the sounds of music

I close the door to our den so I can open the closet behind it. I reach in and turn on our 30 year-old JVC cassette (yes, cassette) player, then turn on the attached 20 year-old single CD player, turn on the speaker connection, go across the room and turn on the speakers in the bookcase, go back and insert a CD, press play a few times, and then return to the speakers to adjust the volume. Then I close up the closet and reopen the den door. All that to listen to a CD. We have another small "boom box" kind of CD player but the sound isn't good, and the radio reception in our house, for some reason, is lousy. None of these options is audible to any good degree in other rooms since our house is not on the "open plan." 

So life here is silent way more than I'd like. We mainly resort to our phones or iPad

 for streaming music. The music often follows me from room to room in my pocket. 

So on my Christmas list went "something to improve the music situation at our house." 

And our wonderful kids got us what I call "Gizmo," instead of her real name.

A small black tower that has such great sound, 

it carries beautifully throughout our entire downstairs. 

We are enjoying beautiful music filling our home. 

And when we ask for the "oldies"

the music brings memories, as you all know.

Since the Gardener and I have been buddies since we were 18, 

we share many of those memories.

A song comes on and we just glance at each other and

know what we are remembering!

"It was a shared experience––a singular thing that had unfolded in a 

golden sliver of time long ago…. Joe was crying, at least in part, 

for the loss of that vanished moment but much 

more...for the sheer beauty of it."

 (Daniel James Brown, The Boys in the Boat)