NOTE: This one is a little personal. Feel free to skip it.

In the early morning hours of July 21 I woke up with a cough. I coughed three or four times. Then I felt a pop. Knowing that there was little I could do and that often waking up in the middle of the night leads to irrational thoughts I went back to bed. When the sun rose and I got out of bed I knew the cough had consequences—I had a hernia. I will spare you details of its location.

I have been incredibly fortunate in my life in many ways, one of which has been my health. No tonsillitis, no appendicitis, no serious car crash, and aside from stitches when I was 7 and being burned by the corn starch in an air bag that went off during a very minor collision, I have had no ER visits. I had a bout of labrynthitis after flying with an ear infection (not a wise idea) and I broke my ankle while walking across my college campus (“A pebble took you down” is my wife’s refrain). That’s been pretty much it for me. No long term illnesses, no serious doctor visits, and no surgeries.

Let’s be clear, a hernia is not a big deal at all. It was uncomfortable when driving and sleeping, but the bigger issue for me was psychological. Because I had been so healthy for so long and continue to do pretty much everything I was doing when I was 25 I felt like I hadn’t really aged. Sure, my hair got whiter, my belly got pudgier, and I wasn’t as quick on the basketball court as I used to be (I was never quick, but comparatively speaking I am slower now) but for all intents and purposes I felt the same. Then in one night a cough caused a hernia and I felt old. I am in my late 40s and so to go that long without having that feeling was pretty good.

I had surgery to repair the hernia on Tuesday and it was my first surgery. It was an in and out surgery, which I am very grateful for as I hate hospitals. When I got home I felt like a pile of old skin. I couldn’t sit up. I was full of gas from the procedure. And body parts were pretty sore. Age had arrived and it was a bummer.

Then, as I was sitting on the couch pretty out of it, my wife, true cherub that she is, bounced in and handed me a package. Before the surgery I did a bunch of stuff to make sure I would not be missed while I was out of society for a week. At work I piled finished projects or nearly finished projects. At home I did a bunch of minor projects. And to keep this site rolling I ordered a new knife for review—the Urban EDC Supply Jib.

After being inflated like a pool float and cut at for four hours while being anesthetized, I had completely forgot about the Jib. Which is weird for two reasons. One I had just purchased the knife and two the Jib was something I had been pining for since its announcement.

As the site is halfway through its 16th year, there aren’t a lot of knives that I set my calendar for anymore. They will be there. And if they aren’t I didn’t need it anyway. FOMO has long since passed me by. And the flow of knives has been positively crushing. At a certain point I could stay up on releases, even if I didn’t buy them all. But now that is impossible. In an avalanche it is hard to find a single snowflake.

But the Jib was different. I had and reviewed an F5.5 and it was a great knife. It just happened to be three times the weight I want in a knife. I had the antiqued bronze one for review so it was definitely on the heavy end. After the review I planned on waiting and grabbing the “perfect one” i.e. a light one, but that never happened because as I was watching Urban EDC Supply announced the Jib. Jesper Voxnaes has always been one of my favorite designers, only a small step away from my all time favorite Jens Anso. Well, Michael Walker is my favorite, but his knives are a bit out of my budget AND its a given everyone’s favorite designer is Michael Walker; in the knife world when you ask that question you are actually asking: “Who is your favorite knife designer after Michael Walker?” I really enjoyed my premium CF/S35VN CRKT Pilar and the Jib had a lot of cues from that knife.

So on this terrible day when I felt 88 years old, my new knife arrived and as all Knife Guys will tell you, NKD is always a bit better than other days. I posted that I received the knife on IG and the cool thing was Yong-Soo Chung, the owner of UES and friend of the site, had packed and sent the knife himself. I am sure he had no idea when he shipped it, just how perfect his timing was. On a dreary day I got a sweet knife designed by a master, sent by a friend, and for the rest of the day my slow painful steps had a bit more bounce in them.

Yeah, I still love pocket knives. But I definitely hate getting older. Thanks Yong-Soo!