Mikey Likes

Falling to Prey

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A Dutch Oven, three (more) Fountain Pens, they have lured me and I fell prey to their charms. Like the Sirens that bade Odysseus (or Ulysses if you are Latin) to join them. He was tied to a mast so he could hear but not fall prey to their sweet songs.

I fell prey to a Kickstater lure because it has a … reversible? … lid on it. Flip it over and you have a grill for backing on. You can see it here.

I fell prey to Fountain Pens because, well, they’re nice. And I tried a couple of them here at home with all the other pens. And one that was $5 and it works. I’m trying three of the Jetpens Top Five Fountain Pens for Beginners. We shall see how they flow and all that kind of stuff one looks for in a pen. In contrast, I like a refillable ben point pen that takes to the paper and flows. Which I have. But what will I like from Fountain Pens? They arrive in a week or so. I get to try them out.

At least with books, there is Project Gutenberg. Thousands of things to gluttony be a book slut over. All for free. When I’ve got an urge to get something I think I will go with Project Gutenberg. Not that I have a desire for more books. I have a TBR pile from the library.

New from 1969 Typewriter

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At first glance, it looks like a Hermes 3000. Like my favorite typewriter. But the platen knobs are mismatched, one black, one brown. Where did the 1 key and the 0 keys go to? The comma and period keys have their shifted states producing? and ¿ for Spanish. At the right-hand part of the keybank there are keys for a tilde, cedilla, grave and acute accent characters and more. This is not an American typewriter.

This is my new 1969 typewriter. I’ll refer to it as an International Hermes 3000. It has most of the combinations to make Spanish, French, and German alphabets. The upside down ¡ exclamation mark is not there. And the quotation marks for French is missing. I guess they will have to live with quote ‘ and double quote ” characters.

It is mine now. Now I have some typing to get used to the new layout.

What's avaailble on my Hermes International 3000

A Month of Gas

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“Five gallons sound right?” asked the guy at the gas I station. “Yep,” I replied. The last time I filled the car was in August. August 28! While we were in Salem. And we went back to Salem again to visit my mother-in-law. We have 276 miles, using 5.54 gallons, and that was it for September.

We are enjoying our new retired lives.

And you know, I kinda miss the effects of Covid. We did have a lot of driving to to in April through July. With people not being out to drive. it was easier. Left hand turn across a busy street? No traffic to wait on wile I looked to the right, to the left, to the right, and go. Unlike the old days when I would repeat the right, left, right and so on for enough time that I’d consider turning right and going a different route.