Sometime back,I was playing my guitar(a cheap acoustic from China)in a friend's room here in college.Then I put it down upright aginst the wall.Some girl was standing next to it.I was going to make a cup of coffee or something.My buddy is sitting on his bed.I have my back to my guitar,I'm facing the table,and the bed is to my left side.Then my boy suddenly starts yelling some incoherent things to the girl.I'm hardly finished wondering what's with him when I hear this dragging noise,followed by a combination of wood(the guitar) and metal(the worm and gear)falling on concrete,coupled with srtings jangling like someone strumming an out-of-tune guitar rather loudly.So I turn,and my baby(it's a cheap thing that I bought for the equivalent of around US$52 which,having seen some really nice guitars on the web and in a guitar book I have,I don't think much of,but now I don't have it,I know it's a baby.Talk of "love me when I'm gone")is doing like the second or third bounce(progressively smaller).
Realise that all this has happened in the space of maybe five seconds,but this being written narrative,it looks long.
I can't remember how I cursed,but curse I did.When my buddy(he plays too) was yelling at the girl(she doesn't),he was trying to tell her to catch it,but couldn't get the words out.He saw it going down(I heard it-the dragging noise-going down).
So I bend down and pick it up.I check it out.It looks just fine.But don't let go of your breath yet.I've just remembered,the girl was his sister.So I take the guitar to my room.I'm excusing them,they got some personal stuff to talk about.Back in my room,I try to strum something,and it sounds soooo out of tune.I look again,and notice the action(height of the strings above the fretboard,for those who don't know)is like three inches or something.That's when I realise that the neck is broken.I turn it upside down,and the joint where the neck joins the body smiles back at me.

So there.

I went to a music store,and the guy there(he is in fact the very idiot who sold the guitar to me,while working at another music store,which was later closed)tells me that the standard price for that kind of repair is Shs 2500.I bought the guitar for 4000 bob.WTF?!?!?!?By the way,the guitar in question isn't actually the original.The true original had,guess what,a bad neck-body joint(it could be neck-headstock,d'uh),and I sent an e-mail complaining,and he said to go and change,so I did.Then here he is charging me that kind of money and asking me if it's an imported model(like that has anything to do with anything)and showing someone else's guitar,which needed similar repair,and which was charged that much.
So I left that store,and went to another.They said 800 bob.That's something,compared to the 2500.Then I went to a third store(it's the oldest,my favourite,I buy strings from there,they are the best stocked,I should have gone there first,only it's the farthest from college).They said 400.
That was agreeable to me.But the guy who was to do it wasn' there.So I left my now fatally injured baby,and told them to get it done.But when the guy came,he said it would cost not 400 but 800 bob,it was a lot of work blah blah blah.
Now,800 bob isn't a lot money,even for me.It's about 10.5 dollars.But I'm a bit broke right now,so it'll have to wait a bit.So I took mt baby back to college with me.I'll probably do it when I finish college,in five weeks time.
So now I'm childless.And shall remain so,for at least five weeks.And have to borrow from friends when I can and when they are not playing and feel like giving me...

It's tough being childless.