For pleasure

To my bro Dave I chirped, "I need you to take me to Costco so I can buy a new electronic piano. They only have five, and I want to get it before they run out. It won't fit in my car."

At 8:30 we drove into the parking lot in Dave's big pickup truck and could immediately tell we weren't buying anything that day. Closing hours are 8:30 a.m. on week days.

The next day we tried again. I led him directly to the piano, a precious black wood gem with 88 full-sized keys, a handsome bench, and pressure-sensitive hammers.

He juggled the box that contained one of them and said, "Is this all they have? This thing is heavy. You'll never be able to move it once you get it inside."

Right behind us was a little Yamaha electric piano with all the same features except it weighed much less due to a spare support panel and legs. It was a light oak or maybe a birch that would look a lot better upstairs. And it cost $200 more.

We loaded it on his pickup, brought it home, and got it set up. (Dave set it up. I watched.) I dug out all of my old piano music and have been working on Beethoven, Mozart, and Scott Joplin so far. It is a delight to play. When I find my camera (it's around somewhere), I'll take a picture of it and show it off here.

I also bought a little refrigerator for my sun room. It makes wonderful ice cubes and holds three times as much stuff as the one it replaced and that I gave my bro. I've accumulated most of the things that make my sun room comfortable for snacking, relaxing, and washing up. I love the brick red panels in the windows that give me total privacy when that's what I want or open up and let the sunshine in.