Woohoo!!!!

Car, in Garage

        We’re in! We got the keys today and took a couple carloads over to the new house. And we drove the car into the garage—what a concept. When I was growing up, through several houses that our family lived in, the garage never had a car in it; it was full of Stuff. We are going to keep our car in our garage. No more leaves or grime or ice. The car will be kept clean and dry.

Mrs. Random imagining the Future

        We took a small table and some chairs, a bit of food and drink, and powered speakers that we can play music through from a phone. We also took a couple new rugs that Mrs. R ordered some time ago, waiting until today in their original shipping boxes, and they both look great.

After two dairy crates of vinyl

        And every trip we make, I’ll haul a small dairy crate of records over, so it won’t be an overwhelming job transferring 1500 vinyl discs across town. We put up some curtains, too. So already after only a few hours, it’s feeling like our own place. Woohoo!!!!

Big week

From our hike yesterday at Howard Buford Recreation Area

It rained overnight! The first rain after weeks of warm dry weather smells so good. We have the front door open, letting in the cool damp air as we drink our coffee here in the early morning, sitting in the living room of our old house.

Big week for the Randoms….

On Monday, Mrs. R had the chemo port in her upper chest removed after enduring it for over a year. It was a relatively minor procedure, requiring a local anesthetic to numb up the area. Two days later she’s still feeling a little sore there, but hopefully it will all be healed up soon.

During the next couple days, we’ll sign and close on the new house. On Friday we’ll get the keys. Movers and cleaners have been busy. Our real estate agent sent photos yesterday, and the place is looking quite ready to move into. Before we start living there, though, we’ll get the sewer repaired. That’s scheduled later this month and it will take a couple days. In the meantime, we’ll be moving stuff over in carloads, and we’ll get help from friends with trucks for bigger things. And THEN, with a newly fixed sewer, we can move ourselves and our cats over there and start living in our new house for real!

Sneak peek! Below are a couple of real estate photos of our new place from a few years ago.

Last infusion

Image from last weekend's family reunion.

Mrs. Random’s last infusion (immunotherapy) was today! Her chemo port comes out next week. The end of that ordeal of a year is nicely transitioning into the new exciting phase of buying and moving into a new house.

Overnight trips again

The Deschutes River near downtown Bend, July 26.

        Friday night was the first time since September 2019 that I’ve slept overnight somewhere other than in our bed. Nearly six years! The pandemic put the initial cramp in my style. We’d been used to taking a least 3-4 trips a year with overnight stays, and then in 2020 I started staying home with the kitties when Mrs. R would go visit her family in Bend. But this last weekend they had a family reunion / memorial for her mom, who passed away in the spring. So we had a friend feed our cats and I made the bold step of coming along! It was quite fun, and I’m glad I did it. There was a psychological hurdle to get past, for sure. But now I’m good for overnight trips again, which is good because we’ve got one coming up in a couple months to go see Sparks perform in Portland!!

Depending on how things go

July 21, North Bottomlands Loop, Howard Buford Recreation Area.

        It’s not like I feel bad, exactly, about not blogging. It’s more like the feeling of wasting a resource. But that’s silly, of course.

        First of all, having made this list for a friend, I’ll go ahead and share it here, for what it’s worth. I have pared my collection down to 17 typewriters this year, from a peak of around 45 machines back in 2018. Here they are:

Adler J5

Royal Empress

Hermes 3000

Hermes Rocket

Montgomery Ward Escort 350

Olivetti-Underwood 21

Olivetti-Underwood Lettera 32

Olympia SM3

Olympia SM9 (“Elite-1”)

Olympia SM9 (“Elite-2”)

Olympia SM9 (“Pica-1”)

Olympia SM9 (“Script”)

Smith-Corona Classic 12

Smith-Corona Galaxie 12

Smith-Corona Skyriter

Smith-Corona Silent

Underwood 320

        Next of all, a little updating regarding our new-house-getting adventure. As noted in the previous entry, our offer was accepted. Then we had a house inspection done and the sewer scoped. The former didn’t really uncover anything major. Some things here and there need to be dealt with at some point, but we can take care of them in our own time. The sewer, however, needs to be repaired, to the tune of several thousand dollars. We submitted an addendum to our original offer asking for a corresponding reduction in the house price, and today we found out that the seller has agreed! Tomorrow they have movers coming to empty the house, and then there are two days of deep cleaning scheduled. Once the house is empty and clean, we can close! So that could happen as early as this week, I suppose. But realistically we are fine with next week.

