Musings on pencils

Most homes I know have at least one or two pencils lurking about- hidden under papers in the junk drawer or stuck in the cup by the phone with the pens. The lead may be broken, they may be short and stubby, but if you really need a pencil, you can usually find one somewhere.

Except... I couldn't. It's tax time, and I need to plug some figures into a form supplied by our accountant. I usually do it in pencil, so that I can easily change the figures (too bad the form isn't on-line) and keep it legible. So I looked in every drawer, purse, suitcase, etc. in our flat, and no pencil. I had to actually go to the store and buy one!

That lead me to think about all the pencils we disposed of prior to our move here. Where did they come from? Did I ever actually buy any? I don't remember EVER picking up a pack of pencils to purchase them except at back-to-school time, years ago when students were required to have #2 pencils. Sometimes I bought special "funky" pencils for the kids as gifts, but that was YEARS ago too. Do they just hide away for all those years until needed? Do visitors or salesmen leave them on the table or desk in the house? Did we pick them up at the bank, or an office, and bring them home? How many were acquired as a result of asking "Hey, have you got a pencil I can use?"

And at the store today? Even in Prague there was too much choice. How many should I buy? Should I buy a mechanical pencil or just a plain old wooden one? What type of lead? Why aren't there any with erasers on the end? Do I want plain ones or ones with a design? Do I really need a pack of ten? or even three? Ah- there's a single pencil (#2 1/2 lead - no eraser) with a package right next to it containing a sharpener and an eraser. I grabbed it up - all set. The perfect beginning to my new European pencil collection.

And now - how many pencils do YOU have??