Editing The Pen Addict 366/transcript (section)

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' We ready for story time?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, let me go first. So this one comes from Kelly. Kelly says, I am a weird pen person from Montana. And when you talk about your pen horror stories, I had to send in this one. I put it in the Inksplosion category under the subcategory of Eyedropper Noob. I had recently purchased a Gamma ES pen. What is that? Maybe it's Gamma Eyes. Maybe it's just a typo. Okay. I still don't know what that is. From FPR, when my wife and I traveled to northern Alberta, Canada during the summer of 2017 for a special event. Although I had never used an Eyedropper pen before, I liked that the pen was completely made of ebonite. And had that matte black kind of handmade look to it. And the price was a good place to start. I decided to bring the pen on the trip with us. Not even giving a second thought to the possibility of an inky disaster. Why would you, right? You're just taking your pen out with you all in a day. It's no problem. Yeah, no big deal. The drive north from Montana into Canada took us through the Banff and Jasper National Parks. And I think it's one of the most breathtakingly scenic drives you could ever take in North America. But I think it also contributed to coming from Fountain Pen Foible. The event... It also contributed to the coming Fountain Pen Foible is what I should say. The event we were traveling to was a religious one. And we had arrangements to stay with a couple whom we'd never met before. Oh dear. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Oh, I don't like the sound of this. And we'd only corresponded via email. That detail, right? Like that detail we'd never met before. It's like we're setting up the awkwardness. Okay. Obviously, we were somewhat apprehensive about this. But fortunately, we had a lot in common and hit it off with him straight away. That seems good so far. However, the morning after we arrived, I decided to use my new pen. I sat in the bed. Oh, God. I unscrewed the cap and proceeded to spill probably two milliliters of black ink, some on my lap, but most of it falling right onto the white bedspread. I suppose it could have been worse. At least I didn't spill ink on a priceless family heirloom. And our new friends were completely kind and understanding about the whole thing. I found out later that the husband had a fountain pen that he uses from time to time as well. I mean, they're Canadian, so I probably could have burned their house down and they would have apologized to us for our clothes getting all smoky. But I still feel like a complete idiot. We went to Walmart that afternoon to buy some uninked bedding. Looking back, I think the beautiful mountains that we drove through and over-likely created enough of a change in pressure to force out most of the ink into the substantially-sized barrel of the pen and the cap. I learned my lesson. And while I love writing with the pen, I do not travel with it. Thanks for the show. I look forward to it every week, even though my wife thinks I'm the biggest nerd on the planet. Well, if that's the case, imagine being the wife of someone who makes this show. I think that makes you a little bit more nerdy. So, this is terrible. It's not terrible enough.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, I mean, I agree. But I just sit here like this 100% could happen to any of us. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is like everyone's worst fear traveling with a fountain pen. Now, I haven't driven through lots of elevation to know what would affect that and how it would affect that. I'd be interesting to know. We have some of our listeners. I know a lot of our listeners live at elevation. I wonder if they experience changes if they're having to make that type of travel in a single day carrying like a fountain pen and how it would change it. I would imagine there's certainly some. And I just can't imagine the color of red my face would be when I had to go tell the guests who I just met the night before what I had just done to their spilling the ink on the bed sheet. That would be like the next ink I do. Brad's face on fire, I guess, would be the next ink color because that would be rough. But amazing story from Kelly. Not a horror story. Hall of Fame. I vote a long line with you. But, man, I would be just ill. I would be ill.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Maybe if you dumped it on the carpet, we might be getting there. Right? Because the bed spread can be replaced. Or if, in fact, it was like the family comforter that had been passed down from generation to generation.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, like the grandma's quilt. Exactly. That would have been brutal.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That she made by hand. Unfortunately, grandma passed. And you were going to the funeral of grandma. Oh, my gosh. Right? This is how we're getting there. Don't give people ideas. Don't give people ideas. Okay. This is how we're getting there.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They'll be panicking the next time they're using their fountain pens. And we don't want that. We don't want that. All right. You ready for me? Yes. All right. I haven't looked at this picture yet, so we'll have to pull this up when I get to it. Yeah. I've opened it, but I haven't looked. All right. This is from Jim. It says, I should have sent this story a good while back, but figured this might race to the top of the pile. Jim, you know me pretty well. And I think this email is from 2018, so let me know how that worked out for you. It says, so a few months back, I bought an Omos 360 Meso from Burt Ozer through Slack. I bought it knowing ahead of time that the nib was out of alignment with the triangular grip the 360 is famous for, and that it was a cartridge-only pen, figuring I could adjust it myself or just sell it for break-even or minimal loss since the price was super good. Well, a few months later, I decided its cartridge system was too much of a hassle. Well, here are some pics, so we'll put the pics in the show notes, and I got to look at the damage that Jim is doing here. All right, so you can see the misaligned nib and the chassis the cartridge fits into. Fast forward a few months, and I took decision to sell it, but I decided it would be easier if the nib was aligned. I'm not sure if you've ever tried to remove an Omos feed, but it's incredibly hard, and even more so since the feed is usually made of ebonite. Compound this with what is likely plenty of caked ink, and, well, I had a struggle on my hands. After hours of futzing with a rubber grip, warm water, and buckets of elbow grease, I finally got the nib out and properly aligned. The problem? I ruined the piston used by the cartridge chassis. It was essentially not threaded anymore. What's worse is that I tried to use some shellac to get the rear knob to fit the screw. All that did was crack the rear housing, so I was hosed, and I ultimately just gifted the pin as is to my good friend Ralph, who was staying at my place at the time. Lesson learned. Be aware. Pin disassembly. So this is cringeworthy on many levels, and I feel Jim's pain here. It's like, so I come at this perspective kind of like Jim. It's like, you know, I'm an experienced fountain pen user. You know, I'm not a professional. I know what I'm doing. I'm not a professional repairman, but I know what I'm doing. And I can fix this, right? The first thing that always freaks me out is nibs that are more set in their barrels, like this Omos that Jim had. Me, personally, it's like my pilot and sailor nibs. I never pull those out because I'm just scared of the pressure I'm going to have to impact on them. I get scared every time.