So, the weekend came (in a sense) and it went. It was like a blink of the eye, and gone. Gone, never to be seen again.
This was the first weekend of the Christmas season, so to speak. With Thanksgiving now behind us we're headed full throttle toward Christmas, like a loaded freight train going down hill with no breaks. Good times!
I spent a good deal of time this weekend decorating, putting up lights, fixing lights, changing lights, throwing lights away, vowing to never put up another Christmas light again, and finally getting them to a sense of completion. They're never really complete, of course; one of the bulbs will blow, sending the entire string into fits of flashiness and darkness where it is not wanted. But until then I'll enjoy them.
Even the Nipper's have gotten into the merriment!
By far, however, the high lite of the weekend was selling one of the phonographs. The Victrola VV-XIV, in fact.
This is good news for me for a couple reasons: it's a little bit of cash, and it removes one of the duplicate phonographs I have in the house. More importantly, however, it went to a good home. The fellow who bought it told me that his father used to have one - this model in fact - and, though he has about half the records, his brother has the phonograph. He's pretty happy now.
His family, however, who he brought with him to move the phonograph, did not seem so enthusiastic. Wife. Son. Daughter.
I brought them all into the front room and showed them the machine. Dad was all sorts of excited and ready to go, but I wanted to make sure that he knew it was workable. "Try before you buy," that sort of thing. So I placed on a record that I know I like to hear. The one that I always play first with a new phonograph. This one.
Now, this was an absolute winner. Everyone - everyone - perked up after hearing this. The man's son was grinning ear to ear. His wife admitted that she was actually very excited now. This was an absolute victory! For everyone. Seriously, I have never seen a group of people go from "ho-hum I'm doing this only because he's dad" to "this is awesome!" so quickly. Music is the international language. And Victrola's are the bar to which all music gauges itself.
(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe
About Me
Amateur photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd.
General all around problem-solver and creative type.
Blind Skeleton
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