Chain of events...

This morning I had to take my beloved 4x4 to the shop to have some work done. I spent about $350 last December having the upper and lower ball joints replaced so I could save my tires and here we are in October and I'm probably going to need at least one new ball joint.

For those of you who don't know, ball joints connect your wheels to the front end of your vehicle and they allow them to pivot and turn easily. Ideally without making a loud high-pitched metal-on-metal squeal like I'm currently experiencing. Constantly.

And the funny part is that when I purchased the joints there were three grades of increasing "quality" and price. Crappy, not-as-crappy and gold-plated crap. The gold-plated crap upper joints that I purchased were supposed to be the best on the market. And now I'm having to replace one less than a year after purchasing them.

What sucks about this is that had I suspected that I had a bad ball joint, I wouldn't have driven my truck to South Carolina. It's all fun and games until your wheel breaks off of the truck going down a twisting mountain interstate.

The humor in this is that I purchased the $60 "not-so-crappy" lower joints and they are fine, but the $100 upper joints are literally gold-plated crap and they're screaming for mercy.

I told you that story to tell you this story.

I had to have Piccu come pick me up at the mechanic and bring me to the office this morning. We were on our way through town and I happen to look in a hatch in the Jeep and sitting there was a good friend of mine.

Sivart will know exactly who I'm talking about when I say his name. The friend I found was good ol' Pakistan. Pakistan is a hawk-bill pocket knife that I bought at a convenient store for like $3.99 maybe as far back as high school. At least college, but he's the best pocket knife ever.

I have literally been looking, although not that hard, for a replacement for Pakistan for about 3 years and couldn't bring myself to purchase one because all good pocket knives cost too much. And you are risking too much spending a lot of money on sunglasses and pocket knives. Sunglasses just because they are too easy to break and pricey knives make you feel bad when you beat on them or break the tip off trying to prying on something stupid.

Pakistan is special because he has his name written on the blade. Sure some might tell you that has something to do with where the knife was made, but those people are stupid.

And so ends the blog entry of a 12 year-old.

I'm just hoping that French Toast doesn't make Merlin delete this post since we all know her stand on guns. Or at least BB guns. I hope she doesn't have the same aversion toward knives.