My Typed Page

Random thoughts today.
I noted that I use the word “perhaps” quite a bit. Am I unsure, in doubt? The word “veggie” arrrghh! Vegetables are deserving of more respect than “veggie” it sounds so diminutive. Or maybe I should blame my history professor who pointed out how there are so many feminine names that are diminutive versions of male names. “we know it because …” Vegetables and women deserve more than names that have been made small with -ee, -ie , -y ending of names.

What tea makes for a nice strong black brew? Nice, in my world, in this instance, is a tea that brews up dark almost coffee-like. Know some?

Tomato soup, we all have and some, perhaps a lot of it. Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, oh yes!, I wanted some today. We did not have any. We had none in boxes or cans. So I decided to make some. A bit of, yes we had what was needed, onions, carrots, celery, olive oil, time. Yes, time to make it is important in the list of ingredients. As I was making it I thought of people who, for them, it is easy to throw together a soup. Unless you do not cook. Them you no longer have the time. It becomes a thing you give up, the time. But if you are there, at a stove next to a refrigerator or pantry, it is so easy to grab what you have and put them together. While you are making whatever. Not that I was. I wanted some soup. We did not have any. I was not going to go to a store to buy a box or can of soup, No, So I took the time, reflecting on what I could write or type about today. Spices I also winged it today, salt, pepper, onion salt, (I decided against Aleppo pepper, it is a default thing to add to whatever, and paprika that might have been good) some sugar, butter, a generous tablespoon of “Better Than Bullion” vegetable base (I also decided against Hacho Miso, maybe next time) a few sprinkles of “Mushroom and Company Multipurpose Umani Seasoning Blend” from Trader Joe’s. All of that stuff and two cans of diced tomatoes. Let it all cook together for a while. Blend it up so it was mostly all of that consistency you are familiar with. And I had it. Tomato soup. Lunch. For another meal I think, I think – do not know yet – I will add some rice. Tomato-rice soup. Yes, I think so.

I and me had a question. What was it?
One would think that lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, pondering a question, well you would remember the question. Curiosity: how fast do you type to create a page for a One Typed Page page? It seems it takes me longer than I thought. When I write, in a composition book, it takes me abought about 10 to 15 minutes. Nine minutes if I have an idea and I just write it down. But, as they say, it is not the writing it is the rewriting that creates the finished product. The time does not matter, People take freeways to save time, ahhhwha, I am going down a rabbit hole here. Ignore this paragraph. And forget about the time. You will use it up just the same.

—— MichaelRpdx :: rknm/48

Where there is doubt, there is freedom.
– Latin Saying

Anonymous, or someone with a similar name, said that. Freedom from doubt? This is going to take some thinking. Some reflection. Some meditation. Fortunately, I have the time to do all of those things.

I have seen doubt bringing wisdom. As you doubt something, as you are unsure of what you believe or assert something. You examine the belief. But freedom? I decided to look up the definition, in The Free Dictionary, of course, nothing seems to really fit. Perhaps the “freedom from want”? Or perhaps “the condition of not being bound by established conventions or rules.” Or perhaps I should try looking up doubt? Perhaps the idioms? No those don’t seem to fit.

It could be, well, there are a lot of “perhaps” used here, so on to other things here. Until I ruminate on it for a while.

My wife and I did not drink coffee that I had roasted. We went out to a new place for coffee. It is called “Keeper” and it is 4 ½ blocks from our house. Putting it at a tie for the third and fourth places away from us. I am talking distance here. It is tied for the third and fourth places in terms of distance. We have a lot of places close to us around here. Right up at the corner is “Coffee Beer Me”, a place owned by a recovering Morman woman. In the downhill direction is the newest incarnation of “Café Zamora”, owned by a Guatemalan guy. I think it is the third or fourth place in the same place, We are hoping they will hang on there. Now, by the way, both of these places are north of us. Coffee Beer Me is northeast, Cafié Zamora is northwest. Next up is “Cafe Rowan”, to the southwest. It is also a cafe, as in food place. A delicious place for breakfast or lunch. And finely, to the southeast, we have Keeper. With hand-pies and other home-baked delights, they are the most recent place, and they provide us with a coffee place to go, no matter where you are heading to. You will pass a coffee place.

