The Best Things in Life

Am I the only person on earth who is frustrated with pens that don't write?

I'll be writing along my merry way and the pen stops writing. I'll scribble on a piece of paper to get it working again. I'm off and writing for a while and it quits again. And again and again. I have recently discovered if I write on the side of the nib of the pen this works too. I've tried it all.

Even my favorite pens stopped writing reliably so I contacted the company. They sent me replacements. They weren't much better. I tried a different pen. No luck. I contacted the pen distributor. They sent me replacements. They were not an improvement.

Then I had some plumbing done. My plumber left a complimentary pen. I was so excited, he left several extra. These pens are amazing. They don't do anything other than write. But they write!! Where and whenever I want them to write, they actually work!

Unfortunately pens don't last forever. Two of them are on their last legs. Have you ever dropped a pen and bent the nib? I have. There is a first for everything. Bent pen nibs don't write well.

In the meantime, I have re-discovered an invention they stumbled upon long before I was born. Pencils. Plain, ordinary pencils. Not the new fangled click for-more-lead pencils. Real, live, need-to-be-sharpened pencils. They are amazing.

Pencils work. All the time. Yes, the lead wears down or breaks. But they also invented pencil sharpeners (I made the wise investment of a battery operated sharpener and it is my second favorite office tool, after the pencil itself).

I make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Add an eraser to the pencil supply kit and you are good to go. Not all erasers are created equal. Make sure you invest in a good one. 

I do believe I heard somewhere along the way that NASA researchers worked diligently to invent a pen that would write in all conditions - upside down, in outer space, you name it. After all the research, you know what they discovered? Yep, you got it. Pencils.

Before I rediscovered the pencil, I was seriously considering getting some more plumbing done. Just for the pen. 

Yesterday's message was "the best things in life are free". Today's message is "some of the best things in life are the simplest of things". Just look around at what you already have and prepare to be amazed.