Often Music Helps

Brilliant statement coming from a piano technician, huh?

Working on a set of keys got delayed for far too long.  First is was that Friday grand piano damper job, then Saturday, umm, kinda went by.  Oh yeah, ordering flowers for P's funeral, a run to the dump, the bank, a tuning at the art association...time just gets used up.

So Sunday rolls around and I find that I have an incredible amount of catching up to do on the key job.  Aside from a fun little jaunt to do some antique and junk shop browsing, the entire day was spent in the workshop.  And I needed motivation to keep working along.

What better than some upbeat music.  What did I choose?  The first selection was Enchanted Carousel.

The second was Carousel Memories.

One of these recordings, I believe it is Enchanted Carousel is of a 165 band organ reproduction built by Verbeeck Organ Manufacturing of Belgium.  The only info I came across was that it replaced a Seabreeze Wurlitzer 165 after that organ burned.

Anyway, both recordings are a great deal of fun and kept me 'at it' rather than bemoaning the time involved.


And...while I was in that kind of mood, I ordered a calliope recording!

Life with Sad News

Which of course is much different from My Sad Life.  I was out doing some major piano work on Friday.  The job was far more involved than I anticipated, so I called home and asked my mom to drive a sandwich over to me for my lunch.  She did.  And she commented that the daughter of a long time friend had left a message on the answering machine requesting that my mother call her.  My mom couldn't figure out the number left to return the call.  Evidently when 'A' got home from work, she couldn't figure it out either.
I got back home at about 4:30 to find that the numbers they had been trying weren't correct.  I listened to the message...carefully...and jotted down  D's phone number.  My mom gave her a call while I went upstairs to change into comfy clothes.  Within a couple minutes my mom was calling me downstairs to take the phone.  She was very upset, shaking.  I talked to D and found out that her mom had died suddenly.

Fourth of July 2005, my dad and D's mom and dad watching the Rockport parade    Gloucester Times photo     

My mom and D's mom have been best friends since childhood.  My mom and dad and D's mom and dad had double-dated, traveled together, and shared a home briefly.  My dad and D's spent their careers working for the same company.  Our extended family.  Services will be next week.  Our thoughts and prayers are extended to D's dad and to the rest of their family.

Keeping Busy

being watched

Before I start on the end of yesterday, today a rather LARGE truck arrived next door to pick up the tree trunk left from yesterday's entertainment.  Yes, I watched it being loaded.  Yes, it was fun watching.  If people can't find fun in some notsoeveryday stuff, I don't care.  I can.

a wagon load of Marini Farm pumpkins

mom trying to find a good one

Yesterday afternoon the girls trekked to Marini Farm in Ipswich to buy pumpkins.  Actually it was my mom that wanted to buy two, then 'A' decided she needed one as well.  I like Marini Farm.  It's just a cool place with good food and yes, entertainment.  The corn maze is now open and I expect 'A' and I will traipse through it again this year.  Maybe I'll even take my camera so that you can see what it's like to be lost in a corn field.  This year should be better than last...we now know how the 'game' part of it works for 'collecting' rewards, so to speak.

My Sad Life

I suppose I should start by saying that last week a neighbor told me that a rather large tree at our backdoor neighbor's house was going to be cut down.  I should also apologize for the poor photo quality...shooting into the sun...no choice.

Great, I thought.  Something going on to watch.  A 40 to 50 foot spruce tree being cut down.  And it is sandwiched between another tree to the back, power lines to the front, and a house to either side.  This should be cool!

This morning they arrived at 8:30 and got all their equipment ready for the job.  A 'cherry picker', multiple chain saws, a shredded/chipper, and two large trucks.  I was hoping that they would get working quickly as I had to go volunteer at the historical society, but I also wanted to see at least some of the sawing action.

Wow, they did work quickly!  By the time I left at 9:25, you can see that they just had to whack off the trunk. (which they did in sections)

Anyway, while I was out watching, the property owner came home.  She parked her car down the street, out of the way, and walked on by me.  As she did I said, "Hi, T___, thanks for providing some entertainment this morning!"

She responded, "If you think that this is entertaining, you have a sad life."

And walked on.

Huh.  That was kinda mean.

Night Vision

'A' and I went for a walk in the dark tonight.  This is always a bit challenging in Rockport where sidewalks can be either rather narrow or very uneven...or both.  This seems to be mostly on Main Street.  And mostly on the busiest traffic section of Main Street.  Add to that the scarcity of street lights and the glare of oncoming headlights.  Challenging.  Tonight, as we walked back up the hill a brisk headwind was added to the rest of it.  The plus side of late season, nighttime walking is that there are no tourists to avoid.  I don't think we saw more than a half dozen people in our 2 mile walk.  One of those was Policeman Bob collecting the meter money.  I like playing around with taking flash photos in the dark of night.  Looking for possible good subjects and then taking a semi-calculated aim.  You just never know what you'll end up with.  At night a blue lantern can turn white.