I need to tell you also: Coffee Beer Me is a vegan house. Café Zamora has tamales, hand made by the owners. Yeah, we have it made in terms of choice.

Yes, we have no doubt about coffee, we have lots of great choices. Of course, we have the home-brewed, freshly roasted coffee.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48

We all, or so I hope, learned colors as we grew up. Red, Yellow, Blue as our first ones. Then we added the secondary colors, Green, Orange, and Purple. Then, well then, it gets kinda of murky. It is not a sure thing for people to know or agree on the other colors. I always had a problem with Magenta. A printer knew Magenta. Painters knew it also. But then you have tints. How many whites are there? Is that Yellow a sunshine yellow or a mustard yellow? As I get inks for my fountain pens, can you imagine it? A place on the east coast has around 700 types to choose from. As I flip back through a book, my Morning Pages, I see lots of colors. Sometimes there are four different ones in a two page spread. It is fun, and instructive, to switch pens in mid page. One of my favorite colors is called “Weathered Brick”. But to describe it, whell that is another whole problem. If you have a brick building around with aged red bricks you have got the idea of it. This is one huge reason to use a fountain pen; the colors available. And it kinda, sorta, partially, justifies having a stable of pens. You get the colors and then you get different colors and there you are, trying to match a color to a person you are writing. There are years ahead to explore this matching colors to moods and people.

Once I work out the basic colors I can move on to inks that show different colors depending on the light, its strength, its angle, the paper it is on. There are lots of things to explore.

I read today, it was from … hmm I seem to be hallucinating. Whoever it is or was sat down and had trouble coming up with thigns to say, a half page later he seemed to be doing fine. DATO – your problem was probably a cold camera. Keep it inside your jacket until you are ready to use it. I believe, I think, that will keep your film working just fine.

Ever sign a document in front of a notary public? They do appreciate a fine fountain pen. Even if they are from China, cost less than $10, and works great. It is great to be patient. Pay a bunch and your privacy to Amazon have it tomorrow. Pay a little wait a couple of weeks and you have it from China. But that is for people who want something that works, not that the ones from the higher priced one do not, they do, but for a basic, functional pen. My oh my! It enables you to have a bunch that (ahem) allows you to have extra money for inks. About the nortary public question, before my distraction, we signed today. I retired on September 15, 2017. Today we signed off on the pension, I delayed it to get a bit more, now we have a bit more. Not much, but as my wife would say “a little bit never hurts” We signed wth Oxford Blue, a deep blue. Very pretty, a keeper I think.

— MichaelRpdx :: rknm/48

It has been a shit week. I do not want to tell you about what a shit week it has been. You, I hope, do not want to hear about what a shit week it has been. You would, I hope, want to read about anything else. Now, if I could just get the thoughts of what a shit week it as been out of my brain, give thoughts room for other things to think about, that would be good, or at least passable. But nooooo, not yet it isn’t. Not yet at all. I am hoping to get something better to think about by thinking happy thoughts. Like World War II. That is something happier than my shit week. I am bringing it to mind by watching FOYLE’S WAR.

FOYLE’S WAR is a British drama, a mystery drama, set in Hastings Sussex. That would be on the south coast of the country. Close to where France was busy being run over by the Nazis and every boat they could muster ferry ferried over men to keep them from being killed or captured. It was a setting for the second episode. Now watching that was a dream boat of an evening compared to my shit week. We plan to watch more tonight. I expect to cheer up even more. Thanks to the drama.

Have I told you about my week? No? Good.

I am going to work on my night by watching some British drama. They do good stuff. Especially FOYLE’S WAR, I do not have their problems. They have some really, actual, shit weeks. We collectively do not have shit weeks. At least not yet.

