i'll take an old-fashioned old fashioned please

i've been on the hunt for a typewriter for thehobbit for a few months now. he began pestering me for what he considered the perfect typewriter, & gets more desperate sounding each time he asks about it. as if he suspects that the more time passes, the less likely it is i'll find one. or; & this is quite possible; he's finally in the next phase of his plan to take over the world, & needs to get it all on paper quickly.

what makes me smile is that he described the typewriter i had owned (& loved) when i was his age. i haven't any idea what year mine was, as it was fairly old when it was given to me. i do know it was a manual, portable model found at a garage sale.

when i set about searching for one, i imagined it would be easy, but i was wrong. sure there are loads of typewriters, even vintage ones, at thrift shops & online swap sites; but they are either electric, or good only for parts. those that i've found through google searches have been priced beyond what i can afford. still, i refuse to give up. there has to be the perfect typewriter just waiting for thehobbit.

photo :: property of ??

thehobbit's love of things in their more simple forms thrills me to no end. this part of who he is comes directly from me - manlyman is bewildered by it to be honest. he loves us, & willingly lives in our old house, surrounded by old-fashioned, paint-chipped, archaic things; though he drew the line at the manual lawnmower i bought when we moved here; but he doesn't understand any of it. he is the type (a pun!) of person who looks always forward. he is quite content in a world of sleek, new, & shiny; preferably with bells & whistles.

to manlyman, getting a manual typewriter makes no sense - why, when he can use the computer? i couldn't get him to understand the lure of the keys' clickety clack, or the ding!, or the zzzzzip the paper makes when being pulled out. he didn't see the fun in pushing the carriage back at the end of each line of type, or in getting ink on your fingers when you changed the ribbon. think of the adventures we'll have once we find the perfect typewriter!

there's more to it than that: the sense of accomplishment, appreciation for how easy we have it, & so on. unfortunately i am too tired to write anything else. i have a head filled with snot from cleaning a summer's worth of dust from the floor heater, coupled with ash in the air from a local fire. i'm off to get some sleep. i hope you have pleasant dreams :-)

~peace.