Bummed out by a pen

A couple of months back my wife washed my favorite ball point pen. Not only did she wash it, but I place the full blame of the incident on her. We have an unwritten rule in our house that whoever throws the item of clothing in the dirty clothes basket is responsible for checking the pockets for any items.Parker pen refill

This is a pen that I have not used a whole lot through the years, but it was given to me by my Grandfather several years ago. It is a simple Parker pen.

As a result of the washing, the ink oozed out the end of the ink stick. I went to Office Depot to get a refill. They were out, but I was assured that they would have more “next week.” That is the Mexican way of saying: “We don’t have any right now and we may or may not have ordered more, but if you come back next week you can find out if there are any.” In other words, the salesmen has no idea, but you can check next week and you will know about as much as the salesman does.

I checked back “next week” every so often through the last couple of months. Finally last Tuesday they had them in stock again. I plopped down my $3.50 and bought one. I thought it was a little steep on the price, but I had my sentimental (if not terribly expensive) pen back.

Sunday I announced to my wife that I had misplaced my pen and that I would appreciate her being on the look out for it. Yesterday she found it…as she was pulling the clothes out of the washing machine. Argh!

This time, however, it was my fault. I contemplated having a good cry right then and there. But, I was relieved to open the pen and find that the ink was not escaping. Tragedy averted; or so I thought. This morning I went to use the pen and it felt gummy when I clicked it open. I pulled it apart and the ink was oozing out again. Sigh.

I have it cleaned up right now, but am not hopeful that it will stop the bleeding. I just can’t convince myself that it is worth spending more money on at this time since I am currently carrying two other pens on a regular basis. I guess I will clean it well and put it in the drawer for future use.