kayre | OMG

After much drama, we are getting the piano! (A baby grand for my church, if you didn't read my last post.) In fact-- we are getting it Friday! So now the drama is replaced by a scramble to get some of the other necessities and prepare the space.

The offer of the piano at about 1/4 market value was made just after Christmas. The giver/seller understands churches and music, and so was okay with us needing to have it inspected before accepting (we already have one white elephant of a piano due to not bothering with this step). So I worked hard at not getting my hopes up even after playing the instrument and liking it. Winter weather delayed the inspection, but we finally got it done, and the news was positive; the instrument is older but has had a thorough rebuild, and gentle use and good care since then.

As we began this process, I was careful to point out to church leadership that if we bought a used piano, my team needed authorization to make that decision quickly; we couldn't expect an owner to wait weeks for an answer. So when the person helping me with this process agreed that this piano was a good deal, I expected things to move quickly. Then two things happened. There was a sudden break in the weather, making moving the piano possible despite the winter weather; and my helper got cold feet. A week after the inspection he hadn't completed a report for our committee (I did my draft the evening of the inspection). When nudged, he told me that he would have it done "by next week" and that he felt that both our committee and the church Session should vote on it. AND... Session is in a sort of lame duck period, with new members selected but not installed, so the earliest Session date would be 2 weeks off!

This came on top of a sound system fiasco on Sunday that made playing wildly challenging for me; so after gritting my teeth through Monday's staff day off, I was in Pastor's office early Tuesday begging for help. Thankfully she was completely supportive, and agreed to intervene with my nervous partner. She did so immediately, and there was lots of emailing on Tuesday; hope began to dawn again, but also a clear realization that if we didn't get this piano, it was likely to be a year or more before there was another chance of acquiring one (church finance issues). By Wednesday morning I was hopelessly stressed out, and begged Pastor to help me step aside from the discussion for a day. I suspect there was a "don't copy Carol" email, because folk on the church side left me alone; but the donor/giver phoned me and left frustrated/panicked email. So I called her back, explained the entire situation including Pastor's support; and then emailed the church team with the warning that if we didn't act quickly the opportunity was going to go away. By early evening the team accepted her offer, and began setting things up with the mover!

So now I am up at 5 a.m. dealing with physical results of all that stress-- but we are getting the piano! It is not my dream instrument, but it is a vast step up from the current instruments, and will be a delight to play. While all this was going on, I taught 8 lessons this week, 6 of them on Wednesday- both personal records. Teaching is a stress reliever for me so that was fabulous.