I don’t think I have had a weekend this productive and fruitful in years. On Friday, Jonah and I visited my sister in Wallingford. We brought the dog and loafed around all evening. Devi has this amazing Magic Genie electric organ in her living room, and I spent a big chunk of the night providing an appropriately space-age soundtrack for Barbarella-on-mute. It made me miss having something with keys in my house.
Our old place on Capitol Hill had an adorable baby blue upright piano that Chris inherited from a coworker. When we picked it up, we had to move it down a couple flights of stairs out of an apartment on Broadway and John. It took about six of us, plus two drunk hobos, a sheet of cardboard and a blanket to get it out of the apartment, into the truck, and up into our living room. I hated to leave it when we moved last year, and I would have brought it with me to the new house, but I sadly do not possess the powers of teleportation.
Saturday I woke up and bought Jonah breakfast at Mae’s, which was delicious, and after I walked the dog and spent some time on my FLS (that’s code), Jonah drove me back over to Devi’s. We had plans to see Watchmen for the second time, with Merlin, who would be seeing it for the first time and hates everything.
(Un?)fortunately, Merlin begged out in favor of loitering downtown at Sakuracon, drinking vodka out of a water bottle and taking photos with people dressed up as anime characters. I couldn’t really blame him. Devi and I spent our afternoon in the movie eating popcorn and sour patch kids and were left thoroughly satisfied. When we got out, we started up the hill, only to be abducted by Jonah, who drove by in the Toyota as we were crossing I-5. We crammed into the cab of the truck and Jonah whisked us away to the Canterbury, where we met up with our friends Lisa and Brendan, and eventually Merlin, for beer and food and a tiny bit of shenanigans (sorry, Canterbury).
Sunday was Easter, and I spent most of the day in bed, recovering from Friday and Saturday. I wasn’t dying or anything, I just thought I could use it. I’m not a big drinker, and nowadays I usually get to bed before 10, so after two late nights in a row plus beer, I thought a little recharging was in order. In the afternoon, I was resurrected and we headed to Jonah’s family Easter. At dinner, I mentioned that I was going to start scouring Craigslist for used organs, and Dylan reminded that he had an old Rhodes sitting in his basement getting almost no use. Jonah agreed to stop by Dylan’s house on the way home to pick it up, and the two of them used their considerable might to get it out of the basement, up the stairs, and into the truck. Not nearly as bad as the old piano, but still labor intensive enough to make me feel a teensy bit guilty.
When we got it home and set up, I assessed the damage…The piano is in great condition, but it’s obvious the thing hasn’t been tuned or maintained in decades. Some of the keys don’t work, the whole sound is a little muted, and the amplifier has seen better days. BUT, all things considered, it’s in amazing condition…for a Rhodes. I surfed the web until I found the only Rhodes repairman in Washington State (there aren’t many of them…shocking, I know). He’s in Kennewick, which is 3.5 hours away, but Jonah is excited to make a little road trip of it. Which reminds me that I love him very much. Because he could care less about getting an old electric piano fixed, but he knows it would make me happy. I’ve been emailing with the repair guy, and it sounds like he is prepared to cut me a very sweet deal. I don’t think he’s getting much business lately. I think “restore vintage hobby instrument” is being crossed off many peoples’ spending priority lists these days.
For now, it’s set up in the living room, next to the record shelf, and it fits in quite nicely:
I’ve been playing it, and despite the bum keys and little bit of crackling, it’s been a whole lot of fun.
On Monday, I went over to West Seattle and finished Jonah’s taxes, which felt great. Dylan video taped me and Jonah talking about ourselves and our role in the fishing business. The Discovery Channel and National Geographic are making some program about family businesses and they want us to be one of the main features. Weird. And potentially mortifying, but probably good for business, so I’ll buy in.
I ordered a new phone to replace the one I left in the grass at the cabin for a week (it died), and we took off from West Seattle, stopping on the way home in Wallingford to buy a doggy bike chariot from a man and his 14 year old daughter (thanks, magical Craigslist!). The chariot is our ingenious solution to the Guemes Island Ferry haul-out that’s happening next week, right when we’re planning to be up there for ten days. Jonah is at Guemes now, stocking our cupboards and stashing most of our supplies (including my knitting bag, which is weird…it’s so far away from me…) and on Friday when we head up, we’ll just leave the truck in the parking lot and take our bikes, the dog, and her chariot across on the the passenger only ferry. We’ll spend the week toting her around that way, and we even have vague plans to venture out to some other islands. Now that we have a doggy chariot, the world is really our oyster. I should get plenty of use out of it this summer when I’m riding to the post office and back. I can take Snickers along and make morning pit stops at the park.
Of course, she’ll have to get used to it first. I rode her around in it last night, going up and down our street, and she looked a little miserable. This is pretty much what she thinks of the whole thing:
But I think she’ll warm up to it once she starts associating it with dog parks and fun vacation times. And if she doesn’t…tough. That’s why I’m the boss.
