New Toys!!!

I picked up two new toys last night and am very excited to get a chance to play with them this evening. The first one is a big beautiful desktop. I've got it sitting on my writing desk upstairs. It's an Olympia.

The second is a laptop and it even came with its own carrying case. It's the perfect size and I already like the feel of the keys under my fingers. I'm looking forward to sitting downstairs on the couch with it on my lap working on it. It's a Royal and used to be my fathers.

Now for those of you who are confused, these aren't computers. They're typewriters. Or more specifically manual typewriters. The big one (about 40 pounds worth of machine) is a desktop model that my mother bought many years ago for about 10 bucks and never used. I spent most of my high school years writing novel attempts on the thing. I went over to my parent's house last night with the specific desire of rescuing it from my parent's basement. I have been missing my old portable from college and wanting a new typewriter. What better one than a machine that I spent most of my high school years using. What I didn't know when I went over is that my father also had an old portable manual typewriter that he wrote his papers on in college. They made it a two for one deal (and even bought dinner) just for me to get them out of their house.

They both work beautifully and I'm really excited to own them. I love the feel and sound of a manual typewriter and have always written better when I had to pound my ideas out on the keys. There is something very satisfactory about the clickety-clack of a typewriter. And these are both beautiful specimens. I'll try to post pictures later this evening but I just had to share my excitement.

Okay, here's the Olympia along with my very cluttered writing desk.

And here is the Royal, or technically Royalite.