Holiday Hectic

How do I get to this place every darn year? Way too much to do with way too little time to do it. So how do I approach the problem, why I blog of course. Of course this is only putting me further behind but what's another half hour.

It's kind of funny how everyone around here is up in arms about the weather whereas everyone else in our latitude across the country expects to have snow throughout the winter. I guess you could say we are spoiled rotten. I think the point, Mother Nature, is we only want it when we want it. That does not include, work days, days when we have to be some where like shopping or at a fun holiday event or doctor's visits. It's only supposed to show up when everyone has already gotten to wherever they are going and all they have to do is watch it from the cozy confines inside or even dress warmly to go frolic in it. It's called "snow on demand" and I don't know why the weather man can't just figure this out; kind of a Camelot in a way. I suppose some would say we ask too much. Well that's okay because we won't get it anyway.

I've decided we need to build on another room so we have more room for gifts next year. Right now, they are all over the piano and stacked on top of each other until they start to go "out the door". If Mother Nature gets in the way of our get togethers, they'll be stacked up even longer. Craziness.

I got my piano tuned today and he actually took one of the white keys and one of the black keys out to show me why the black keys are slower to respond when I play a trill. It made perfect sense when I was looking at the entire length of them. You get so used to looking at a piano a certain way (all in one unit), it's very odd to see it piece by piece. It's really an amazing instrument, especially knowing how long it's been around.


It originally emerged from the dulcimer, which was a stringed instrument played in the Middle Ages (5th century - 16th century). This then was transitioned into a clavichord and harpsichord in the 17th century and the first piano "sighting" was in 1700 and was invented by Bartolomeo Christofori who worked for the Medici's who owned just about everything. They were tremendously rich and powerful. Three Christofori's survive today and are dated from 1720. That is one old piano.



So meet the Medici's, there's Maria, the male version of Maria, then oh, what's this, the modern male version of Maria. Obviously the Medici dynasty lives on! I'll bet he plays a lovely baby grand. Any my time's up!