March 2021 – Page 2 – My Typed Page

Questions Anyone?

Kent Asked a question, and I will try to answer it, or is it them, here. “What’s your OTP routine?” Routine? That kind of implies that I am organized, or regular, enough to have a routine. There is the reading routine and the writing one. I open it up after my Morning Pages writing. OTP is usually here by then. I search out my favorite authors and read them. Then back to the top to read most of them. At the most, or least, involved or well, I scan them. It takes me half an hour to read them all. I am also working on my speed of reading. It has been slow for the last two years. One Typed Page is the first of what I read in my morning batch of emails. And at times, there are other things calling for attention. Now, writing, the writing part of the One Typed Page portion of the OTP routine, that comes in the late afternoon or early evening. I start with date, place, and typewriter. Put those things down and indented at the top. That is my warm-up. And sometimes I wander off and return hours later to continue and get something typed up. I am lucky in that if my wife has gone to bed I can type. She finds the sound relaxing. Very lucky!

One thing I do while reading the One Typed Page of the day is looking for patterns among the sequencing of the pieces. I am convinced that Daniel tries to put some order to the group. I know they are not just ordered by the time they arrive. So he reads them all and then orders them. What is his method for choosing the sequence? This is fun for me. So I do not ask him about it. I look at them and wonder about them and what they have in common and what goes first and all of that kind of thing.

Figuring out the sequence of things is a habit I grew up on in doing photography. Sequencing is important. Poets have the same concern to worry about. Studying Spanish and Latin had me very aware of sequencing. In Spanish, you have a house small and white, in contrast to a small white house in English. In Latin it is SOV, Subject-Object-Verb, nearly they can be changed around some for poetic reasons. By the way, a lot of Latin is great fun to learn due to the roots of our language. It makes learning most vocabulary easier. Well mostly. They still have conjunction lost in English.

— MichaelRpdx :: hr

Kent Peterson

This typewriter came to me from Kent Peterson. I have not used it in a while but today is special from that perspective. It will be the last time I will see him for years. I drove down to Eugene to visit with him today. We had a great visit. With a long dialog on the subject of memory and memories. (more on that) Maybe we should have had a pizza. This typewriter came to Kent from Venezuela in a pizza box. Instead, we drank tea. and talked and talked until Kent needed to pick up a box to pack a bike into. I continued my bad influence of giving him a ride. Kent does not use cars very often. I seem to get him into cars every other trip. ??

On the subject of memories – one of which Kent told me. He swore that I had been told the story. I do not have a glimmer of any type about it. Have you had that experience? This is not like amnesia, though come to think of it, hrmmm But I have forgotten a lot after my stroke (my?? stroke? like I own this particular experience? note to self: consider the ownership thing here) So back to memories, We had both failed, gotten an F, in a grade school class. He used his F to organize classmates to … well you will have to wait and hear it from Kent as it is his Story. But for me I went on to get an A in every class because they made the classes interesting. But that, those, are not the point of this digression. Because the doctors that treat strokes do not get enough recognition. “Vascular Neurologist” just does not roll off the tongue like cardiologist. Where was I going with this segment? Damn memories. I will come up with that and report back sometime. If I remember it.

“Figure out the food thing.” That was an early piece of advice from Kent on the subject of a sport that I was amazingly unsuited for but kept going at it for years. Randonneuring. Give it a whirl sometime if you like to ride a bicycle. It is remarkably satisfying, to ride 200 kilometers in a day (well 13.5 hours) and if you keep it up you will find that a 50 or 60-mile ride is just time out enjoying the day. I hope to return to that level.

There was a point to something here. But instead I will ramble on no more tonight. Instead, I will remember things with Kent’s voice guiding me as I went out and tried.

— MichaelRpdx :: hr

Do You Re-read Novels?

Barbara asked two questions in her One Typed Page yesterday. In reverse order for answering, “does anyone here read noir?” I cannot answer Yes. My answer is Hell Yes. Oh god hell yes. I am just now restarting on Thompson – in Spanish, It is for my literacy. It is tough too.

