"Stay on target"

Interior detail, New Chez Random

It took three trips to the shop, but I got my little M1 MacBook Air’s USB-C ports replaced and everything’s good, and it didn’t cost and arm and a leg—only an elbow I guess. Just glad I didn’t have to send it away and wait for weeks, you know.

We hiked at South Eugene Meadows yesterday. It had been months, since before we moved, and in the meantime at least two new trails have been started, which is exciting. And work has begun on the long trail to complete a link between S.E.M. and a couple Ridgeline trailheads on Willamette Street, a project promised over two years ago but beset by delay. It will be nice to have new trails to add to our list.

Today is pretty open. I could broadcast a Radio Free Random transmission, and if I do—that is, if I upload the recording—it will be the 800th upload to my Mixcloud channel. Well, that’s not counting the several recordings that have been deleted over the years because of DMCA violations (too many songs by one artist or from one album, typically). But I’m not feeling very motivated to do radio today. Number 800 will happen when it happens. There’s some cleaning and organizing that’s been waiting to be accomplished. And I think I might want to write.

The NaNoNonsense thing is coming along very well. Current stats as of last night: total words = 12542; daily average = 1791.7, which is well above the 1667 per day I need to hit 50K for the month. “Stay on target” I’m hearing in my head.

Multi-CPU guy

View to the south from our kitchen.

I think the last time I had a computer repaired was in the early 2010s. Hard drive fail, as I recall. Sent it back to Dell, took a few weeks, but I still have it and it’s still working, and even though Windows 7 is not supported, I keep it because it’s my only dependable CD burner. Yes, I still burn discs, mainly mix CDs for Mrs. Random and other music-lovin’ pals.

Anyway, I mention this because today I’m taking my MacBook Air M1 (13”) to a shop for repair. One of its two USB-C ports has stopped working, and the other one only works when jacks are plugged in one direction only, which kind of defeats the purpose of USB-C! If the one half-working port stops functioning completely, I won’t be able to charge the darn machine, let alone back up data to a hard drive. Otherwise, that laptop is working just fine, so I think even an expensive fix will be worth it. Fingers crossed it won’t take weeks. At least I still have my newer Mac, a 15” M3 Air, which continues to function perfectly, so I’m still good in the daily driver department. 

Some of you must be thinking, “Why does he need more than one computer?” Well, my friends, you apparently don’t know me! Hahaha. I use ALL my laptops… the two Macs (just mentioned—I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo on the older one, and everything else on the newer one) and three Windows 10 Dells (two for Radio Free Random and one for certain old trusty pieces of software I don’t want to live without, e.g. Art Explosion desktop publisher, Adobe Audition audio editor, and Total Recorder, which can record any audio playing on the computer—great for dubbing from streaming services), AND the aforementioned Windows 7 Dell that I burn CDs with. I’ve been a multi-CPU guy for many years, and I’m not going to stop now!

That would be rad

Once upon a time there was a thriving annual writing challenge called NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, held every November from 1999 through 2024. I’ll let Wikipedia fill you in:

National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo (/ˌnænoʊˈraɪmoʊ/ NAN-oh-RY-moh), was a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that promoted creative writing around the world. Its flagship program was an annual, international creative writing event in which participants attempted to write a 50,000-word manuscript during the month of November. Well-known authors wrote "pep talks" in order to motivate participants during the month. The website provided participants, called "Wrimos", with tips for writer's block, information on where local participants were meeting, and an online community of support. Focusing on the length of a work rather than the quality, writers were encouraged to finish their first drafts quickly so they could be edited later at the writers' discretion. The project started in July 1999 with 21 participants. In 2022, 413,295 people participated in the organization's programs. Writers wishing to participate first registered on the project's website, where they could post profiles and information about their novels, including synopses and excerpts. Regional volunteers called "Municipal Liaisons" helped connect local writers, held in-person and virtual writing events, and provided encouragement.

But NaNoWriMo officially is no more. Accusations, scandals, and various dissatisfactions contributed to the shutdown of the website this year. Personally, despite thinking about it several years in a row, I never took part in the challenge while it was still going. I actually found out about the shutdown last week after deciding to go for it this year. Oops, too late! But not really, because it’s totally possible to do a self-challenge. And that’s what I’m doing, with goal of 50,000 words during November towards a “literary nonsense” novel.

Again, take it away Wiki:

Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning.

In some form or other, I’ve been writing in this genre since I was a teenager. It’s just how I naturally creatively write. Granted, it’s quite a bit harder (for me) to write than normie prose, but it’s way more fun and satisfying. I think of it like manufacturing a completely legal and safe (?) psychedelic drug. When I read the stuff I write, I feel like my brain is experiencing a (mostly temporary) rewiring. Representational thinking is right out. You gotta go with the flow and see where it takes you. Tune in and turn on. It’s experimental writing, it’s sizzling synapses, it’s nothing expected: all subversion and transgressiveness. It’s fun!

As of last night, the end of Day 5, my stats were: 8999 total words for a daily average of 1799.8. To hit 50K by the 30th of November, I need to average at least 1667 words per day. So far, so good.

