Generations

My maternal grandmother died just a few months before I was born. That probably didn't inconvenience my mother too much, since they hated each other. But it meant that I never met her.

Then, thirty-some year later, MY mom passed away a few months after I had my son. So neither my son nor my daughter ever got to know her. It occurred to me, recently, that my kids are young adults, and my timeline for becoming a grandmother is probably around ten years, give or take.

So I have to wonder. Will I live that long? Because we seem a little cursed in my maternal lineage. I would like to beat the odds, break the cycle, whatever. But, damn. It weighs on me.

Grand Piano, gone but not forgotten

So; not long after my father passed away one of my cousins, who tunes and repairs pianos professionally, came and spent a whole day disassembling the [unplayable, unfixable] grand piano in the living room as far as two people could. It took quite a while for my son to get a couple of strong friends to lift the iron frame out of it and remove that. Then it was time to try to remove the legs. ? How?

Unsurprisingly, there was a Youtube video for removing grand piano legs. Is there ANYTHING that isn't on Youtube? The claim was that you could remove a wooden "dog" with a large screwdriver, tap the leg on the outside edge with a rubber mallet, and it would pop loose from the steel thingamajog that holds it steady. Wouldn't you know, I went down there with a rubber mallet and a bad attitude, and the darned thing . . popped right off with a satisfying click? Just like in the video. That was disorienting.

I left two legs on because we weren't ready to move all the pieces to the barn, yet, and it seemed safer to leave them on when I had the main body propped up against a wall.

This evening I was hoping to finally, FINALLY move all the pieces to a barn. At some point, my husband will upcycle them into a very nice bookshelf. So it was time to get those other two legs off.

The big screws were pretty stiff, but once I got those out and the wooden piece popped off . . the rubber mallet did the trick again. Both legs came loose easily. That never gets old. I could have EVERY project go like that and it would be refreshing and joyful every time.

Me and the piano, around 1985.