BLOGAHOMA

As  one assume staplers, as rule, are not taken care of. Oh sure,  when they were brand new, like  before the WWII when they were quite expensive and an office may have had just one and that was protected by most powerful secretary on staff. But they became more common and less valuable and things began to happen. They are considered work horses expected to keep fastening pages together receiving no praise and I would imagine many expletives when they jammed or ran out of staples. I have seen the results of this, scratches from home made tools trying to dig out staples.  Worse is the neglect of the staplers found covered in grease and grime or rust as evidence of long durations in a damp area, like a basement. And then there is the use of staplers as hammers as witnessed by dings in the plungers, top buttons.  Some have tilted buttons from a heavy hand hitting it harder than needs be (except in the case of strip staplers where slamming would cut and staple all at once). No matter the lack of regard for the humble stapler, users felt they needed to own a stapler and made sure of it by scratching their name on the bottom. One mistreated stapler that came into my collection has a name of a convicted violent criminal crudely scratched into the nickel plating!  I am collecting stapling machines and focusing on having examples of many types to do this sometimes I have to bid on the not-so-perfect. I don’t mind because I also like the cleaning up of staplers and restoring when needed. As I have yet to run into anyone else’s tips on cleaning staplers I am posting mine. No guarentees implied these have been established like all good directions through trial and error.

Speed Parrot "Babe" Stapler c1924. Before & After cleaning.

Directions for Cleaning Vintage Staplers…..

Note: For the most accurate information and history on old staplers plus hard to find staples at a reasonable price visit The Early Office Museum. Tell the curator Blogahoma sent you.

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Stapler Attachment
I started collecting staplers in earnest about July 28th 2009. At first it was ohlala look at this cool EM 230 Paris agrafeuse on Ebay and it’s so French! There was an identical one up but in red and they were asking $99 so I went for the one that was $8! Really! (Note the red one is still sitting there a year later.) And that is how it all started. I had bought staplers in the past then resold on Ebay wanting the whole time to keep them but then who needs more than one stapler? So how do I justify collecting them? Who wants to know? There are so many layers to collecting staplers. I love layers. Here are the dozen layers I have discovered: Maker, Type, Country, Year, Style, Inventor, Patent, Size, Material, Rarity, Color, Variation. So of course I have a database because I can. I use Bento for its visual appeal. But when all my best rationalizations for collecting stapling machines fail I pull out the art card. That’s right art doesn’t need a reason. I create Photoshop images and 3D animations and am currently working on stapler coveralls and a “This is Not Stapler” t shirt. Happy tangents to you!

I like the surprises doing a new thing brings. I now have invented ways to clean these little buggers. I have passed on this knowledge to other fledgling collectors when asked. Stapler collectors, I have discovered, tend to be detail and design fanatics which is ropes me in. Another enlightenment to me is their mechanical workings which, unlike newer gadgets like ipods and cellphones that leave me in the dark, the stapler can be understood one spring, one plunger, one anvil at a time. I now have stable of staplers numbering over 50 almost enough for a Stapler a Week (a great non-threatening stapler website BTW). I might just stay at 52. I have sold off ones I didn’t particularly like for various reasons. Not just dupes mind you. I like some staplers more than others like the Jakyneuf Agrafeuse which I just have to say “aucun merci” the next time it comes up for auction.  I’ve learned stapler in German (Hefter) and French which is pretty useless but fun nonetheless. And have come to realize that a package shipped from France can take 2 months but it will arrive. I’ve taken my staplers of interest to the Park Tavern for show and tell and on Facebook for the socialization. Because it’s NOT true “If you seen one stapler you’ve seen them all”.

Medicine Park Ice Storm January 31, 2010

The TV weathermen warned us, brutal, devastating, electric outages, it was coming be prepared!  And we stocked the cupboard and the refrigerator but did not get a back up generator or fill the propane. You must understand the disbelief. The day before in Medicine Park it reached 66º with sun. We were used to a couple of “brutal” winter days turning to sunny and mild in a few days. It came like it was preprogrammed. But then IT began Thursday morning, first the rain, wintry mix and finally sleet turning to unimaginable layers of ice covering every tree limb, every leaf, every blade of grass. Then by 8:45 AM the lights flickered sporadically until they flickered no more. Michael went down to get the last mail we were to receive before the Big Rock Rd. became impassible for the next 4 days.  He walked the dogs and talked to the neighbors who confirmed it was an all Medicine Park outage. The neighbors, Steve and Janelle invited us to stay with them for they had a wood burning stove in the living room. They invited us and our dogs, Doolin and Cordy to join them and their dogs, Pepper and Wiley. We were friends but not best friends.

We had our last meal at home while the temperature stayed over 60º inside. Michael made turkey burgers on the propane grill and we had cole slaw. We left while there was still day light. Layering ourselves in clothes and throwing together some basic food we walked up the icy road and deposited ourselves in their home. We carried our cellphones to keep contact with our children and with our neighbors. We would use Michael’s until his battery was gone and then we would use ours. The first night was one of the hardest. It was dark by 5:30 and time seemed to crawl. Every 15 minutes someone would ask the time. At 7:30 it felt as though it was 10:00. It was quiet save for the breaking and falling of limbs and trees and dark except for the blue flashes of transformers blew. But we started talking and before we knew it, it was midnight. There was a lot to say for our previous time together was relegated to 20 minute neighborly exchanges as we walked with the dogs.