Back in 2017 I wrote a zine-sized booklet of experimental/literary nonsense, much akin to the material I’m writing this month for NaNoWriMo. I called it YOU KNOW IN CHUNKS. My fond goal for the current challenge is to turn my writing (plus some other material I have written over the intervening years since YKIC) into a novel-length book. That would be rad.

Rainy and blustery

View to the north from our living room.

Wednesday is garbage pickup day at the new house. It was Friday at the old house. Recycling and yard debris alternate weeks. It is the former today. We’re finally catching up with the buildup of cardboard from deliveries of various things we purchased for the new house over the past couple months—reclaiming garage space. And speaking of garage space, I need to sneak some more styrofoam into the garbage, the stuff not marked with a “#6” so St. Vinnies won’t take it. Styrofoam is terrible stuff.

Rainy and blustery out there this morning. Yesterday we got some real downpours. I guess there’s another “atmospheric river” snaking around up there in the sky. That’s a term I do not remember before this century, and definitely not when I was growing up. We didn’t have “super moons” either.

We did make it out for a hike yesterday morning, to a trailhead that’s quite close to our new neighborhood: Martin Street, which leads up to the Amazon Creek Headwaters path. Ran into Blake at the top end (Fox Hollow Rd. parking lot, across from the Raptor Center), where he starts his route and where we turn around and go back down. He joined us and we had nice chat walking through the woods. Mrs. Random and I were quite proud of ourselves for getting out early (before 10 o’clock!)—well, actually, getting out at all. Weather was sunny and mild in the morning, before the precipitation got going.

Free day

Our time changed Sunday morning, from Daylight Saving to Standard. Six a.m. became five a.m. Yesterday and today I got up at five. Mrs. Random (as I write this) is still asleep. The kitties are happy to have a functioning human at this early hour, scooping out some food into their dishes and keeping them company. No doubt I’ll have to balance this hour of wakefulness with additional or longer nap(s) later today.

It’s a “free day” for us—no scheduled appointments or chores. That’s not to say there aren’t things to do, things that ought to be done. But it won’t be like yesterday for me, when I had a veterinary appointment and a dental appointment to attend to. And not like tomorrow when we have an HVAC tech coming over in the afternoon to inspect the furnace and heat pump and ducting. And not like Thursday when Griffey has a $olensia appointment. No, today is free. We could take a hike, but it’s likely to be raining hard enough to put us off that idea—we’ll see!

I just checked the weather app, and it looks we could walk this morning and avoid rain. Or we could take our umbrellas and go out this afternoon. Either means attaining escape velocity, which means motivation. It’s hard to leave our cozy house!

The whole psychogeography

Fleur’s got a $olensia appointment today, and I’ve got a tooth filling appointment. I need to shave.

Yesterday’s hike was fairly glorious. Great weather, dramatic clouds and fog, lots of little birds. We’re proud of ourselves for getting out and doing 6000+ steps two out of the last three days. Probably not happening again today, but perhaps tomorrow.

It feels like we’re settling in to our new place all over again, what with the old house selling so recently and the accompanying internal adjustments to that (it’s all in our heads, of course).

The trailheads to several of our favorite hikes are much closer to our new house, or at least involve fewer red lights. The whole psychogeography of our town, the one we’ve both lived in for 45 years (well, 44 for me), suddenly changed with the move. We have a new perspective or point of view on everything: new routes, even new values in terms of, like, where to go out to eat, where to shop, and so on. We’re on the other side of downtown—we have different routes to the freeway and nearby towns, and so on.

Here we don’t have a designated “TV room” like we did in the old house. But on Halloween I did set up our TV temporarily in the family room so we could watch The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Some couples have their song, and we do too, but we also have our movie: that one. We’ve watched it many dozens of times, and I always catch something, some little detail, that I hadn’t noticed before, every time we do. Several actors in it—early in their careers—went on to be famous for other films. Peter Weller is probably way more known for Robocop than for Buckaroo Banzai, for instance. But he’ll always be Buckaroo to us!

Into the green

We sold the old house!! The deal closed late last week. Such a load off our minds, and quite lovely not to have to drive across town every couple days to make sure nobody’s camping on the porch. We’ve been very fortunate with both houses—neither one went on the market; we were able to complete private deals on the new one and the old one—with significantly less hassle (and expense) than the traditional route would have taken. And the whole process, from initial inkling to now, was pretty darned fast. We first had the idea of looking for a new place on March 9. Less than 8 months later, here we are: in a new house and with our old house already transferred to new owners! We’re still pinching ourselves.

Mrs. Random is making Sunday morning pamcakes ‘n’ eggs in our new spacious kitchen. I’m sitting on our new long (“nap-size”) couch. We’re listening to a “groovy 1960’s instrumental” compilation on the hi-fi. It’s foggy out there to the north, through the big living room windows, and we have a nice view of big trees whose leaves are turning yellow and orange and red. Later this morning we’re planning on visiting Suzanne Arlie Park for a hike. It’s been many weeks since we’ve done that traditional Sunday jaunt. The City has been “developing” the site, and we’re curious.

