Hermes i3000

When we first bought this house and moved in we saw what I assumed to be bluebirds. Not so. Bluebirds are not common in our area. What I had seen was a scrub jay. The blue coloring is interrupted by a white patch on its back and the belly. They are common in our area. And we do see one or two pairs each year. There was one flitting about as I mowed the lawn. Yes, another mowing day. This lawn was now nearly as thick as the front area so I got enough cut down. And it was getting close to the end when I got a treat. A stellar jay appeared. It is not like they are not found in our area. Just not in Portland. Or not in the densely populated part of Portland that I live in. I would see them in abundance in my in-laws house. Jut hare? No, no sighting of the dark blue with a prominent creast, crest. Yes that was a treat.

A stellar jay made my day.

I am going to go watch something. Something.

— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-25

Sittin’ on the couch. It could be the edge of a bay. But it is not. It is the couch. Actually we have two. One full sized and one “love seat.” Well, three if you count the futon downstairs that we are planning to give away. As soon as we figure out how to get enough room to move it out of the basement. If you are familiar with the puzzles where there is just one space and you have to move the pieces around to get them arranged, from one to fifteen. I think they are called warehouse puzzles. Now I get to play it in real life with real items to move around to get the room to move things into.

Sittin’ on the couch letting thoughts flow through my mind spiraling around bringing memories to mind and I wonder why. Gol darn, how was that for a run-on sentence? That is what sittin’ on a couch just letting thoughts flow is like. Well, for me and my thoughts are like. Perhaps you have a more ordered mind and your random thoughts are concise bits of subject, verb, object constructions. In my language studies, there are some in which that type of thinking does not work, not even to the way proper English does it. (Latin and Esperanto being the examples.)

Sittin’ on the couch. It is a way to spend a day until I decided to get out and cut off the dead pieces of a fig tree and a white lilac and a volunteer hazelnut tree. There would be not hazelnut trees volunteering if squirrels remembered where the put the nuts and were hungry enough in the winter. It took the place of mowing * today. All of them would be there tomorrow. The lawn lost, or was it won?, the what gets to be done today.

Sittin” on a couch today I did do some things. Word puzzles, studying Esperanto, Morning Pages written, read a bit of Kafka on the Beach, practicing Ukulele playing, meditation, those are all the things I did while sittin’ around today.

-—- MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-23

And all of that comes from typing “Sittin’ on the couch” and watching where it would go.

The battery lasted all through the day today. It lasted all through the second day. On a summer day they batter would last for all of t e front yard and a good chunk of the back yard. But this lawn was thick and high. “No mow May” was or rather is the motto for those of us who have heard that it helps the migrating birds. So we gave it a whirl. But I saw we had close to a week of no rain days and took the chance to mow it. There was knee-high grass. There were no longer dandelions they were crowded out by other plants a week or two ago. But golly there was a lot of grass out there. It is about 1000 square feet in the front. Stopping to empty the lawn bag, that was six or seven times. A couple of those were so full that clumps of grass followed the wheels it was too full and bunched up and mushed down and went under the high-placed lawn deck. Each day left me exhausted.

There was a time when I did not need to mow my lawn. My father-in-law did it for us. Back when I weighed 50 pounds more than I do now. Back when I answered the medical person’s question “Are you allergenic to anything?” with “Only to lawn grass and kittens.” I was not making this up. When I dated a nurse she worked in an allergen office and got me in to see what I really was allergic to. Johnson and Bermuda grasses, and cats. And that was when I weighed 60 pounds less than I do now. But anyway, I mowed the lawn before my in-laws came to visit. They found me prostrate on the couch, sneezing, eyes running, it was bad. My father-in-law said he would come up and mow our lawn. As it turned out he, freshly retired, did enjoy it. I am a very lucky: guy:

Tomorrow we attack the backyard. It, fortunately, is level from side to side. But oh geez, there are some clumps that are knee high.

-— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-22

PS Yes, as an adult my weight ranged over 100 pounds. I used to say “healthy weight” but I learned that was not the case.

