A Young Widower's Tale
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Running faster and piano buying Marathon Girl continues to set personal running records every weekend. On Saturday she set a new personal record for a 20 mile run. Her time: 2 hours 11 minutes. For those without a running calculator handy, that about 6:32 per mile! And somehow she managed this amazing pace for 20 miles! I expected her to run well once she started training again, but she’s exceeded everyone’s expectations. She wasn’t running anywhere near this fast before she was pregnant. Maybe those nine months off recharged her body. Whatever the reason there’s fewer than three weeks to go until her Marathon. And Marathon Girl’s glad she doesn’t have any more 20 mile training runs. *** Saturday after her incredibly quick run, we bought a piano. A piano is something Marathon Girl’s wanted for years. When we first met, she had money for a piano saved up. The only thing that stopped her from buying one was that small apartments aren’t the best place for a piano. Since we married, the piano money has been sitting in our savings account not doing much of anything other than collecting about one percent interest. However, now that we have a house and plan on staying in our current location for several years, we felt the time was right. After Marathon Girl’s run last Saturday we started looking around for pianos. If you’re like me, I have no clue what to look for when buying a piano. Marathon Girl, however, is a piano expert and knows all the right questions to ask. So while she interacted with the sales people, I sat at one of the many pianos and let Aidan play (read: pound the keys like any six month old baby loves to do) to his heart’s content. However just by listening to Marathon Girl and the sales people talk, I learned a heck of a lot about buying pianos. (I’m not going to into detail, if you want to know more about buying a piano, check out these links.). Marathon Girl found a couple of pianos she liked and after her run this Saturday, took her mom to play and listen to the sound of each one. (Her mom is involved in music quite a bit and has a good ear for these things.) I expected her to come back with her mom awhile later and tell me she had narrowed it down to one or two pianos. Instead, I was summoned to the piano store about an hour later. Upon arrival I learned the final piece of information about buying a piano: When you find one that you like, buying a piano is often like purchasing a new car. Let me explain. Marathon Girl found the piano she wanted to buy and she and her mom played it for about 30 minutes to make sure the sound was good. There was only one problem: It was out of our price range. However, the salesperson could smell a sale and was trying to get her to commit her to purchasing it. He dropped the price to a “bargain” and told her this was a great price for the piano. Marathon Girl refused to commit to purchase anything without me there to give my opinion on it. So the piano salesman went and got the store owner. (All this being said, I don’t mean to imply that the piano salesman was anywhere near as slimy as a car salesman. He was very professional throughout the whole process – it’s just the fact that he lowered the price a few times and then went and got the owner to lower it further reminded me of the time when I bought my current car. I was actually very impressed with his knowledge and very happy about the way Marathon Girl and I were treated and would recommend that anyone who lives in Utah and is in the market for a piano to buy one from Riverton Music.) Anyway, the owner came over started talking to them about the piano and how much we could afford. Fortunately, Marathon Girl’s mom was with her. If you haven’t met Marathon Girl’s mom, let’s just say she’s very good at negotiation and finding bargains. After negotiating with Marathon Girl’s mom for 10 minutes or so, he lowered the price to the point where we could afford it. Hence the phone call to me. I show up a few minutes later. Marathon Girl and her mom are sitting buy the piano. I can tell by the way Marathon Girl is looking at it that she’s found the perfect piano. At that point I just want to make sure it’s the one she really wants and not one she’s feeling pressured into buying. So after talking with her for several minutes and decide that it is the piano she wants. I call the owner over, have him restate the price, and tell him that we’ll buy it. Ever since then Marathon Girl has been on cloud nine. With the exception of our wedding day and Aidan’s birth, I don’t think I’ve seen her so happy. The piano is scheduled to arrive some time this week. Marathon Girl can’t wait. In the meantime we need to figure out how to reorganize our living room. You Can Now Purchase Room for Two - 2007-08-31 |
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