The dogs may have known each other more closely since their dogs would come up and call on ours and they would romp in the yard for several minutes a day. With no computer or TV the dogs became our entertainment. They range in size from small and feisty to medium large and comical.  The next day we made our way back to our house to change clothes and add more layers. Michael was steady on his feet where I slipped and fell a couple of times. We grabbed up the beer, cheese and snacks and headed back up. A light snow helped by reducing the slickness of the ice and I didn’t fall again.

We kept in contact with our children, one in San Francisco the other in Tulsa. Kim commandeered my Facebook as me as she noted there were many questions as to what had happened to us and if we were alright.  Kim became command headquarters and asked that everyone keep her abreast of the latest news on the state of the roads and the power outages. Michael and Steve took turns grilling as we threw together makeshift but very good dinners. On the third day the ice had melted enough to allow the guys take a trip to the convenience store to pick more supplies (including beer), the conditions of the roads and check the devastation in town. They came back with a description of the damage they encountered.

By Sunday morning the roads were passable we called ahead to our friends in Norman who invited us to stay with them and their 5 cats. Our neighbors had told us we could leave our dogs with them since our destination friends had cats. Although foggy, the roads were clear most the way. As soon as we said hi and thanks we headed toward the shower. All the comforts of home and then some. We stocked up on cellphone car recharger, flashlights, and miscellaneous things we missed while packing in our 42º house. We discussed on how we could planned better next time for an emergency situation. We treated ourselves to coffee and free WI FI at Borders and picked up books and magazines.

We planned to come back to Medicine Park by Tuesday and made plans of either accepting the invitation to stay in a home with a propane fireplace but had no water or rejoin our friends who had a generator now it was just then we got the call (I should say calls) that informed us, in very excited terms, that the lights were on in Medicine Park, at least most of the town. Bidding farewell to our friends who had sheltered us during the ice storm we traveled back to our home and our dogs and what we hoped would be constant flow of electricity. All the time the song “You Don’t Have to Live Like a Refuge” kept playing inside my head.

Water Allotment

post by Muriel Fahrion

Not so unusual for pipes to freeze in January but it is a rare occurrence in Southwest Oklahoma, yet it happens. Yes, thank you, we did leave the faucet dripping but nontheless when the temperature plummeted to single digits the pipes froze. Our pipes are only minimally buried due our granite rock mountain terrain and any dirt we do have is not very deep. Optimistically, we believed,  just give it a day and it would thaw. January 2010 has turned out to have record cold temperatures for our area so unfortunatly it is day number four without water. We bought several gallons at the store but it amazing how much water we use. We resorted to melting down ice cubes from the freezer but that disappeared pretty quickly. We would have melted snow if there had been any left but it was gone after a 2 day thaw after Christmas.

Yesterday my husband, Michael, ventured out into the frigid air to borrow more than a cup of water, multiple gallons in fact (that is after the car’s steering decided it would unfreeze first). We have no large container with a lid but after asking several neighbors he found  the folks 2 house up who were not only willing to lend us water but also had a large container with a lid for the transport.  Handily these good neighbors also keep numerous plastic jugs to evaporate the chlorine before they fill their large aquarium. So armed with water from his hunting gathering expedition we were ready for a few more days.

The big container was to flush toilets that we replenished with gray water from doing dishes etc. We use a large stewing pot to boil the water and then to wash dishes. There was a baking soda technique I employed yesterday in the water just to see what those seriously green people were doing.  I washed my hair in the sink but once again catching the water I wet my head with to then rinse the soap out. Although we generally pay  attention to the weather currently I have been the suns cheerleader encouraging to rise to the occasion and bring us thaw. Michael has taken the neighbors up on letting him use the shower. I am using the “spot cleaning” method with a wash-bowl as they would have done before indoor plumbing.

The Lessons…. To conserve water is really a personal choice. For us it is not about the money savings since we never use over the minimum allowed so using less would not reduce our water and sewage bill. The experience of having no running water does show us that we can be resourceful and not complain about it. It proves that being friendly and helpful yourselves means that neighbors are very willing to come to your aid when you’re in a pinch. And when the water does return to liquid form we will greet it with a shout out.

I was surprised to read some of my FB friends disparage 2009. Yes there can be years that fall in the negative category no matter how you look at them. With so many years behind me now I understand that the mix is what life is about. A little sour with the sweet. To arrive at the net happiness derived you add up the moments. Photos, letters, Twitter, Facebook, but mostly my blog documents many of those moments and puts the year in perspective. If you graphed my year it stayed in the positve range with a few plunges that marked the passing of people in my life.

I lived 2009 with all the being I could muster up at any given moment. So I say, 2010 bring it on!