~~ MichaelRpdx :: rknm/48

“Just one.” That is what I said to my wife. Just one. It was about the 1958 show “Peter Gunn”, perhaps you don’t remember the show, But, I am sure, you remember the theme song. How do you convey it on a typewritten page? I’m going to listen to it. Which version?

The original, from the soundtrack of the original? From the Qatar Philharmonic, starting with the drummer and tuba player getting us through the intro and then the rest of the brass walking onto the * stage to join them on the stage? (no redundancy here…) The Blues Brothers, lots of gruff sound there. Or Sarah Vaughn – yes there can be vocals in the piece and they are great also. Or more rock with Poison Ivy or The Venture. Yeah, if you have trouble remembering it there are plenty of choices to listen to, which I did because, well “just one.”

I had never seen Peter Gunn as a kid. It originally aired from 1958 through 1961. The plot lines were very, and I do mean very, simple. They do seem to get a bit more complex. Not by much. I said “just one” today. I was chilled. It seemed to be something to do. So we watched. And another and another and even more. Kinda like listening to the theme song. It just seemed to hook us in.

If you have a Amazon credit card, they are free to you. Enjoy.

By the way, I had earlier talked about Bordertown, a serial about a Finnish town close to Russia. We watched it to the end. And we are happy with it. A couple of low spots in it. But all in all it was satisfying with a great conclusion. Netflix.

LATIN and CURSIVE WRITING

I have asked the Facebook crowd about these subjects. Amazing responses. Does your school require cursive writing? It seems that it no longer taught. Well, not everywhere. And for people who did have it there was a large crowd that will admit to to having terrible writing. (ahem, I am working on mine. Writing with a mix of block and cursive letters.) Over 100 people have responded to that query. In the Latin world, just asked a day or two ago, 45 people have replied. It seems a majority of them did have Latin taught. Some people talking about three years in high school. A couple of them saying it was a great thing to have learned.

I am working on both subjects. Wish me luck.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48

I was scandalized. There she was, writing in her copy of the Riverside Shakespeare, Complete Edition. They were giant tomes. It had it all and she was writing in it. One did not do such a thing. Or so I thought. One writes outside of their books. Never in them. I had not heard of annotation in books. I still never did. Books are precious. Yet there she was, making notes about what she thought of the text. Since that time I have learned of people annotations in their books. Bring it to life. Looking at the works of other people to see what they thought of a book. Or even of what they thought of a book when they read it at an earlier time in life. I am now annotating a book I am reading. Underlines, questions, observations are all going into it. I use a pencil. It seems like one of the best uses of a pencil I have. Well, sketching is great too. Yes, very nice.

A few years ago I started to keep my Morning Journals. I did that with a pen. I could not use a pencil, stopping to sharpen it every so often, no I needed a pen. I spent some looking around. Wirecutter.com had a recommendation, a Jetstream pen. It was recommended by people who use a lot of pens and had their opinions about what makes a great pen. This one was “the best”, And even better they came with Uni-Ball refills. They are cheap. When I run out of ink, which I have done a lot of, I pop it out and a new one in and we are off to scribble more again. It seems I have purchased these things 16 times in packages from 5 to 12 refills. Gol darn, I have written more with these pens, the Jetstreams, more than any other pens out there. Love them.

That is to say, I loved them until I got hooked on fountain pens. People seem to be even more obsessed than I was. They are looking at pens in the three digit price range. OK, there are pens that cost a four digit amount. And inks! More on them in a minute, but the thing that gets to me about this group is they don’t talk about using their pens. In fairness, there are some people who use them for drawing and some that write beautiful things in beautiful script. But they are not talked about the way people talk about their pens. I have settled on a line that costs under ten dollars apiece. And these I can refill, well I have refilled with ink from a bottle. And this will keep me going for awhile, a long while. And I have to admit that writing with a fountain pen is a beautiful experience. So beautiful.

