Back to the Office Supply Store

Recent events have proved that it’s useless to try to keep up with current events, so I hope that you’ll forgive me for not trying to do so. I’m sure that someone will text me if time is of the essence.

This week I took delivery of a new old typewriter: a Sears Achiever that was the former typewriter of the former husband of a friend of my mother. (They’re still friends.) This is kind of how it can go after people find out that you’re willing to give these little machines a home. Things just show up, and you accept them.

I’ll clean it up and test it out, then see if it needs any repairs or maintenance. At that point, I can help it find its forever home where it can produce poems or novels or recipes or address labels. And don’t worry about the Sears brand — this little guy is a Japanese-manufactured Brother typewriter with a Sears label so it could be sold in the Sears “Wish Book” catalog from 1977 to 1984. If it looks vaguely familiar to you, that might be why. I must admit that, during that timespan, if I looked through the Wish Book it wasn’t for typewriters.

What I usually do by way of testing is to roll in a piece of paper and type the uppercase alphabet (and special characters), then the lowercase alphabet (and special characters). That will show me if any keys are sticking and let me know if the ribbon is in good condition. I also look for the serial number, add it to my records, and look it up in the Typewriter Serial Number Database (yes, there is such a thing) to find out its approximate date of manufacture.

The typewriter-collecting community is full of wonderful and generous people, but sometimes it’s sad to find out how much people don’t know. Many, many times they simply don’t understand how to search for a specific number (their typewriter’s serial number) within a range of numbers. Their minds have become accustomed to a digital world in which you simply type in the number and receive the manufacturing information and anything else you might possibly have wanted to know about the machine.

Last week I watched a lovely YouTube video in which the content creator wordlessly disassembled a Smith-Corona Sterling very similar to one I recently acquired. The whole demonstration was then accessible to collectors of any language. He pointed at specific screws before he removed them from the machine, then he let the camera linger on each different type of screw for a couple of seconds so we would be able to remember which screw went where, when we tried to put our own machines back together again.

I found another video from the same person, in which he did the initial typing test of the same typewriter. In the comments to the video, he mentioned that he had gotten a typewriter eraser with the typewriter; he had not known that such a thing existed. #facepalm

Historical artifact!

If I had known that these would sell for $10 apiece on eBay someday, I would have bought and saved cartons of them back in the day. Of course, back then there was not an Internet, let alone an eBay or much of a market for typewriters. Time to resume my work on the Delorean, I suppose….

“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads! However, we will be looking for a well-stocked office supply store.”
“You mean like Staples, Doc?”
“Of course they’ll have staples, Marty! What kind of an office supply store would they be if they didn’t have staples? But we’ll be looking for… typewriter erasers!”
“That’s heavy, Doc.”
“No, Marty, but the typewriters are.”

If I’m now classified as old because I need to explain the things that were around when I was growing up… well, I’m definitely old.

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In other news, I have been doing research this week for both of my writing projects. Right now I’m focusing on “Marginal Mystery,” looking at the copies of Development of Mathematics (second edition, 1945) held by other university libraries to see if other readers were as compelled to write back to the author in the margins as the readers of UW-Whitewater have been.

This is the first phase of checking many, many copies for their possible annotations. So the most important thing is to get in the habit of looking at the books closely and being consistent with keeping my own records of any annotations. (I did warn you last week that this work would not be particularly exciting.)

My research for “Black Walnut” included driving through the locations I use in my story, while driving to and from my site for research for “Marginal Mystery.”

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Knitwise, I’m still cranking away on the owl wrist warmers. Photos to come….

Progression and regression

My writing projects have recently been able to receive more of my attention. (Maybe that’s because I haven’t acquired any new old typewriters in the past week.) For the Marginal Mystery project I have been gathering data on Math Department personnel and creating a list of math courses that my campus has offered since 1950. None of this may be of interest to normal people, so let’s make a deal: if you don’t ask me about it, I promise not to go on and on about it. (Apologies to current faculty member Wesley Hough, whose ear I bent considerably last Friday afternoon.)

For the Black Walnut project, I listened to a different CD of old-time bluegrass music, requested a copy of a recently published book on a proposed reforestation of the eastern United States, and collected two black walnuts that I plan to plant in the future. (I guess this isn’t particularly exciting, either.)

Did I mention the weather? There haven’t been any Actual Tornados in my neck o’ the woods but we have had some spectacular skies. When I saw this sunset last Monday night I just had to run outside with my phone and take photos and shoot videos. I’ve never seen anything like it.

