Challenge-A-Day Challenge #8: The Piano

This has always been a clutter-collector for me.

It used to be the bench that was the problem. The bench was Wedding Central during Planning Stages 2004 and I never could find anything in or on it back then either.

Now the honeymoon's over. The bench has been removed following accompliss-ship in Unauthorized Climbing, Roughing the Keyboard, and Illegal Use of Pedals.

Thanks to the removal of the Christmas Clutter and a recent Pre-Challenge Re-Assessment of bookshelf allocation which freed up almost an entire upper cubby for sheet-music storage, only a small pile of clutter (and a whole lot of dust) was left over, making for reasonably painless sorting. 

The original plan was to take on the mirror-framing photo collage thing above it. (You know, the one I bought myself as a Christmas gift two years ago, then finally convinced Zach he must hang immediately before the 2015 holidays, and that now, two months later still remains sadly and mysteriously void of photographs....) (deep sigh) Oh well.

Maybe tomorrow.

The Finished Product
Clearing off the piano called to mind a conversation I had with a really nice guy who came out to tune the piano for me a few years ago. He asked me if I still play and I told him I'd kind of given up on it because I couldn't really find the time, you know, what with raising these hundred or so kids and all. He nodded knowingly, but said it really was a very nice piano and encouraged me to fit it into my schedule here and there all the same. Thank goodness for my cantor music or I probably never would, but I did find myself feeling nostalgic enough to dust off one of my favorite piano songbooks and I was even inspired to bring back The Bench in the hopes of rekindling the forgotten piano lessons I had started with the kids last year over the summer.

It must have been hidden away for quite a while because when I pulled it out Mason stared at it intently for some time because uttering breathlessly, "What's that???"

Stay tuned, but as of yet, no Unauthorized Climbing incidents to report.