sunday
Sunday - the day of sun. True for today.
I'm in the midst of the season I love - spring, late spring, nearly summer when it feels like summer. I was outside extra early yesterday letting the chickens out of their coop and I noticed the sound of the birds. It was the same sound you hear if you sleep out in a tent and as dawn comes you can hear the birds first waking up. Such a unique sound.
Last evening Dave and I were sitting near his garden in the 2 chairs under the crab apple tree. We had Andy on his leash and Rainy was standing close by. We saw a fox coming from behind the fallen elm trees. The fox had something in his mouth the size of a baby rabbit. It got about 30 feet out into the opening and then noticed us sitting there. Andy was perfectly quiet and so was Rainy. The fox studied us for a minute while we studied it and then decided to go back the way it first came. I was sad for the rabbit but glad the fox hadn't decided to make a meal of one of my chickens today.
As I was practicing piano last night I was thinking about my history with this piano. When Pat and I moved into the Bradleytown house in 1980 it was in the house. The owners weren't sure what to do it and I said I would buy it from them - for $150. We lived in that house till the summer of 1983 when the divorce became final so I had 3 years to play it. I didn't take music lessons. Certainly didn't have time for lessons. I was working full time as a night watch back then and my life was pretty messed up. I got a Simon and Garfunkel music book and tried to pick my way through the notes. Never understood reading music enough to play anything that sounded like anything. But I did enjoy playing chords (didn't know what the chords were that I was playing) and progressions of notes that expressed my sadness and frustrations with my marriage and life. After the divorce the piano got moved to my parent's garage and stayed there till 1999 when Dave and I bought the house we are in now. At that point we moved the piano into the basement of this house. I thought I might play it down there but never did. In 2018 I started to think I should get rid of it - it was just taking up space down there. Give it away. Whenever Mike and Chloe came to visit Mike would gravitate to it and play beautiful things on it. I told him I would give it to him. But just before Christmas in 2018 I got the idea that I wanted to play it again. I didn't want to give it away anymore. I felt pretty guilty that I had promised it to Mike and was going back on my promise but - too bad. Now I wanted it and I wanted to PLAY it. The Christmas present I asked for that year was for help to move it up to the living room and Jules and his boys helped Dave transport it up and around the outside of the house. To get it from the basement up to the front door we used Dave's trailer. There were 2 times we had to lift it and carry it - up onto the trailer and then off the trailer and up the one step into the front door. Geez it was so much heavier than I thought it would be. The thing I remember the most about moving it was the squeakiness of the tiny old wheels. I thought at any moment a wheel was going to crack off as we rolled it across the rough basement floor to the garage door. There was a mouse nest in it with a mummified mouse skeleton. I remember the smell inside it. The smell of age. The smell of years trapped inside it. Not a bad smell. I named it Grandfather Piano. It felt like such an event with everyone working together to move this huge old thing. Later when I had it tuned I came to find it was made in 1918 so it was exactly 100 years old when it came to have its present life in our living room. Anyway. Last night I was thinking - I've known you Grandfather for 41 years now. Some keys stick, and some keys play a bit dull but they all do work and are in tune and I love you! I'm glad I met you and held onto you.
Life is good.
I'm in the midst of the season I love - spring, late spring, nearly summer when it feels like summer. I was outside extra early yesterday letting the chickens out of their coop and I noticed the sound of the birds. It was the same sound you hear if you sleep out in a tent and as dawn comes you can hear the birds first waking up. Such a unique sound.
Last evening Dave and I were sitting near his garden in the 2 chairs under the crab apple tree. We had Andy on his leash and Rainy was standing close by. We saw a fox coming from behind the fallen elm trees. The fox had something in his mouth the size of a baby rabbit. It got about 30 feet out into the opening and then noticed us sitting there. Andy was perfectly quiet and so was Rainy. The fox studied us for a minute while we studied it and then decided to go back the way it first came. I was sad for the rabbit but glad the fox hadn't decided to make a meal of one of my chickens today.
As I was practicing piano last night I was thinking about my history with this piano. When Pat and I moved into the Bradleytown house in 1980 it was in the house. The owners weren't sure what to do it and I said I would buy it from them - for $150. We lived in that house till the summer of 1983 when the divorce became final so I had 3 years to play it. I didn't take music lessons. Certainly didn't have time for lessons. I was working full time as a night watch back then and my life was pretty messed up. I got a Simon and Garfunkel music book and tried to pick my way through the notes. Never understood reading music enough to play anything that sounded like anything. But I did enjoy playing chords (didn't know what the chords were that I was playing) and progressions of notes that expressed my sadness and frustrations with my marriage and life. After the divorce the piano got moved to my parent's garage and stayed there till 1999 when Dave and I bought the house we are in now. At that point we moved the piano into the basement of this house. I thought I might play it down there but never did. In 2018 I started to think I should get rid of it - it was just taking up space down there. Give it away. Whenever Mike and Chloe came to visit Mike would gravitate to it and play beautiful things on it. I told him I would give it to him. But just before Christmas in 2018 I got the idea that I wanted to play it again. I didn't want to give it away anymore. I felt pretty guilty that I had promised it to Mike and was going back on my promise but - too bad. Now I wanted it and I wanted to PLAY it. The Christmas present I asked for that year was for help to move it up to the living room and Jules and his boys helped Dave transport it up and around the outside of the house. To get it from the basement up to the front door we used Dave's trailer. There were 2 times we had to lift it and carry it - up onto the trailer and then off the trailer and up the one step into the front door. Geez it was so much heavier than I thought it would be. The thing I remember the most about moving it was the squeakiness of the tiny old wheels. I thought at any moment a wheel was going to crack off as we rolled it across the rough basement floor to the garage door. There was a mouse nest in it with a mummified mouse skeleton. I remember the smell inside it. The smell of age. The smell of years trapped inside it. Not a bad smell. I named it Grandfather Piano. It felt like such an event with everyone working together to move this huge old thing. Later when I had it tuned I came to find it was made in 1918 so it was exactly 100 years old when it came to have its present life in our living room. Anyway. Last night I was thinking - I've known you Grandfather for 41 years now. Some keys stick, and some keys play a bit dull but they all do work and are in tune and I love you! I'm glad I met you and held onto you.
Life is good.