        Once we take possession, we’ll get the sewer repaired, look into getting a gas insert for the upstairs fireplace, and hopefully get that done soon. We’ll also try to get a few basic repairs done that were noted by the inspection team. While those things are happening, we’re planning to start moving stuff over that we don’t need access to at the old house, like typewriters, CDs, LPs, books, clothing, etc., etc. We’ll also make sure we’ve got chairs and a table, glasses and beverages, and something to play music on over there, so we can hang out and enjoy the vibe of our new house. We don’t foresee actually living there until late next month, depending on how things go. Things are (finally) about to get busy and crazy!

OFFER ACCEPTED

July 16, Howard Buford Recreation Area.

So little of note to blog about lately. Radio, hiking, photography, typewriters, repeat. Same old same old. HOWEVER, today our offer on the new house was officially accepted, YAY!!! Finally the owners are getting their crap out, inspections are scheduled, movers are scheduled, deep cleaning is scheduled. We will close “on or before August 8th,” according to the documents everybody signed yesterday and today.

It feels like it’s been a long process to get to this point! We started looking for a new house on March 9. We heard about this particular house on April 15—an unlisted private-deal opportunity. We expressed our interest immediately, and the seller basically agreed verbally to sell it to us. But he hasn’t been in much of a hurry to clear out the place and complete the deal (he moved to Portland eight months ago), so we’ve put off making an official offer. The house is actually still full of crap. His daughters have been coming down from Portland on weekends and taking what they can by car, which has only slightly dented the totality of the house’s contents.

But this week we heard that actual movers have been scheduled to remove the rest of the stuff by July 28, and deep cleaning is scheduled right after that. Enough movement seems to have happened by this week that our agent went ahead and drafted an offer, and we signed it yesterday. It was accepted today. We can go ahead and have building and sewer inspections done next week. We should be able to take possession of our new house during the first week of August. And I finally have something new to blog about!

A long goodbye

Howard Buford Recreation Area, May 28.

We’re in the middle of a long goodbye. If the current timeline holds, we’ll be moving to a new house in midsummer. We’ve lived in our present house for over 35 years, and there are many things we love about it, this property, and this neighborhood. But there are also many things that have grown stale for us, that are irritating and frustrating, that we flat out don’t like. We are eager for a fresh start, a new environment, a big challenge. The new house is different in almost every way from the one we live in now. It’s on a quieter street, in a quieter neighborhood. The house itself you could call “fancy” compared to our humble Craftsman bungalow. We’ll have to grow into its mid-century modern vibe for sure. This is not exactly the “downsizing” move we imagined back in March when we first started looking at properties, but it feels right for this stage in our lives. We can downsize later! And for this impending move, we have a big opportunity to jettison a lot of stuff that no longer serves us or “brings us joy.” So there will be a lightening of our load at least, almost automatically.

We are fortunate in that we don’t have to vacate our current house simultaneously to moving to the new house. We can take as long as we want, moving by carload for much of our stuff, rather than by moving van. We’ll need to get help for large items, of course, but I imagine maybe 2-3 weeks of moving boxes and smaller stuff, taking our time arranging and fitting into the new place. We'll also probably want to buy some new things, like rugs and furniture items. Then ultimately we’ll move the last of our stuff over, bring the cats, and start living at the new place. Then will be the job of selling the old house! We’re not going to do much fixing up here. In general, it’s a good house that we’ve done a lot for in terms of remodeling, re-roofing, major repairs, and such. But it’s got our 35 years of being well-lived-in, and the normal wear-and-tear that goes along with that span of occupied time. We’ll probably leave it to new owners to do things like paint and replace upstairs carpet, etc. In my imagination, we will sell it to people who are excited about getting a cool funky house in a cool funky neighborhood, with energy to put into the house and property to make it their own.

