Bernard McEveety

            On Monday morning I gathered some vintage photos of sex workers for my photo-video of “Les millionaires” by Serge Gainsbourg. 

            I weighed 90.85 kilos before breakfast. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune about every other song until the last five songs and then it fully behaved itself until the end. 

            I shaved and showered directly after song practice and then got ready for my appointment with my periodontist Dr. Xia. I got there pretty much just on time. He removed most of my stitches and said the rest are soluble and will dissolve by themselves over the next couple of weeks. He said the bone graft looks pretty good so far, so it appears like I’m on track to getting the implant. I brought my smaller denture along to see if it fits but he says it still doesn’t right now. I’m coming back in three weeks to check again. He doesn’t think it will fit because the bone graft has changed the shape of the gap. At that point if it still doesn’t fit they’ll order a retainer for me to wear for the few months until I get the implant. 

            I stopped at Freshco on the way home where I bought four bags of green grapes, a pack of raspberries, a Caribbean avocado, two containers of roasted red pepper hummus, and a container of Baba ganouj. I looked for non-dairy ice cream, which they had last year but there was none in sight this time other than in pop form on sticks. 

            I weighed 90.45 kilos at 15:50, which is the lightest I’ve been in the early afternoon since February 12. 

            I took a siesta at 16:30, planning to get up at 18:00 but I slept until 18:45. 

            I weighed 91.3 kilos at 19:00. 

            I was caught up in my journal at 20:07. 

            I recorded from cassette tape through audio interface to Audacity a recording of my daughter Astrid singing at around the age of 3 but the recording is very low in volume. I’ll try again tomorrow as it might be a memory issue for my computer in Audacity. Sometimes a restart will fix it. 

            I had two potatoes with margarine and two slices of five-year-old cheddar while watching season 1, episode 29 of Combat. 

            K Company is behind enemy lines and have to get back to their side within two and a half hours before Allied shelling of the area begins. While checking a barn for Germans, Kirby hears a noise and fires, just missing a baby in a basket. A dead woman they assume was the child’s mother is found outside the barn, having been killed by German mortars the night before. 

            Saunders says they have to move out and the men assume they will be taking the baby but he says no. They protest and grumble as they make their way until finally Saunders sends two men back for the baby. Since Doc is unarmed he is the only one allowed to carry the baby as they need every gun to be ready. The map shows that there is a convent not far away and so they make their way there only to find that it’s been destroyed. 

            Then they see a German patrol approaching on the road and they hide. On both sides of the road is an orchard and the Germans stop to pick apples. After a while they move on but Doc has been covering the baby’s mouth to keep it from making noise and it seems it may have killed the infant. Doc performs mouth to mouth for a long time and is almost ready to give up when the baby returns to consciousness. 

            They find a bombed out house where there is a bicycle and clothing that survived the blasts. Stroback sees a cow and goes running towards it to get milk for the baby when he steps on a mine and is killed. Since the Germans might have heard the mine, Saunders takes Brockmeier with him to recon. Meanwhile the men go against orders and sweep the field for mines so they can milk the cow. A wine bottle is washed and Doc rigs a nipple from a dropper in his med kit. When Saunders comes back Kirby lies that the cow wandered over to them so they milked it. He doesn’t believe him. 

            In the baby’s clothes they find a locket that indicates the baby had a German father and a French mother. 

            To get back to their lines they have to cross a fast river over which the only crossing is a pontoon bridge heavily guarded by German soldiers. K Company will have to try to cross where the river is rapid but they wouldn’t be able to carry the baby. Caje sees a Frenchman cross the bridge on a bicycle and the soldiers don’t ask to see his papers. He gets the idea to take the baby back to the house, change into the clothes they found and ride the bicycle with the baby in the basket across the bridge and then meet his company on the other side. He finds one German soldier goofing off by the house then sneaks up behind and strangles him. He and the baby make it across the bridge and meet K Company on the other side. 

            The Allied mortar fire begins and they have to make their way through it back to their lines while still shielding the baby. They find a convent that is happy to take the baby. All the men, including Saunders are sad to be free of the infant. 

            This episode was directed by Bernard McEveety, who directed 52 episodes of Gunsmoke, and 5 episodes of Knight Rider. He directed The Brotherhood of Satan, Ride Beyond Vengeance, and Napoleon and Samantha. The latter was Jodie Foster’s feature film debut at the age of 9. While shooting it she was picked up by a lion and shaken in its mouth before the trainer said “Drop it!”