Yes “I have also reread novels”, With a bit of a twist here. After my stroke (September 2018) it was extremely difficult to read. It still is, I cannot read as quickly as I used to. I am still working on it. The first re-reading of this time period (this epoch?) was “84, Charing Cross Road”, it has small chapters enabling me to read it. The most recent, I believe, rereading was “Emil and The Detectives”, which I loved due to the protagonist going on about mac and cheese. I asked my aunt for it. Ahem, so much for no digressions. Did I reread “Cat’s Cradle” somewhere in there? I do have three books on my TBR list, “Years of Rice and Salt”, “If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler”, and “A Moveable Feast” three favorites of all time. (can you tell I am trying to distract you from the book that I reread the most recently?)

A digression that really is not: I have had problems with recalling words. “mac and cheese” in the previous paragraph, as an example. This has led me to lots of synonyms and other bits of wordplay. I mentioned this issue to my doctor. (early-onset late age issues anyone?) He had two observations. 1) it is normally nouns. I am checking on that, and 2) It can be due to a lack of Vitamin B-12. That was included in my bloo& work. and…lo and behold I am deficient in it. So if you are having troubles with remembering things that you know you should get it checked.

Hey Readers: On YouTube there is “Developing Literacy, Developing Language, with Stephen Krashen (MAT-TESOL Master Class I)” Dr. Krashen talks for about 90 minutes followed by a Q&A session. In the section, he states that reading for pleasure is the #1 way to foreign language acquisition, and it is just plain good for people. Read for pleasure and it will do you good, or even great. There are stats cited if you are interested.

I think I need to go read for some time now. As in it is time to read.

-— Michael Rpdx :: rkmm

Writing Pen Pals and Such

Well howdy again. I am back here with a One Typed Page. And look, I write a lot every day. Morning Pages, Sketch Journal, some Spanish, and in all of that one or more of them gets dropped. Like One Tyoed Page of late. But that is kind of unfair. This place is kinda special in what it gets out of me because I write differently to each format. SO, should I disappear again, I encourage you to kick me for not showing up here. Write to me at:

michael@jamhome.us or
mikeraz@gmail.com

Both will show up in my consciousness (oh lord, spelling!) and I will get at the keyboard to one of my typewriters and get with the flow and appear here again. Daniel does not reveal anyone’s address or other information. Damn if that is not nice. However, it does not stop any of us from communicating in any means we care to try. (Yes, those of you with letters pending, well…) NOTE: this is not a plea for likes or other feedback. Other than a “hey! Get on it again.” when I drop off for a few days.

“When I’m 64”, remember that song? My wife had planned for decades to travel to the Beatles hometown of Liverpool. She was to spend her 64th birthday getting “fooking debauched” with her second-oldest, a 50-year-old penpal (penpals for 50 years, they are a different age), and her husband (the penpals husband) at a, well starting at, a favorite pub. I am sure we would have had a bloody great time. But not now with the Covid. We will be going for another time to celebrate. But it is not for her 64th. Which is what I was doing this last bit of time.

And for the record, my wife’s longest-running penpal has been sending letters across the pond to Germany for one year more. 52 years of, well it isn’t One a Day, but several times a year.

Are any of you learning a foreign language? Spanish in my case. With Esperanto and Latin as my follow on … well I think so. Perhaps I will go with Portuguese we will see how my fascinations flow as we get down the road a bit. You know how to reach me. I just passed the 800-day streak on Duolingo. It could be 1,200 plus day streak if it were not for being hospitalized for days of unconsciousness. Duolingo is not my only thing to do for languages. It was a start. And actually, it remains a start for languages.

OK, back to pages of less about me and all that stuff. Back to the things I trip over while wandering through the thing of life.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

I Want One, I Get One

A hook. I want one. I gotta have one, I am going to find one. I need one. I have to have one. I will have… I must have… A hook. I have to have a hook. I need it, I do not have one yet.

In the late 70s, 79, 78, that time frame, I was working in a radio station. Early morning shift for air time. Afternoon for writing and recording spots.

In the mid to late 90s I was involved in, with, beer. First as the editor of the Oregon Beer Crew Newsletter, then as a columnist for Celebrator Beer News. The newsletter was eight pages. The column was 1,000 or so words.

In the early 70s, 73 through 75, I was in radio again (?) Mostly the closing shift, until 10:00 or 12:00 on weekends. In 74 and 75 I wrote a lot of spots, mostly for a grocery store. But whatever the general manager came up with. It was a form of job training as I was still in high school. I got three hours of time in the afternoon to make whatever I did better and they recommended a grade for me. Or something like that. That was a while ago.

