No, this isn't about the movie, but something really quite amusing that happened this weekend. My house-mate (flatmate) Maria bought a piano. Well, in truth she got it for free! And she had wanted a piano, and this was a bargain staring her in the eye, so she grabbed it. And to top it off, the guy selling it said he would deliver it -- also for free. Now, it has been snowing off and on for at least the past week here in Sitka. So, in preparation for the delivery of the piano, Maria's brother-in-law came around on his four-wheeler and ploughed the driveway. In the middle of the morning, along comes the van loaded with about five brute men and a piano. Now, I was inside cooking eggs for everyone's breakfast ('over-easy' - my first time cooking eggs 'over easy', I was just going to scramble the lot of them) so I missed some of the spectacle. But I did get to view the unfolding scene from our third storey window between batches of eggs. You can probably work out how the story goes: snow... living on the third floor... hmmmm. But anyway...So, the guys in the van decided to drive up the steep driveway in reverse! I don't know if I can even comment on their logic, so I will repeat what Maria's sister Rhonda said: "They're idiots. But at least they're free idiots!"
And alas, they got bogged in the snow! So everyone piles out of the van and stands around and holds a Geneva conference... all this time there is a lot of talking and not much action. I don't quite know how the conversation went, but from what I gather one of the guys finally blew his fuse and said, "We are doing this for free... it would be different if we were getting paid... you're lucky we are even delivering it... whinge whinge whinge." Brian said that at that point we should have told him to take his piano and shove it - or at least dump it in the ocean!
What eventuated next was that the guys drove themselves forward out of the bog and they unloaded the piano right there in the middle of the driveway!Ah well... I looked down from aloft in our third floor flat at the piano, seemingly stranded in the middle of the driveway. It reminded me somewhat of the iconic scene from the film. We wrapped the piano up in a tarp, and for the moment, we've left it there...
And the snow continues!!
2 comments:
Hey Robert - re your piano, maybe you could see if the fellows who delivered it for free to your driveway might be further interested in delivering it for free to Dallas's place in Oz where it can join his collection of museum quality pianolas. Keep up the interesting blog. Cheers - Peter
To elaborate on Peter's story... after buying my first refurbished pianola and paying to have it delivered professionally, I them came across a 'steal' of pianola for only $100. bucks (non working mind you) but the guy did offer to deliver it for free (mainly because it was already loaded on the back of his truck and he didn't want the hassle of cross-loading). So he delivered it to my Queenslander cottage and was confronted by 10 steps to get up to the living room (which he wasn't expecting)... so after a few calls to some friends, and first meeting then inviting my neighbour over to help me move a pianola (there was initially a glimmer in his eye as he though i was getting rid of my first one... when he realized I was adding another to the collection he wasn't so cheery (but was too polite to not help us thankfully)), 5 of us man-handled the beast up the stairs and into my living room - where it sat awaiting my plan of restoration to come into effect (it is still waiting - though now it does it in Albury from my old kitchen).
So there you have it...
Piano's and Pianolas - if you own one... make sure yo have friends who are willing to help you move them!
Best of luck with moving your friends piano up those stairs Rob... I don't envy you one bit!
DaLlAs
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