This afternoon, though, we had thunderstorms popping up from the east — complete with a lot of small hail. We couldn’t see it until after it had fallen and bounced on the lawn, so when Eldest and I stared at it, it looked for all the world as if it was hatching from all over the yard. I should have taken a video.

Wishing clear skies to all, especially everyone in Oshkosh for the EAA fly-in.

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During the last week I have been making more frequent progress on The Impossible Read. At the same time, I have been adding more books and movies to the list. Take that, progress!

I’m currently on page 373 of The Mists of Avalon. Which would seem like a lot, since there are 876 pages. However, “Book Two: The High Queen” doesn’t conclude until page 449. And so much is happening in these pages that I need to pay close attention. I’m so glad that I read Once and Future King first, so that I have an idea of the ground this book has to cover. I didn’t enjoy it at first, but now that I have gotten into it I like it more and more.

A couple of days ago I suddenly recalled the existence of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, which is not only a novel but the subject of several movies. I have added the text to my reading list, as well as the 1949 film starring Bing Crosby and the 1995 film starring Michael York. It’s a sneaky way of incorporating some time travel into the big reading list; I’m not sure when I’ll encounter it again.

Also in the last week, I received notices from many quarters of the recent publication of The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman. A story about the aftermath of the Round Table following Arthur’s death? Perfect timing! Add it to the list. But since it’s just been published in hardcover, I may need to snag my copy from the library.

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Knitwise, I have cast on for the first of a pair of owl-themed wrist warmers. I am now to the point where I will need to switch to US8 needles, of which I always seem to have none.

Impressive, I know. But just you wait! Eventually there will be cabling, textured stitches, and sewn-on eyes. And mattress-stitch side seaming. And then…I’ll have to cast on for the second one, whoose pattern is in a mirror image.

Everything old

This week a friend and I went to a showing of a 124-year-old house. We had the best time going through every room, seeing what remained from the original build, wondering what could be kept and what used to be there, and thinking about how the whole place could be restored to glory. Alas, it wasn’t the right time for us to put in a bid on the property, but the experience led me to doing a bit of research on the skills and tools that would be necessary to restore such a house. So, for now, we’ll work on that.

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This weekend I added another mid-century Smith-Corona to my collection. The seller had another typewriter that she (and her granddaughter) loved to type on, and this one was a bit extra. So, to a good home it needed to go — which it has now done.

I think this vintage desk needs a vintage office chair.

I’ll try to do my free-typing with this machine for a while to help me figure out what makes it tick and what it needs from me. Unfortunately, its T, G, and N keys tend to stick and those type bars need to be manually pulled back down before I can type the next letter. I suspect that there’s just a lot of grease and dust involved and that everything will need to be cleaned out.

But the carriage return works! Sometimes it’s a matter of what failings you’re willing and able to tolerate.

With regard to the Impossible Read, I am now on page 274 of The Mists of Avalon. I’m now digging into the stories behind the story and I look forward to each stretch of time when I can curl up (sometimes literally) with the book.

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Knitwise, I completed the knitting portion of the current Secret Knitting Project. I’ll give all the pieces a little photo shoot before and after I wash and dry them; the pieces are different colors, and I want to be careful that they don’t bleed onto each other or anything else. This may help a couple of the pieces, which were made from a rather stiffer yarn than the others, soften up. I have my fingers crossed that everything will shrink at about the same rate.

After the “laundry” step of the project comes the final step: assembly. Here’s where I will need a good block of time in which to concentrate, test, experiment, and think things through before doing anything I can’t [easily] undo.

At this point, there is no new deadline for the finished project. If I can do the washing and drying this week, though, I’ll be more prepared for whenever a new deadline is established. When that might be is completely beyond my control, since this is a gift tied to an event I’m not helping to plan.

But this means that I can start Actual Knitting on a new project, and I think that I’ve found one.

Last weekend while I was out of the house on an errand, SecondSon stopped by with a couple of belated birthday gifts. One is a beautiful lined, hardbound journal that I will probably start writing in next week. He had no idea that I was so close to filling up my current journal; the universe must have whispered something in his ear. Ironically, I have been actively searching for the Next Journal for the last couple of weeks, and I have rejected everything that I came across.

The second gift is a yarn bowl hand-turned, carved, and polished from a glorious chunk of butternut wood. I have no idea where he found it, but it’s amazing. When you see it, you want to stroke it and cuddle it.

