A new fountain pen arrived via UPS the other day. It’s a Narwhal pen that has a piston to draw the ink into the barrel rather than a cartridge. I thought this would mean less ink fills as the entire barrel of the pen fills with ink rather than just a small cartridge. It’s a beautiful pen with a marble design, lightweight and summer-like.

Well, it’s a different kind of apparatus than the cartridge-type fountain pens and I think I may have broken it right from the get-go.

The directions said to twist the end-cap counterclockwise until you feel resistance.

The problem was, I didn’t read the directions until after I had twisted it beyond resistance and I heard a small click. I can’t get it back together now.

My disappointment in my ability to read directions first as precautionary measures as opposed to after-thoughts can not be understated. 

I should have immediately taken the whole set-up directly to my husband to have him figure things out. He attends to these kinds of details and reminds me that I struggle with potato chip bags.

Nothing is safe.

I will have to send it back to the company and confess my error. I could not find any other people online that have had this problem. Perhaps I am either the first, or others won’t admit to this act of careless ignorance. 

I imagine how this conversation with go between the two men (I’m picturing men) that will have to fix this pen.

“Where is this woman from?” Pen-fixer #1 will say to Pen-fixer #2 as they speak about the situation.

“Northern Minnesota,” Pen-fixer #2 will reply. 

“Oh – – way up in the sticks, eh?” (he’ll add the “eh” as a joke believing we all add “eh” to our sentences here.) I’m not surprised. I’m sure she’s probably only used those cheap BIC Z4 Roller glide pens before.” He’ll roll his eyes to the other guy.

They’ll laugh at this. “Har – har – har!”

“Ya – probably never even seen a pen like this before. It’s way outta her league. She should have taken it straight to her husband. My guess is, he’s a hunter and has guns. If he knows how to clean a gun, he could have operated this for her.”

They’re not wrong.

Except for the “eh” and the “ya”.

Anyway, I’ll risk the conversation they’ll have about me and wrap it up and send it back today. 

I believe I’ve also some some damage to my back with the rollerball I used the other night. I’d spent about 15 minutes trying to roll out some knots and kinks in my back. Afterwards, I checked on the internet to see what other rollerball exercises I could do for my back. 

The first post that came up was one describing inappropriate moves of what NOT to do or you could really cause some damage.

So . . . those were the moves I had just finished doing.

I am in some pain today and walk like an 90 year old lady.

I’m seeing a pattern here.

Note to self: If you don’t know what you are doing, read the directions first.

I am participating in the 14th Annual SOL 2021 March challenge. For 31 days, I will attempt to write and share a small slice of life from my days. If you’d like to read more of today’s slices from other teacher-writers, please head over to twowritingteachers, who have also committed to this challenge.