One Woman's Saturday Morning

You may recall the saga of the piano a few entries back. In my effort to recreate my space, a one bedroom apartment in which I have lived more than half my life, I had painted, tossed or stored some of the old accumulated "stuff" much of it beloved, but not particularly useful. And I decided to have the piano, scratched and pocked and worn, restored. When it returned, and was in the second stage of tuning, it became clear that the pinblocks needed to be replaced as well as some strings. Since it had not been an expected problem for a variety of reasons, Simon, my piano technician, agreed to have the pinblock replaced without charge for his time. And the piano was removed a second time to a workshop far far away (the Valley).

All that remained tangible to remind me of its absence was the bench. For now, nearly two or more months, the bench, repository for my landline, has gathered dust. I left town for vacation. I returned. Work became extremely busy as a new boss is coming aboard in a week or two. Friends and family had crises which distracted me from my dreams of rediscovering the raw musical talents of childhood. Occasionally, my uncle, who mostly orchestrated the apartment renovation would ask, "When is the piano coming back?"

Today.

As I write, there is the annoying/lovely sound of tuning. Given the number of strings, it may be a while. And so I have been trying to act as I would on any Saturday, with a cacophonous background accompanying. I removed clothes for dry cleaning to my car. I washed my white cat's eye with a solution of diluted boric acid so that he does not again have an infection requiring an always expensive visit to the vet.

And then, I sat down to read, coffee in hand, a short short distillation of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica. Or short short short, because, although Thomas may have meant his work for the so-called "beginner", a beginner in his time apparently was a genius compared to a beginner in these days. Me, my college and graduate education are poor matches for the disputations of St. Thomas, Articles (Questions), Objections, Sed Contras (On the Contrary) and conclusions of Thomas himself on the issue.

I had to laugh at myself, sitting on my couch trying to consume lines from the Summa while Simon pounds at the piano. Who else in the world would be doing this just now? Pretention!? Idiocy?!

A snapshot of the Djinn's peculiar life in Los Angeles!