Wish I could say that I've just been negligent in keeping up this web page and letting people know what's going on in my twisted brain. Fact is I've got more important things to do. My daughter has homework.

The last few days cannot be put into words. But I'll try. Rental season. I don't even know if I've faced half of it yet. But it doesn't matter. I've rented most everything that I'm willing to rent. I've learned how to size up a kid for a violin strung as a viola while answering 16 phone calls and filling out rental forms for two others with people lined up to the door. The customers have been extremely forgiving. It seemed to peak yesterday but business was better today. Partially it was a supply demand issue. I'm pretty much out of rental cellos, trombones, violins, trumpets and flutes. Have a couple of clarinets left. Oh, but I still have some instruments available for sale... My eyes are glazed worse than reading and memorizing the entire Sun-3 operating system. Well of course the entire 27 inches of manuals, but more importantly the source code. In raw numbers, I've got twice as many instruments out this second than the store has had since about 1972. And I'm turning people away because I'm theoretically out of instruments.

Truth is I'm not - and I'm now at a crossroads. A major moral dilemna. I've got shoddy and/or beaten up instruments which could easily be rented to these desperate folks. Up to this point I've prided myself on running a class act. Some of the instruments haven't been perfect, But they all look ok and sound ok. I've got a half dozen smelly trombones that I'd justassoon toss in the dumpster. Would I become unscrupulous and rent these to people? Ouch. We'll find out tomorrow. Everybody's out of trombones and I've got some. Oh, those new ones? Gone. The new violins? Gone. Everything's gone.

I'm out of a lot of stuff. I've got no time to even order new stuff. Some important stuff. Book one for violin and book two for clarinet. Violin rosin. But the customers today have already called around. They know the situation. Waited until the last minute not realizing the raw numbers of people doing the same thing. The competition? Same boat I'm in. They're out of everything that plays. Like me, they're thanking their lucky stars or whatever drugs helped them to survive the tornado. Scruples? This is getting scary. I've still got a half dozen of each brand new trumpets, clarinets, and flutes that aren't worth a goshdurn. In theory I could open in the morning and completely clean up the dregs. Why don't I? Because rental by definition means you're gonna' get it back again. Next summer. I'll have to find space for all of these things all over again and go through the same dilemna. But it's certainly intriguing, n'est ce pas?