All of those things involved being paid for writing. Getting paid to write about beer? Yeah, baby. But there was a catch. One that I never got around. Or so my memory says. I needed a hook. You would think that given one column a month coming up with an idea would be easy. C’mon, guy. It is just a half-page of writing one time a month. But on too many months I sat at my desk and thought. Well, not about much, Cause I did not have a hook. Some topic to carry my thoughts through the places I would write about. I had to have one.

It has been a dry, well, probably not but when it came time to type I could not come up with a hook. This is different from facing a blank page, having writer’s block. There were ideas. But not ones I could work into an extended piece. (Not that this one qualifies!) But yes, start someplace, somewhere and go through other places, and tie it up.

Like this that I have to, I get to, I gotta, I need to, I have the pleasure to, all these to’s, which one fits?

—— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

Warm Days and Happiness

Demn what a fine day. Warm weather following up by finishing my Income Taxes. Not that doing it yourself is any big deal for a retired person, but finding all of the bits and pieces to do it … well that made it better than normal. I had them all in a folder. It made it simple. I even got to owe the feds some money for once. I, have an admission, hate getting tex refunds. OK, “hate” is a strong word here. I dislike getting a refund.

[above was double spaced in the original]

Sorry, that double spacing is too far apart for something I am meaning for other people to read. Be great for a draft that I will use pencil on. But it is just too wide spacing for me to look at. It has to be too wide to read. A bit of rye has made me too lazy to pull this out and retry it.

Mixing colors. Coming up with a bit of prose to fill itself up onto the page. Working, wait working? on Spanish? Might it be playing Spanish? Or practicing Spanish? Working, playing, practicing, should I check the thesaurus? Or be strong and only use the working words that I have in my mind? Well that seems to be getting smaller by the week. Would the box book be a reminder or a guid to new words? Guid, hehe he, a guide but is it even that? More like the shady guy on the street corner, “c’mon over here. We have a deal for you, wanna see them inside?” Like one of those guys with great deals for the Naive. Our for a day of fun in the city. Out for the evening of ‘what is that? Really? You think?!’ Thet kind of the guy that the sleazy guy thinks is ready for a thrill, or so he hopes, he had not had great luck the previous day. He went a bit hungry, he doesn’t pull in his quota he does not get paid. He needs to get some money. ‘That’s the way it goes.

OK, enough rambling fantasy bits here. Have a good day like I did, warm weather, getting things done, and having time left over for your mind to take off on things that make you ask yourself “whard that come from?” Where indeed.

— MichaelRpdx :: rqdl

End to Smugness, New Typewriter

Hello All! This is a new to me typewriter. A Royal Quiet De Luxe. But that is not all, It is a, lo es une máchina de escribir; Y mes, tiene ¿ ¡ ñ , y los, lo siento, las teclas son en español. Busca a la foto.

It is new to me and I am excited. It did take some work from Mett and it requires some tyning to get it lubed up.

Now if I could get Matt to charge a reasonable amount for his work. It just does not seem like it is enough. Perhaps just mailing him an anonymous bit of cash?

There was one big snd I mean BIG problem on the day we received the typewriter. As I was getting out my Royal KMM I set it down on the table and noticed I had no wedding ring. My finger was bare. We have been married for 22 years. With the exception of the one time I had my ring resized, I never removed the ring. Suddenly it is gone,

Now it is time for a confession. My wife’s family has a history of losing wedding rings. My mother-in-law’s engagement ring end wedding ring are someplace on Waikiki Beach. We think my wife’s (first) ring is in the garden somewhere. That is not the confession. My confession is feeling a bit smug. I did not lose my ring. No siree bobcat. I DID NOT lose the ring. Until Friday. So much for my smugness.

We looked in the couch cushions, in the car, in all of my pockets, and every other place we could think of. Have you ever looked everywhere including the packing materials for a typewriter? We did. Filled with crumpled newspapers I did not want to recycle it. The box is 22x22x18 inches, That is a whole bunch of stuff to shift through. I am very fortunate that my wife’s hearing is great. “Would you listen while I dump this stuff on the floor?” I upended the boxy and she heard something like a bell. I looked some more and found it. Whew. Perhaps it is time to get it resized again.

— MichselRpdx :: rqdl

Teclas en español