1. With a little help from the Yahoo Portable Typewriters group, I got the platen off my SG3. (It ended up being a matter of unscrewing the knobs. Period. Easy peasy. I feel a little foolish for having asked.) It's off to Ames Supply for new rubber. This is a first for me: I have one or two other typewriters that would likely benefit from the re-covering treatment, but this is the first time I've gone through with it. Now I have to wait a month or so to see how much of a difference it really makes, and how much it ends up costing.
Meanwhile, Bernard is sitting crippled and useless, staring at me with a hurt and accusatory "What did I ever do to you?" kind of a look. Makes me wanna cry. I'm sorry, big guy! It's for your own good, really it is!
And I'm having anxiety attacks, worrying about the thing getting lost or damaged in the mail, leaving me without the use of my favorite typewriter FOREVER. AAAAGH!!
*breathe* *breathe*
2. I'm also shortly to receive an original manual and a cleaning kit from a gentleman on the Yahoo TYPEWRITER list. With that and the newly re-covered platen (and a bit more elbow grease on my part), it'll be practically as if I bought this machine new, back in 1966 when it was born. Nifty.
2. I sold the newer of my two Hermes 3000s today -- the boxy design. Since I'm not a collector (really I'm not!) and they were identical elite typeface, it didn't make sense to keep both that one and the mojo 3000, particularly considering I just spent big bucks on a new acoustic guitar. (Mmmm...new guitar...) Once again, I probably scared the buyer with my over-the-top typewriter love. Once again, the buyer was young (college age), which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and hopeful about the future. He came down with his dad, who good-naturedly declared us both insane. ;-)
I gave him a quick lesson on using the 3000 (including a demonstration of those funky margin setting thingies), provided him with some extra ribbons, and inundated him with links and tips. I hope he falls in love with typing!
4. I need more ribbons before NaNoWriMo starts up. I have one Smith Corona ribbon that I'm hoarding, but I'm out of Hermes ribbons, and more importantly I'm out of Olympia ribbons: the most crucial ribbons of all. This must be fixed. I'm toying with the idea of getting some silk ribbons from Jay Respler of the Yahoo TYPEWRITERS group. I've never tried silk, and wonder if they're really that much better than nylon. They're pricier. It'd be an interesting experiment. Maybe a good NaNoWriMo motivation: I must type enough to make the added cost worth it!
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