“We eat a lot of chocolate in the parking lot.” She laughed as she said that. Her mom joined her in the laughter. There is a grocery chain called Grocery Outlet. It seems to be limited to west coast states, Idaho, Nevada and Pennsylvania. It seems to buy items that for whatever reason do not make it to the big chains. They would get all sorts of chocolate. They started to eat it in the parking lot after taking home a lot of Hungarian chocolate. It was terrible. Uneatable bad chocolate. After that experience they would try it out in the parking lot. This morning I had a breakfast sandwich of sausage, egg, and cheese all on an English muffin. It was fantastic. And Vegan. Vegan? Yes. And there was just one. I am the household guinea pig. 1 returned to buy all they had. And I went to another store to buy more. We have eight now. On days when we need a quick and easy breakfast we are ready.

Last night when I was not typing a page I went out with friends for the monthly “let’s have a beer” night. OK, so “a beer” turned into three of them. But that was pretty normal for a once a month get together. What makes this month special was I vowed to take a bus to and from. I used to drive. Then I would take a bus there and a Lyft home. Getting there was easy. In fact the bus let me off at the front door of the Steeplejack place- I had never been there and will not go out of my way to return. And, AH, I should mention the group is a west side group. That seems like it is far away. It certainly seems like that. According to Google it would take about 20 minutes. On a bus, 55 minutes. But that is one the way there, with commute traffic. Coming home at 8:00 or so the buses run much less frequently. I had lots of time to consider my inebriation and all the other things that one can consider when feeling cold because this area has not yet warmed up. It also gave me time to look at the bus shelter. I think it is a one of a kind.

You have heard, perhaps, that there was a No Mowing May thing going on to support migrating birds: I am beginning to become convinced it is a being put out by lawn mower repair people. I cannot take it anymore. I will be mowing. Where we are going to put all of the clippings I do not know. There will be a bumper crop of it.

— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-20

She doesn’t wear goggles because she’s too cute. What with the helmet and all and riding the motorcycle zooming along as she jumps it and takes her hand off of the throttle to reach for a balloon. She grabs the balloon and come to a smooth stop right in front of a young woman and her baby. She holds the balloon out for the baby to grasp the string and make all right with the word. I saw all of this on a Taiwanese video on Netflix. Oh garsh! It was so perfect. I left my wife to type this while she, my wife, works on her language skills. She , my wife, is a bit confused by one, or maybe a few, videos conversing together in different languages. Mandarin and Korean speakers going sack and forth as af: they were speaking the same language but they are not. She, mostly, understands the Mandarin completely.

The Korean is a work in progress.

Like all fiction pieces, we ask each other “why do you question anything about this stuff?” I know that I do not question anything I see because I suspend my disbelief completely.

We are watching “Ridley Road” a story about Jewish people infiltrating a Neo-Nazi group in 1962. It-is part of what PBS has produced and is airing. My only real question is will it meet a good enough reception to have season two produced. It is presented as being based on real life events. I hope, like I did for the first season of “Cowboy Bebop” which Netflix has cut off no season two no completing of the animated version, that they do complete. I hope.

The muse does not come to visit if you are not typing and sometimes she stays away even as you type, or do other things. It is the 18th! 1 am one month away from a family reunion. I am the oldest of all of the cousins being the first child of the first family. There is a healthy herd of cousins, they spread from one that is 6 years younger to a woman who will turn 16 this year.

I need to practice typing on whatever I decide to take to Montana.

-— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-15

Andrew Jackson, were you aware that there is no recorded reason for why he appears on a twenty dollar bill? It might be due to the 100th anniversary of his election as president but golly, we have had lots of 100 year anniversaries. Ron A brought this subject up. Wondering hwy, why Jackson? Because we are collectively a bunch of rasists. racisesest whatever. We are them or unable to work out way out of it.

But he also talked about Susan B Anthony. Someone we can look up to. He suggests that she would do fine on a $20, but that honor, if we get around to it, goes to Harriet Trubman. Well deserved.

