Simple, but long-term aquisitions

[TeeJay]

Those things which have been sought for ages, and finally become acquired. Not just a nice new watch, or a car, or even a house, but even the most simple of things. Well, that happened for me yesterday Let me tell you a story:

About five years ago, I was working at the head office of a car finance company (they went bust fairly recently ) and, this was, to date, the best job I'd had. It wasn't particularly glamourous, just setting up new client accounts and a little under-writing, but, it was a good crowd to work with, a nice office, good pay (and every morning, a local catering company would bring in all manner of sandwiches and snacks, I was rather partial to their pizza wraps... ) and beat the hell out of the retail management job I'd been in for several years. But, things weren't to last for two reasons. One: I'd been promised a transfer into the underwriting department, which was something I had a real flair for, but it never actually happened, so, I got rather disillusioned and demotivated about my work, and Two: The relationship I was in ended at the same time, sending me into a very brief, but very deep, depression. Needless to say, I didn't care about doing any work, and in the end, during a meeting to see if I could 'improve my performance', I quit. Anywho, as it turned out, the company went bust a few years later, so I would've lost the job eventually, and, it meant I was able to move on, without having to compete with everyone in the company for a new job Anyway.... The manager who oversaw my department, had a ball on his desk. It looked kind of weird, so one time, I asked him about it, and he said it was made of rubber bands, and he'd actually found it in his desk when he'd started. From that moment, although it was not a 'Driving Passion', I really wanted a rubber band ball of my own

Fast forward five years, and in that time, the 'Ball Quest' was a burried, near repressed memory, until yesterday... While doing some work, I was doing some tidying, and wound up with at least twenty or thirty rubber bands. At first, I thought, where should I store them? Would they come in handy? Then, I remembered recently reading an article of 'bloke skills', where it said that every 'man' should be able to make a ball of rubber bands, and, the dim memory of the rubber band ball re-surfaced, so, I got to work, and, the result, is this:

My very own rubber band ball

At the moment, it's only about the size of a golf ball, but, now I have it, I plan on adding to it, when more free bands become available

How does it handle? Well, being utterly not smooth, it's incredibly tactile, so a good 'stress reliever' toy, and, being rubber, it bounces rather well. (A moderately hard downward throw will get a bounce of at least eight feet) Have I sat bouncing it off a wall Steve McQueen-style?

But, the most satisfying thing about it, is not that I made it myself, nor how much fun it is, but, the fact that it's something I've wanted for quite a while, and finally been able to aquire with almost no effort on my part

What're your simple, but satisfying aquisitions, and the stories behind them?

[FxrAndy]

Strange person lol

[TeeJay]

Strange person lol

You know what they say, 'simple pleasures for a simple mind'

[omegaunit]

Oh man, that is funny!

I too came across a rubber band ball while looking through a desk at work, 6" in dia.

[TeeJay]

Oh man, that is funny!

I too came across a rubber band ball while looking through a desk at work, 6" in dia.

That's crazy size I was aiming more at baseball size, but 6" diameter is huuuuge

[scoobs1971]

My very own rubber band ball

Great story! Already tried it as a sticky ball to open up case backs?

[TeeJay]

Great story! Already tried it as a sticky ball to open up case backs?

I don't think it's 'squishy' enough, but I could always try

[fakemaster]

I saw the world's biggest ball of twine.