but I think my scale is broken. I changed the battery and the numbers were jumping all over the place. 

            After lunch I took a siesta and tried weighing myself again. My scale was still throwing up wildly different weights every time. I find it useful to track my weight so I just went on Amazon and ordered a new one. I bought an Ozeri for almost $40 after shipping charges. It’s supposed to arrive by Friday. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:30. I reviewed the videos of my song practice performances of “The Post Colonial Breakdown” and “Mamadou” from August 12 to 17. On August 12 and 16 I played “The Post Colonial Breakdown” on my Martin acoustic guitar. On August 12 the take at the beginning of part B wasn’t bad, but the light was a bit washed out and there was streetcar noise. On August 16 the take at 7:15 in Part B was pretty good and looked good. On August 14 I played it on my Kramer electric guitar and the take at 5:10 in part B wasn’t bad and it looked good. This is already synchronized in Movie Maker. On August 13 and 17 I played “Mamadou” on the Kramer. On August 13 the take in part B at 12:15 was not bad for the electric and it looked okay. On August 17 the take at 2:30 was okay but there was a lot of traffic noise. On August 15 I played it on the Martin and the take at 3:15 in part B was okay and looked good but there was a lot of traffic noise. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Angeline” I edited the clips from the Greta Garbo silent film Wild Orchids and got them all down from one minute and forty five seconds to just under thirty seconds. Tomorrow I’ll insert the first clip into the main video after the line, “restless days of hopeless sleep”. 

            The mounting screw on my Davidson tripod is too long for the mounting hole on my new Sony camera and so I can’t fit the camera securely to the tripod. It’s a great tripod and so it would be a shame for it to be useless just because of a screw. I thought that maybe a washer or two would shorten the screw so the fit will be firm. I checked online to see if that would be a common solution. It turns out it is but people recommend a rubber washer. The only rubber washer I have is too thick and so I’ll have to get something from the hardware store. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 3, episodes 23 and 24 of Bewitched. 

            In the first story Darrin ran into an important client but couldn’t remember Pennybaker’s name. Darrin doesn’t want that to happen again and so he bought a book entitled Instant Memory Can Be Yours. While he’s reading it Endora appears and laughs at him. She says the ability to forget is very important to mortals. They do so many stupid things a perfect memory would be impossible to live with. Without telling him she casts a spell on his wristwatch to give him a perfect memory whenever he is wearing it. The next morning at breakfast Samantha serves blueberry pancakes and Darrin remembers the exact last time that she made them and what dress she was wearing. He then remembers that she donated the dress to a rummage sale for which she’d used magic to make a cake five minutes after he’d told her not to use witchcraft. This almost leads to an argument. The next day at work Darrin meets Pennybaker again and impresses him with his memory of his family. But Pennybaker is someone who prides himself in his knowledge of many topics. Then Darrin’s now perfect memory begins to upstage Pennybaker much to his annoyance. That night Darrin and Samantha have Pennybaker, Mrs. Pennybaker, Larry and Louise for dinner and Darrin continues to dominate any conversation that Pennybaker tries to weave around any subject. Darrin thinks that he’s finding commonality with Pennybaker but he’s only getting on his and everybody else’s nerves. Samantha pulls Darrin aside to try to point that out but Darrin is just excited about having such a good memory. He adds, “And your mother didn’t think I could handle it!” Samantha hasn’t seen Endora for a few weeks and so she concludes that her mother must have appeared before Darrin recently and hexed him. She calls her mother forth and Endora admits she did something but didn’t put a spell on Darrin. Samantha guesses that she hexed something he wears all the time but Endora won’t say what it is. Samantha figures out very quickly that it’s his watch and so she causes the strap to break and it falls to the floor. Mrs. Pennybaker picks it up and begins dominating the conversation with her embarrassing memories of her husband’s tendency to monopolize conversations. 

            Cynthia Pennybaker was played by Grace Albertson, who co-starred in "Arson Squad", which starred her husband Frank Albertson. Her youngest daughter and her father died in a car accident in 1956 when her daughter lost control of her car. 

            In the second story Samantha has taken up painting and donates her first still life to an exhibit in which paintings will be auctioned off for charity. It’s already in the gallery at the university. Endora wants to see the painting and so she appears in the gallery and freezes the men hanging the paintings so she can see Samantha’s work. She doesn’t like it and so bizarrely and beyond logic she decides to replace it with a landscape by Henri Monchet. Meanwhile Larry tells Darrin he has to take the client Mr. Cunningham to dinner. Darrin says tonight is the night Samantha’s painting debuts and Larry says that’s perfect because Cunningham considers himself an expert on art. Later it is announced that Samantha’s painting has won the first prize, but Samantha doesn’t know that yet. At dinner Cunningham goes on and on about what a great understanding he has of art. He says one has to be able to say to a painting, “I know you”. At the exhibit when Samantha’s painting is unveiled she and Darrin are the only ones that know it’s not hers. Cunningham says her painting is saying “I know you” and he wants it. While bidding begins on the painting, Samantha goes to find her mother because she knows she’s behind this. Cunningham is bidding on the painting and Darrin keeps bidding against him, even after Cunningham threatens to withdraw his perfume account from McMann and Tate, and even after Larry warns Darrin he’s fired if he doesn’t let Cunningham buy the painting. Cunningham buys the painting for $1005 after Darrin raises it to $1000. Cunningham, Louise and Larry are invited back to Samantha and Darrin’s house for coffee. Finally Samantha gets Endora to appear in the kitchen. Endora says she merely borrowed the painting and it will return to Monchet at midnight. Endora says Cunningham’s perfume nearly burned a hole through her robe. She offers Samantha some of the irresistible perfume she got from a warlock in Tibet. Samantha borrows the bottle and puts a lot on herself. Samantha serves the coffee and makes sure Cunningham gets a good whiff of her. He immediately wants the perfume so he can market it. Samantha says her mother won’t accept money but would love to have that painting. Cunningham says it’s a deal. Darrin takes the painting into the den so Cunningham can’t see it at midnight when it changes back. Cunningham needs a name for the new fragrance and Samantha suggests, “I know you”, which he loves. On the way out Cunningham sees Samantha’s real painting and wants it. She says he can have it.