squeakily shriekily!

No, that's not a guinea pig, it's a soprano saxophone.
As in, I've just purchased a new used one. I seem to be becoming a saxophone collector. It won't help if I promise to use my saxophones only for good, because everyone knows saxophones are intrinsically evil, and the soprano sax is one of the evilest. I am looking forward to playing it.
( pictures behind the cut )

Geeky details: It's an Antigua. I am far too lazy to look up the year based on the serial number. Included in the price was a Pro-Tec case, making it an even better bargain. I got a C-star mouthpiece to go with it; I tried a couple brands including a VanDoren, but you know, no matter what size sax I'm playing, I guess I like the C-star best. Geez, the price on mouthpieces has gone up.
This does destroy my discretionary budget for a couple months. So I won't be attempting to go to the Pittsburgh Knitting Festival in Feb., nor the RG in New Hampshire. We shall have to see what the budget looks like by April, at which point we also need to decide between (let alone do both) Penguicon and visiting Austin around squirrel_magnet's birthday and an Austin Symphonic Band event.

In other news, squirrel_magnet picks up the new bike Thursday!! Pictures shall be forthcoming.

Incidentally, I shall be AFK Friday afternoon through Monday night, as I am going to NY to visit a friend and help her out with some stuff, and her computer is cranky, and I am traveling too light to carry a laptop with me.

Reporting in

We picked up squirrel_magnet's new bike this afternoon. It was too dark already when we got home to take pictures; those'll have to wait. We shall say nothing about the Embarrassing Incident in the parking lot, since all's well that ends well, but really, John from Service had JUST finished warning me about center stands. One of the odder little falls I've ever taken. I still smell faintly of gasoline. (Blame as to exactly how it came about that the gas cover was not tightly closed has not yet been definitively assigned.) Oh well, they like us there, and they cleaned and detailed my bike. The new helmet box is nifty. (Speaking of nifty, I have been randomly re-reading old Sluggy Freelance, and so what I was singing at the top of my lungs on the way home was "Here he comes, Lord Grater, Lord Grater. He's smarter than a small po-tat-er.")

The new bike is, as I think I previously mentioned, a 1999 R1100RT. With fairing, windshield, and of all things a radio, which they even found a manual for. Not that S ever expects to use the radio. The fairing is handy in this weather. The high today was about 40°F, and it was dropping fast when we headed home. For me, one pair of cotton-nylon blend tights under my jeans works at 40°, but my knees start getting a bit chilly at 35°. (A pair of tights over a pair of pantyhose, and then jeans over them, will work nicely down to at least 20°F (-5°C), possibly even further but I've never tested them lower than that temperature.) I also bought a new windproof balaclava, to replace the one I bought last year and immediately lost. I'm sure that now that I've bought another one, last year's will show up in the next couple of days. Regular socks over the tights and under the boots kept my feet cozy right along.

It occurred to me that my bike is blue and I have a white helmet, and S's bike is green and he has a red helmet, and we wind up looking just a bit like the Chanukah-and-Christmas Bobbsey Twins.

Pictures next week, after I get back from my long weekend in NYC. Train fare seems to jump to $100 on weekends, at which point I decided to take the bus instead - they've got an eSaver fare of $20, and that difference makes it worth the extra 2 hours the bus takes. I'll then have to get from Port Authority to Penn Station, but no biggie, then the Long Island Snailroad out to Sally's, where the staying is cheap, which is how this trip still falls within my depleted budget. I thought about bringing the new horn with me, but no. Travel light. (I'm bringing the soprano recorder, though.) We'll mostly just be catching up on Sally's housework and paperwork. (There's stuff in that kitchen that her mother bought. Her mother passed away 4 years ago. There's 4 years worth of piled-up mail on the kitchen table. My strength is the speed at which I can chop that pile down to sacks full of recycling, and get them out the door, without the emotional turmoil it would cost her.)