Oscar DeGruy

            On Monday morning I memorized the first verse of “L'amour en cage” (Love in a Cage) by Boris Vian. 

            I worked out the chords for over half the first verse of “Rêves et caravelles” (Dreams and Caravels) by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio electric guitar during song practice. It went out of tune at least five times in the 90 minute session. 

            I weighed 87.65 kilos before breakfast, which is the heaviest I’ve been in the morning since June 6. 

            Around midday I packed up my laundry and took it to be washed and dried. 

            I weighed 87.15 kilos at 14:53. 

            I took a siesta at 15:30 and got up at 17:00. It was raining and too late for a bike ride downtown anyway but since it’s Canada Day tomorrow the supermarkets will be closed and so I figured I’d better stock up on grapes. I rode in the rain to Freshco where I bought five bags of red grapes and price matched them with the No Frills price of $8.80 a kilo. 

            I weighed 87.8 kilos at 17:53. June 8 was the last time I was that heavy in the evening but lighter than then. 

            I was caught up with my journal at 18:45. 

            I searched for animations of an oxygen atom but couldn’t find any without a watermark or that weren’t stock footage with a fee. Then I looked for bubbles and for several pages all I found again were stock or watermarks. I finally found a video of bubbles floating out over some cliffs and the ocean. I bookmarked it and will download it tomorrow. 

            In my September 5, 2024, Movie Maker project I noticed that the vocal was at a drastically lower volume than the guitar. I decided to open up the original recording in Audacity and to increase the vocal volume. Then I exported the audio and imported that into Movie Maker. I deleted the audio I’d been using and replaced it with my adjusted recording. But that had low volume for the vocal still. Then I checked and realized that my left speaker was disconnected. I gave the amp a nudge and it was back up. I undid pasting in the new recording and undid deleting the old one. I think I’ve made that same mistake about voice volume in the past year or so. I deleted the first few songs from the session until I got to “Laisse tomber les filles”. I deleted a few takes of that song and was still trying to find the final take when it was time for supper. 

            I had a potato with gravy and a chicken leg while watching season 2, episode 15 of The Bill Cosby Show. 

            The students at Holmes High School have taken over the cafeteria in protest of the menu. Chet missed breakfast and so he is especially interested in finding a resolution. One of the leaders is Watson but the main one is Eddie. Chet goes with Eddie to see the cafeteria manager but as soon as he sees how pretty she is Chet sends Eddie away to work on the list of grievances so Chet can be alone with Miss Simms. Chet helps Simms and the students compromise between nutritious lunches and less boring ones. Later there’s another protest of the school literary magazine because a story has been censored. Chet talks with Mr. Green the editor and with Eddie and gets them to compromise on word choices. Chet makes a date with Miss Simms to have dinner at his place so he can show her how to make moussaka. Then the students protest the Physical Education department. They want more time to shower before their next classes, an end to the use of taking laps as punishment and more control over the curriculum. Chet refuses to compromise. That night the students occupy Chet’s apartment and then Miss Simms arrives. She is about to leave because Chet is being a hypocrite when Chet agrees to look at the demands. He agrees to more shower time and no laps but says the curriculum is up to him. They agree to that and leave. Chet tells Miss Simms that he is going to make them do push-ups until they beg to be made to do laps again. 

            Watson was played by Oscar DeGruy, who was once a member of the Black Panthers. His acting debut was on The Young Lawyers in 1970. He made guest appearances on several TV series. In 1974 he started the Bahai Youth Workshop performance model. Since then over a thousand workshops have formed, some of which have gone on tour.