Real work

5th & Olive, June 7.

I’m still here. Not been blog-inspired for weeks. Radio Free Randoming almost daily, though. Got out for some street photography Saturday. The Panasonic Lumix GM1 + Lumix 12-32mm lens is my perfect street combo lately.

Sad news about the new-old-stock rackmount Stanton CD players I bought through eBay. One I returned for tray eject failures, and the other started having disc read failures. The seller refunded me for both units, paid for return shipping on the one, and told me to just keep the other. So: sad failures, but I’m not out any money at least.

During the recent heat we’ve mostly stayed hunkered down, and rolled out the portable A/C. Much cooler today and looking like non-extreme temps for the next couple weeks. We would like to hike today, but need to coordinate with our handywoman, who’s coming over to work on some house-spiffing projects.

We got another look last week at the inside of the house we’re aiming to buy, and we have heard positive news regarding probable price and seller’s vacating timeline. Well, they moved out months ago, but tons of their stuff is still there. Hopefully within a month they’ll be completely out and we’ll be able to get inspections done and seal the deal. Then the real work starts!

Giving over to broadcasting

Type-In at MECCA, May 24

What normally would be blogging time in the mornings I’ve been giving over to broadcasting on my fake pirate radio station, either from Studio A (upstairs in the Chamber of Randomness) or Studio B (downstairs in the Library). The former now has two new “Stanton C.402 2U Rackmount DJ CD/MP3 Player w/ Pitch Control & Seamless Loop” units—well, they were made in 2007, but they’re new in the sense that they were unopened, sealed from the factory: “new old stock” is the term, I believe. They’re very similar to the CD players in use at KWVA when I was a volunteer community DJ back in 2000-7. Other new gear: brand new webcams for both studios. Now my listeners can watch me in stunning 1080p video quality.

On Saturday I attended what I believe was the first public Type-In ever held in Eugene. The venue was a classroom in the rear of the MECCA shop across from 5th Street Public Market. When I got there, I was blown away, expecting only a small handful people. The room was crowded and I counted at least 14 typewriters in use. The enthusiasm and excitement were obvious and palpable. A young man named Zach was the organizer. I chatted with him for a bit and learned that he’s been “into” typewriters for only one year but has already collected 53 machines! His knowledge, repair savvy, and ability to explain typewriters to novices are very impressive! He wants to do more type-ins, and people were volunteering to help. Eugene may very well become the next urban center for The Typewriter Revolution! Big hat-tip to Zach!

What I feel in the Now

May 13, Howard Buford Recreation Area, near north parking lot.

Last night I finally finished the only library book I still had checked out: Bill Moody’s Sound of the Trumpet (1997). With that one, I’ve re-read all three of the Moodys I’d encountered and enjoyed over twenty years ago. Both Mrs. R and I read them, sparking our interest in Wardell Gray and Clifford Brown, and multiple CD purchases featuring those musicians. Looking at Moody’s bibliography, I discovered this morning that he continued to write Evan Horne mysteries well into the 2000s, so I have several more to read!

I might be nearing a hiatus point for a couple obsessions. Yesterday I kept score of the 44th straight San Francisco Giants game this season. Also, I’ve broadcasted multi-hour transmissions of Radio Free Random 12 of the last 13 days—and nearly daily going back to the middle of March. That’s a lot of daily hours sunk into baseball and radio DJing! I’m starting to miss other hobbies, like producing music/sound art and doing street photography, as well as playing with my typewriters. I can’t predict where my randomness will go. I can only report what I feel in the Now. And Now it feels like a shift may be coming.

Vast angle of view

Ridgeline trail between Fox Hollow & Willamette, May 9. (Lumix GX-85 w/14-140mm zoom.)

