Common Sense

One of my absolute favorite things about living where we do is common sense almost always prevails. I love that, especially these days where things seem to be so confused and turned around. Along those lines, here's a story:

One day I was at Staples (one of my favorite places to feed my office supply addiction) and I was perusing the pen isle when I saw it. It was the perfect solution to all my work related pen problems. It was the NASA pen that can write upside down, in freezing temperatures, through grease and dirt and underwater. This was perfect for when I'm outside in the winter trying to write some notes about a house and its snowing or raining or I get hit with a ball of grease dropped from an airplane. This pen has been very good to me over the past few years and I often brag about it when I get the chance.

Well, one day last winter I was measuring a house and writing on my file folder with my NASA pen, and it was snowing. The homeowner was helping me measure (for some reason people always think I need help measuring, but in reality it's a thousand times easier when I measure solo) and he asked about the ink in my pen freezing. I took the opportunity to tell him all about my precious pen and how it is superior to all other pens in the case of snow storm writing. I told him all about how it can write in virtually any condition. I'm sure I went on in some detail and at length about my pen.

This gentleman was the prototypical Wyoming man. He had a deep, gruff voice and his words were few and thought out before they left his mouth. He asked if he could see my pen, and I gladly handed it to him. He examined it for a short time and asked if I wouldn't mind telling him how much I paid for it. I told him and he grunted out a "hmm" and handed it back to me. I suspected there was more to that response and asked him what he thought. He replied: "Well, I would have just used a pencil."

Needless to say, I don't brag about my NASA pen so much anymore.