I bought the pencil when we first moved to Small Town, USA, 17 years ago. DS2 was 14 and DD was only 12. The first few months we drove back to our former town most weekends, as we knew people there, and did not know anyone here.
Soon the novelty of driving 6 hours a weekend grew old and we began to stick around town. This tiny town, however, held no excitement for us, so we often went to Nearby Larger City to shop and look around. It held museums, minor league baseball games, and actual malls with non-discount store venues.
There was a favorite store we often haunted that sold art supplies. The store is still in the city but has changed location. One day I spotted this pencil and it was love at first sight. The knurled grip, the boxy construction, and the .5 leading all led to a desire for an intimate relationship.
I was an IS director at that time, and precise pencils are de rigueur in that field. I integrated the new pencil into my life and enjoyed using it. From the first moment I used it, it felt right, it had a look I liked (I really like white) and it immediately became My Pencil.
I have used My Pencil every day since. Until. On Wednesday, January 9, I lost it.
I had been using it near the computer that morning. When my friend stopped by to meet with me for Middle School Band stuff, I went to grab My Pencil from the computer area, and it was --- GONE. At the time, I just picked up a Black Warrior, my favorite wooden pencil, but no comparison, really, to the real thing. After she left, however, I turned the room upside down searching for it.
DH understood the magnitude of the loss and helped me look. We expanded the search to the kitchen, and eventually to the whole house. In the ensuing days, we would catch each other lifting chair cushions, digging around the furniture crevices, opening drawers and frowning. We both knew -- we were searching for it.
Within a week or two, I could not last. I began an online search for a replacement. Koh-i-Noor Rapidomatic 0.5. By definition, it is white. The 0.7 is green, and the 1.0 is red.
It's been discontinued. They still make the larger formats but have stopped producing the .5. I even called a vendor who called the manufacturer -- no pencils. I called a 2nd vendor in case the first one was lying. No pencil.
So I compared all the prices and ordered a .7. I received it within a day or two and have been using it since.
Using the .7 has not been as satisfactory as I had thought it would be. Sure, it has the knurled grip, the hexagonal body, the responsive click. But it's a .7. And it just reminds me of the pencil I still sorely missed. The. Pencil. It was sort of like losing your husband and marrying his brother. It just wasn't the same.
Today I had a busy morning. Dog to groomer. Zoom to elementary school for photo shoot. Came home to get a few things done before lunch at City Hall.
DH asked me if I had a few minutes. Sure, I said. He took me into the LR and began going through some of our antique books. I was polite but impatient. "Where is all this going?" I wondered.
Finally, he said, "Let's go to your appointment book and check out our schedule."
"Ah," I thought. "He's going to ask me for a date." (That wasn't it. Am I on drugs to think such a thing?)
We walked to my book and I picked up my pencil from its customary place in the book at Today. I looked at him expectantly.
He burst into gales of laughter. Pointed. I looked down. There. In my hand. Was.
.
.
.
.
My. Pencil.
.
.
I laughed.
.
.
I cried.
.
.
.
I hugged him with such ferocity.
.
.
My pencil.
My pencil!!!
MY PENCIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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