Five in the morning. I’ve taped up some paint chips, literal paint chips, from the living room and bedroom. Taped them to a piece of paper and put them in a big Ziplok with a piece of shirt cardboard for stiffness. These are the paint colors for which we do not have some paint left over from 1998 and later redos. We do have the Brandied Crimson (though in semigloss, not the flat originally used; this shows up around the Sneem picture), and the Queen Anne Pink or whatever for my bathroom and the grey for Moki’s bathroom. But the light tawny sage for the living room and the deep forest green for the bedroom, we don’t have those. It’s been peeling here and there for a while. I think when I took the Charlie Hebdo pix on 7 Jan 2015 you could already see a bit peeling on the west wall above the window. I am going to go to Janovic Plaza and find out how much a quart of these will set me back. There used to be one on 9th Ave near 52nd St but now there’s just the one in SoHo on Sixth Avenue near Spring. (What is the new real estate term for the neighborhood west of this? Hudson Square!)
The Marc J. Berns firm sends me a form to sign giving permission for MSK to provide medical records. Should have been done months ago. The firm, I see, is in the same building as the Sherwin Belkin one, but 9th fl rather than 16th. 60 East 42nd. I should alert the firm and MSK that the records may have a dob of 1958 since that’s what the ID said.
The dishwasher does not work. Chris was supposed to come up late afternoon but didn’t. He’ll come at some inopportune time today, no doubt, and act peeved. Dishwasher is off because they flicked the circuit breaker, pulled out the appliance and disconnected it on Friday, right after my last wash. Red insulator caps on the counter. I don’t mind washing dishes in the sink for a while, but would have appreciated being told.
Scraping, gnawing sounds in the wall by the radiator (bedroom). Gosh, can’t imagine what that is.
The $1900 transfer from the Amazon Chase Visa card finally hit the USAA acct. This means in theory I have a cushion for paying the rent next month (and with any luck and a real job, thereafter). The April rent check has not cleared. Maybe not been deposited.
I’ve looked through one or two of my notebooks from the early 00’s. There’s the spiral-bound one from Muji, bought in Paris probably. This was the time I was in Rouen, Sept 2002, writing Dizz and Terry, and then in Oxford and London with Keith and Sylvia in October-November. Northmoor. The Old Barks Hunt. The Vale of the White Horse and the Dragon’s Tears. The Souk on that fiercely rainy night and then The Mousetrap. I find I make a reference to Bronxville, the vicinity of 35 Park View. Were we three there in summer or fall of 2002? Must ask.
Strange caricature of Moki on the cover of this notebook. Moki on his HP Pavilion, big monitor, looking at obituary of Walter Bedell Smith. That obituary may or may not date the drawing. (Well no, he died in 1961, so that can’t be it.) Moki didn’t know Walter Bedell Smith, but did once meet Sally Bedell Smith, who strangely was no relation.
If the weather’s nice and clear this early morn, I’m going to the park to pretend to run.
First, notes and outline for Dwight Macdonald.
The gnawing rat comes back again and again.