Maybe with the house situation(s) all settled I’ll have more mental and emotional energy to blog more regularly! Being able to focus on just one house is kind of amazing after many weeks in a kind of “between” state. Already I can feel the stress meter lowering into the green.

Letting it slip casually in conversation

We’ve got buyers! (For the old house.) They did a walk-through (and crawl-through underneath) a couple weeks ago, and they were not fazed by anything they found. The house isn’t perfect, that’s for sure, but the buyers have lots of skills and experience, so they see potential everywhere. They have been pre-approved for a loan, accepted our seller’s offer immediately after we sent it, deposited earnest money into escrow, and are chomping at the bit (just like we are) to make this happen. Yesterday we filled out a seller’s disclosure form, and within the next few days there will be an appraisal, which was requested by the lender. If all goes well, we’ll be done with the old place and it will have new owners very soon!

Meanwhile we’re still absolutely loving our new place, and the cats are too. We wake up every morning amazed that we get to live in such an awesome house, and we’ve been sitting in the living room in the dark sipping coffee for about a half hour as the sky lightens through the big windows, before we turn on our computers.

I’ve been sorting through my hastily packed moving boxes, getting various spaces more liveable and workable—the Office, the Bunker-Chamber, and the Family Room—which also serves as the band room, the radio station studio, the dance/excercise room, and the future jigsaw puzzle and TV watching room. Speaking of band, we had our first Swarm at this address last Sunday, and the new digs worked great: lelu and I played downstairs and partied with Mrs. Random afterwards upstairs.

We talked about a band-name reveal coming soon. Well, we actually talked about letting it slip casually in conversation.

From our perch

We wake up now to views, space, peace. Our old house was lovely, but the vegetation—trees, shubs, hedges—were the main things we saw out the windows. Even standing in the backyard looking up, there was hardly any sky. We lived on a busy street with car and foot traffic 24/7, much of it noisy. It wasn’t uncommon at all to hear someone screaming as they walked along, alone; or to hear couples arguing at the tops of their lungs going down the street. Cars with booming speakers, etc. Homeless and mentally challenged and emotionally unstable people everywhere. I’d say that the apocalypse is much more fully realized in the Whiteaker neighborhood than up here in the South Hills. It’s not quite Mad Max in the Whit, but it’s getting there. We do get some car traffic and foot traffic up here, but it’s much, much quieter. There is significantly more space between our house and the street, and between our house and our neighbors’ houses. We can see the Coburg Hills to the north, and we can see the tops of trees and glimpses of nearby neighborhoods from our perch here on this this rocky incline. And we have Sky!

SO ready

I’m up quite early, having gotten enough sleep because I went to bed a couple hours earlier than the usual ‘round midnight. The Giants won another baseball game last night, and the team actually appears to be in real contention for a wildcard playoff spot! Six weeks ago it looked like they were out of the running, cooked, done for the season. But nay, there seems to be life in that lineup yet. Seventeen regular season games remain.

Yesterday we got the last of what we wanted of our stuff out of the old house and yard—with the help of our mighty friend lelulaserlight and her pickup truck Bev the Chev. Later this morning The Recyclers are coming with a big dump truck to take away everything else—to be sorted, donated, recycled, and tossed as appropriate. That’s a hugely significant step toward selling the old house. Next will be deep cleaning all the rooms, roof & gutter cleaning, power washing the exterior, and yard spiffing, all done by not-us—i.e. professionals who will do a good and quick job in all categories. We are SO ready to be done with the old place, SO ready to focus our lives on one house. For the extra-curious, Mrs. Random has been blogging regularly with updates about our process of moving out and moving in.

Normal routines / Endless job

Nearly a week of living in our new house, and we’re quite enjoying it. Cats are pretty relaxed and have assumed normal routines. We are still ferrying stuff over from the old house, a seemingly endless job. The sewer work at the new house got complicated. The private company did their job on our side but they found a big hole on the City side, so for the last three days the City has been working on that with lots of big equipment. This morning, it looks like they are about finished, so we’ll be able to access our driveway 24/7 again starting later today.

Radio Free Random has a new studio (in my “office,” i.e. one of the bedrooms), and I’ve been doing transmissions from there this week. It’s got a big window for such a small room, and Betty’s been enjoying the view of the south yard from a perch a typewriter table I set up in front of the window.

We’re loving the north-facing floor-to-ceiling windows and balcony in the evenings, enjoying a view of the Coburg Hills, parades of clouds across the sky, and sunsets that we couldn’t see through all the trees and foliage at our old house. Also, we get to watch bats doing aeroBATics after sunset!

First actual night

Curious cats exploring the new digs

Two weeks later, and we’ve arrived at our first actual night living in the new house. We brought the cats over today, which was traumatic for them and us, but now, nearly 3 hours later, everybody is chill, having explored quite extensively and then found good places to settle down and relax. Mrs. Random is cooking dinner. We’re listening to a mellow jazz playlist, and the internet is working great. It’s so nice to have “arrived”!! Lots still to do at the old house, but we’re going to take a long weekend break from the back-and-forth and enjoy the new house with our kitties and most-if-not-all of our stuff in one place again.

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!