I have a piano in my living room, it was originally my grandmothers. When she passed away in 1970 it became my mothers and in 2000 after my moms passing it became mine. In my moms house it was nothing more than a strange shaped table and was not really played on over 30 years. My Grandfather coated it with brown house paint (to cover the ugly Mahogany colour I guess) back in the late 60's. At my moms house a thick coat of nicotine and tar was added from cigarette smoke. So the first thing I did was get it refinished, refurbished and tuned. It came out better than expected and is a beautiful addition to our home decor. During the month of September I, like most parents run around and sign the kids up for various extra curricular activities and since the arrival of the Piano I thought it a great idea to enroll my son and daughter in piano lessons. After checking out a number of places and speaking to some of the other parents in the neighborhood I decided on "The Addison Music Learning Center"
All I can say is "what a mistake!" First off, programs that run right after school are hard, because of the rush factor, I must say "hurry up" at least 20 times during the hour and a half between the end of school and the start of piano lessons. My son also has Judo right after my daughter’s music lesson (I was told she was too young at 4 to learn piano) so Monday nights is particularly tight for time. But this was a self-inflicted problem that I resigned myself to when I signed them up. What I didn’t count on was the "funky clock syndrome" as I call it, that takes place at music school. For the first 6 weeks of lessons the clocks were always 7 minutes slow. I found this made it quite difficult because of the increased traffic, 2 times as many kids (coming and going) 2 times as many parents and 2 times as many cars in the parking lot. By week 7 I had the "funky clock syndrome" figured out and would arrive exactly 8 minutes late by all the other clocks in the world and miss all the congestion. This worked for exactly 1 week. On week 2 all the clocks were set properly and I arrived for my sons piano lesson 8 minutes late. Argh!
I was delighted to find a voice mail at home asking me where Jack was and letting me know that the lesson started 7 minutes ago. I also find it interesting that the owner of "The Addison Music Learning Center" uses her clients email addresses to flog her wares (she is a Jazz singer). I can't tell you how much I love to get Spam.
Some of the other issues
1. My daughter was placed into the wrong class (with toddlers) and left there for 3 weeks before she was moved. She ended up missing a class because of this, but I had to fight with the receptionist for a credit.
2. I was told my son had finished his 4 ”intro. to piano lessons” on his 3rd one.
Last week was the last straw. The previous week while getting into the van to go to piano, jack bumped his head and it was bleeding. I thought he may need stitches and he was quite upset when he saw the blood. I called the school to tell them what happened and let them know that Jack would not be attending. Last night I asked them about a makeup class. I was told "sorry, too bad, no can do” She then asked me for Jacks money for the 2nd term. She failed to mention that I could sit in on the second half of my daughter’s class and see the performance they had put together. I wonder, should I renew? NOT!!!

Yesterday was the big day and I went for my physical. I walked into my doctor’s office at 10am thinking the traffic should be rather light. NOT! There must have been 50 people in there (was I ever glad I had gotten my flu shot last month). I went up to the check in window to let them know I had arrived and to let them scan my health card which is at least 15 years old. It choose that exact moment to break into 3 pieces and required surgery by the receptionist in order to prolong its existence in my wallet. (Could this be foreshadow) After the check in I meandered over to the magazines and absentmindedly flicked through them while in the back of my mind I was trying to size up the sick people adjacent to the 2 vacant chairs. Just when I was about to make my choice the nurse called out my name. Go figure I had not been in the office for 5 minutes and I got called! If looks could kill, I wanted to rub salt in those looks and yell out "have a nice wait suckers" but I refrained. The nurse took me over and weighed me and measured me (my height). I was disappointed to discover that I had gained 8 pounds on my drive over to my appointment, I wracked my brains trying to think of what I might have inhaled to gain so much in such a short time.
She then took me into the little waiting room and told me to strip down to my underwear. I figured that all those workouts at the gym must really be paying off but before I could get my shirt off she left. I stood in front of the window in my gitch for several minutes watching the bustling crowd below when my doctor arrived. We proceeded to chat about my family history, my general health and my business. He then proceeded to check my heart, lungs, eyes, ears, mouth, joints, gut, posture, mobility and last but not least my water works as he put it. Then came the infamous male version of the "scooch forward" which is "cough please" as I coughed he pushed and muttered an ahhh. (Which is never a good sigh coming from ones doctor) "Does it hurt when I push like this", "Ouch, yes" I replied. It turns out "I have a hernia" not a big one, not a little one but and in-between one. I was never aware of this until that moment. Its funny because now that I know about it I can feel it all the time, and since he pushed on it, it hurts more. I wonder if its like a small tear in a piece of clothing, where you know if you poke at it, it will get bigger. I got dressed and he told me I was in pretty good health. He gave me a form for a tetanus / diphtheria needle, a form for some blood work and a referral to a surgeon to check out my "inguinal hernia" and get a second opinion. I can't help but think a hernia repair operation must be worth at least 5 grand to the surgeon so how could he say anything but "I think we need to operate" I mean I would take the coin, wouldn't anybody? For 38 years of life I have avoided broken bones, major diseases and going under the knife, but in my 40th year of life it looks like all that will change. A friend of my said to me "once I hit 40 my body started to fall apart" And to think I thought I could evade Mother Nature.

Exercise
Bike 16 miles
Run 3 km (I have been getting severe pain in my shins from running as of late, I am going to discontinue my runs for a week as see if it gets better)

Diet
Breakfast
none
Snack
none
Lunch
V8
Snack
Power aid
Dinner
2 grilled cheese sandwiches and noodle soup
Snack
Coffee, open chicken face sandwich, 1/2 cup of nuts, bagel with cream cheese.