That last comment is a lot like using a typewriter. It is grand to write with one of these things, Even when I do not know what I am writing or why I am writing. I sit with my Royal or Hermes and I write and it is good.

More on this later. I need to think about this some more. But the first thoughts are out. I think about them some more and refine my thoughts.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm/48

If you have access to YouTube, mosey on over, look up Joe Van Cleve and watch his recent bit on papers to type on. He goes through his history with them and settles in a favorite. Joe also, in my views, he trys to blog the thing and get it to have viewers to comment. Well, hmmm, as I type that it seems wrong. He has his blog on YouTube (not like the Vlog Brothers but in the same way of …) that is a separately highlighted (?) titled bunch of videos. In all of them he encourages people to comment. This place would be a great place for our collective impressions about paper to type on to show up. A place to gather it up to find. Yes, just search for him by name, if you have not done so yet. There is a lot of postings on typewriters there.

Yesterday I had a procedure that had been scheduled for April. They seemed to be hot on getting all of the stuff we had set for 2020 run through. Even though I am covered by Kaiser they had me go to OHSU. They paid out some pretty pennies for that. The nurse that did it was fine and we chatted about different thing that we could during my non-sedated state for it. As she was walking me out I asked about her Covid vaccine status. She had gotten hers earlier that week. It seems they, OHSU, has already administered 6,000 shots. So Yay! they seem to be well on their way. I had to be Covid tested before the visit, because I spent the time without a mask and the nurse standing next to me. Between my negative status and her vaccinated start, we were OK.

I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year’s Eve celebration tonight. We are planning on another Happy time together, alone together. There have not been any fireworks yet – so maybe we’ll be lucky. Side note, my wife received an email from a old friend, who reported that there are no available beds in Germany. They said there were no beds available for “Covid patients and not for drunks and fireworks.”

This typing was interrupted by a call from Kaiser. I get to go back for another, well a repeat, and we chatted a bit. It seems they have dome some 2,000 doctors and are asking them to vaccinate their patents Well, if I understood her. I do understand they are training everyone on administering the vaccine. Maybe we will have enough to do it all.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm

“Oh, God. I need to call them again.” My wife thought that thought or those thought every few weeks. The price of getting a Sunday New York Times delivered went back to its normal, way too high for us, price. She could call them. Say she was cancelling it. Explain the cost was too much. Be offered a “Special deal”, Take them up on it. Get a few weeks. See the price had gone up again. Repeat the process again. Until they time came that she did not want to bother with calling them and go through the process again. So she cancelled again. This time for good. No special would work this time. She cancelled.

In mid December I recalled her fondness for reading obituaries. I do not understand it or them. But she likes to read obits. I also remembered that the New York Times, Sunday edition, would publish their magazine, the last one of the year, filled with obits for all or at least a few special obits for the year. I could, I thought, pick up a Sunday New York Times and she could enjoy the obits. I, for once, thought about enjoying an obit or two. There were some untimely deaths this last year. It would be good to read what was remembered this year.

Today, the last Sunday of the year, I got up. It was twilight, dawn twilight, a favorite time of day. It was nearly 40 degrees, plenty comfortable. I thought it would be another great day for a walk. And I would get my daily walk done. So I did.

Hopefully the Sunday New York Times does the magazine of obituaries the first Sunday of a year to celebrate the deaths of the last year. They certainly were not in today’s issue. It was a good walk. Not quite two miles long and, Surprise!, I averaged 3.5 miles per hour. Which, for me, is a very fast pace. Now to maintain the pace while extending my distance. I did write about that a while ago, putting, myself on the hook. Making a promise in public. It is not something one should do. Do it first. Then talk about it later. I typically do things that way. It puts more pressure on myself to do “it”,

I will be out on the road next Sunday. On my way to Safeway. Hopefully — they will have it with the special edition of the magazine in the paper. Which, as I think about it, is the way they do it. Perhaps I was lying to myself. I needed a walk.

And I needed it.

— MichaelRpdx :: rkmm