Thursday, November 10, 2016

Falling On Instruments

We had a house guest last week.

She was a traveling companion that needed to stay the night before her flight back home. So we had her take the couch in the living room.

Now, the living room is where I practice my upright bass, and where our boy practices his cello. It's also got some bookshelves, lamps, a couple of small tables, a stereo system. It's a good-sized room. 

In the morning, she apparently went looking for some light, but didn't see any of the four lamps around, so decided to open the vertical blinds in front of the window. This is very near where my upright bass and the cello like to hang out. I suppose they like the light, too.

Now, I didn't see it happen, but there was a loud crash, and my sister went to see what happened, just as my wife was calling to check on us.

Apparently, the guest fell right onto the instruments, of all things! So here's the result:

Mark where bass hit blinds
Window glazing on patio from bass hitting the window
Small damage to bass edge
Major crack in 'cello top
Crack extends to lower bout

Now, I haven't yet had the bass properly looked at, but we took the cello, which is a student model, back to the shop from which we have been renting it, and they exchanged it for another one at no cost!

So, kudos and a big thank you to Manchester Music for being awesome, understanding and standing by their guarantee!

It definitely was a bit of an unusual, freak accident, but ended without any additional stress on us, for which I am grateful!


Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Slappadippy

Today, for some reason I felt compelled to Google "slappadippy" and was delighted to see that nothing was returned. So, I hereby aim to fix that! ;-)

Friday, March 11, 2016

So I've ordered a book from Amazon, and it shipped out on March 1st.

Tracking the package reveals only that it's on its way and should arrive around March 21st. Twenty days.

A Google search shows that the distance the package must travel by road is 1320 miles, from Salt Lake City to St. Louis. That's 66 miles per day. Which is 5.5 miles per hour, if you allow 12 hours per day for travelling.

So what does all this mean?

Someone from USPS is walking (or very casually running) 1320 miles from Salt Lake City to deliver my package.