Look how they slaughtered my boy.
(It was me)
I loved this pencil case, and I’m heartbroken.
I’ve had this thing for fucking ages and it was a wonderful pencil case. Nice size, sturdy material, it had a lining.
After a couple years of not drawing much, I took my sketchbook and this case to the zoo on Sunday. When it was finally time to set pen to paper, the zipper wouldn’t open. Not just that it was stuck, but I couldn’t get it to budge in either direction.
I decided not to force it while we were at the zoo, since I didn’t want it to open explosively and leave me with a couple dozen loose implements. But I figured there was a thread caught in the zipper, and I could cut it open, repair the zipper, then mend the side.
Despite the small voice in my head telling me to cut it on the bias to minimize fraying, I went with a long lateral cut, imagining a caterpillar embroidery patch. Also longer cut would give easier access for flipping it inside out to work on the zipper. After the incision was made and pens removed, I found there was not a loose thread stuck in the zipper. In fact, the interior seams were all nicely bound! (I ruined a very nice pencil case) (that was already ruined and inoperable)
When the patient was open on my table, the zipper kinda just behaved. I can’t see anything that would’ve caused the sticking except *maybe* (probably) wear/fraying on the zipper tape itself at the closed end.
*Maybe* (probably not), I could have figured out the right pressure/wiggling to get the zipper to work normally and gotten more years of use out of it, but instead I disemboweled it and set myself up for a difficult repair that wouldn’t actually solve the original issue.
A beloved object is lost.
I was strong and put the corpse of my old companion in the trash. I wasn’t strong enough to put it in the kitchen trash with all the wet gunk that goes in there. I put it in my office trash can that’s dry and dusty but still “clean” in case I break down and try to rescue it.
But I know that I’m better off switching my pencil case affection to a new thing-to-hold stuff, maybe one that I make myself with Qualities my old grey one could only dream of.
Maybe.
Probably.
Did you hear how *nice* that old one was? It had a *lining*