Gummy dog, a Royal pain.

Random letter piling, both space bar and keys causing it. Or rather tripping it. Because the cause was some person a long time ago putting oil where they shouldn’t. On the escapement mechanism. Urgh! Horror horror. This has caused me no end of perplexed frustration over the last couple of days.

I found the best cleaning agent was not meths, but some lighter fuel you can’t see in the pictures.

And you just have to keep on keeping on beyond what you would think is a reasonable amount of time to spend peering with a torch at the innards of your machine.

I tell you what though, it beats trying to fix a wonky iPhone any day of the week.

After loads and loads of careful application of lighter fuel to all the pivot points and all the places where parts move against each other, the piling letters are all gone.

Do this in a well ventilated area, kids. And no smoking 😉

I may be dreaming of loose dogs for a week now.

The little things

Gummed labels! They come in a roll and at some point they get a dog ear and catch on the platen and a quick job making an address label or a jam label turns into a sticky platen fix nightmare.

I did a search for gummed labels and it seems you just can’t get the kind you moisten yourself any more. But you can still get these massive rolls of gummed brown paper. It’s a no brainer! I’m so happy with my home made labels, and so are my typewriters.

It’s a choice

This is one of my train books. I’m halfway through and it’s taking me a while because I can’t take it all in all in one go. The author is a recovered alcoholic and so knows what addiction, and getting the better of it is like. We’re all addicted to something and the range of this book is wide. It’s not easy reading. It’s not easy to look your addiction in the face and deal with it. This is not a How To book, it just talks about what addiction is, how the brain works and the author’s own conclusion that addiction is a choice. I tend to agree there, but the variables and complications from person to person are probably infinite.

This book sat on my shelf for over six months before I dared start to read it. There are so many books on addiction and specifically internet related addiction available it’s just about impossible to know where to let your hand come to a rest on the shelves of the bookshop. I picked up a few last winter and flicked through to get a feel for the style of writing. Probably not surprising that I chose this one in the end as the author is a journalist and is wily in his style. He pulls you in with anecdotal material and then hits you with the heavy stuff. But it’s worth reading if you’re at ALL concerned that you need to get on top of whatever it is that’s fucking up your life.

Knowledge is Power.

Happy New Year!