Hermes 3000

Because, from Ilkley was a warming lesson in how our society works and how people take care of each other.

I became a Diamond today. Now I can concentrate on learning languages without the distraction of achievement. Diamond is the highest, so far, level of achievement in weekly learning. Spend enough time studying and you will float to the top of the pile. I am not sure it means anything besides a measure of studying a lot. There is the building up a habit. Get enough habits and you spend time learning. That is good. It helps that I have a nephew studying French and my wife re-learning Norwegian. I had to take their languages at the same time. This is in addition to my Spanish and Latin. So far I only use the Latin word in French and that kind of thing not too often. But I do note a lessening in trying to translate from one language to English. Instead, I am just going for the underlying concept and the emotions it in the language of choice. It gets a bit confusing when I am needing to dive into English.

It is a tiring day. Have a good one to all.

And I think I need to pay attention to what I am doing here. Making sure spaces are inserted. That spelling is correct, or at least close. Sorry about that to all y’all.

—~ MichaelRpdx :: h3k

I have known Kent Peterson since 2003, wait that is not right. Well, maybe it is. In any case, about two decades ago I sent an email to Kent asking him about randoneuring (is that spelled right? I asked that in the first letter I sent to him back then. I had a Bike Friday and he had ridden a Bike Friday in Paris-Brest-Paris. Maybe he could give me some advice. “Figure out the food thing,” was one of these first pieces of advice. One of the many pieces that I would not follow. I had a stomach of iron. I ate everything. That would not be a problem for me. I did have problems with eating. I had lots of problems. Kent never did give up on me. And we have stayed in touch over the years. Not always on the subject of bicycling. At one time he told me about why he didn’t like and would not buy a house. I will leave it to him to explain. He continued to continue to rent houses. He seems to get lucky with landlords. The one he has now is a wonderful guy. He even mows the lawn for him.

So this morning I read with disbelief (he doesn’t believe in buying a house) then surprise (he is buying a house?) shock (he IS BUYING a house) after eight hours I wrote to him “I’m still stunned.” And in some ways I still am. But I know Kent and Christine go through things carefully. This is a well thought out move. Back to an area where he went to college, in Duluth, right across some water. Where he met Christene. Where he has sisters and nieces and nephews. And I’m sure there are other things that they about the area that we will find out about from them. While I cannot go down and have lunch or go for coffee and then walk to Tsunami Books (boy are they going to miss him!) I know we will continue to hear from him via this venue. I wish them the best of luck.

* * *

In other news, I read today that one of three Americans eat fast food daily. One in three daily. My capacity for surprise is exhausted. But one in three daily of McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and all that crap I might eat once a month, and that is Burgerville. Burgerville for those of you not from the Pacific Northwest, it is what you can expect only with seasonal specials, Sweet Onion Rings, fresh fruit in season, make that shakes with fresh fruit. Fortunately, I can go to a taco truck. That is the closest I get to the daily fix.

— MicahelRpdx :: h3k

Yesterday Dave used a quote about how good a fight can be. He attributed it to Eric Berne. Maybe. I could not find it. For that matter, the repositories I checked on didn’t quote Berne on fights at all. But it sure is a familiar saying. But I could not find it anywhere. Perhaps because people are shy about quoting fuck. Hopefully one of you (Kent?) can find it so I can attribute it properly.

I did find some great saying while looking for the quote. My favorites of the day are from Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club.

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.” That is a great reminder about your life and what you spend time doing, or not doing, minute by minute. I have certainly squandered too many minutes. How many of you have avowed FaceBook? I had given it up (? given it up?) I had quit after an enforced time without it. It took months for me to need to be in touch with cousins, long lost friends, and all the other people you don’t seem to be able to find elsewhere. If you have spent time on FB, you know what I mean. If you have not, keep it up.

