5 minute freewrite 2687 prompt I own the patent

This is my post for #freewriters 2687 prompt I own the patent hosted by @mariannewest

I have written about this before, but if it will save someone else's invention, I will write about it again and again. Being a woman and fishing around all men made it difficult when I needed to pee. For twenty years, my bladder suffered.

One night I was watching a documentary about astronauts, and they were showing how they used the bathroom. The women would hold a funnel in place and a vacuum helped release their pee.

This set my brain to thinking if I could use a funnel and a hose when I was on the boat. I went to Wal Mart and bought the three pack of funnels then I took the smallest funnel to Home Depot and bought the size tubing that fit the funnel. I got the length I needed and when I got home I put them together and crimped a net lead around one end of the tubing. The lead helps keep it in place.

I always wear slickers when fishing so now all I have to do is slide the tubing down my pant leg, or in some pants I cut a hole in the thigh, the end of the tubing I put down in a 2 liter bottle that I hold between my feet. Now I can "go" and none of the other fishermen know what I am doing.

You would think that I own the patent on my invention, but I do not. I saw on TV that you could send in your invention and a company would help you get a patent on it.

I sent in all the info on how I made it, and a nice man contacted me. He was very interested in how it worked, and we had several conversations. I even told him I called it PAM for "pee as man". I never heard anything else from him. Maybe a year later, my sister was flipping through a magazine and saw something like my device. I have always wondered if that man took my idea.
photos are mine