Tine Purchases a Red Pencil

Tine's walk was a purposeful one again today. The view from the window was a rather gray and dreary, and a look at the digital barometer confirmed that view, though the pictograph added some rather pleasing snowflakes that weren't, in fact, to be seen outside. "A pen barograph wouldn't have done that, Tine thought, but this is the digital age and one must adapt. In any case, the snowflakes are rather nice."



Despite the uninviting prospect from the window, Tine prevailed on Rubob to put down his newspaper (also gray and dreary, after all) and join her on a shopping trip for a red pencil, a very sharp red pencil.

"You have a red pencil," Rubob said.

"I need a sharp red pencil," Tine replied.

"We have a sharpener, Tine."

"I would prefer a new red pencil," Tine said, decisively. When Tine decides to do something, there's not much that can be said to dissuade her, and the proof of that is in the picture below, showing Tine carrying a red pencil home from the shopping center.



The photo below shows the actual snowbanks mentioned above, minus Tine (or perhaps Tine was too small to be seen):



Tine was determined to set things right in her life, to confront the disarray Rubob had brought to her attention the previous day, and she thought she might start with a red pencil.

“How’s a red pencil going to help with the disarray in our lives, Tine?” Rubob asked.

“We can circle things that are amiss, Rubob.”

“It would take more than a red pencil to fix the disarray in our lives, Tine.”

“I think that’s the weak passive voice, Rubob, and I’m going to circle it, but I’m not really sure. I can’t see how it could be said otherwise – or even how I might say it otherwise. But I think circling it would be a good idea.”

Here’s one of tine’s circlings:



“That looks a little more like a pickle than a circle, Tine,” Rubob said.

“Maybe we’re in a pickle because of the disarray in our lives, Rubob. But it's going to be fixed, starting today,” Tine said.

“You should put a red pickle around that, too, Tine -- or say, 'I'm going to fix it, starting today.' "

"That does sound a little more determined, doesn't it, Rubob?” Tine said.

“But it’s our finances that are in disarray, Tine – not our grammar," Rubob continued, quite drearily, in fact, bearing out the barometrical forecast, minus the pleasant snowflakes. "Finances are more important than grammar. "

“If grammar’s not important, why are they cutting children’s heads off and hanging them on the trees outside the grammar school, Rubob?” Tine said, harking back to a walk she took earlier this week.

Rubob looked at Tine uncomprehendingly (as he is wont to do). Rubob had taken that walk in spirit only, as a shadow participant, as Rubob might say, and shadow participants don't always pay attention to things, especially not things only Tiny tends to notice.

But to get back to Tine's red pencil. The truth of the matter is that Tine had come up with a plan to help Rubob with his finances, which were, as you know, in disarray. "If I can't help out by doing sums and baking pies, like the restaurateur who used to live in the house with the Christmas lights, maybe I could help out by doing something with words," Tine had thought. She'd been mulling this plan over for quite a while, in fact. "I'm partial to words (though I don't much care for grammar). I'll order a large package of words and buy a red pencil."

Tine wasn't exactly sure what she'd do with the package of words and the red pencil, but something would come to mind, she thought. "Perhaps I could rearrange them, maybe winnow out the best ones, like apples, and resell them to others with a fondness for words."

Things happen very quickly when Tine sets her mind to, well, things, and yesterday evening a box of words arrived on her icy, snowy doorstep. (There was a bit of slush, mush and sludge on the doorstep, too, Tine thought, reflecting once again on her pleasant walk with Rubob's shadow.) It was an enormous package, and Tine thought she might have to return to the store for more red pencils before long (which would make a nice interlude, as a walk always does).

"What was in that cardboard box in the hallway, Tine?" Rubob asked, seeing the empty carton and thinking about his finances.

"Nothing, Rubob, just some words."

Tine is eager to relate all the details of her walk to the shopping center today, but she'll have to do it later, because she's already begun work with her box of words and her red pencil. Many of you might not be inclined to return to the blog, having little interest in a quest for a red pencil, but as it happens, Tine's walk didn't turn out to be simply, or solely, a quest for a red pencil.

Walks often start out with a very practical intent ("and so they should," Rubob thought, reading this incomplete entry to today's walk) , but they soon venture down unexpected pathways. The pathway that Tine and Rubob took was not only unexpected but it led to a singular discovery -- well, actually not a singular discovery, because something was found in addition to a red pencil. It was more like a dual discovery.

Perhaps we should have a tease for a later blog entry about the walk, Tine thought, a preview, like they do for 11 o'clock news stories: "Egyptian mummy discovered: More at 11." That's not as preposterous an idea as it sounds, because Tine and Rubob had indeed stumbled on an Egyptian mummy. It might not have been Egyptian, and it might not have been an actual mummy, but Tine and Rubob had found something very much like a mummy, except for a few important particulars. The story, however, will have to wait for Tine's "Nightbeat," as the 11 o'clock news is called hereabouts. "Mummy at 11!" Tine thought. "I'll stick with the cartoons and commercials," Whiny thought.

Whiny was home from school, watching TV ads and eating a pancake left over from breakfast, with nearly a half jar of grape jelly on it. Her rag doll, little Wilbur, had a spot of grape jelly on his nose. "Which would you rather do, Whiny: run a mile, jump a stile or eat a pancake in a field?" Tiny asked. Whiny was too engrossed in her pancake and her television to reply. Tine thought she might have heard Little Wilbur say, "Eww!!" but that could have been because Little Wilbur had Whiny's grape jelly on his nose.

Tiny, looking up from her words, which were still in disarray, and her red pencil, said she would get to the particulars of today's walk, eventually. She added, by way of a preview: "All in all, it was a very pleasant walk."