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September 15, 2013

Two Cellos in the House

It has come to this.

I can now wear my children's hand-me-downs. They've grown past me. I suppose I knew it was coming - but it still came as a surprise.

And now CelloPlayer needs a bigger cello. The first week of school, we went to the strings place for a full-sized rental. It didn't look all that huge. Then they pulled out a case for it. I suddenly got that sinking feeling.

Here are the two cellos (I'm keeping the 3/4 cello because I'm too small to play a full-sized one: see that I mean about the hand-me-down deal?) If you place them side by side the full-sized one doesn't look all that big.

But here are the two cellos in their cases.

See the difference? The 3/4 cello came with a soft case: very nice, very friendly, handles, straps for carrying it on your back. Real nice. The new full-sized comes with a foam-padded case. Padded slots inside for two bows. Little slot for the rosin. Altogether much better protection. And much larger. Heck, this thing has wheels, like the professional hard cases. CelloPlayer was very pleased.

But I'm sunk.

Here I am, I've been bragging that this and that gas-sipping car fits my whole family of four plus a cello. My friends, that was a little, 3/4 cello in a little, soft case.

I could see immediately that the big case of the full-sized was not going to fit sideways in the back of our car. No way. CelloPlayer has Orchestra at school twice a week. On Mondays the shared commute is done by my friend and neighbour, who drives a Jeep: no problems there. On Thursdays, I'm driving the commute, and we fold down one of the back seats in our VW Golf. The cello stretches itself over that, plus a good fraction of the trunk. There is space for three children (one in the front passenger seat) plus myself. Yay for hatchbacks: you can pull tricks like that.

On Tuesdays CelloPlayer and I have back-to-back lessons after school; on those days the other, 60% side of the back seat gets folded over, so both our cellos can lie there, side by side. Like this:

Now there are three seats available for people, including the driver. If my family of four needs to be somewhere with both cellos, the big cello will lie across the left back seat so its bottom faces forward, which leaves space for the 3/4 cello to go across the trunk as usual. I'll probably put in some blankets or a pillow for extra protection.

Oh boy.

Quite apart from everything cello, everybody in my house calls me "Shorty" now.

 

 

2 comments:

  1. Wow, what a method to your madness. Actually, I'm in complete awe that you can fit a family of four (alone) in a golf. It seems it would be quite a squish.

    Well, I guess they all get older, don't they? CelloPlayer is growing up!

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    1. Maybe it's a matter of outlook. I once spent a week on a road trip in a VW Rabbit, the precursor of the Golf - we were five! (and yes, we were still friends after the trip :-) ). Fitting in four people is a piece of chocolate cake with cream frosting.

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