Doug McClure

            On Sunday morning I finished transcribing the chords for “L'araignée du soir” (The Spider of Night) by Boris Vian that I found on Boite a chanson (Song Box). I searched for more but none have been posted and so tomorrow I’ll start working them out. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Une Fille à la mer” (Woman Overboard) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through singing and playing the song in French. Tomorrow I’ll translate the last verse and then run through the song in English. I’ll probably have time to upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog and start preparing it for publication. 

            I played my Martin guitar during song practice for the third of four sessions and the B string went out of tune a little too much. 

            I weighed 86.8 kilos before breakfast. 

            Around midday I brought in the stepladder and started applying the third and final coat of primer to my ceiling and upper walls. I got the northeast corner done and some of the southeast corner. About halfway through, my next door neighbour Benji started banging and swearing. When I was carrying the stepladder through the hall to return it to the deck he was standing there glaring at me while holding a broom handle. He said he sleeps at that time every day and I was disturbing him. I doubt if the noise of the brush and roller on the wall is loud so I guess it was the sound of the ladder, which I moved about three times in 45 minutes, making probably a total one minute of noise. I told him I’m not trying to disturb him but I have to paint. He said I’m not supposed to paint because that’s the landlord’s job. Somehow he must think the landlord would do it silently. He threatened me with the stick several times and swung and poked it towards me. He told me he could take me out. I asked, “With a stick?” he said, “Any way!” I told him, “Okay, drop the stick”. So he dropped it and I walked towards him, not intending violence but just to see what he would do. As I approached he immediately picked up the stick again and then continued to tell me how he could take me out any way. He called me some cute names like “Skunk Mother”, which feels more like a cartoon character than an insult. Later I offered him some ear plugs but he didn’t want them. I suggested that he chant Hare Krsna, but he said he wasn’t a Hare Krsna. I’d always thought he was because as far as I know the only book he’s ever read is by Prabhupada, the guy that started the International Society for Krsna Consciousness, more popularly known as “The Hare Krsnas” and he was always quoting it as gospel. I think Benji has lost his mind. He should at least be in a quiet care facility for seniors. 

            I weighed 86.95 kilos before lunch. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 86.35 kilos at 17:55. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 19:06. 

            In the Movie Maker project to create a video for the studio recording of my song “Paranoiac Utopia” I continued to edit the video that I shot on August 22. I cut out most of my trip west on the north sidewalk of Queen and only kept the footage of street people. There are about 29 minutes left. 

            In my “Élisa (Gibson)” Movie Maker project I synchronized the audio with the video. Then I began cutting out all the songs that come before “Élisa”. I had most of them done by suppertime. 

            I made pizza on multigrain sandwich bread with marinara sauce, tomato pesto, spicy pepperoni, and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching the series premier of Checkmate. 

            A wealthy rancher is riding her horse alone when her men hear a shot and come running. She says someone hidden in the trees fired at her. She goes to the Checkmate detective agency and says someone is trying to kill her. She claims that in addition to the gunshot, someone also tampered with her car. She insists that Don Corey the senior partner take her case personally but he says he is busy with another case. He tells her Jed Sills and Dr. Carl Hyatt will handle it or she can go to another agency and she reluctantly gives in. They go to the scene of the gunshot and Hyatt digs the bullet out of a tree, after first measuring how far it went in. He says the bullet is from a Paroda (I can’t find a reference to such a gun). She says the only person she knows who owns that make of gun is herself. They find her study ransacked and the gun case smashed. Hyatt finds it curious that only certain items have been destroyed. She says someone deliberately broke everything that meant anything to her. Jed has a plan to try to trap the potential killer. Beatrice gives all her hands the day off and Jed and Hyatt pretend to drive away, leaving Beatrice alone. Jed doubles back and makes Beatrice’s bed look like she is in it and has her sleep in the guest room. That night Jed hears something in the stable and goes out to check. He jumps someone and it’s Beatrice’s foreman and apparently former but brief lover, Charlie. Hyatt shows up with a gun and Charlie says he was just there to check on Beatrice. They hear a scream and run to the house to find that a knife has been driven into the shape under Beatrice’s covers. She considers this a failure on Jed’s part and insists that Corey take her case. He reluctantly gives in. Both Jed and Hyatt go home but later each has a realization about the case. Meanwhile Corey is at the ranch and Beatrice tells him about the one man worthy of her that she met after her husband died. He killed his wife and it was Corey that figured out the case and brought him to justice. Now Beatrice intends on killing Corey for causing her to be alone. She takes him out to the stables at gunpoint and releases her wild stallion, which she’s refused to break. She’s in the loft firing her gun to keep Corey in the barn. Jed and Hyatt arrive and Jed gets in by way of the hay loft, taking the gun away from Beatrice. She falls and the stallion tramples her. 

            Jed was played by Doug McClure, who played Trampas on The Virginian for all 249 episodes. He starred in The King’s Pirate, The Land That Time Forgot, At the Earth’s Core, and Warlords of Atlantis. He co-starred in Shenandoah and The People That Time Forgot. He co-starred in the sitcom Out of This World. The character of Troy McClure on the Simpsons was half inspired by him. He said because of that his kids started calling him “Troy”.