Do you remember the one dollar coin minted for Susan B Anthony? It was first minted in 1979. That is a time I will not, not ever, forget. One of the tallest buildings in, home at that time, Boise, Idaho. They, it, had a bar on the top floor. Great views of Boise. It was Summer time. The owner announced that he would run a special. Any drink for one one dollar Susan B Anthony. We had to go! My boss, Kim Day, head salesman Kelly Suigo (sp??) met there. Kim and I had picked up a roll of dollar coins. We unrolled the coins and spent them on … well, it has been a few years since then. Other friends Showed up. We toasted Susan B. According to Kim, one of the things I ordered was Cointreau. They did say anything they served for $1 if it was a Susan B Anthony coin. In a time of 25 cent beers this was still a great time.

I am going to go off and recall, at least what I can, those days.

Though first, yesterday sparked some discussion about abortion. Leo’s comment piece is a fine read. You should. I have a hard time addressing the issue. I do not have the agency to speak out on the issue. But I do not wish to remain quiet either. I can and will go stand quietly in support. I cannot condone with silence. So I will not.

—— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-17

Walked to the post office today. There is a bit of a hill right when I start out. It is tough for me. Thomas, while I do not enjoy reading about people’s health issues I am interested in them. And shit oh dear, you had quite the scare. Please do not be hesitant to talk and type about your continuing issues.

Keep on Truckin’ Mike, your wheat beer sounds interesting. I suggest that you give it another tyr try when you have your first hot spell. Here in the pacific northwest we just have not had the right weather for wheat beers – yet. Yes, an erasure would be nice. But then you all would not hear about ummm what? You all would not read about my mistyping, would that be more fun?

Along with an erasure, it would be good to write down whatever it was I was thinking about writing today. Or any day. Getting used to, accustomed to this typewriter would be nice also. It certainly is nice to have a pair of typewriters that both feel so comfortable. So very comfortable.

Boy, that love note to him from her was so very special so very special. You are a lucky guy.

“Make it or Take it” that has a nice rhyming to it but it lacks ##% in the meaning. Do you make something or take it from someplace. Bread – do you make it or buy some stuff? Stuff to read? You all are makers there, with your One Typed Pages. This page is #276. At least according to the counter of the place where I copy these daily, well not quite for me, Sometimes there is some good stuff there. Other times there is this wandering around like today. like today. Now to go cogitate and come up with “Make it or …” with a better tail end of the saying. I will let you know when I come up with it.

— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-05-16

I asked last night. Really I did. If I were to type at a really early time, like say 3:00 or 4:00 in morning would that be OK with you? We live in a smallish house, 1000 square feet where I type in the dining room, as I am now. She said yes. I had fallen asleep early last night, around 8:00 or so. Moved to our bed at some time and woke up enough to ask her about this typing.

If you are reading this on Monday I woke up early and typed this One Page Daily. But the really odd part is snow. Sorry to Kent and Christina, you missed it. You were visiting Portland on the warmest, nicest day of the year so far. 75° and calm, it made for a nice day of driving around Portland to visit our two typewriter shops.  75°, yes it was really nice. Was. So gone now. Instead, we have weather the Christine likes – snow.

We do not really care for snow. Especially in April.

When I was 13 my family moved from Orland Park, IL to Grangeville, ID. Grangeville is halfway between Boise and Spokane, almost to the mile. As far as one can get from large population centers. That year we had a surprise around Easter, a foot of snow. I woke up at a reasonable # hour. To look outside and see the handrail had grown to a foot high. I was 13, that was great. It continued each year for the four years I lived there in Grangeville. Within a week, before or after Easter it snowed a foot. It was “exciting” when I had my first car I got out in the snow and drove around. My dad went with me, teaching me about driving in the deep snow.

What the snow, this is not reasonable weather. Not what I have become used to in the 5@+ years since then. I can say 1 am very happy our heat pump is fully installed. well the furnace, had failed a few & weeks ago. A heat pump is working well. I am happy that FedEx delivered yesterday a new shower head for the kitchen sink. Sunday delivery? From FedEx? So it seems they do. Putting it on the kitchen sink was a breeze. That was nice, a warranty thing that had snapped off a few weeks ago. That was nice. But snow?

