Whatever Happened to the International Typewriter Appreciation Month?

Birds and Books

This tall stool is just right for typing on the Signet

P.S.
An afterthought from yesterday as we were driving back to town for our lunch is that I should have at least taken some photos of the Preserve.  The numerous deciduous trees are covered with drapes of Spanish Moss which makes them look really unique.  There are wide areas of saw grass in the marshes and along the lagoons and other bodies of water, and the general landscape along the trails is unlike that of many other places in the U.S.A.

While there, I thought who would want to see trees, grass, water, and people with binoculars?  I have a typewriter blog.  Besides, many of the plants that should be green are brown, like shown in my previous post.

Since the hurricane there was so much salt water flooding the lowlands, and no rain since, the plants are dieing (yes, Blogger spell checker states wrong spelling, but dying means to dye clothing). This is also one of the reasons we are not seeing the normal winter population of shore birds and some other birds.  The plants are not healthy so they do not produce the normal flowers and seeds.

Then, since I did some outdoors typing about our day I should have had some photos.  For our next trip I'll buy some film and post a few days after the event. I do not have a darkroom in my tiny house.  Plus the iron in the water would make it difficult to do proper processing.

As far as film, Kodak still makes Ektar professional films and even brought back Ektachorme!  Maybe Kodachrome is next.  I used some Fuji film last year to one of our trips to Merritt Island.  I did not like the results.  Then I never seemed to have liked the results of any Fuji film I've used.  Colors are way too exaggerated.
Agfa, Ilford, or Kodak are still the best.

Now for the books.
While typing and grilling the doorbell rang.  Mrs. M answered it taking possession of gifts from the postman.  Gifts I purchased.  My copy of The Manual Typewriter Repair Bible and The Olympia SM 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 Typewriter Repair Bible arrived.  These books are compiled / produce by the Right Reverend Theodore Munk.  I thought I'd use that or I could have said Activist T. Munk as he has on the books.

I briefly paged though them.  They are great resources for typewriter repair people.  I can use all the help I can find when I dig into repairing my own typewriters.  I know these will be put to good use.  If you have a typewriter hobby and like repairing typewriters I highly recommend getting a copy of which ever book you need.  He also has a book for the Olympia SG typewriters.  Here's the link to his post on the books.

Much better packaging than Amazon.  Amazon loosely packs books in big boxes and many times they arrived with minor damage. The last few I got from Amazon were not even wrapped and were smudged.

Both books.  The Manual Bible is about an inch or more thick.  The Olympia Bible is about 3/4 of an inch thick.  Both are packed with information.

Fourteen Years and 364 Days

This is really a two day typecast.  Mrs. and I spent yesterday together for one of our special days together.  I started it last night.  Got tired and quit.  Finished it today.

We are parked beside the dune to watch the ocean. I decided to take a photo looking North toward Flagler Beach

A perfect day to be on the beach.  Not many people at some areas.  Many of these areas are sparsely used in the summer also.  At about 80 to 81 degrees F and a breeze being on the beach yesterday was great.  Going into the water...probably not that great.  Then I have gone into the ocean in February already and the water is quite fine.

The ocean was quite inviting yesterday.  I was too cheap to rent a boat.  Maybe next time the water is this calm.

The greenery is not green yet even though some of the flowers are blooming.

Birds!

We stopped North of Flagler Beach to watch the ocean and some trawlers that were out. I decided to show how crowded it gets.  At least until summer when the road is really crowded.

This was my first project typewriter. It arrived with a bent frame, damaged platen, and a few other things that needed repaired.  This one was made in 1966.

This is my first Hermes 3000.  When did Hermes change from the round body typewriter that typed really nice to a square body that is not that great of a typewriter?  1966!  This one is from 1966 too.

Here is how the round body Hermes started out.

I did not get any photos at the Preserve.  Since Mrs. is handicapped and the preserve is not handicap accessible we stayed near the parking lot and the hard surfaces behind the Environmental Center and Library.  I could have taken photos of scrub palms, scrub oaks, and very tiny birds.  I use a pocket camera that is not good enough to photograph birds.  I did take my 35mm to use if I got close enough to use a 500mm lens.  Even 500mm is not long enough.  To properly photograph birds I need a good 1000mm to 1500mm f1.7 or better lens. Good lenses like that are out of my budget.  I miss working for the company where I had access to all kinds of great photography gear.

I thought about taking some photos in Flagler Beach and of the damage to the dunes.  All of that can be found on line already.  If I had before and after photos of the damaged dunes I would have posted them. 

The grassy dunes and the cactus all got washed away during Hurricane Matthew.  Most of the little picnic pavilions along the road and many of the pedestrian cross-overs all got washed away. 

We miss the little picnic areas. They were only large enough for one or two tables and over the winter they are great little places to go and have a picnic lunch.

I mis-spelled Lyonia Preserve in the typecast. Here is a link to the website.