Steve Conte

            On Monday morning I finished memorizing “Le temps passe” (Time Goes By) by Boris Vian, although it took me several more minutes than I usually allot for it. 

            I worked out the chords for the intro and the first couple of lines of “L'homme de l'ombre” (The Man of the Shadows) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            My warm mist humidifier shut down by itself this morning and later displayed a red error light. I shut it down and restarted a few times and each time it ran for a few seconds before the light came back on. Hopefully it just needs to be cleaned. It’s supposed to be cleaned once a week but I’ve never cleaned it. I’ll try to do that today. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. It stayed pretty much in tune but I was very distracted by all the stuff I have to do today. I have to wait for the Bell technician to bring the modem and now I have to clean my humidifier. So I probably won’t have time to shave and shower. Since I no longer work or go to university one would think I would have more free time but there seem to be a lot of interruptions lately. Bell alone has taken up about four days so far, from calling them and hanging on the line; waiting for the technician to find out he couldn’t install the modem until the cable was run into my place; dealing with the two technicians the next day who were installing the cable, and then the tech coming today. I’ve got to do laundry this week and on Thursday I’m getting my teeth cleaned.

            I weighed 85.5 kilos before breakfast. 

            I had planned on shaving and showering today but after my humidifier broke down I had to change my plans. I returned to my home made humidifier of a wet sponge in a perforated baggie and slipped that in my Martin guitar. I followed the instructions for cleaning the humidifier. I put 3 cups of vinegar in the water tank and let it soak. The heating element was crusted with rock hard brown sludge as thick as my hand all around. The instructions said to only dip a soft brush in vinegar to clean the heating element but that would have been impossible. I had to risk damaging the protective coating by soaking the whole thing in vinegar. 

            I was still working on it at around 13:30 when the technician arrived to install my modem. He asked if I’d just moved there and I told him that I’d been there since probably before he was born and I was right. I’ve been here since 1997 and he was born in 1998. He was there for quite a while and left at around 15:00. I put the modem on the shelf at the northeast corner of my kitchen. The jack is to the right of the east window and so I ran the cord under the radiator and then up to the shelf. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos at 15:24. 

            I had a late lunch. 

            I took a siesta from 16:00 to 17:30 and so it was too late to take a bike ride. 

            I continued to clean the heating element. I got the heaviest parts of the rocky sludge off but there was still quite a lot. I left it to soak some more in the vinegar. 

            I weighed 86.2 kilos at 18:37. 

            I spent about an hour registering with My Bell and had to call for help because I didn’t know my account number. I also set up payment through my bank since they don’t seem to accept debit like most companies do. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 20:15. 

            I spent about half an hour continuing to try to brush away the crust from inside my humidifier’s heating element. I made slight progress but it’s going to take hours to get it clean. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 43 of Batman. 

            This chapter is part two of a three part story. Batman and Robin are tied to a catapult and about to be launched over Gotham. Batman calculates what their trajectory will be and manages to reach the Batmobile remote control on his wrist to send it to the precise spot where they will be landing. The Batmobile even stops so it doesn’t hit some kids. It gets to the landing spot and shoots out a net to catch the heroes as they land. They then drive back to Penguin studios where Batman begs to be back in the picture because he’s caught the acting bug. Finally Penguin gives in. Penguin has switched the era of the movie in the middle from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages. He has Batman and Robin dress in armour but it’s really a trap as he attaches them to a giant magnet while he heads for the Hexagon. He flatters a general into letting him film in room X, but Penguin has his armoured thugs come to break through to room zed. There Penguin steals some secret specifications and then escapes from the incompetent US army. Meanwhile Batman tosses a piece of metal across the room into the open socket of a turned on lamp, which blows a fuse, turning off the electro magnet. They have no time to change and so they drive to the Hexagon in armour. They pursue Penguin who rolls barrels that knock them over and out in their cumbersome metal suits. A scrap collecting truck comes along and Penguin tells the driver that they are just old suits of armour he is throwing out. He gives the driver $10 to take them away and flatten them. Batman and Robin are dumped into the compressor and that’s the cliffhanger. 

            One of Penguin’s henchmen was played by Steve Conte, who came to the US from Italy when he was 6. His TV debut was in an episode of The Marshal of Gunsight Pass. His film debut was in Gunfire. He co-starred in Terror of the Bloodhunters.