Tuesday - 20080205-0515 - (For Saturday - 20080202) - Rain - Oxford Street in London; Saturday Morning - Painting and Bathing; Refund Check to Mother; Ichiban; Lowe's - Paint, Paint and Supplies; Nap and Sealant; "Doctor Who"; "Torchwood"

Rain - Oxford Street in London Larger Image

A view of a rainy Oxford Street in London from London Photos... photography gallery of London Life and other photos: Weather Archives. Seems like I've posted another shot of a rainy Oxford Street . Oppps, no! It was London's Kings' Row in the Rain at journal - 2007-0601 - fri 2000.

I was up at 8:30, and in a an outburst of vitality, I decided to finish painting the other 2/3rd's of the living room ceiling. For what ever reason, it not seem as difficult as the day before. I concentrated on the areas where the cracks had been repaired. Only if you were aware of the specific area would you notice a difference.

After finishing, I bundled up the canvas drop clothes for the washer. But when I pulled the button for the washer to start nothing happened. I tried changing the settings, still nothing. My initial thought was that the washer was kaput. It was not an expensive item, so I had no idea how long the life expectancy was.

I came inside to take a desperately needed shower since I was covered with paint splotches. I turned on the shower, and it made strange burping noises. SHIT! No water. For about an hour, in the back of my mind, I'd heard some street noise without paying attention. I looked out and about three houses away, there was a back hoe ripping out the water or sewer lines. I was tempted to open the front door and scream, "Get that fucking mess fixed!"

At some providential moment in the past, I'd stored a gallon of water in the kitchen cabinet for an emergency. It was heaven-sent to be able to wash off some of the grit and paint.

Before going out, I checked the mail, and there was a refund check made out to my mother from one of the local hospitals. No doubt, the result on internal audit. But, Christ, she's been dead two years.

I almost turned green wondering what I would have to go through to deposit the check. After the laborious process of dealing with the checks to "The Estate of," I thought I would not have to worry with such problems again.

The standard fare, nothing exciting.

Friday evening, I'd decided I would not go one more day without making some kind of decision on the paint for the living room walls. I've looked at literally hundreds of samples and about ten different types of textures. I'd narrowed it down to about half-a-dozen granite-style paints. These are thick, stucco-like paint to which you can add granite crystals. But I never could get beyond that. Then it struck me, I was looking at the color and not the pattern of the texture. I immediately selected something called Mountain Gold which is a very dull gold with a variegated texture.

So I ordered the paint and bought a paint tray and a roller brush just for this purpose. (Pricy, the paint was - $30 for a gallon.) I also bought three more cans of the spray grey stone textured paint for the front steps. I told the check-out clerk that every time I used the spray paint, it managed to rain before it was dry enough for the sealant.

The second I got home, I raced for the front steps and sprayed away. The paint has to dry for at least four hours before the sealant can be applied. As I was doing this, I thought about trying it on the gray brick wall under the front windows. These are bricks approximately 12 inches in length with the rough, porous side facing outwards. During the painting of the trim, fascia, soffit, etc., the bricks had become randomly splattered with white paint, which I discovered because of the porous nature of the brick was impossible to remove. A few sprays of the paint told me, it was going to be ideal solution. But how many cans it was going to take was another story.

I took a well-deserved nap and woke about 5. Just in time to run outside and apply the sealant to the steps. As luck would have it, I didn't quite have enough sealant to cover all the surface.

BBC in America is repeating the season of "Doctor Who" followed by an encore of the previous week's "Torchwood," then a new episode.

The Doctor and Martha pop up in 1599 London just as the Globe Theatre has opened. The Globe is producing Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost". There's a wonderful plot device that infers that part of Shakespeare's genius was his almost prenatural powers of observation. He deduces that Martha is from the future, and that the Doctor is not from this planet.

There's also a very funny bit in which Shakespeare appears to "flirt" with the Doctor. The Doctor's reply is ""57 academics just punched the air..." (There's an interesting comment at "Rullsenberg Rules - Shakespeare:'57 academics just punched the air...' ".) An obvious reference to the on-going discussion of Will's sexuality. My guess is that he obviously played both sides of the field.

Two scraps of trivia appeared as I did some research of the episode. The reconstruction of The Globe in the 90s "was the first thatched roof building permitted in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666." Also there is a possibility that Shakespeare wrote a sequel to "Love Labour's Lost," called "Love's Labour's Won" before 1598. References appear in sources of the era to the play, but it has never been found. ("Doctor Who" offers a clever device for the play's disappearance.)

"Torchwood" with its three delectable male leads, Captain Jack, Ianto Jones and Owen Harper returned last Saturday. The first episode's guest was James Marsters of "Buffy," "Angel," and "Smallville" fame. Equally delectable, I might add.

There were not-so-veiled hints in the first season that Ianto had a crush on Captain Jack. And in the last episode, when Ianto thinks that Jack, there's a scene straight out of "Brokeback Mountain." Ianto picks up Jack's overcoat to his face and takes several deep breaths. As though trying to capture some essence of Jack. However, Jack lives, and when he appears, he gives Ianto a beautiful fairy-tale kiss.

The relationship seems to have progressed. There were several almost throw away comments in episode 2, which I would have missed without closed captioning, about Jack, Ianto and sex.

This was a poignant episode for it involved a woman who has been taken over by a deadly alien life form but is totally oblivious to it. In the end she threatens Gwen and is killed in a barrage of bullets. Although Gwen is certain she could not bear the prospect of losing her humanity, so she chooses death instead.

Pax! Erin go braugh! Je accuse...