Worst Moments - worst day

[Dianne Durben]

Hi Carol!

I really, really enjoyed this story and it certainly brought a smile to my
face!  :-)

It is good to see you again, if even just on the list.  I wish I had known
you were going through the Disklavier School at Yamaha, because it turns
out that David and I were in the class right after yours.  I would have
loved to have seen you while you were here, if not having been able to be
in the same class.

I hope all is going well for you, and hope to see you in DC!

All the best,

Dianne

>This surely won't top anyone else's worst moment, but I'm sure everyone has
>had a day like this one!  I was working in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of
>D.C. (no parking) and my job that day was to take apart a Steinway studio so
>it could be moved up a small spiral stair case to the second floor of a
>townhouse.  I removed the action, keys, case parts and all the screws.
>Still the keybed would not come out, so I had to use a chisel to remove the
>side pieces.  This was nerve wracking work as it was, as no marks could be
>made to the finish.  Finally the keybed came crashing down on my feet!  The
>piano movers were late arriving, so I decided to take a quick lunch break,
>and proceeded to take the two heavy tool boxes back out to my car a block
>away.  Meanwhile, the piano owner went back to work and locked his house,
>promising to return when the piano movers arrrived.
>
>I arrived to where I had parked my car, and no car!  This was back in the
>days before cell phones, and also the days when I lived hand-to-mouth with
>negative cash flow; depending upon each day's receipts for dinner that
>night!  So there I was, no car, two heavy tool boxes, and no money because I
>had left my purse in the trunk because I had to carry two heavy tool boxes!
>When I called the police, they informed me that my car had not been stolen,
>but towed to Georgetown because it was suppposedly parked too close to a
>stop sign!
>
>Great. Now I am on the street, no money, two heavy tool boxes, starving half
>to death and having need of a bathroom!  My plan was to hail a cab, go to
>Georgetown and steal my purse out of my car, take the cab across town to the
>traffic adjutication office to pay the parking ticket, then back to
>Georgetown to get my car out of  hock!   After about 6 cabs refused to stop
>for me, I just sat down on the curb and cried.  Then I realized why.  I am
>now on the street with no money,  hungry and exhausted from carrying those
>two heavy boxes, in need of a bathroom and now a broken zipper in the front
>of my pants so everyone can see I'm walking around in my underwear!
>
>Those of us who have been rescued by grace in such a moments of misery will
>be hard-pressed to deny a higher power. Sitting there, so miserable, angry
>and weak, I remembered that a newly married couple I tuned for lived nearby.
>Somehow, I was able to find their house and they were home.  I was fed,
>watered, safety pinned and they called a cab. The driver was kind, waited
>while I stole my purse, took me to a bank (because the fines had to be paid
>in cash).
>
>Hours later, I returned to the townhouse to reassemble the piano.  The
>movers were long gone, and the customer was upset because I was late
>returning.  I didn't get the keybed in exactly where it had been, and had to
>do quite a bit of action regulating.  After some hours, again Nature called
>and this time I thought I was in luck, being in someone's home and all that.
>This townhouse was newly remodeled, and the homeowner from somewhere only
>his Maker knows, but the facilities in the bathroom were not like anything I
>had ever seen.  Its bad enough to be in such need, but to have to make such
>decisions quickly - well, I made the wrong one. It took a while, but I did
>restore the room to working order!
>
>I was to meet my family at a restaurant that evening.  I was running late
>with no way to let them know.  The parking fine and cab fare came to $10
>more than what I was paid that day.  I was worried about how all that money
>going down the drain was going to go over with my husband; and as I crawled
>to the table, exhaused and late, my mother-in-law asked cheerily, "how was
>your day?"
>
>Carol Beigel
>Greenbelt, Maryland