WTF-Beta

I love being older. I definitely wouldn't go back in time and have to do everything I had to do to get here again. I also have no desire to live forever.

I don't even mind aging. I'm trying to be immodest but I've aged well especially given everything I've put my body through including both trauma and neglect. I look ten years younger than I am and have my whole adult life. It's just a fact. I have an intuitive real time knowledge of how women and men react to me. It's a survival mechanism I learned a long time ago.

The stress of the last eight years hasn't done me any favors but that's about to end.

But I hate the physical problems, and I hate dealing with the medical system!

I had the best PCP in Hawaii for seven years; she was a board certified internist, and we developed an affinity for one another, even though that's not something that's "supposed" to happen.

Since then, I've met only Doctors, including specialists, who are "phoning it in."

I need to take more control over my health. I'm hoping I'll have a better opportunity to do that after I move.

@andyd You might know that Chicago is the most important city in the history of American architecture. It towers (sic) above New York. I don't know if you've been there or seen pictures but it's a beautiful city. The downtown area is especially awesome. We have nothing else that compares to it.

@AndyD said:

Or for roughly the same price in the Cotswolds here,
https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gblhralac240195

No comparison. I'll take it.

@AndyD said:

Wtg, I can't view the link .

Here's a nice little place in the country
(Daniel, plenty of space for your piano)
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2575-Weeks-Hill-Rd-Stowe-VT-05672/227731501_zpid/

Nothing to complain about on the surface about but I fear it has the potential to attract the type of characters found in Kubrick's The Shining (1980).

Link to video

I think he's entertaining. He feigns every political argument he makes,, in my opinion.

There's an exception. He means everything he says about Meghan Markle. Markle ghosted him and the rest is history. I think Piers might not be a narcissist (I don't know) be has a huge ego.

He plays the fool and gets schooled in this clip. This happens a lot.

The price point for first tier German/ Austrian uprights seems to start at around 40k. Whoa.

I like portrait photography or informal pictures of people most of all.

Pictures of the natural world and pictures of wild animals would be in second place.

I have "an eye" for photography/ taking pictures (me and a million other people). I take pretty original pictures with good subject matter with results that are harmoniously framed.

I do this with my cheap Moto Edge and its lousy camera set up. The pictures aren't very clear. Actually, they are kind of hazy. I'm looking forward to having a phone with a good camera.

I could get into buying a digital camera but I wouldn't let myself spend the money.

I apologize in advance if this doesn't sound modest. I'm not delusional. I'm no Ansel Adams or Francesco Scavullo and never will be.

As to Paris, as I said in another post, I get that it's renowned, and its history fascinates me, but I don't, haven't, and certainly never will understand its culture.

This fits in with my theory that the brain can hold only so much interest, knowledge, information, and skill.

I've never understood the attraction of Paris. Parisian culture, in general, is wasted on me. The same thing is true of Berlin.

My best friend in college was passionate about both cities (including French philosophy, literature, and art), spoke German, and won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Berlin.

Some of that would have rubbed off on me if it was something that was going to happen.

That's great!

The local police take into account (in a biased way) when they respond to a 911 call and arrive at a residence with two gay men especially if they're elderly. Ask me how I know.

The police have been called a few times. They came to investigate the reason for one of my calls (we've both called them)- glass being thrown from the living room to shatter at my feet when I was standing in my bedroom doorway).
They also cane that time to do welfare check on my roommate.

I was told that it wasn't a crime to throw glass in your own house (in those exact words) and that if a piece of glass had hit me- "it might be a crime."

So, this time they did a welfare check.

He was high as a kite in on meth, and they knew it, was acting violently, and they knew it, and was on the verge of having a heart attack (which I knew perfectly well but they did not because they had no intention of calling an ambulance).

They decided he was good to go.

My roommate pulled a knife on me last night and told me to get out of his room.

It's only one piece of straw that breaks the camel's back. My roommate is abusive on a daily basis. I was wondering what the last straw would be. Now I know.

I like the idea of people doing welfare checks and truly caring about the the person's welfare.

@Rontuner said:

Mason & Hamlin?

Of course. Yes.

C Becstein has videos and list prices. Yamaha next. Then the famous American brand. My brain is drawing a blank. It starts with "M."

I looked at the Sauter site. I looked at the uprights. I looked at the Grotian site. The Grotrian site was more interesting especially the 118, the model above the lowest one. I wish they had videos of the pianos being played so you could hear them- and wish they listed prices.

