Ugh, that sounds brutal. I got caught in a similar storm on the Wind River High Route a couple years back, 2 days of sideways rain and I swear my sleeping bag weighed 10 pounds by the end. The only thing that saved me was making up little games, like guessing how many minutes between raindrops hitting my tent in a specific pattern, and I reorganized my pack like 15 times just to have something to do. Also, I totally gave up on trying to stay dry and just embraced the swamp vibe, which honestly made it way less stressful.

Oh come on, you're making it sound like brain surgery. A dry fiber pen worked fine for me for years on old leaf shutters and I never bent or scratched anything. The trick is just not pressing down like you're scrubbing a burnt pan. Acetone soaks can loosen the blade pivot glue on some cameras too, I've seen that happen. But yeah, I guess if you wrecked a whole Canonet set in under a minute, maybe your technique needed some work more than the brush did.

Honestly @betty144, I switched to printing all my notes in all caps and it changed everything. Still messy, but at least I can read my own grocery list now. Also started leaving little drawings in the margins, and that made the chaos feel intentional somehow.

Yeah but your arm's gonna get tired real fast.

Honestly I used to think book clubs were just for casual chats too, but hearing that story makes me realize people actually do want the heavy stuff and just get sidetracked. Guess I owe my old group an apology for all the times I kept it light.