Some random, catching-up things. (While I wait for the Dreaded Lespedeza Tea to finish steeping. Yes, it's Round Two of the germination experiments. Like Dr. Eddy told me at the meetings, "You now have a life-long research project if you decide to pursue it).

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My colleague DOES like the "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son" slide revision, so it's staying in the presentation.
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Lydia, I agree that a lot of the craft publishers and a lot of the bigger craft companies have kind of been on the lagging edge of technology. A lot of the small businesses are super-fantastic (like for example some of the Etsy sellers...I had one e-mail me a corrected .pdf for a pattern I bought from him when he realized there was an error in it. He kept his list of who ordered that pattern and sent them all updates!) and a lot of them have really used the internet to build their business and to make it viable. (As I've said before - I know a used-book seller who says he would not be in business and would not be able to afford his bricks-and-mortar store without the sales he does over the internet.)

But some of the bigger companies are kind of bad about it. JoAnn's website is not very good compared to other sellers (and my limited experience with their customer-service from ordering on line is that it is NOT good). A lot of the older, more-established companies seem to have taken the attitude of, "Well, our customer base is our customer base and they'll stick with us no matter what." I know of one large needleworks concern where lots of people have given up ordering from because their record of getting packages to people on time, keeping people informed, and even doing what I would regard as little courtesies like letting people know when an item is out of stock is so dismal.

That's not saying it's not possible to be big and good. Regardless of how you feel about Amazon for whatever reason (I know people who will not order from them for various political/socio-economic reasons), their customer service is absolutely the tops. They e-mail me to let me know that something's going to be delivered SOONER than expected...which is not necessary but certainly helpful.

I know that that kind of thing requires either a really good, really organized data base that can send out auto-updates, or lots and lots of people to man the e-mail. But it does kind of bother me when a company that is OK-to-good "in person" is so lousy on the internet.

And the whole pattern-as-.pdf file thing is just part of it. I know not everyone's into the .pdf patterns, but I LOVE it. I love being able to order something, have it "delivered" to my computer fast (immediately, in some cases - the "e-junkie" system that Mochimochiland uses allows automatic downloads once your payment goes through) and then I print them out myself. (Or not. I know some people who work off the screen and never print the pattern, making it a "paperless" system).

The thing is - again, I think with a well-designed database, the thing could be almost automatic: the person "loads" in the catalog of patterns, link them to the payment system, and when someone orders a certain pattern it gets sent to their e-mail address as soon as the payment comes through. (Oh, I know it's more complex than that but once the database WORKS it should be that smooth). So though there would be a lot of start-up effort, it would be something that could be kept up without a huge amount of maintenance (barring things like server failures or malicious attacks...)

So I guess that's why I'm a little baffled by companies clinging to the copyrights on long OOP patterns...it would be a simple matter for them to get them back IN print, for the people who like "vintage" stuff.

But whatever. I'm not a businessperson so probably there are a lot of pitfalls I don't see.
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I'm still thinking about the piano. I believe that part of my feelings are tied up with two things:

First, I'm a perfectionist. I'm the person to whom the old saying "If only the best birds sang, the forest would be extremely quiet" is directed. I tend to get into these cycles - I recognize I'm in one right now - where I feel like if I can't do something super-duper-excellently, there's no point in my doing it at all.

And of course that is not true. If something brings me joy, even if I am not perfect at it, I should do it - because it brings me joy.

And really, there's a lot of spiritual (if you want to call it that) benefits to being able to noodle around on a piano, and maybe learn a few favorite pieces off by heart. Even sitting and doing scales, there's a certain soothing quality to that.

And also - I do have a number of "dead" hours every weekend when I'm not actively engaged in something, when I tend to work on one project for 15 minutes, then get up and wander around the house, and then pick at something else. It's not like EVERY Saturday and EVERY Sunday I am entirely taken up with work/church activities/volunteer work. And I do have odd ten or fifteen minute segments during the week - the short "dead period" between coming home and going out to the evening meeting, where it doesn't feel worth it to get ensconced behind the sewing machine or to pick up the sock-in-progress. So I think I could eke out the time to practice. Heck, I could INSIST on having the time to practice. I could turn certain things down that I currently agree to, by saying "I don't have the time."

And second, I think the cost of it kind of threw me for a loop. Regardless of all the cash money I throw away on invest in yarn and fabric, I'm really frugal at heart - and I get uncomfortable having money spent on me. (As opposed to spending money I've earned myself). But on deeper reflection - I think from what my dad said, it would give him a certain amount of joy to be able to spend some of the money he has saved up on something like this. (And as he said: he helped my brother and sister in law buy their newest car).

And really, isn't it better for me to let him buy me a piano NOW, so he can hear about what I'm learning to play on it, and hear me talk about my enjoyment of it, and maybe even have me turn the phone on "speakerphone" and play something for him, than me going out by myself some 30 years hence, when I'm retired, and spending the money I inherited from him on one? (Because I do think, sooner or later, I WILL have a piano in my life. And if not a piano, a violin. But my understanding is that those are a lot harder to learn to play, especially as an adult).

And, all attachment to the thing qua thing aside, a new piano probably does make more sense. As my dad said: the tradition I'd be continuing would be the tradition of playing music. (The tradition that skipped his generation). And using all the accumulated sheet music that came from their place (some wonderful old 30s tunes, some books of simple classical pieces, even a big book of European folk songs) And he's right. I've come to regard the house I own as being partly imbued with my grandparents' spirits, even though they both passed long before I was an adult, because part of the money to pay for it came from the sale of their property...so I guess I could regard a new piano as, in a way, being a gift from my granddad, even if it isn't the actual piano he owned. Maybe he'd be smiling down on me as I sat down to attempt "Sheep may safely graze" or when I played some old Stephen Foster tune (Foster was one of his favorites).

At any rate, I need not decide NOW. My dad explained to the expert-guy that I'd need to try out one of the new pianos the next time I was up there (Thanksgiving break) to be sure I liked it and that it was what I wanted.

One other thing the piano-guy suggested was that we could keep the original stool...so there'd the that part of the old piano continuing on.