My more interest was his statement, “I don’t want to die without any scars.” Do you have any? I do not share with Chuck the need to get scars before dying. I have 18 or 20 scars. It is neck and neck between medical and just plain fun. Right now the medical count is slightly ahead. My wife insisted that I don’t need to add to the collection. The years from 1977 through 2003 or 2004 were pretty intact with no scars added to the collection then. I would make a terrible criminal. Too many scars to identify me. Don’t get me started on tattoos. I collected a bunch from medical people who felt they had to map out everything they had planned.

Yes, I have plenty of identifying marks. Plenty enough.

—- MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I will introduce you to my fourth typewriter. So far you have seen the Hermes 3000, this one. My favorite. I fell for it when I saw the black and red indicators of the margins. I thought “if they did that, there is some engineering lurking inside. And there is. You encountered, briefly, the Hermes Baby. A machine that came to the USA from Venezuela in a pizza box. It came to a friend with too many typewriters who deemed me as someone to give it to. I was a lucky guy. Still am for that matter. The third I picked up for not much money. It belonged to a student who was going to Salt Lake City. It needed a couple screws. After they were put in the Olympia SM5 was ready. I’m not sure what it is ready for, but it waits patiently. But Tomorrow. Tomorrow as I have stated here will bring in my fourth typewriter. I happily bought it at SCRAP. SCRAP is a place with odds and ends, mostly for scraping, scrapingbook, no Scrapebooking. Yes, scrapebooking. (Is that the right spelling?) They have lots of that kind of stuff. I walked in one day and, like the Hermes 3000, it was smitten or I with it. I will tell you about it with it. Tomorrow.

There are always tomorrows.

-— MichaelRpdx ::h3k

P.S., in the question of what to do with all the thinks/things that you accumulate. Remember Pepeysy! Who knows what people will find interesting a couple of decades or centuries from now. At least with typewritten pages, you don’t have to worry about legibility. And, most of all, keep them for yourself. You will be amazed by what you have recorded. And you will remember more with each reading.

Happy Equinox!

Today is the day we switch from days of light to “the days of darkness.” Yeah well, you can ignore it for a few weeks, You can still head for home during the light, perhaps even sunny, days of evenings that tease us. But make no error each day is shorter than its predecessor. Let us hope for an Indian Summer so we have one last hurrah.

* * *

For the first time since February 27, yes 2020, I made it out into a day of just going out to have some entertainment. It was not a day of grocery shopping, not a day of a haircut, not a day of hauling stuff to the dump or Goodwill, it was not a day of anything that involved doing something that needed doing. I just got out. In this case I drove to north Portland to drop into a typewriter store, Ace Typewriter and Machine,

I was hoping for a machine with a Spanish or European keyboard. They didn’t have one but will watch for one for me. I did pick up a copy of ACE TYPEWRITER Book of Brief Piction. And then on to “downtown” St John’s. There was an exhibit of Bobby Abrahamson’s “North Portland Polaroids”. In a park, there were nearly 500 prints hanging from trees. All of them were of people who agreed to being subjects of portraits. The photos were 4×5 polaroid instant images. This type of image produces a positive and a negative. The subject gets a copy of the photo, Bobby keeps the negative. Great photos. I spent a couple of hours in the area and headed home.
What a day it was. Over six months of not getting out.

I am reading three books at the same time. Because, they each feature short bits. Backspaces Typewritten Tales of Time Travel, either you know of this book or I won’t spoil it for you. Perhaps some commentary later.

Getting Right with TAO from Ron Hogan. Most of the entries are half pages. But they all deserve time to reflect on them because to just read it, to know what the words mean without considering the meaning of the words, (is that making sense?) without reflecting on then, is like not reading it at all.

My Private Property, Mary Ruefle, is a poetic book. I am about halfway through it, and I am on the chapter with its title, um well err, The chapter is “My Private Property”. It sets the stage be describing Kon-Tiki (a 1947 story of a raft full of men who floated from Peru to a south seas island to prove it was possible) and its relation of head shrunken heads on page 62. How precise! It then goes on the long, for this book, chapter on shrunken heads and how the author fell in love with one. (I think.)

