George Spell

            On Sunday morning I felt like I had cold symptoms but this time of year it’s hard to tell. Quite often I feel that way early on and then it’s gone later. It might be dust or pollen. 

            I memorized the first verse of “Johnsyne et Kossigone” by Serge Gainsbourg and finished revising my translation of the song. There are only one and a half verses left that aren’t repetitions and so I might have them all nailed down tomorrow. 

            I played my Epi acoustic guitar during song practice for the last of two sessions and it stayed in tune a little better than yesterday. Tomorrow I’ll begin a four session stretch of playing my electric guitars. 

            I weighed 87.35 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and sanded the drywall compound on the southern bathroom wall above the bathtub. It’ll probably take me a couple more sessions to finish the upper parts of the southern wall, then I won’t need the stepladder anymore. 

            I weighed 87.75 kilos before lunch. I had a toasted Montreal style bagel with five-year-old cheddar and a glass of iced tea. 

            I weighed 87.6 kilos at 18:00. 

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

            I used half the New Zealand grass fed ground beef to make two burgers. I grilled them and had one on a toasted Montreal style bagel with sliced tomato, dill pickle slices, chili sauce, Dijon, and horseradish. I had it with a beer while watching season 1, episode 18 of The Bill Cosby Show. The grass fed beef was delicious. 

            Chet is coaching a little league team and the sponsor is Mr. Sherman of Sherman’s Supermarket. Sherman caught a boy named Raymond shoplifting in his store but rather than calling the police he thought it would be better to bring Raymond to Chet and see if being part of a team will inspire him to stop stealing. Raymond tells Chet he doesn’t like baseball so Chet tells him to sit in the stands. After practice Raymond is running away so Chet catches him. Raymond has something stuffed under his shirt and Chet asks what it is. He says it’s his jacket. Chet tells him to put it on and it’s several sizes too big. Chet says, “That’s not your jacket is it?” “It is so!” “No it isn’t.” “How do you know?” “Because it’s my jacket.” Chet asks why he stole his jacket and Raymond says he thought he could sell it and buy his mother a birthday present. Chet says he can earn some money by doing some work for him. He takes him home to wash his dishes (Shouldn’t Chet have been in touch with Raymond’s parents before taking him to a strange adult’s home?). Chet catches him trying to steal his silverware and lets him know that it’s all tin and he wouldn’t get anything for them. Chet asks why he’s stealing from a friend but Raymond tells him he’s not a friend because he’s his boss. He says a friend would take him to the movies and so Chet says he’ll do that if he goes to baseball practice and the game. Raymond proves himself to not be much of an athlete. Sherman brings Chet an envelope of money for the uniforms, which will be delivered just before the game. Chet has the envelope in his back pocket just before leaving for the game. Raymond comes by to tell Chet he’s not coming to the game but Chet says they can still go to the movies. At the field Mr. Roberts comes with the uniforms but Chet discovers he doesn’t have the money and so Roberts leaves with the uniforms. Later Raymond comes and gives the money back, saying he’s sorry. They go to Chet’s place to look in the paper for a movie to go to but it turns out Raymond has seen them all, even the X-rated ones because he sneaks in. He asks Chet to teach him chess instead. 

            Raymond was played by George Spell, who was a child prodigy and played piano with the LA Philharmonic when he was 14. He was also scholastically advanced and his school suggested that he skip three grades but his parents wouldn’t allow it. After high school he was offered a full scholarship at Harvard without even applying but he turned it down to go to UCLA, also with a full academic scholarship. He was nominated for an Emmy for his guest performance on Bonanza. He had a romantic relationship with Teena Marie for a while.