John McLiam

            On Tuesday after midnight I added fresh carpet tape to the edges of my mattress where it had gotten less sticky. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and the pillow and picked up a few of bedbugs from the curtains and one or two from the bed. I had to reset the thermostat from 21.5 to 22.5 so the heat would kick on because the temperature in the hall was just staying at 21.5. I went to bed at 1:30, slept until 3:00 when I got up to pee, then slept right through to the 5:00 alarm. After yoga there was one bedbug stuck to the carpet tape on my mattress and a few on the walls and on the baseboards around my bed. 

            I’m sure it will be different when it gets colder outside but right now with the new thermostat I have to set it at 22.5 to turn the heat on and then back down to 21.5 to turn it off. 

            I finished memorizing “C’est ici (This is the Place) by Boris Vian. On Wednesday I’ll start revising my translation. 

            I finished working out the chords for “Yes Man” by Serge Gainsbourg. Tomorrow I’ll run through singing and playing it in French and English and then upload it to my Christian’s Translations blog to begin preparing it for publication. 

            I weighed 89.4 kilos before breakfast, which is the lightest I’ve been in the morning since July 15. 

            I played my Gibson Les Paul Studio during song practice and it stayed in tune about half the time. 

            I removed all the old carpet tape from the edges of my futon and put fresh tape all around. I lint-rolled the curtains between the bedroom and the living room, the top of my bed and my pillow. I picked up a couple of bedbugs from the curtains. I shook out my sheet and comforter on the deck. 

            I weighed 90.3 kilos before lunch. September 25 was the last early afternoon when I was so kind to the scale. 

            I took a bike ride downtown and on the way back stopped at Freshco where I found only three bags of grapes firm enough to buy. I also got a pack of Sponge Towels. I did a $4:15 a kilo price match on the grapes. Priscilla borrowed the swipe from Isabella to do the price match and absent mindedly almost handed it to me. I said maybe I should have one of my own since I come here so often. They thought that was funny. 

            I weighed 90.15 kilos at 18:30. On the evening of July 11 I was a little lighter. I was caught up in my journal at 20:25. 

            I went through February, 2023 in year 10 of my journal to harvest bedbug events and add them to my Bedbug Timeline document. The first bedbug sighting in 5 and a half years, marking the beginning of the current infestation was June 8, 2021. 

            I roasted a sirloin beef tip roast and had a third of it with a potato and gravy while watching episode 11 of Daniel Boone. 

            A man named Guthrie McCanders is at his solo campsite near his canoe when he is confronted by William Russell, Charles Bane, and John Hawkins. Guthrie knows them and appeals fearfully to the leader Russell. He says he meant to share but then Russell stabs him with the retractable blade in his cane. 

            Boone is sleeping in his chair at home and dreams of a time during the French and Indian War when he served as a wagon driver for British General Edward Braddock. At the Battle of the Monongahela in Western Pennsylvania the British army is attempting to seize Fort Duquesne (which is now Pittsburgh). The British are being ripped apart and Boone climbs a mountain to get away. At the top he finds a British soldier named McCanders burying something. Guthrie attacks Boone but falls down the mountain. 

            Boone wakes to a knock on his door and it’s McCanders saying he’s come for him. He wants him to take him back to the mountain because he can’t rest until he gets there. Boone goes with him to his campsite but leaves saying he won’t help him. Guthrie says he’ll meet him there anyway but Boone is still dreaming. 

            There is another knock and this time Boone is awake. It’s Russell, Bane, and Hawkins also asking him to guide them back to the mountain. Boone finally agrees because all of these coincidences are nagging at him. 

            Yad and Mingo find McCanders’ body and come to tell Boone only to learn he’s gone. Rebecca tells them about Daniel’s meeting last night with McCanders. Mingo says that’s impossible since McCanders has been dead for at least an entire day. She asks them to go after Daniel and so they do.

            Camping with Russell and his men, Boone tells them about meeting McCanders and of course they are surprised. Boone thinks McCanders must also be on his way there and so he goes to look for the light of his campfire. 

            Russell sends Bane out to look for Boone but he staggers back and drops dead with a knife in his back. Russell and Hawkins are captured by Shawnee but Boone comes to rescue them without a fight. He calmly walks across some coals to prove he’s Daniel Boone so they let them go. 

            When they reach the mountain, Russell knocks Boone out and ties him to a wagon wheel. Boone is told that McCanders, Russell, Bane, and Hawkins had stolen the 10,000 Pounds of gold sovereigns that was the payroll for Braddock’s army and it’s still buried on the mountain. Boone has been grinding his ropes against a stone and now he escapes. 

            Russell climbs to the top of the mountain and Boone follows. In their confrontation Russell falls from the cliff and dies. Boone finds there are only ten gold pieces left, and that’s exactly what McCanders offered to pay him. 

            Russell was played by Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen. Bane was played by Canadian actor John McLiam, who earned a Master’s Degree from St. Mary’s College in Berkeley, California. His acting debut was in Winterset in San Francisco in 1946. He made his Broadway debut in Barefoot in Athens in 1951. He made his film debut in Decoy in 1957. He co-starred in The Missouri Breaks and The End of August. He played T.J. Hooker’s father. He played Fento in the Star Trek: The Next generation episode “Who Watches the Watchers?”. He wrote the Broadway play The Sin of Pat Muldoon.