A piano, and mushrooms.
And unfortunately, a number of "free" cats, all given up by young people who just HAD to have a cat while they were at university, and found out when they graduated that cats live longer than it takes to go through school. Kids, please, please, please! Wait until you're somewhat settled in life before you take on the responsibility of an animal that will live for fifteen or more years, and save everyone some heartache.
As for the piano and mushrooms:
Written on October 19, 2006
I picked Ally and Irene (daughter and friend) up from their youth group retreat, and drove Irene home. Ally and I were heading home and we were about to turn the corner when we saw a piano sitting on the grass beside the side of the road.
Now, that's where folks usually leave stuff that they couldn't sell in a garage sale, hoping that someone will take it away, or at the very least, the garbage collectors will pick it up Monday morning with the trash. We've seen a lot of neat stuff by the curb, and picked up more than a bit of it, but I've never seen a piano before. It didn't look to be in bad shape, so I stopped the car.
I looked at the piano. Ally looked at the piano. Ally got out of the car and played a few notes. She came back and said, "Want to pull into the driveway and ask them why they've got a piano on their front lawn?"
So I did.
Happens he left it there, hoping someone would come along and take it away. He'd bought the instrument a few years ago when his kids decided they wanted to learn how to play the piano. They took two years of lessons, and then decided they wanted to get into skateboarding. Since then, the piano had been stored in the garage, but now he wanted the space.
Now, if you've priced pianos lately, you'll know we're not talking a few bucks here--we're talking a few hundred even for a cheap one. And I had this empty piano-shaped space in my living room. No ways was I going to pass up the chance to fill it with a free piano.
We were at a loss at how to get it home. A piano is heavy enough to break the springs on a normal vehicle, even if the vehicle in question is big enough to hold the piano, and if you've got enough strong men to lift the piano or push it up a ramp. We brought back our neighbour's van, along with Ally's dad (Bill), but there was no way that piano was going to get into that van with just the three of us.
We asked him if he would store it in his garage for a day or so while I tried to round up some friends from work, so he brought out his dolly, we wrestled it on to the dolly, and lo and behold! The three of us easily (okay, with a fair amount of effort) were able to move the piano.
It's about 2.5 km from the place where we found the piano to home, but it was pavement all the way, so when David (oldest son) got home, the three of us set out to walk the piano home. Bill's sorry he didn't get a picture (we thought about it after the piano was home), but we were quite a sight.
I was sore for a couple of days afterwards, but for 3/4 of an hour's work from the three of us, I got a piano that's in reasonable condition, considering. It needs to be tuned, of course, and one string needs to be replaced when I decide to get around to it, but the sound board is in good shape, and the sound of the instrument is quite good for a small piano.
So I got a free piano on Sunday, and we took it for a walk. Doesn't everyone take their piano for a walk?
As for the mushrooms, a few years' worth of Saturdays later, my kids, my parents and I were at St. Jacob's market, when the guy in the mushroom booth started chatting with my parents. He said he'd give us free mushrooms if we sang, "Row, row, row your boat" for him. Dad started, of course. Next Mom, then me, then Ally. Bill and David wandered off and pretended not to know us.