Using A Pencil: A Nevin Barich Blog Experience

Yesterday at work I asked somebody for something to write with, and you know what he handed to me?

A pencil.

The pencil. I swear, I didn't know they still made these.

The pencil. Beige. Pink eraser. Pointy lead tip.

The pencil. It had been way too long.

I mean, I don't know about you but when I'm not typing words, I'm using pens. It's nicer, easier, more durable, and these days they make pens with erasers. Pencils have gone the way of the VCR: There's nothing with them, but better technology has been created and now they're obsolete.

Me and the pencil. Together again.

And it wasn't like me and the pencil had a falling out or anything. We both just sort of grew up and became different people. There wasn't any animosity on either side. We just both went our separate ways.

And you know what happened when we met up again yesterday? It was like nothing had changed. I used the pencil just like I used to. It wrote for me in a way that told me, "Hey: No hard feelings." I even fiddled with it, twirled it and put it behind my ear at one point.

Like no time had passed at all. :-)

We have some friends who are like that. You don't see that person for three, four, even five or six years. Then you meet up and you go right into your old routine. You talk easily, play off each other, laugh. You catch up quickly, reminisce about old times, crack the same jokes.

It's nice. :-)

The pencil and I had a lovely morning. We grew up together, it and I, and it was nice to see that connection was still there.

Afterwards, the pencil and I parted. I went back to pens, the pencil went back to its well-deserved retirement. When will we next cross paths again? It's difficult to say. These things have a way of just coming together randomly. But I do know that when we will do, it will be like we had just seen each other yesterday.

Me and the pencil.

A bond that will last through the ages.

:-)

And now for this week's:

SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE

The governor of Arizona recently signed a bill allowing guns in businesses that serve alcohol.

Yeah, this shouldn't cause any problems. :-)