a little typewriter hunting

Typewriter hunting

I took a drive down south of Barrie to the 400 Antique Mart just off the 400 super highway that runs down to Toronto.

Just three typewriters.  One, an early SCM office electric with no power cord.  One Underwood 5, rightly described as mint condition, but asking a silly, that is beyond outrageous price of $198.00.  I acquired an Underwood 5 not in mint condition from the Huronia Museum for $10.  The Underwood 5 was made in very large numbers, many have survived and the Underwood 5 is normally a 10-15 dollar item.  Worth adding to your collection, but not an item to kid yourself into paying 200 dollars.  They were an early practically indestructible office typewriter. OTOH it was the cleanest typewriter I have ever seen.  At the other end of the Mart another Underwood 5 asking a semi-comical $49.  I passed on all three.

I took a few photos in the Mart and one of an old Dodge up in Coldwater, Ontario.

I was fortunate in Barrie on the way home.  Went to Staples,  parking lot was awfully full.  Then I remembered it was the end of the afternoon of the first day back to school.  Last second school supplies were being sought.   I went backwards a few steps in the technology and bought a Brother electronic typewriter.  I will post about it later this week.

Underwood Typewriter

Voigtlander Vitessa rangefinder camera

Marshall’s Photo Retouching Kit

Bronson Altoona Casting Reel, fishing reel

Kid’s fancy western two gun rig, gun belt with revolvers

old Dodge

Barrie, Ontario – waterfront park

Took a walk and some photographs on Saturday at a waterfront park in Barrie, Ontario, with  my photographic buddy, Len Marriott. Len was using an old medium format film camera, a Mamiya RB67 with an 80mm lens.  The large metal sculpture is the Spiritcatcher.

Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm lens, some images manipulated for a kind of watercolour effect using Corel Paint Shop Pro.

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yesterday’s drive to Sodom on Lake Ontario

I had an appointment at 130pm at St. Michael’s Hospital in the downtown core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.  I lived in Toronto for 42 years so I have some experience in driving in its clogged traffic, but I have lived on Georgian Bay for ten years and I am used to the lighter traffic up here.  What’s more Toronto traffic is widely believed to be worse and getting worse each year.

The weather was poor, fog and rain all the way down and most of the way back up.  Around 7 pm I had reached Barrie on the return drive and decided to stop to unwind over a coffee and having finished it I walked out to get back on the 400 north and encountered a sharp drop in temperature and a strong wind.  The day’s drive had been bad with the fog and rain and all the vehicle spray especially the treat of having a tractor trailer pass by at 120km per hour.

The wait was medium for the Ontario health care sytem, 90 minutes.   I was there about the diabetic ulcer slowly healing on the back of my left ankle, my glacially healing heel.  My care at this appointment was from a chiropodist and a student nurse specializing in wound care.  The nurse’s accent place him as originally from eastern Europe.  His English was flawless.  The treatment last about twenty mninutes.  The wound is better.  It will still be several months before new skin forms a complete covering.

I have a return appointment next week at which I will see the plastic surgeon.  At the moment a skin graft does not seem to be in my future.  They seem to want me to heal this on my own.  Which makes sense.  If it takes months to heal the wound, the new wound from the incision to harvest skin for the graft would also take months to heal.

I have been wearing an aircast to off load the left heel.  I find I am tippy with this the air cast.  I wrap a small plastic retail bag around the open toe and tape it to the cast to keop my foot from getting soaked and freezing in the winter weather, both the rain and snow we have had this season.

I am also using a wooden cane with a flip down winter claw foot to snap in place of the rubber tip, for ice and snow and for balance.  Curbs and stairs are more interesting these days.

I walk well on level ground, but on uneven ground or bumpy and patchy snow I do less well. I follow my instructions and shorten my stride and take it slow.

It is hard to judge when this all began for a sore started on my other foot first but healed on its own.  This heel has been almost six months.   Perhaps another two to three months to go to get it well.

Edited photo downtown Barrie, Ontario – artillery

downtown Barrie, Ontario – artillery a photo by William J. Gibson, the Canuckshutterer on Flickr.

Last September I took this photo in downtown Barrie, Ontario. I manipulated DOF to isolate the artillery piece from the background using Corel Paint Shop Pro