Snow belongs in Superior Wisconsin. It seems that it may arrive on Thursday. Hopefully, because I know the Peterson’s like snow. I hope they get it. (you are welcome)

Hopefully, you will get this letter on Monday. One Typed Page with something to type about.

~- MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-04-10

PS Our day of delightful weather driving around Portland well, IT WAS Portland, not Seattle.

It is a quiet night. There is no conversation. Just an occasional turning of a page, just thuck thunk of a typewriter. Just a single typewriter punctuating the silence. My brain is interrupting the silence with the thoughts providing what passes for an interruption of “hey, did you know?” We had a couple days of people bringing up ideas and ruminations. But those days are gone as the Petersons have boarded a train for points east, not quite two-thirds of the way across the continent. Google seems optimistic, claiming the trip to ST Paul, MN is a 26-hour drive. No stopping? A single driver? It seems they are figuring 67 miles per hour average. At least that is what my math says. Drive time with no stops. Well, I guess that is what they can do. I will need to remember this when I check Google and plan my driving to Billings for the family reunion this summer.

My brain is interrupting what I had been saying, or typing and carried these words through 4 pair or three paragraphs there. First drafts allow that kind of thing to occur.

It is the one thing I have to do every day, 4 One Typed Page. That is what Kent said. You will note that he does appear here every day. My everyday things to do not include One Type Page writing, It does include meditation and studying of foreign languages. Mostly Spanish and Esperanto. My meditation started in September 9016 and has mostly continued since then, so that is, what? five and a half years? Something like that. According to Duolingo, I started there in December 2013, so nine and a half years there. I know there was some interruptions there. So yeah. So what?

I believe I will give this some thought.

~~ MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-04-09

Of course, we had to go. To The Type Space and Ace Typewriter. How could we not? Leave the wives at home and go out to the typewriter stores. It was a manly thing to do.

We both went with a vow. A vow to keep each of us from buying a typewriter. One was a boss, A Boss? A 192x something priced less than he expected. That was Kent’s thing to buy if he was building a collection for a museum. An Underwood for me, at Ace. An Underwood like my Mom had when she had a typewriter and used it for resumes and term papers and trying to forget what it was like in the Army.

As we arrived home, me carrying a well it looked like a typewriter, but it was a case for a Hermes which I lack for one of mine. It is not good to be missing a case for a Hermes. Matt, bless his soul, had a plastic one.

It does not go with a Hermes 3000 but maybe, just maybe it would fit. “Here, take it. Just bring it back when you are in the area next.” “You realize that could be in 2025?” Yeah, that would be fine. Matt is a great guy to deal with. It fits in a wobbly way. Front to back it can be made to fit which it does, kinda sorta. Side to side it is loose. Do I want it? Would you want it? It certainly beats nothing at all. And who knows when or how I will find a lid to a 1968 Hermes 3000.

Kent did not know where we were going. Either time. The Type Space is, really, a walk from my home. About a mile and a quarter or so with minimal hills. Less than half an hour for normal people. We were lucky and found a parking spot close by the place. Spent some time and then left. Yes, he did want to go to the other place. Kent did not say “you betcha”, so he is not fully a Wisconsinite yet. Wisconsinite, at least not yet. Ace is not a walking distance from home, unless you have a lot of time on your hands or are training for a Camino, a Camino de Santiago walk that is usually 12 to 20 kilometers a day. Neither of us are training for that. So driving it was done in good conscious. (sp) Ace Typewriter is in Saint John’s area of Portland, up by where the Willamette and Columbia rivers join up. On the way there Kent got some blather about Portland.

Having resisted the temptations of the Boss (?) and the Underwood and meandered back home to find out that 28 Tigers was indeed open, starting at 4:00 we returned home to fresh reheated mac and cheese. It is a good day.

-—- MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-04-08