It’s 22:22, 24-hour notation. 10:22 p.m. colloquially here in the U.S. Not my normal blogging time. I was planning to write an entry this morning, and planning not to do any radio today. But instead, the RFR urge bit me and I succumbed, and neglected the blog. However, here I am!

We had a nice week of mellow celebrations: our legal marriage anniversary (38th!), my birthday, our “big wedding” anniversary (2 days after our legal hitching, in our backyard), and Mother’s Day. 

My 2025 birthday gadget has been great: a Leica 9mm f/1.7 ultra wide angle lens. Very bright and sharp, with a lovely and vast angle of view. I’ve only shot around the house and out in the yard with it; still waiting for an opportunity to test it out in public. I want to do interesting things with it, not just basic landscapes, so probably downtown and university architecture, and maybe I’ll try street photography at Saturday Market or something. We’ll see.

The 9mm has been living on my new GM1. It doesn’t overwhelm the tiny camera body like many micro four thirds lenses tend to. I actually quite like the combo. The lens is light and has a diameter not significantly exceeding that of the GM1’s lens mount, so my fingers aren’t crowded.

It’s been a coolish day, raining off and on, interspersed with some periods of sun peeking through clouds. We stayed inside and enjoyed our gas fireplace with the kitties.

Radio Free Random: I’ve been playing with two different setups over the last few days. One) is “Studio B” which is a basic mixer + 2020 MacBook + CD player + microphone to a streaming computer (Windows 10 running OBS Studio) that sends the signal to Mixcloud over the internet. I use the Mac for playing tracks, chatting in the Mixcloud chatbox, and googling. Two) is “Studio X” which is my new MacBook running everything, no added gear—just music streaming software for playing tracks, an app called Blackhole routing audio internally to OBS which streams out to Mixcloud over wifi, and a browser for chatting and googling. I use the MacBook’s built-in microphone for voiceoves, which works okay but is a bit echoey and picks up ambient sounds in the house. I have to tell Mrs. Random “Okay, I’m doing a voiceover in 20 seconds” so she doesn’t think I’m talking to her and so that she doesn’t suddenly start talking to me. It works out.

New webcam view for Radio Free Random (Studio B)

What’s new is the addition of webcams, which my audience has been gently clamoring for. I guess seeing the DJ while he works is alluring in some way. They like the feeling of connection that a live visual adds. For Studio B, I purchased a new webcam last week, and for Studio X I use the MacBook’s built-in webcam. Now I have to make sure my hair is combed, I’m shaved, there’s nothing caught in my teeth, and I’m reasonably dressed—at least from the waist up.

Here are a couple shots with the new 9mm lens….

Today in front of our house. It just parked there for five minutes and then left.

Our "monster rose" in a far back corner of our backyard. That fence on the left is 8 feet tall.

We have our reasons

Wild roses at Suzanne Arlie Park, May 4.

“AI hallucinations”... “AI sycophancy” (from recent headlines)... well, let me add AI laziness, AI hubris, AI sloppiness, AI inaccuracy. Etc. From extensive personal experience with both ChatGPT and Grok, I can verify that all of these exist, and all are significant problems for people trying to use AI chatbots in good faith. I unsubscribed from X Premium—which I’d paid for only to use Grok3—after less than a month because all of the referenced issues were ruining my experience. It came down to this: I don’t trust Grok. I’m not totally in the “Fuck AI” camp, but that attitude garners a lot of my sympathy.

It’s Monday morning, almost 6 a.m., and I want to get on the air, but my RFR transmitter/streaming computer is crunching through updates. So I decided to blog.

We’ve joined the philistines: the Randoms have acquired a weed wacker. What’s next, a fucking leaf blower? A power mower? Well, we have our reasons, but we’re not particularly proud of them. We do still have our boutique craft acoustic push lawnmower, and we’ll only use the “string trimmer” on weedy areas that have gotten too out of control to manage by pulling and scything. But it feels like a slippery slope toward conventional noisy yard care threatens just over the horizon. Nooooo!!!

Timeline

From a recent hike at Wild Iris Ridge city park.