The Blue Lantern

Trying New Stuff

Thought I'd try posting a video.  I'll have you know this took a bit, having never done it before.  You see when I had dial-up, it took way too long...a very, very, long time.  So this is one of my favorite commercials (it is not a product endorsement).

Duet in the Loo

Waiting

The darn loo is presenting more and more photo ops.  The first title that I thought of for this post was, "Pause and Rest".  Then, no offense to all my readers, it occurred to me that it might be a narrow knowledge field.  So it doubles as "Duet".

Yes, I'm bored.

Priceless Praise

So, the book "Priceless" by Robert Wittman hasn't been in the Recent Reads for very long..Having enjoyed it tremendously, I decided to loan it to a friend I thought would be particularly interested.  She's an art and antiquities lover.  I don't usually loan out books.  Those of you who have borrowed from me may consider yourselves to be among my trusted friends.  Anyway, I came home today and checked my email.  I found this message (identifying email addresses eliminated):

Subject:   Priceless

Darn you.  I can't put it down.

That was it!  I had a good laugh.  Yep, it's one of those.

555 Brings Some New In

Oh, don't bother to ask.  It's obscure.

So you notice that a change has happened around here?  I've had to keep challenged somehow.  Yes, it's fun playing with blogger.  Frustrating, too.  I want to put one of MY pictures in the background here.  And it IS possible to do it.  IF.  Yes a BIG IF - you can figure out how to size the image appropriately.  I still haven't.

When I get the pixel size large enough to fill the background (per the blogger recommendations), my file size is too large to upload.  I'll keep trying...now that I know how to get back to where I was...which is now here - with a blogger stock image.  If any of you have any helpful hints, please share!

So that's what I've been doing.  Oh, I've been working too - a bit.  Scraping by is all.  Need more work so that I can have more play.

When You Were My Age

It was 1987.  Where were you then?  In a beautiful home in Florida.  Not too big, yet certainly not small.  Very comfortable in it's period details which you were careful to preserve.

You were happy, mostly.  Yes, you were discovering that Florida was not where you wanted to be, but that didn't matter so much.  You had a husband willing to sacrifice for you.  To try to make you happy.  You missed Rockport?  No problem, you got to spend summers there.  He drove you back and forth each year.  Yes, he too was happy.

You were retired.  From what?  No career.  You had worked a retail job while your husband was still in college, another for 'fun money' later.  After I left home for college, yet another job for extra spending money.  Never was it necessary that you work.  He provided as you both expected that he would.  When he retired, so did you.  You were 49 when that happened as you were ten years younger than him!

When you were my age you had a 5 year old grand-daughter.  Not the girl-y girl that you had dreamed of, but at least you could buy her dresses!  No dolls, though...a stuffed animal loving child.  Your only child, your daughter, had a home of her own.  Husband and child.  You were free to enjoy her companionship as a friend.

And your friends.  Yes, they were retired, too.  You living in Florida attracted them to visit and they did quite often so that you never felt abandoned or alone.  You enjoyed their company so much.  Just as you enjoyed your family from 'up north' coming to visit you.

Life was pretty good for you...when you were my age.

My life is so different at the age you were when you were my age.

Because Today Has Been Lousy

I am choosing to ignore it and post about other things.

The first other thing can be found in the sidebar.  I think I called it Happening in Rockport.  Not sure and I'm not stopping writing this to check.  You get the idea and can find it.  Clicking on it will take you to a blog that has information about some of the goings on in Rockport.  I meant to add this a long time ago.  Life got in the way and I totally forgot about it until today...when life was so much in the way that I had to think of other things to remain sane.

Second new thing is the latest 'Recent Read'.  An engrossing book that explores the ins and outs of undercover work in retrieval of art treasures from around the world.  Written as a memoir, of sorts, "Priceless", by Robert Wittman was more than worth the price!  One of those hard to put down reads, stay up later than you should at night, and also blatantly honest in relating the difficulties working with and within the FBI.  Click on the image of the book to go to Wittman's website.

Tropical Days...

and nights.  It's been a very hot and humid summer here.  Not complaining, you understand.  I do like hot weather.  I like it better when given the opportunity to cool off under a swaying palm, floating in turquoise water, or some air conditioning to seek shelter in.  It's much easier to tolerate hot weather when you have acclimated yourself to it...like 18 years living in Florida.  Once you spend a couple winters in the cold, hot and humid becomes, well, barely tolerable.  Especially without the three above mentioned opportunities.

The only palm in sight

Last night, after 9 p.m. 'A' and I went for a walk.  The air had cooled down a little bit...maybe the low 80's...and there was a not-so-swaying palm..