The week of no easy answers

I’ve spent this long week struggling with logistical problems embedded in other logistical problems. To skip to the end, my beloved 2002 Forester is no longer drivable due to the condition that eventually slays all noble Subarus — a failed head gasket.

Apparently it’s been on the verge of failure for quite some time, as I struggled with coolant-related problems on a long trip I took last summer. We thought the problem was something else, but now we know the truth.

Fortunately, the day before I drove my 2002 to my mechanic’s garage he had purchased a 2011 or 2012 (I forget which) Forester from another customer after its engine failed. It’s exactly the model I was looking for, I love the color (pale teal), and the price is right.

Meet Kinga Forester! My former/current Forester, Clayton, is in the background.

What I don’t know is when my new old car will be ready. I’m hitching rides to and from work (thank you, Rick), wondering how I will get to my PT appointments, and doing errands like grocery shopping only when they dovetail with the schedules of others (again — thank you, Rick). The situation has added a level of complexity to my everyday tasks in a way I could not have imagined.

The next puzzle will be how, exactly, I will pick up my new car when it is ready for me. I don’t exactly live in a Lyft zone, as the Lyft app informed me when I searched for a way to get my dog to his vet appointment on Friday morning (thank you, Carol).

On top of that, although a new well was dug for my house last Tuesday and the electrical work for it was prepared on Thursday, the well itself won’t actually be connected to the house until sometime this week. I’ve gone to a friend’s house a couple of times to wash my hair (thank you, Sheila) and to another friend’s house several times to do my laundry (thanks again, Carol).

The same level of complexity has been present in my tasks at work, too. A particular question might seem easy, but the most appropriate answer depends on a lot of context. At one point I needed to get some money from one of my bank accounts to a friend (for whom I was raising the money), and I could think of at least four ways to make the transfer. When the time came, I just walked into the bank, told the teller what I wanted to do, and let her pick the procedure.

A few days ago, though, I discovered a free app that is literally making a game out of keeping me organized and on task. (There are paid versions, but how much fun would that be?)

You make your to-do lists, your habit lists, and your daily task lists, and you get little boosts when you do them. And sometimes you get an egg to hatch, a sword, a potion, or a food drop. So far it’s a fun way to be accountable to myself. I’m getting my chores done and I have a Skeleton Dragon, a Base Dragon, and a Cotton Candy Wolf.

Princess Peachtree hasn’t shown any growth but she doesn’t seem to be dying. Maybe I should add “water the Princess” to one of my to-do lists.

When I’m not doing my chores, I’m trying to read and to catch up on putting entries into my reading journal. Over the past few weeks, I read the entire “Ramona” series by Beverly Cleary. During this process I realized that I had only read one of the books as a child. So it’s more of a new read than a re-read. I had thought it would be something of a tomboy read, but I was surprised to find a lot of passages that had to do with more autistic/sensory processing issues. Ramona is texture-averse to certain foods, particularly slimy ones, and she often self-regulates with physical actions such as smashing bricks on the sidewalk, or squeezing all the toothpaste out of a tube. There’s so much reality in these books, and the new illustrations help the books to keep up with the times. And now I have eight more book entries to create for my reading journal. There is also a lovely large book called The Art of Ramona Quimby that I’m working though. So that will be nine books about Ramona Q, one of my favorite fictional characters.

If you have any suggestions for my Tomboy Bookshelf, let me know!

No new typewriters were acquired this week. But I’ve been working on the logistics of picking up a 1934 Royal from a small town in West Virginia. Stay tuned…

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Knitwise, the Stripe Scarf is now at 42 inches long and I’m more than halfway through a grey stripe. I have just 12 grams left of the grey yarn, though. When I have finished this stripe I’ll weigh the remainder again and do a little math to help me see whether or not I will have enough yarn for another grey stripe. (I have 36 grams left of the black yarn, so no worries there.)

I don’t think that I’ve done any work on the other two current projects, though I’m sure you can understand why. We’re heading for a chilly week, so it will be good to concentrate on this one and get it to my son before he gets too cold.

You made me say under where?

