Progress Report AND A Recurrence of Brag-Dad

Day	What	How Much	Duration	Pen	Ink
25 April 26 April 27 April 28 April	Second draft of “A Mistake of Timing.” Second draft finished. Second draft of “Poor old Michael Finnegan.” So very close to finished!  Arg!	1,052 words typed. Total of 4,779 words. 1,044 words. 909 words.	45 min. 40 min. 45 min. 40 min.	Waterman Master Sheaffer Saratoga Waterman Phileas Pelikan New Classic	Waterman Florida Blue Quink black Herbin Poussière de Lune Diamine Steel Blue

While I’m here, let me tell you all about something that I’m very pleased with.

Last weekend, while I was going through a drawer in an annex of my pen storage facility (which is to say, a bedside table), my son asked me how many pens I have.  It has been quite some time since he took any interest in such things, and I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t have the answer readily to hand.  If I were a petty fellow, I’d ask him to tell me the count of his wooden locomotives and when he came up blank I could have said, “There.  See?”

Since I’m not petty (too often), I made up a number based on a quick mental visualisation of the primary storage facility (the basement office), and then to avoid follow-up questions, I produced from the very drawer I was investigating a pen in a box.  A blue Pelikano Junior.  I told son that this pen had been bought specifically for him.

A moment of silence.  “Really?”

This was a true thing.  I did not remind him of the Griffix set, the pen of which he… neglected, we shall say, throughout 2013 and 2014.  It would have injured the moment.  I then asked if he wanted it brought out and inked.  This was greeted with some enthusiasm, which continued when that suggestion was put into action:

I dare you to tell me he’s not delirious with glee in this picture.

After some initial doodling with the pen, during which he attended to instruction, the pen was carefully placed in a selected location in his room, where it will be safe but accessible.  He hasn’t used it much since, and only for special purposes, but he looks in its direction frequently.

What I’m really proud of, because rendering my son gooney over a possession is a mixed triumph at best (I don’t practice Buddhism particularly well, but I do read it), is the way he holds the pen.  He has not only reached the age of reason, he has reached the age of sufficient manual dexterity:

That, folks, is a nicely relaxed grip of the correct shape, even if the pen is slightly rotated.  The buttons on my vest are under serious pressure.