Grey sky.

Whining and fountain pens. There is nothing today but darkness and a weirdly humid heat for March. I have the air conditioning on, actually. It is a good day to stay inside, send spring cards to friends and family, and do some online shopping for pens and inks. I ordered my second fountain pen today, a Waterman Hemisphere in the stainless steel finish. I also ordered two bottles of Waterman ink: one blue and one green. I'm going to put the green in the steel Hemisphere in celebration of spring. The blue is for my Phileas; since it is itself blue, I can't bring myself to put anything but blue ink in it. I received a very attractive Levenger True Writer on Thursday. I didn't bother to research it or anything before I ordered it, and I read lots of negative "don't buy this pen!" reviews only after the order was placed. Issues involved ink flow, cap posting, weight, etc. Well, I opened my True Writer with a big smile on my face. The cap posted nicely. The finish was nothing short of beautiful. I went to put in the converter, and CRACK. The damned pen just broke apart right in my hands. Off we went to the local shop to get another fountain pen -- and to the post office to send Levenger back their piece of junk. Sitting at a red light, I thought it was funny that the nice FedEx man was still on his route while the Levenger pen and ink he just brought me were already on their way back to Levenger, in Florida. My nice blue Waterman Phileas (fine point, of course) came home with me straight away, and I took it with me to a colloquium on Scheler which one my favorite professors was giving that afternoon, to take notes. More importantly, though, I learned four lessons that day. One, never buy any of the over-priced crap from Levenger. Two, always research fountain pens at least a little before you invest in them. Three, I really like Waterman pens. Four, I have far too much free time these days.