When God created man in His image He spread variety around.  Some of His creation can take a heavy upright piano and smoothly transport it from one site to another and there won’t be a scratch on it.   A beautiful instrument deserves this kind of professional attention.

My Texas classmates moved their piano on the cheap.  A half a dozen friends load an upright piano on a pickup truck.  That simple ground level move and load was a circus in itself. 

Nothing weighs more than the dead weight of an old-fashioned piano.  The pounds stack up and seem to fight on behalf of gravity.  Even the young and the strong groan loudly when lifting this popular maker of music.

Yes, they dropped it a couple of times.  They got tired quickly.  Oh, yeah, they took out a corner in the living room, crushed the door jamb and gashed one of the piano legs on the pick-up truck gate.

When these amateur movers finally loaded the piano on the pick-up truck bed, there was a common sigh of relief.  They rested, again.  Wiping the sweat from their brow, someone commented, “The rest is easy because it’s all down moving from here on.”  His words would prove prophetic. 

 Then, not knowing any better and still operating on the principle of “cheap” they used jute twine to tie it down.  No one had any other straps or rope.  Their decision to “make do” with the light weight twine was to destin this journey to disaster.

This top-heavy load with a center of gravity beyond what a compact pickup truck could handle. centrifugal force gave them all a nightmarish memory at a 90 degree turn.  Taking the angle at a speed in excess of what is reasonable, physics took over.   

The twine snapped like a wet noodle.  Rollers on the piano responded to gravity and rolled like they were designed to do.  It was the first and last time that piano ever took flight. 

With a bang and musical clinking sounding like the final gasps of animal dying an ugly death, this piano exploded into kindling wood on the asphalt road in a Dallas suburb.  The only silence was draped over the countenances of four shocked friends who save their buddy the cost of having professionals move his piano.  But, at least there was no need to down load that weighty parcel any longer.

photo credit: google image

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