Charla Doherty

            On Sunday I went to bed after 2:30 and got up at 5:00 as usual. The problem is that I often doze off at the computer at night, sometimes for an hour and so I don’t update my journal until 2:00. 

            In the morning I memorized the third verse of “La vague à lames” (The Bladed Wave) by Serge Gainsbourg. That’s half the song. 

            I played my Martin acoustic guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions. I audio and video recorded the session for the 43rd day of 45. It was a pretty good rehearsal and I think I got good takes of both “Vomit of the Star Eater” and “Sixteen Tons of Dogma”. 

            I weighed 87.75 kilos before breakfast. 

            I weighed 88.6 kilos before lunch. 

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

            I weighed 87.9 kilos at 17:50. I was caught up on my journal at 18:50. 

            I uploaded the video of my song “Me and Gravity” to YouTube. 

            I uploaded to my computer today’s song practice video. The 30 gig file however cut down on my hard drive space so I moved several files over to my external hard drive. I might have to transfer some more before this project is done. 

            I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce, a cut up slice of Black Forest ham, five-year-old cheddar, and my last egg. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episodes 7 and 8 of Branded. 

            In the first story, McCord has been hired by a town to look for precious metals. He finds a large fault of high grade silver where three veins join. But warns that if there is a motherload it’s a long way down and it would take heavy equipment to get to it. However, when the town learns there is silver almost all the men and half the women head out there to prospect. How the town learned of it is a mystery because it was meant to be a secret. It turns out that it’s a gang of crooks led by Luke Garret who spread the rumour as they plan to rob the bank. They knock out the telegraph operator and destroy the machine. They then go to the sheriff’s office. He’s also gone to look for silver but has left the young deputy Clay Holden in charge. They tell him that they are going to rob the bank and they want him to collect all the guns in town and put them in the middle of the street by 16:00 or they will burn the town to the ground. Holden begins collecting the guns but when he goes to get McCord’s and describes the man who made the threat, McCord knows who he is. He says Garret served under him in the cavalry and was court martialed for arson. He tells Clay that Garret will burn the town anyway. McCord gets Clay to help, then several women are armed and they stand against the gang when they come at 16:00. When Garret sees McCord he tells the townspeople about his reputation as a coward and they begin to lose confidence. Then the men take Clay’s girl Karin hostage and so McCord backs down. Clay and the women turn in their guns. Clay is locked in the jail with Topaz as the guard. McCord busts in and kills him, then he frees Clay. Three of the gang are blowing the safe while another waits with the wagon. McCord takes out the driver. The gang leaves the bank with Karin but McCord surprises them from behind and shoots two while Clay takes out another. The gang is stopped. 

            Clay was played by Johnny Crawford, who played the son of Chuck Connors’s character on all 168 episodes of The Rifleman. 

            Karin was played by Charla Doherty, whose TV debut was at 15 on The Donna Reed Show. Her film debut was in Take Her She’s Mine. She played Julie Olson in the first season of Days of Our Lives. She co-starred in the TV movie In the Year 2889. 

            The second story is the first of a three part arc in colour. McCord is tracked down by his old girlfriend Lorette Lansing. They would have been married if not for the events of Bitter Creek that made him an outcast. She says her father Senator Lansing wants him to come to Washington to address a congressional committee. He comes to Washington with her. The senator also would like him to be his son in law. McCord visits his grandfather General McCord. Jason tells the general the truth about Bitter Creek and how General Reed lost his mind. McCord tells his grandfather that he was knocked unconscious during the Apache attack and woke up three days later in a farmhouse far away from the battle. The general says Jason made the right decision not exposing Reed as demented. That night McCord meets with the congressional committee. The senator says he wants to renegotiate the treaty with the Apache so settlers can have more land. McCord tells him that’s a bad idea. He refuses to testify to Reed’s incompetence in order to void the treaty. He is offended by the idea and leaves. Outside he’s attacked by three men but he is saved by Secret Service agents who tell him to come with them. McCord is taken to the White House to meet President Grant. Grant presents him with a mission that will cause him to be branded as a traitor.