Hi Carol! I really, really enjoyed this story and it certainly brought a smile to my face! :-) It is good to see you again, if even just on the list. I wish I had known you were going through the Disklavier School at Yamaha, because it turns out that David and I were in the class right after yours. I would have loved to have seen you while you were here, if not having been able to be in the same class. I hope all is going well for you, and hope to see you in DC! All the best, Dianne >This surely won't top anyone else's worst moment, but I'm sure everyone has >had a day like this one! I was working in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of >D.C. (no parking) and my job that day was to take apart a Steinway studio so >it could be moved up a small spiral stair case to the second floor of a >townhouse. I removed the action, keys, case parts and all the screws. >Still the keybed would not come out, so I had to use a chisel to remove the >side pieces. This was nerve wracking work as it was, as no marks could be >made to the finish. Finally the keybed came crashing down on my feet! The >piano movers were late arriving, so I decided to take a quick lunch break, >and proceeded to take the two heavy tool boxes back out to my car a block >away. Meanwhile, the piano owner went back to work and locked his house, >promising to return when the piano movers arrrived. > >I arrived to where I had parked my car, and no car! This was back in the >days before cell phones, and also the days when I lived hand-to-mouth with >negative cash flow; depending upon each day's receipts for dinner that >night! So there I was, no car, two heavy tool boxes, and no money because I >had left my purse in the trunk because I had to carry two heavy tool boxes! >When I called the police, they informed me that my car had not been stolen, >but towed to Georgetown because it was suppposedly parked too close to a >stop sign! > >Great. Now I am on the street, no money, two heavy tool boxes, starving half >to death and having need of a bathroom! My plan was to hail a cab, go to >Georgetown and steal my purse out of my car, take the cab across town to the >traffic adjutication office to pay the parking ticket, then back to >Georgetown to get my car out of hock! After about 6 cabs refused to stop >for me, I just sat down on the curb and cried. Then I realized why. I am >now on the street with no money, hungry and exhausted from carrying those >two heavy boxes, in need of a bathroom and now a broken zipper in the front >of my pants so everyone can see I'm walking around in my underwear! > >Those of us who have been rescued by grace in such a moments of misery will >be hard-pressed to deny a higher power. Sitting there, so miserable, angry >and weak, I remembered that a newly married couple I tuned for lived nearby. >Somehow, I was able to find their house and they were home. I was fed, >watered, safety pinned and they called a cab. The driver was kind, waited >while I stole my purse, took me to a bank (because the fines had to be paid >in cash). > >Hours later, I returned to the townhouse to reassemble the piano. The >movers were long gone, and the customer was upset because I was late >returning. I didn't get the keybed in exactly where it had been, and had to >do quite a bit of action regulating. After some hours, again Nature called >and this time I thought I was in luck, being in someone's home and all that. >This townhouse was newly remodeled, and the homeowner from somewhere only >his Maker knows, but the facilities in the bathroom were not like anything I >had ever seen. Its bad enough to be in such need, but to have to make such >decisions quickly - well, I made the wrong one. It took a while, but I did >restore the room to working order! > >I was to meet my family at a restaurant that evening. I was running late >with no way to let them know. The parking fine and cab fare came to $10 >more than what I was paid that day. I was worried about how all that money >going down the drain was going to go over with my husband; and as I crawled >to the table, exhaused and late, my mother-in-law asked cheerily, "how was >your day?" > >Carol Beigel >Greenbelt, Maryland
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