Yes, that is my fascination of the week.

* * *

I must take a chance to thank all of you for your writings. They have made me a better reader. Thank you.

~ MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Ruth Bader Ginsberg

I see the sun. There is a shadow on the floor. Yes, we’re recovering. Brief Lives, from John Aubery, is an example book for people who are writing one, or more, of the “Six Books You Can and Should” write.

It is descriptions, character sketches, that kind of thing. I know a lot of people. I bet you do too. There is plenty to write about.

I have a folder on my computer ready for me to flesh it out. It remains empty. Perhaps I should describe our dog, who died earlier this year. Or the fig tree with a second crop waiting to be eaten. Or perhaps I should populate it with the files of names. I can fill it out later. Which at last leads me to a thought.

Death and the Penguin, from Andrey Kurkov, features a character who writes about people. Most of who he has never met. We learn a lot about Russian life. And how he came to have a penguin as a pet. Other people join his life. k£ If you take book recommendations this is one to read. Which leads to.

I have been reading all of your One Typed Page entries. The things you encounter and deal with is interesting. Interesting enough that I have improved my reading skills. Things are short with a variety of fonts. I had to Open This Page, adjust the zoom, and read. Now I can mostly read them as they appear on the web, as is. I have had problems reading text. If the text was small with line spacing tight I had problems reading it. Think of a paperback book, how they cram stuff in, that is the kind of stuff I had problems reading. Now it is less so. Thanks to your writings.

I think I am going to read Years of Rice and Salt again. Or perhaps If On A Winters Night A Traveler. Rereading is good.

-— MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Yep we have got some weather. I do not like talking about weather. But we do have a humdinger of a day. Hazey day, and now our thing that has people talking about it. Winds of 15 to 30 mph. With gusts to 40 to 55 mph. I think most of the pears are going to fall off the trees. I hear crows. What are they doing? Are they flying around? Are they clinging to a power line, they like to sit in surveillance there, cawing at us as we walk by. But now we are curled up in our home watching the trees sway back and forth. The crows can go off to a safe place. We will feed them some chicken scratch in the morning.

Retiring people, Welcome To The Crowd! Retirement, especially for those of us with typewriters, is a good thing. During the shutdown of the 2020 Covid-19 so many people complained about boredom. Boredom? Did they not plan retirement, oh it is a bit of a planning exercise for them. If you were bored, especially without televised sports, you need to work on your life. Fortunately I have a grand bulk of things to do. Here they are waiting for my attention.

Now if I could work the spacebar consistently, get those spaces in.

From early August through mid October is one of my favorite, very favorite, times. We have sunny days close to what they get in the tropics. The twighlites are warm enough to be out in the dark. In shirt sleeves, it is comfortable. And if, as we have been, on vacation in this weather, well wow, we are walking in the dark ing from – little thing group to another. They seem to be isolated. Let me work on the description to another. I will come up with a better description.

— MichaelRpdx :: h3k

Oops, a library book is due to return. So this is picked out of the TBR stack. I intended to read for an hour, or maybe half of one. The intent is to improve my reading, especially the speed of it.

The book is My Private Property from Mary Ruefle. Who she is I don’t know yet. She is, however, a poet. And her poems are deep and layered. This is not the type of reading for a pace set for relaxing into some bliss of – something of your choosing. And also we will be watching The Year of Living Dangerously Which seems to be something that I had half-remembered, so the plot twists in ways unexpected. I’m not at all sure about the meaning of the two books being due at the same time.

There is music on my mind. Well, that is a bit of a stretch. I’d like to listen to the melodious sound of someone speaking a foreign language. I fiddled with one of the apps on my phone. “Simply Radio” and I cruzed around To Mexico! Tu Argentina! To France! To Morroco! What? They have what it takes to pull the channel to my place. I like it.

—- MichaelRpdx :: h3k