A few weeks ago, I ordered a vintage manual typewriter from Amsterdam Finds on Etsy, and after a minor snafu with the ribbon remedied just now by transferring a new ribbon to the old spools, I now have my caramel-brown Tippa 1 portable typewriter on my desk and ready for the typing.

I also recently purchased a Cole Steel typewriter, from Craigslist in Raleigh. This machine isn't advancing, so will need the attention of typewriter repairman Chris Shaw, who operated a business machine repair shop in Chapel Hill for decades.

Yes, I have succumbed. While I'm blogging like it's 1999, I'm also about to compose old-school Zuiker Chronicles the way my grandfather, Frank the Beachcomber, did it for so long.

The family-and-friends vacation on Tybee Island was great fun. 

Highlights for me:

• Preparing red beans and rice for a group dinner on the beach, where the adults and kids sat on blankets under the moon and stars.
• Stepping into Inferno, a tiny shop with hundreds of bottles of hot sauce -- I bought a smoky jalapeno sauce that was quite tasty on the beans and rice. 
• Good pizza and cold beer on the deck at Huc-a-Poo's Bites and Booze, which is in the same cluster of shops as Inferno. 

Peace Corps and back

Three of the four friends who joined us on Tybee -- Kevin Anderson and Erika Rundiks, and Bridgit (Greene) Adamou -- were our fellow Peace Corps volunteers in the Republic of Vanuatu in the late 1990s. Kevin and Erika went back to Vanuatu with their daughter seven years ago. As we at beans and rice on Tybee beach, they talked about the experience of going back, and gave us tips for our return. Erin and I are getting serious about taking our family back next summer.

My mentor and friend, David Jarmul, was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the 1970s. He met his wife there. David retired from Duke University in 2015, and then he and Champa joined the Peace Corps again. Now they're in the Republic of Moldova, and David is blogging his experience at Not Exactly Retired.

Someday, maybe we'll re-up ...

A fine way to celebrate 20 years of marriage with the woman you love is to walk with her and your children through the streets and squares of Savannah, Georgia -- this is where you strolled a few days after you were engaged in 1995 -- then head over to Tybee Island to rendezvous with good friends, whom you've known since  your Peace Corps service in Vanuatu, and sit around a table for a simple meal, good conversation, and deep sighs of contentment. 

Life is good, friendships are strong, and your love is deep.

Thank you, Erin, for 20 wonderful years.

The family is watching the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 summer Olympics. Loved the music and dancing. Now the athletes are parading in. Vanuatu's team of four athletes will be at the end, eh, but they'll be there!

Apple's new commercial came on, with the poetry and voice of Maya Angelou.

I'll have to head to bed soon. I'm training for another marathon, and I need to meet the running group at 6:15 a.m., and then run 14 miles. These Olympians will be my inspiration.

 This is the weekend for more blogging, and I'll be digging into the 1999 updates I've planned for too long.

• The publishing callback is working, and we can read this blog at blog.zuiker.com. (Can't recall if that will reflect live edits. I don't expect it to. Holy cow, it did. 1999 is awesome! )
• Next is to customize the editor.
• Then to stylize the template.
• Then to set the Google Analytics ID.
• Then to write a story every day.

The past month, since we returned from our delightful trip to Provence, was one of the more intense we've had in quite a few years. Kids in camp, work super busy for both of us, the weather hot and humid, and then Oliver developed a serious staph infection on his arm -- bully impetigo, he called it, making the pediatricians smile (the medical term is bullous impetigo) -- with a viral infection and high fevers at the same time.

But Oliver is healthy again. A new month has begun, and another short, family-and-friends vacation is imminent.

And I caught the first glimpses of goldenrod along the country roads this week, and I stopped into the florist to get a bundle of sunflowers for my lover.

It's Friday, I'm in love with life.