Month: July 2021

Boy oh boy, the One Typed Page collection was great, is great. So much to reply to. Well, so much that I found interesting and want to reply to.

JCO — “I am an addict.” Good luck. But do you really need to give it up?

Barbara – Have no worries, I will read the intro, right after I finish up with all the other great stuff there. I always, usually skip intros and forewards and get right to the bits of it, dive in like a cold pool.

Mike in VA – My wife and I are different than you two. I go to bed early, rise early. My wife goes to bed late and rises late. (Usually, not always.) We find the times of solitude to be good for us. I am not sure which one is healthier for a couple. But it works for us, and it seems like you two too.

Catalina – Jury Duty? Oh, I am so jealous. Being on a jury, hearing the sides of the person’s story, ah that sounds great. I have been called to the jury pool many times. Get excited as they call the names of people who will go and be quizzed and then chosen or not. I have never gotten that far. I show up, spend a day, and am reminded that I have done my duty. No more chance of being on a jury for at least two years. Maybe next, time. If you do not want to be on a jury, well, I hope you have my luck.

Tori — You have switched from Morning News to One Typed Page for your morning ritual. Good on ya. I believé it was Thoreau (Kent, do you know?) That once got a paper with the news. It came out once a month. He deemed that plenty of it. A little closer to our times, Ryan Holliday, a writer of stoics and stoicism, advises you to read history. People say nothing changes. So you can read the words of people who have stood the test of time. One suggestion is Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War for the conflict between the USA and China. I will let you know how it turns out.

Daniel – How the last part of the book goes so much faster. I agree, what is it with reading that makes it so? As I read a book the first half seems to last for a long time and then zip! it is over. Oh well, there are other books.

Someone whose name I do not recall – So many things, so many interests, where will we get the time to do them all? All I can figure out is that I go through interests in a circular manner. While it seems that I have given up on something I know I will loop back to it. Eventually.

Keeping secrets.

— MichaelRpdx

Yours is there. I looked at the Nutella. Two big, huge jars weighing nearly, no over two pounds each. That was not mine. Mine was a small slim package. A Book. I opened the package. “What is it?”, she asked. Santa Ana? no, definitely not LA. I hate it when my brain gives out on the simplest items that I have a tough time remembering. Do not have a stroke. “You have recovered,” they tell me. Well no. I have not. I am grateful for saving my life. Just a little more would be nice. I held up the book for her to read. palm springs noir, that was it, remembered at last. palm springs noir arrived today. I skipped the introduction. Plenty of time for that later. For now, I started to read.

I like cactus. Cactus and old people, old places, things that survive. Quiet mornings.

And so it starts. And it gets better. Yes, I have some great reading ahead.

There was a murder this morning. Five of them. Tow of them were young. I went to get a camera to record it. Then I got a little too close. The crows flew off. Did they do that before, before our modern times when somebody keeps crows as pets? One might think that after twenty-odd years here with chicken keeping for a long time before they were killed by weasels and raccoons. Before the times of putting out chicken feed and french fries and leftovers before all of that, you would think that they would come to trust us and not fly off. We have walked by them on the sidewalk, slowly. They hop or two away but do not fly away. Maybe it is the young ones. Born earlier this year. They are being cautious. Maybe tomorrow morning I will be able to photograph them.

— MichaelRpdx

It was so quiet last night. I had waited up to hear it for myself. There was one crackling’ boom. Was that, firework? Yes. Just the one. It does help to be hard of hearing. My wife says there were many more in the direction she pointed. I heard nothing from there. Last year, oh my what a difference. There was a pair of guys dueling with roman candles. That was our neighborhood for the days before and after the fourth of July.

—— MichaelRpdx

Sisters. Don’t you love sisters? If you have two or more you understand. So closely related, yet so different. In my family, there was myself and two sisters. When we were young, preteens, they competed in being my favorite. I really did not get it, but I did enjoy it.

Yesterday the third sister arrived. The eldest was tall and willowy. The middle sister was sinewy and kind clingy. The youngest, well we are waiting to see how it turns out. We expect it to be sorta broad. Spreading out.

We gave the oldest space to grow in. The middle sister is close to the first one, so it can grow up close to the first one. The youngest one got a place to itself. We are waiting to see how they turn out. Time will tell.

These sisters are corn, beans, and squash. They have been planted together for generations. Iroquois have used this method for longer than I know. (Iroquois is easier to type than Haudenosaunee, try to substitute it in your mind.) Corn is planted first and in our case, it grew to six inches tall. The beans on either side of the corn. When they appeared and I ran out of patience we planted squash. Varieties of both beans and squash. We shall see how and which does the best.

Oops, this was meant to go out yesterday. More in the three sisters later.

— MichaelRpdx

108, 112, 116 three days, three records. You have heard of it. We are happy it is over. Today on a walk in the mid-70s we even got rained on. Back to normal.

This typing comes to you from a new to me, well sorta, typewriter. It is a 1970 Hermes in the Type Space. Type Space being a new place in Portland. They have banks of typewriters for sale, or for a loan, like this one. Anyone can come in, see a machine he or she likes, and give it a whirl. They do repairs — at the encouragement of Matt of Ace Typewriter, he is backed up by three months or so. He tells people to come down here. So, I don’t need to feel guilty. And I did, brought in a Royal Mercury for refurbishment. And, it turns out I am the first customer. I gave them a dollar – their first dollar. Damn, there is happiness floating through the air. OK, I am really excited to be the first person here. Well, the first one to submit a repair to be done. I told him, Mark the tech, to not worry about how long it takes to do the work I have other typewriters. The other people here are Julia and Tony, the owners, and a half dozen people checking the place out. There is a mini-museum of typewriters dating back to the late 1800s. From the 20s to the 70s, well those are for sale and on view and touching. What can I say, this new space is full of happy people lost of typing in the air.

It is good to be back.

—- MichaelRpdx