Paradise Had No Plugs
It's been a stressful week for me. There were some pretty big events at my office, and I had a couple of pretty long days. I have to say that by the end of the week, I was completely ready for a vacation. The last day of school for the kids was Thursday, so their vacation officially started Friday morning.
The Pirate and I carpooled on Friday, so we stopped off and did a little shopping, then got home and turned off the power. Burritos ensued, and then one of the most satisfying nights of work I've had in a long time.
Wednesday, I bought a ~1930 Royal typewriter. I got it for a song because it hadn't yet been cleaned or reconditioned. The amazing John Dolphin of Santa Cruz Business Machines showed me how to clean the mechanics of an ancient typewriter, warning me about the fact that people who didn't know what they were doing would lubricate the machines with things like sewing machine oil. The sewing machine oil just attracts dust and dirt, gumming up the works. He said that the right thing to do was to take a thin piece of metal and just jiggle it around in the crevices where the keys come up to strike the paper, then shoot it with compressed air.
Butter knives were too wide to fit into the crevices, plastic might break in the crevice and be impossible to get out. I tried a thick tapestry needle, but it ended up being slightly too thick. This is where the embarrassing packrat tendencies of the Co-Prosperity Sphere play into our favor. We had an old tape measure that was stuck. 33 inches (not even a full yard) of tape stuck out and would neither pull out more nor go back in. And yet, we couldn't bring ourselves to throw it out.
The Pirate took tin snips and cut a 1/2 inch thick, 4-inch long strip off it. I then took the tin snips and cut one corner off, making a sharp end. It worked perfectly, dislodging some of the dust and oil that had gotten itself in there over the years. The next step is seeing exactly what we need to wire this manual keyboard to an electronic one. More as things develop!
Saturday was equally productive. Yard work by the ton, shopping, and haircuts. But mostly, emotional and mental relaxation. Once again, the electricity goes off, and all of my tension and stress magically melt away. The lack of buzz and hum mean that there's nothing tugging at the edges of my awareness. I just thought of something. My father-in-law has Parkinson's, and has been steadily losing weight for some time. He says that when your muscles are contracting constantly 24/7, it burns a lot of calories. I think the same thing can be said when something in your environment is buzzing or humming 24/7. There's always some part of your attention caught by that noise, and I think that the more you fracture your attention, the more stress you have.
It's Saturday night, and I feel like I've been on vacation for a week!
This week's tip: if you do choose to turn your electricity off, and you remember to put plastic bags of water into your freezer, then transfer them to your fridge - use the heavy-duty freezer bags. We're 4/4 for thin freezer bag failure, and bailing out your fridge isn't fun.
The Pirate and I carpooled on Friday, so we stopped off and did a little shopping, then got home and turned off the power. Burritos ensued, and then one of the most satisfying nights of work I've had in a long time.
Wednesday, I bought a ~1930 Royal typewriter. I got it for a song because it hadn't yet been cleaned or reconditioned. The amazing John Dolphin of Santa Cruz Business Machines showed me how to clean the mechanics of an ancient typewriter, warning me about the fact that people who didn't know what they were doing would lubricate the machines with things like sewing machine oil. The sewing machine oil just attracts dust and dirt, gumming up the works. He said that the right thing to do was to take a thin piece of metal and just jiggle it around in the crevices where the keys come up to strike the paper, then shoot it with compressed air.
Butter knives were too wide to fit into the crevices, plastic might break in the crevice and be impossible to get out. I tried a thick tapestry needle, but it ended up being slightly too thick. This is where the embarrassing packrat tendencies of the Co-Prosperity Sphere play into our favor. We had an old tape measure that was stuck. 33 inches (not even a full yard) of tape stuck out and would neither pull out more nor go back in. And yet, we couldn't bring ourselves to throw it out.
The Pirate took tin snips and cut a 1/2 inch thick, 4-inch long strip off it. I then took the tin snips and cut one corner off, making a sharp end. It worked perfectly, dislodging some of the dust and oil that had gotten itself in there over the years. The next step is seeing exactly what we need to wire this manual keyboard to an electronic one. More as things develop!
Saturday was equally productive. Yard work by the ton, shopping, and haircuts. But mostly, emotional and mental relaxation. Once again, the electricity goes off, and all of my tension and stress magically melt away. The lack of buzz and hum mean that there's nothing tugging at the edges of my awareness. I just thought of something. My father-in-law has Parkinson's, and has been steadily losing weight for some time. He says that when your muscles are contracting constantly 24/7, it burns a lot of calories. I think the same thing can be said when something in your environment is buzzing or humming 24/7. There's always some part of your attention caught by that noise, and I think that the more you fracture your attention, the more stress you have.
It's Saturday night, and I feel like I've been on vacation for a week!
This week's tip: if you do choose to turn your electricity off, and you remember to put plastic bags of water into your freezer, then transfer them to your fridge - use the heavy-duty freezer bags. We're 4/4 for thin freezer bag failure, and bailing out your fridge isn't fun.
posted by Aoibheall | 9:56 PM
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