Gifts From Above (Sunday, July 13)

In another spate of serendipity, I received the most wonderful gift, today.  

Let me tell you about our nearest neighbor, who has lived just across the little easement roadway from our cottage for many years.  Peter had a reputation as somewhat of a recluse, living behind an old bamboo-screen fence in a very run-down and ramshackle shack that was once a bunkhouse for the logging workers, in the bad old logging days in these hills.  But just before we moved up here, Peter's father in England died, leaving the former Hermit Guy a castle in the south of Britain and a veritable fortune!  Our neighbor, who used to crew on nuclear subs ("boomers" as John calls them), has always dreamed of taking his old sailboat to the paternal homeland and messing about in boats on the waterways there; now, he could.  But first, he decided to renovate his old shack completely, inside and out, for his 20-something daughter Ashley to live in and caretake for him; and when he's finished, we will have a very nice housing addition to this neighborhood.....  Peter leaves for his big adventure at the end of this month -- and he's feeling very flush, apparently; because he came over today to chat for a bit, and saw our little electronic piano -- and asked if we'd like another one.  Well: it's his dad's Clavinova, a beautiful wood-encased older model with a leather-topped wood bench.  Yes, we would like to have it, very much indeed, thank you!  

Pianos dropping from the trees:  who knew????!!!!