It's water. Of course it washes particulates out of the air. I wish it would rain here. The entire state is under Level 3 water restrictions, the highest level. I will be happy the next time it rains. I have a feeling it won't rain again for a long time.

and follow up by intentionally performing these stunts.

I could well be wrong. I really don't know.

But it's a shame, imo, either way.

Yet one more example of Congress refusing to follow the Constitution.

https://newrepublic.com/post/209162/one-democrat-votes-against-war-powers-resolution-trump-iran

I certainly won't exclude Yamaha. I won't exclude American made pianos. I won't lie though. I'm very interested in German piano brands.

This is about living conditions in London in the 1880's. It says synthetic or altered content, but I haven't seen any yet.

At 3:00 the narrator talks about slumming. I thought this was interesting.

The rich would take guided tours of the slums.

Link to video

I had friends at school who would "go slumming" and take me with them.

Two students were heirs to fortunes. There were only 500 students so it was impossible not to know these things.

One was an heir to the Eckerd fortune (See: Ruth Eckerd Hall).

The Eckerd family owned the 4th largest drugstore chain in the South until they sold it to Merrill Lynch.

There are no more Eckerd drug stores. There used be everywhere and they were paired with Albertson's grocery stores by contract. They were still there when I was in school.

This student and I were friends. He had a crush on me. We were never in a relationship, but had a good time together one semester.

Ruth Eckerd was his grandmother.

The other was an heir to the Holt publishing fortune. This student and my friend were roommates.

Then there were the garden variety kids from private schools who had trust funds.

I would recount my adventures "slumming" and it was interesting, and I did have fun, but I won't because it was just a bit of harmless amusement, and nothing worth recounting.

The first thing that stood out to me in this video was men paying a nominal amount of money to sleep holding onto a rope.

This happened in the US during the Great Depression as well.

I'm going to finish watching this video, but the bottom line is that poverty in Victorian London was wretched, and the environmental quality included streets full of sewage and horse manure, and air that was a cloud of industrial toxins.

I happen to be very good at speling. 🤪

Not really. English spelling is difficult I think due to the variety of its various origins.

️ the video.

He refuses to kiss the princess because or ostensibly because he doesn't have consent. That's great!

This reminds me that for the human species, it's the females, not the males, who standout for rare beauty and for extraordinary presentation, generally.

The WWI era, for instance, had "great beauties."

There are still "great beauties" even though this term is anachronistic.

Elizabeth Taylor was a great beauty.

Diana, Princess of Wales was one.

I've always said that handsome men and pretty boys (a term of art meant to describe only males over the age of consent, to be clear) are a dime a dozen.

"all right" is more formal and common but "alright" is also perfectly acceptable providing the person using it is using it intentionally. It's a judgment call. In the way you are using, "alright," "alright" is definitely the choice I'd make. It's informal and fits the sentiment of your sentence.

I found Piano World because I wanted to window shop pianos. Of course, I also wanted to learn about them.

I knew I couldn't afford a piano, and even if I could have, I was renting apartments and houses, and moving every few years, including moving between islands.

Plenty of people, of course, own pianos in Hawaii. But it's also true that the tropical climate is brutal.

There are authorized dealers in Hawaii. There are tuners. But, of course, nobody can change the fact that the climate makes remote islands in the Pacific a difficult place to own a piano.

I knew people over the years who did own pianos.

The best piano I saw was a Steinway grand in Hana, Maui that belonged to a woman who had brought it to Hawaii from California.

She didn't play it. Nobody played it. She didn't take the time and spend the money to take care for it.

I can understand why. It would have been like Sisyphus rolling his ball up a hill without end.

The humidity in Hana is brutal. It would and did turn any part of a house that wasn't exposed to constant air flow into a situation of complete mold infestation.

So, fast forward. I'm living in a sub-tropical climate. The climate isn't a disqualification.

I'd like to buy a new piano. It doesn't have to be a grand piano but I want an instrument of excellent, extraordinary quality.

I plan to settle when I move. My plan is to own real estate. I've moved around North America and the Pacific my entire life. I'm not interested in moving.

I still can't afford a piano just now but what money I will have and what money I will have in trust will all be in investment accounts except small amounts I will keep in a checking account and my primary trustee will keep in one.

So, it's not our of the realm of possibility that I could afford a piano in a few years.

It's been a dream of mine since forever.

Are their any brands and models that anyone would like to recommend for me to consider?

I plan to look at the brands' official sites and get a look at what's available how much different pianos cost.

I want to get specific figures to replace what I'm thinking- "a lot."