A Rewarding Evening

even if it was a bit of work.

We had ordered a new digital piano for my wife a few days ago, and it should have been here tomorrow. Today, the company in question called me to say that it couldn't be shipped the way they'd SAID it could, and would come by freight instead.

Okay, then.

We smelled a rat, and called back. They couldn't tell us the name of the shipper, nor how much it would cost, nor how long it would take.  Their website, by the way, specifies FedEx 2nd Day Freight for such items. The drone in the shipping department proclaimed that he had no idea which company it would be, "because all we know is, a truck shows up." Right. So they couldn't say whether it would be air freight for all of, or only part of, the way.

Now, you take an instrument like a piano, load it in the back of a truck, and ship it 4,783 miles, and over bad roads through the Yukon Territory (it's not their fault; the frost does a real number on the pavement, where there's pavement). Would you expect the piano to survive a road trip that far?

We cancelled the order, and went shopping locally tonight. For slightly less money, we got her digital piano console and a practice amp for my guitar. Her piano has all the voices, bells, and whistles that a pro could want - it was spendy, but worth it.

It took a bit to assemble the cabinet for the piano, but again, it was worth it. She's a musician, as am I (I think I've mentioned that we met in the music department in college; her degree is in pipe organ performance, while I studied composition, and choral & orchestral conducting.) But she has never owned a keyboard/piano/organ of her own, always playing whatever the church had, as we progressed in our careers as music ministers.

Tonight, she's sitting in the other room, playing and playing and playing. Younger daughter Samantha is glued to Mom's elbow, just fascinated.

And I'm a bit tired, but happy that we could finally get a quality instrument on which she could play. She deserves it.