I haven’t talked to Tom online today. My guess is that he’s enjoying his weekend being a tourist. I hope he’s doing well and taking lots of pictures.

What am I up to lately?

Someone responded to my Freecycle want ad for a piano, and I have been working on the logistics of getting it from Parkesburg to Coatesville. The piano has a lot of character. Dark cherry wood. It’s very old – maybe 1910s or 20s? Slight detail in the moulding that looks sort of Arts and Crafts style. It was once a player piano, but the player mechanisms are in a box – they were taken out so that the piano could be tuned, but were never put back in. Autotone, NY. Upright grand. Ivory keys.

The problem is that it takes $300 to move the piano… and $90 to tune and $100 or so to restore the keys that stick a little (about an octave on each end) and / or are muted. This is from old felt that needs replacing, and possibly replacing a few strings (to the tune of about $30 each).

So, I’m looking for a way to get the piano to our house without hiring a piano mover so that I can put money into repair instead of acquisition.

Some guys from the neighborhood and a friend from church have offered to help, so we’ll see. I’m waiting to hear back from the people who have the piano if their truck will be available or if I need to rent one. A 10′ UHaul truck costs $19.95 + $0.69 a mile. It’s 8 miles from here to there.

This afternoon, our friend Nathan and I cleared out a large overgrown patch (it’s what’s growing behind Tom’s dad in this pic) in the way back yard. The Blackberry bushes from my friend Mary are all bearing fruit this year. I’m working to make the whole area into a garden. We’re hoping to share a garden with Nathan’s family. I figure it’ll encourage me to keep up with the weeds if I go in with friends 😉

Then, this evening, I went to Diana’s baby shower, thrown by Kate. We had Kate’s friend’s signature cake with raspberry filling. It’s truly amazing. Becky, Joyce, Jody, Susan, Liz, Tabitha and I all rode up together. We gave Diana a KidCo babyfood grinder – they’re my favorite.

In other news, we got a YMCA pool membership and have been hanging out there in the late afternoons. There is a plan in the works with our pool friends to have dinner there on Monday or Tuesday night. Looking forward to this.

Cool… Tom’s online… time to catch up. I miss him!!