Music City, USA

The Mouse and I drove up to Nashville yesterday, to check out Hatch Show Prints for  field trip.  A very interesting place, but small and very busy and loud.  Maybe not the best idea.  And it's very Downtown (Broadway and 6th).  Little parking, and what there is is expensive.   But if you happen to be downtown, you should drop in.  Very friendly people, and an intriguing place.

 We had a terrific lunch, in Merchants Restaurant, in the old Merchants Building on Broadway.  It used to be half hotel, half pharmacy.  They've tried to keep faith with the original architecture and character o the building and have done a pretty good job. 

Then we drove around making lots of U-turns trying to get to a Violin shop we haven't been to.  Very nice place.  Thomas found two he really loved.  One of them I also loved.  It was old, and beautifully made, and when he played it, it was like stepping up from a regular to a grand piano.  Of course, cost as much as a piano -- $5000.  The other was a 5 string violin (say vee oh linn, like viola+ violin).  It is basically a violin plus the lower C string that a viola has, or if you're a viola player, a viola plus that high E string.  The two instruments share the D, G, & A. So anyway, it was a lot of fun to play, and would make transposing some of that medieval music he's been playing a fifth lower very easy.  (Makes for great harmonies).  Of course, it was $5500.  We decided he needed to be closer to perfect before we invest in one of those. The violin he owns right now is in the $300 - $500 range, except that it has a small, barely noticeable cosmetic ding, so we got it for $145.  It's better than the rental he was playing (which was still a nice instrument -- sold for about $300), but probably not the last fiddle he'll want to own.

We got home around 8pm.  A good day.

Of course, between our little outing and Saturday's migraine, I'm now about 4 days behind.  Yes, that's right. for every day of vacation you take, you get 2 days behind -- Law of the Universe. 

Out of the frying pan and into the fire?

When rats leave a sinking ship, where exactly do they think they're going?

Diswasher, chapter 3 - Praise & Begorrah

There I was, suffering, and suddenly realized it. Yesterday marked three weeks of hand-washing, waiting on the promised 5 day part.  So I called the plumber, once again.  This time I got someone, to whom I growled, "These three weeks have been the longest 5 days of my life!"  She immediately recognized me, put me on hold, and came back  to say, that miracle of miracles, my part had finally arrived yesterday. Right.  But anyway, they were coming today.  This was at 10am.  At  5:30, while he fixed the dishwasher, my family and I studiously ignored him and sat down to eat as if he weren't there.  Anyway, it works.

Don't think I didn't complain to Frigidaire, this being warranty work and all, and them paying for it.  Because, he said it was their fault that he didn't get the part for that long.  And, tomorrow (this morning, but after sunrise) I complain to Lowe's.  I bought it there. And in the last year and a half, I've bought 4 major appliances, and a hot water heater.  But, I still have the most expensive one to go -- the fridge.  And I live in a town where there are options.  So they better make nice if they want more business.

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