It has apparently seeped deep into our consciousnesses. Mrs. R is doing a lot of new-house decorating and garden planning in her head, and this morning the last dream fragment I remembered was that we had two U-Hauls loaded and ready to go, even though we had not yet taken possession of anything. I think our “higher selves” are getting us ready for a big move, one way or another. And the one we want is still looming, moving slowly from possibility to probability—even as we keep looking on Redfin and Zillow. So many uglies and yikes out there—so many neighborhoods and street names we don’t want. It might be a very interesting summer, depending on how this timeline develops.

Soggy out

Rainy days are becoming rarer as we get deeper into spring, but we’ve got one today, or at least this morning. It rained on and off through the night, and it’s soggy out there right now. I can see Betty on the front porch table with soaked back fur. Fleur’s sensibly in front of the fire, and Griffey is on the bed. Mrs. Random has Farm later this morning, and I have a catsitting job before that. There’s a baseball game on at 1:05, Giants vs. Rockies in San Francisco, so there’s a good indoor entertainment option for the middle of the day. I suppose I might get out for some street photography at some point for a bit, maybe with one of the weather-sealed cameras. And/or I might get on the air and broadcast some tunes to the internet. There are also letters I could write. And much puttering that could be done. Meanwhile, here are a couple recent nighttime flash photos starring our lovely front hedge:

Hegemonically monotonous

I did get out today (Thursday, May 1) and did walk downtown with my Lumix GM1 + 12-32mm lens, and I got a good batch of (what I consider) decent shots. Back at home I worked on a few in Lightroom. Everything with me is on a photo-by-photo basis, I guess you could say. I’m don’t feel like I have a consistent “style” or “look.”

I crop a lot, recomposing the original and/or changing the aspect ratio (4x3 to 3x2 or 5x4 or 16x9 or whatever). I also feel like some images look better in black & white, which can involve a) simply desaturating all the color out, and b) playing with the color sliders, which lets me make each color darker or lighter.

Adjusting the color sliders for a monochrome image (in Lightroom) has practical uses as well as creative ones; e.g., green and red look very similar when converted to grayscale, so making one lighter and one darker helps give the brain useful information about an image (red flowers vs. green leaves… you often want them to look different). Black & white film photographers can achieve similar results using color filters on their lenses, but that’s a subject I know next to nothing about.

I also sometimes like to saturate and exaggerate colors (hues, tints, tones) and play with contrast in different ways while processing photos in Lightroom. But just as often I like to leave images looking “natural.” It just depends on the photo and how it hits me. (Note: I have my cameras set to shoot RAW image files—not JPGs—and that gives me great leeway in adjusting all aspects of my photographs.)

So much for “developing” my photos in Lightroom. Now, on to a mini rant of sorts…. 

Today my prime destination was the May Day anti-Trump/Musk/Etc protest at the Park Blocks (8th & Oak) in downtown Eugene. To be honest, I didn’t get any good shots of protesters. Or, more accurately, I didn’t like the shots I got of protesters. To be quite blunt, they bored me. Weird, huh. The cops, reflections and shadows, a street performer I walked past, a burned out house, and a trashed old storefront were more interesting to me.

Why do I find protests boring? Maybe for me they are played out. They don’t excite me. Eugene has a big Old Left and 1960s Hippie vibe, which has perpetuated itself for decades into younger generations, and I personally don’t find it photogenic in general anymore. Certain isolated scenes, people, or situations might grab me, sure, but I didn’t feel grabbed today.

I felt much better about my shots at Saturday Market a couple weeks ago, possibly because there was a better mix of energies, purposes, and perspectives: protesters, booth vendors, shoppers, God Squaders, cops, bystanders, and people walking through on their way somewhere else. The energy was more interesting, and I found lots of scenes to photograph.

Today’s protest (a bunch of people with signs lined up along the street occasionally chanting or shouting slogans, with cars honking back in support) just felt hegemonically monotonous and boringly linear. So, there you go: my lukewarm take on today downtown. I hope you enjoy the following images from my May Day walkabout.

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