Huh.

Things, they have a way of changing. Sometimes you really do get what you deep-down want.

My parents had another piano repair-person in...someone not directly affiliated with the Steinway company but who comes highly recommended. He said he could do the necessary repairs and transport the piano to me for considerably less than the original cost quoted through the manufacturer and for considerably less than a new piano.

My mom just called me to see if I would "still" want the original, old, family piano - the one my granddad took in place of payment in the 1930s when Steinway couldn't give him cash for the pianos he sold. The one that sat for years in my grandmother's house. The one I originally learned what I know how to play on. The one that has been a fixture of the family.

Did I want it, or did I want a new one?

Oh, please. Do they even have to ASK me?

Of COURSE I want my granddad's piano. And even if the tone isn't as perfect, or it doesn't stay in tune quite so perfectly (and there are several piano tuners for hire in the area, so that should not be an issue) - well, I will probably never be concert-grade in my playing. Maybe good enough to fill in at church if the regular pianist is on vacation. Certainly good enough to make myself happy and maybe have friends over and play for them.

If I were planning on becoming a pianist as a second career (or, more feasably, a replacement career), I'd probably take the newer one. But because I want to learn mainly for the joy of being able to noodle around, to play Brahms' Hungarian Waltzes and some of Bach's little pieces (and maybe some of the old 1930s vintage sheet music that came with the piano), the old piano suits me just fine.

Maybe, just maybe, my granddad smiled down from Where He Is Now and somehow had some kind of a little hand in it working out this way. I'm actually shedding a few little tears of joy, which surprises me. This feels right. This feels more right to me than spending umpteen dollars on a shiny new instrument without the history behind it.

(And you know what? It's All Saints Day, where in my faith tradition we remember those who have "gone before" us. Interesting.)