At this point it should come to no one’s surprise that I have added another typewriter to my collection. And no one should be sitting down to hear the news that I decided to create a set of Google Sheets to inventory my typewriters and give myself a space to record their condition and any maintenance or repair work that I do on them.

Despite the fact that my price range for new old typewriters is in the $0-20 range, I have come across a lot of potential acquisitions in the last month. The easiest ones to get for $20 are the ones which have been posted on Facebook Marketplace for a few weeks at $50-75. When I make contact with the seller, both of us are happy with the results.

The new addition is an Underwood Model 11 from late 1950. It types perfectly. (See below for proof.)

I don’t know how much it weighs, but I suspected that it wasn’t a lightweight when the seller carried it to my car himself. He threw in a new universal typewriter ribbon and a copy of College Typewriting: Intensive Course, 4th edition, 1948, to sweeten the deal. How could I resist?

As I set up my typewriter-collection spreadsheets, it occurred to me to check on each typewriter so I knew what its actual condition was. I was surprised to discover that the Smith Corona Galaxie from 1959 has an alignment problem between capital letters and lower-case letters. The capital letters strike on the ribbons, but when I type lower-case letters only the tops of the letters are visible. As I learn more about typewriter repair (be patient; I’m only on page 14 of a 464-page manual) I may find that this is a simple adjustment to make with literally the turn of a screw. Then again, I may not (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Two typewriters in my collection reside in the student work room across the hallway from my office, and I should be able to test them tomorrow.

The second line is a short story of my father’s; I don’t know its source. I used to tell it to my littles when they wanted a bedtime story and I was exhausted.

I am so delighted with the new Underwood that I forget that not everyone shares my joy. When I brought the latest machine into the house and set it on the dining room table, Youngest started to comment. Their first two words were, “How many—” and then for some reason they didn’t finish their sentence.

In other news, the Forester may or may not be on its last legs; we’ll see what my mechanic has to say about that tomorrow morning, knowing that we were hoping to make a long trip in the near future.

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Knitwise, I’ve made some good progress on the Stripe Scarf. One morning last week I got to work early and wove in more than a dozen ends, keeping the initial tail and the four or so most recent ends so that I would still know at which end I should be starting the next stripe. It felt good to literally “tie off loose ends” so I had a cleaner project on my lap.

I’m now in the 10th stripe and starting to wonder how long the scarf will ultimately be. At almost 38 inches it looks like halfway, but it’s hard to tell how much yardage I still have left in each skein of yarn. After I finish this stripe I will weigh the project and the yarn, then do some math that will allow me to make reasonable estimates.

I put only a few more rows on the Skinny Shawl this week. It’s a good project to pick up when Eldest is using my phone after I get home from work to do his share of the puzzle games that we like to do together.

Royal Canadian

The typewriter collection has grown to ten specimens, not counting what might be lurking in the basement, and it’s time to learn more about how to repair and maintain the various typewriters. I’ll start with the one that will be offered for use during the Creative Writing Festival that takes place the week after Thanksgiving. Just getting that one model ready for a full day’s use should be enough of a project for now.

The latest acquisition is another Royal HHE, manufactured at the end of the production year in 1955. That may have been in early December so that everyone was off for the holidays, so an exact date of manufacture may be impossible to pin down. However, rough estimates of typewriter “birthdays” are possible because serial numbers were typically noted on January 1, July 1, and December 1.

Seller’s photo (with stuck keys).

This particular typewriter was manufactured in Canada, and that’s almost all that I know about it. Unfortunately, after I moved the carriage all the way to the left so that I could locate the serial number, I was unable to get it to return to the right. Oh, dear, it looks like I shall have to learn more about typewriters in order to fix that. Whatever shall I do?

Buyer’s photo (harsh interior lighting).

In other news, Princess has been slowly growing along (though she doesn’t look much taller this week). My standards for horticulture are not particularly high; I’m looking for benchmarks like “didn’t turn black and shrivel up.” Still, perhaps she could use a bit more exposure to sunlight now that Wisconsin has entered the Lean Light Months.

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Knitwise, I have continued to work on the Stripe Scarf, which now measures over 34 inches long, and the Very Narrow Shawl.

It’s been a busy weekend and now it’s a late night — so here is a short post, with hopes that next week’s will be longer and feature more photos.