This photo washes out the colors.

Of course, now that I have such a lovely accessory to use, the yarn that goes inside it must be worthy. This isn’t a vessel into which I’m going to pour Red Heart.

That’s more like it!

It is, however, a vessel in which I’m willing to pour two cakes of black Peruvian alpaca/wool blend that I snagged at Goodwill somewhat recently. And I found a pattern on Ravelry called Cozy Cables, for a set of wrist warmers that feature not only cables but owls. It’s a free pattern by Amanda Jones; check it out!

The weather here keeps swinging between beastly hot [right now] and downright dangerous [later tonight], so a 41-row flat-knitted project feels workable even if it’s using a dark alpaca blend. The only thing I seem to be lacking is a set of US 8 single-points. (Then again, I always seem to be lacking those.) Fortunately, the pattern calls for me to cast on 38 stitches on US 7s and knit K1P1 ribbing for 14 rows before switching to the larger needles. I think I might be able to handle that, especially if I knit in the air conditioning.

Dogged determination

We had a heck of a lot going on this week, and one of the most dramatic events was the transformation of our eleven-and-a-half-year-old “pup” from a shaggy, matted, overheated mess to the sleek and shivering dog that was inside all along. Due to some pre-adoption trauma from a long, long time ago — either at the vet or at the groomer; we’re not sure — we eventually developed a routine of having Monty completely sedated and receiving a full shavedown. In some years, that’s also when he received all his shots.

This year, due to a series of circumstances that were partially out of our control, he had the shavedown at a new vet office in a different town, on July 3. Our hope was that, since he would still be under some effects of the sedation drug on July 4, he would be less affected by the noises from the local backyard fireworks.

This may be the latest in the year that we’ve ever down the shavedown. I try to time it for May, but early May can be chilly here — especially if one has just shed a very heavy coat. But what usually happens is that when I call for a May appointment the vet is already scheduling for June. And this year, July 3 was the earliest appointment I could get.

We practiced for the extra distance to the vet by taking a few car trips around the country block (note to city folk: this might be anywhere from 3 to 30 miles). But in the end, if Monty is on the leash and I am carrying my purse, he knows we are Going To The Car and that The Car Is Going To The Vet. And that is very exciting!

Everything went well, everyone at the new facility was kind and helpful, and I was soon driving back home with my Inner Dog in the back seat.

I’m not sure that his panic at this year’s fireworks was much reduced, but maybe next year I can schedule the shavedown a little sooner in the summer and get him hooked up with some nice calming doggie chewables that will take the edge off.

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Over the weekend, with some muscular help from Youngest, I got the old PC desk cleaned, taken apart, carried to the car, and donated to Goodwill. Huzzah! As soon as I could, I vacuumed that corner of the Brick Room and brought in the recently acquired typewriter desk.

In this image the typewriter desk was all set up for Eldest and I to watch practice, qualifying, and race sessions for the British Grand Prix. But all I have to do if I want to type for a while — which I have been doing on most evenings — is move the computer keyboard to the left, store the mouse in a drawer, and turn off the computer monitor. Then I lower the typewriter platform (if that is what it is called) to the proper height, put a typewriter there, roll in a piece of paper, and get going.

At this point I still expect typewriters to have some computer-related qualities, such as being able to tell me what time it is or allow me to run a Google search. I’m certain that as I continue to spend more time typing, the tech habits of the last few decades will eventually fade away.

The desk still needs some attention with Murphy’s Oil Soap and some soft cloths. After I have tended to it in this manner, I’ll do a typewriter-centered photo shoot. I will also be on the hunt for an appropriately sized vintage office chair.

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Good news, everyone! I am halfway through the knitting of the final piece in the current Secret Knitting Project. The next Grand Prix isn’t for two more weeks, so I’ll need to find another occasion to crank out some stitches, finish the piece, and take the next steps towards construction.

Nothing else will be knitted until this piece is done, but it’s okay to think about it. Should I cast on for something new or finish something that has already been started?

Impossible Read update: I spent some time with The Mists of Avalon this week, finished the first section, and started the second section. I’m starting to get used to the story’s pacing and the level of detail. It’s so different from The Once and Future King. But I do think that I chose the right order in which to read them. If I did a second pass through this storyline I would probably read the Malory account first, then continue in this same order.

The Mists of Avalon is almost 900 pages long, so I’m not far enough into it to schedule the viewings of the movies I’ll watch next. But stay tuned.