Paul Smith

            On Thursday morning my knee felt about the same as the day before, which was a big improvement over the day before that. I can put weight on it during yoga poses that require it but not when getting up from bed, I guess because it’s a less even surface. 

            I ran through singing and playing “Down on Traversière Street”, my translation of Rue Traversière” by Boris Vian. Tomorrow I’ll upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog and start preparing it for publication. 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and half the first verse of “White and Black Blues” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my Martin acoustic guitar. I still haven’t changed any of the strings. I’m waiting to feel caught up with other things first. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos before breakfast. 

            I was almost caught up in my journal by lunchtime. 

            I weighed 86.4 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride but it had been snowing and as I rode along the not cleared Seaforth from O’Hara to Brock, I anticipated the Bloor bike lane being just as bad or worse so I didn’t go north on Brock but rather south to Queen and the few blocks east to Freshco. I bought four bags of grapes, a pack of raspberries, bananas, a loaf of multigrain sandwich bread, three bags of skim milk, a carton of spoon size shredded wheat, a pack of Full City Dark coffee, a jar of salsa, and some shaving gel. 

            I weighed 85.5 kilos at 18:00. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:30. 

            I made six more frames for my second rainbow wave animation. I might need a lot more but I’ll make one more and then upload the nine of them to my “Seven Shades of Blues” Movie Maker project. Then I’ll determine if I need to shorten the duration of each frame in the video timeline. If I do I’ll construct more frames. 

            I had a potato with gravy and two slices of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 32 of Batman. 

            In part one of the story Batman and Robin have been captured by Puzzler and tied up in the basket of a hot ait balloon. A mechanism connected to the altimeter is programmed to drop the basket when the balloon reaches 6 km. We find Batman and Robin now just short of 6 km up. Batman notices the wad of chewing gum that one of Puzzler’s men tossed onto the floor of the basket. Batman and Robin’s hands are tied behind their backs but Robin is able to squat and pick up the gum. He then uses it to plug the air hole on the altimeter so that it never knows it has reached 6 km. Now they still need to find a way down. Batman remembers that the high flying giant red eyed hermit nuthatch birds are migrating south for the winter. The giant nuthatch are in Asia and they wouldn’t be in North America where Batman and Robin are but I guess in this universe they are. Robin does a bird call of a different species to make one of the birds angry. It stops to peck two holes in the balloon. The bird pictured looks more like a crow than a nuthatch. Batman and Robin land in a remote area in the mountains north of Gotham and yet they land next to a telephone booth. Later they crash through window of Puzzler’s hideout. Puzzler has hundreds of balloons drop from the ceiling to obscure Batman and Robin’s vision and movement while he and his gang escape. Later Puzzler’s moll Rocket is seducing the billionaire Artemis Knab. She drugs his tea and knocks him out then Puzzler comes to open his safe and photograph the plans for the cockpit of Knab’s new Retsoor jet plane. Puzzler sends a rooster in a cage to Commissioner Gordon’s office with a puzzle. “How canst thou keep a rooster from crowing on a Sunday morn?” Robin says, “Kill it on a Saturday night”. batman go to Knab’s place and climb the side of the building. There is a cameo from Santa Clause. He asks them to tell him where the Batcave is so he can leave them a present. I thought Santa was supposed to magically know where everybody lives. Knab is just waking up as they arrive. There is a note to Batman pinned to his lapel but it is blank. Batman smells the odour of secret writing. Back at the Batcave the Bat analyzer reveals only the word “puzzles”. Batman says “puzzles” has seven letters. The average modern telephone number consists of seven digits. But “puzzles” can’t be a phone number because there is no zed on the dial with a corresponding number. Then Batman quotes Shakespeare: “There is a divinity in odd numbers either in nativity chance or death” from the Merry Wives of Windsor. Somehow Batman figures out Puzzler’s number on the first guess, but Puzzler was expecting his call. He gives him another puzzle: “An aviator is carrying his clothes home from the cleaners when it begins to rain. How didst he protect them?” Then he hangs up. Batman figures the aviator put the clothes inside the hangars. They finally figure out that Puzzler is after the Retsoor and they head for the airport. Meanwhile Puzzler and his gang are in a shed that connects to the Retsoor hangar. Rocket seductively lures the guards away. Puzzler plans on taking the plane and then selling it back to Knab for $4 million. They board the plane and the hangar door is opened, but then it shuts again. Batman and Robin reveal themselves. Puzzler’s men attack for the final fight. Batman and Robin win and then cut off Puzzler and Rocket as they try to escape. They are arrested. 

            Artimis Knab was played by Paul Smith, whose film debut was in I Want You. He co-starred in the TV series Mr. Terrific. He played Ron Harvey on The Doris Day Show. He had a regular role on the TV version of Fibber McGee and Molly as next door neighbour Roy Norris. I was finally caught up on my journal around midnight.