I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions. Tomorrow I begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic. I audio and video recorded the session as I have since September 1 and will until October 15. I managed to get all the way through “Vomit of the Star eater” without a major mistake. When I tried it again though I fumbled a few takes before giving up. I made it through "Sixteen Tons of Dogma" twice but I always get the wrong chord in the last part. I do it better with the acoustic.
I weighed 87.45 kilos before breakfast. Getting back on my normal diet is already paying off. That’s the lightest I’ve been in the morning since September 12.
I weighed 88.55 kilos before lunch.
I took my bike ride an hour later than usual because I was going to Albert Moritz’s book launch at Flying Books on the way home. Before I left I started some potatoes boiling but forgot to turn them off. I rode to Yonge and Bloor, south to College and west to Flying Books at 784 College. Albert Moritz was there when I walked in and I went to the counter to buy his book, “Great Silent Ballad”, then I got Albert to sign it. He wrote, “True troubadour, poetic warrior, friend”. I found a seat and later Allen Briesmaster sat behind me. I thanked him for his advice about watching out for spelling errors when getting published by Ekstasis Editions because he was right. I had to really go over Richard Olafson’s layout with a fine toothed comb. I learned that whenever the book launch will be Allen will be part of it because Ekstasis published his book in June and there hasn’t been a launch yet. Allen took public transit all the way from Thornhill. I haven’t been on the subway for about ten years and I thought the extension to Thornhill had already been built but it hasn’t. Beatriz Hausner was the host and she got Albert to read poems based on questions she asked him about the book. I learned that this year is the hundredth anniversary of André Breton’s “Surrealist Manifesto”.
It was while I was sitting there that it occurred to me that I might have forgotten to turn the stove off. I was distracted by thinking about it all the time I was there. I thought it was possible that I’d turned it off but I was leaning towards that not being the case.
After the reading there was a long line of people waiting to buy Albert’s book. But I stepped in between signings and shook his hand before leaving. I was glad I was almost home already. I didn’t smell the smoke till I got to my hallway. There was no actual visible smoke but the odour was there. It took almost a whole box of baking soda to clean the stainless steel pot.
I weighed 87.1 kilos at 20:24.
I heated a chicken breast and some oven fries. I had the fries with the last of my gravy and the chicken breast while watching episode 16 of The Big Valley.
Heath is out counting cattle when he sees some vultures circling. He investigates and finds a dead steer. He gets off his horse to inspect it and he is shot, with the bullet creasing his temple. Three men come forward and the leader is called “Daddy”. The boys want Heath’s clothes and they are about to kill him when Daddy picks up the book that Heath was writing in. He sees 500 head of cattle listed, which means that he comes from a wealthy ranch. They take him back to their camp where two women are working. Daddy explains to them that they saved him from thieves. Daddy tells Allie Kay, the youngest woman, to look after Heath. Daddy figures they’ll get a reward for “saving” Heath. They slap his horse and then follow it as it runs home. When Daddy and his gang approach, Victoria recognizes them as Rawhiders. Daddy introduces himself as John Wesley Cade but says everybody calls him Daddy. They take Heath to his room. The men are all out on roundup except for Silas the butler and Johnson with his arm in a sling. Victoria says the men will be back shortly. Victoria gives Daddy $100 as a reward but he expected $1000. He hints that they have a broken wagon wheel and so Victoria offers them the barn for the night and a spare wagon wheel. Victoria sends Audra to get the doctor. There is a telegram from Nick saying they’ll be spending a week in San Francisco to rest from the cattle drive. Allie Kay is looking after Heath when he wakes up delirious. He thinks she’s someone named Lupe and speaks to her in Spanish, asking her to lie down beside him and kiss him. He pulls her down to him and kisses her and then loses consciousness again. The doctor arrives and asks about the poultice she put on Heath. She says it’s cloverwart and mare’s tail and the doctor is impressed. Daddy comes in and steals the doctor’s watch from his bag. The doctor tells Victoria and Audra that Allie is a good nurse but to clean her up. Allie delights in her first indoor bath and Audra gives her a pretty dress to wear. While snooping around downstairs Daddy finds the telegram from Nick and realizes the house is undefended. Allie tells Audra that Daddy isn’t her father. Her real parents were killed when she was four or five and the Rawhiders raised her. Victoria discovers that the telegram from Nick is missing and now she knows Daddy knows they are alone. Pinto tells Daddy they can loot the place and get clean to Canada. Heath wakes up and meets Allie. Daddy distracts everybody upstairs while his boys take all the guns from the cabinet. Two episodes ago the cabinet was locked. Johnson the hired hand with the injured arm enters the barn and Daddy stabs him. Then he says they’ll have to kill everybody in the house that night. Allie sees the gang through the window approaching the house with guns and she rouses Heath. He asks her to find out what’s going on and she learns they plan to kill everyone. She goes to the barn to get a pistol for Heath and brings it to him. Victoria finds the Rawhiders cavorting in her living room and confronts them. Daddy asks her to marry him and she says she has to think about it. She tries to sneak upstairs but he asks where she’s going. She tells him she can’t get married in her night clothes. Heath tells Victoria, Audra, and Allie to head for the barn. Pinto sees them leave. Daddy tells Pinto he can kill Heath now but when he goes upstairs Heath kills him. Heath climbs down the balcony but when he lands Copper hears him. He goes out on the balcony to shoot Heath but Heath kills Copper. Heath enters the barn but collapses. Daddy is about to kill him when Victoria shoots and kills him. Later the doctor hires Allie Kay as a nurse.
Allie Kay was played by the beautiful and talented Yvonne Craig, who played Batgirl on the Batman TV series.
Pinto was played by Michael Greene, who was a close friend of David Carradine. He supplied all the flutes that David played on his series Kung Fu. His TV debut was in Wanted Dead or Alive. His film debut was in This Is Not a Test. He played Deputy Marshal Vance Porter on the short lived series The Dakotas. He played Nubu in the Lost in Space episode “Space Circus”.
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