$6.74
What we pay per gallon for diesel!

The Stamp

A Bank withdrawal is harder than you would think since we have to take along a special rubber stamp of our official logo, wrapped in paper and tied up with a rubber band for the ink sludge accumulated over fifteen years. The stamp requires a black ink pad, also wrapped and tied and the bottle of refill ink. Then there's the sheet of paper stamped a thousand times to test that the stamp is properly inked and positioned. All of this is carried in a jumbo zip lock bag inside a black carrying case. It just feels so 20^th century! Why do we do this? “Because the Bank requires the stamp” we were told “and that is the way it has always been done here.”

I asked about a self inking stamp. “Oh, you can't do that” we were told “because in order to get a new stamp you need a document of some sort from some department of some government office ... and we don't have the document and probably can't get the document without causing the end of the world....”

But one of my spiritual gifts is hardheadedness, so I found a place where they make self inking rubber stamps, thinking they would be eager to make a sale and wouldn't care about the missing document. WRONG! They do care about the missing document.

Later the epiphany hit! - what if the man at the self inking stamp store would sell me a blank self inking stamp? I could make my own! So I went back. He studied me like he was thinking “if this American would buy a blank stamp, what else could we sell him!” I rushed home, used a razor blade to slice the old stamp off the wooden base and glued it onto my new self inking stamper. My hand trembled as I pushed down, gently to test the stamp – caaashuuunk. It worked! I couldn't wait for the moment to whip out my new stamp in front of our office administrator. He said “I didn't think I would live to see this day”:)