Darlene Conley

            On Friday morning I worked out the chords for the second verse of “L'âme slave” (Slavic Soul) by Boris Vian. The third and fourth verses might have the same chords as the first and second. 

            I memorized the second verse of “La plus jolie fille du monde” (The Prettiest Girl in the World) by Serge Gainsbourg. The third verse is almost the same as the first except for two lines and the fourth verse is almost the same as the second except for two lines, so I might have the song nailed down on Saturday. 

            I played my Kramer electric guitar during song practice for the first of two sessions. I had to unlock the Floyd Rose system and tune four of the strings then after that it stayed in tune. 

            I weighed 87.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I sanded the drywall compound I’d used in the area under the top shelf in the bathroom that’s still to the right of the bottom shelf, including the underside of the shelf and the sides of the brackets. On Sunday I’ll try to do the rest of the area under the top shelves that meet at the northeast corner including the top of the bottom shelf. Maybe by the end of next week I’ll be finished with the sanding until I add a second coat of compound in a few places. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and stopped at Freshco on the way back. The grapes were all too squishy and the cherries are from the USA and so I didn’t get any of either. The BC cherries should be in season soon. I bought three bags of Egyptian oranges, a pack of raspberries, some bananas, a bag of wedge oven fries, two packs of Full City Dark coffee, a tub of olive oil margarine, a jar of salsa, three bags of skim milk, and a lint roller. 

            I weighed 87.05 kilos at 18:21. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 19:00. 

            In Movie Maker I edited the cartoons “One Froggy Evening” and “Swing Monkey Swing”. Parts of the latter might be perfect for the scat part of the chorus of “The Ballad of My Chest Cavity”. Other parts where the monkeys are wearing clothing and singing jazz might be racist because the implication seems to be that they are portraying black people. But the segments in which the monkeys are naked might be okay.

            I compared the song practice video of my Martin acoustic performance of “Laisse tomber les filles” on September 21 with that of September fifth and so far September 5 is still the best. I compared September 25 to September 5 and September 5 is still on top. I compared September 27 to September 5 and September 5 is still ahead. 

            I made a fresh batch of gravy with drippings from the Australian eye of round roast. I had some with a small potato and a slice of roast beef while watching season 2, episode 5 of The Bill Cosby Show.

            Chet rushes to get ready for a date but finds he is out of shaving cream. His date says she is going to call in ten minutes and he runs to the local market to get the shaving cream. But an old man butts in front of him at the cashier. He hurries home where the phone is ringing but by the time he reaches it his date has hung up. Then the old man Mr. Kane walks in to tell Chet he got his shaving cream mixed up with his whipped cream. Kane knows where Chet lives because they are across the street neighbours. He comes in and sits down uninvited in Chet’s living room. He invites Chet to come over to his place for dinner. Kane’s wife died 23 years ago and he lives in a room with no kitchen but plugs a hot plate into the light socket. After dinner Chet wants to leave but Kane gets him to play a game of chess. The next day Kane catches Chet about to leave the market in his car and Kane says he can give him a ride. But Ken hears something wrong in Chet’s engine and opens the hood. When Chet says he neither has a wrench or a screwdriver Kane asks for a key. Chet hands him his ignition key which Kane fumbles and loses inside. Then Kane walks home. Kane visits him again that night. Chet tries to make it clear he doesn’t want company but Kane says he can entertain himself and sits down to watch TV. Chet lies that he wants to go to bed but Kane just says he’ll keep the volume down. Kane keeps coming over every night. Chet tries to hook Kane up with his landlady but they just argue. The next night Chet has a dinner date at his place but Kane comes over again and thinks the dinner is for him. Chet finally tells him he doesn’t want him there and he leaves, but Chet feels bad and later comes over to tell Kane he’s boring but only because he sees him every night. He says once a week would not be boring and they arrange to meet and play chess every Wednesday night. Kane is happy with that. 

            The market cashier was played by Darlene Conley, who made her stage debut at 15 in a touring production of The Heiress. Her film debut was in The Birds. Her TV debut was on Ironside. She played Rose DeVille on The Young and the Restless, Warden Edith Hopkins on Days of Our Lives and Trixie the mature sex worker on General Hospital. She started playing Sally Spectra on The Bold and the Beautiful in 1989 and continued with the role until she died in 2007. She was nominated for two daytime Emmy’s for her performances. She is the only soap opera star to be honoured with a wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s.