Music central

I finally hung guitars over the digital piano. I love it:



(The silent guitar is on the left, and one of my new classical guitars is on the right.)

Christmas Spirit?

I had accumulated a large stash of cans of food that I wouldn't eat, and dumped them down in the garage to get them out of the way. I thought about giving them to a food drive, but there they sat for a year or two.

One day, about a week ago, I saw the following note on Freecycle:

I must admit I really wasn't in the Christmas spirit until I met this
household through Freecycle. When I learned that they would not able
to afford a Christmas tree I brought over my stored artificial one
(it looks like the real thing BTW). The two little boys delighted in
putting it together. They were going to have such fun decorating
it! Then I learned the mother usually tries to get them a new pair
of pajamas each year for Christmas, but that probably wasn't going to
happen this year due to financial hardship. Then I wasn't so glad I
brought the tree over, because I never expected that they wouldn't
have anything to put under it for the kids.

Then the topper, and I quote:

"We've been eating rice, beans and potatoes around here for a while,
and while the children don't complain, we really need some fruit and
milk, but cannot afford to buy anything for the next two weeks".

...

Oh, and you may not believe this, but when I went over to deliver the
tree the family was about to deliver items that were collected for a
clothing drive for a children's shelter for those "less fortunate"
than them. So this would be a nice surprise if the kids actually got
something to put under the Christmas tree this year, and maybe
something to eat besides rice and beans.

So I decided to give them the cans, of course. But the image of the Christmas tree with no presents got to me too, so I went out looking for presents for the kids. Found a present for each of the kids, got them a gift certificate at the grocery store, and boxed all the stuff up.

The person coordinating the donations said that the family was "blown away" by what I provided, and I was unexpectedly moved. It's so seldom that what we do has a direct and immediate impact.

Someone else asked for clothing for families in a homeless shelter. Now that I was on a roll, I gave some old leather jackets that haven't fit me for years.

So that really was my Christmas; sent some extraneous items out, and got some good energy back in.

Given that I'm Ms. Music Lessons, I had fun getting my mom a recorder and a drum, and my aunt an electronic keyboard (larger than a toy, but smaller than full-sized). I got to hear them make noise play over the phone. I gave my poor uncle, who no doubt wants to run away from the two of them, puzzles of pizza, beer, and movie posters.

The presents that they gave me were nice. I'm just kind of anti-stuff right now.

Speaking of anti-stuff, one of my main tasks over this weekend is to work on the place. I like how the area by the piano shaped up.

The other is to work on work. On Thursday, I lost my entire keyring--house, work, and car keys--and couldn't find it for about 6 hours. So I have to make up the time that I lost.