Many of you know that ever since I sold my Yamaha G3 piano I've been patiently searching for a C7 to take its place. The C7 is one of my favorite pianos but I recently fell in love with the idea of owning a C7 Disklavier. With the ability to sequence performances straight from the piano to the Macintosh and numerous other features that would take too long to list here, I found myself finding it hard to settle on the C7 alone. Of course the price difference was a huge issue, but my amazing wife Sharon also thought that it would be a good investment for the whole family so she offered to chip in as well. That's an understatement knowing what these things cost. So I searched almost every Yamaha Dealer in the Bay area and many throughout the country by way of the internet. The only problem was that they were all out of our price range. We eventually found a DC7Pro at Music Exchange in Walnut Creek that was close to what we could afford but it still was over our budget.
During this search we had been doing some minor remodeling in the studio so we didn't want to bring in a new piano with all the dust anyway. For about 2 months I didn't go into any Piano stores. About a week before my Birthday we had come to a point where the dust was almost settled and a new carpet was on the way, so I decided for kicks to head out to Music Exchange by myself to see if that DC7Pro was still there. Actually the main reason was because some friends of ours from church told us that they also wanted to buy a piano and possibly we could sweeten the deal if we bought 2 pianos at the same time. So that's what I did, and to my surprise the piano was still there. I was able to spend a little time with our dealer Theresa and I explained the possibility of buying two pianos, etc. She felt confident that this would help our situation and she even said to me, "You'll get this piano, I have a feeling about these things".

Well, the next day I called our friends from church to get the ball rolling, but I had to leave a message. They didn't return my call, yet they came to my 35th birthday party on the next Saturday, Nov 3! Here's where the fun begins; you see about an hour into the party which started at 11am, Sharon said we were having a bit of a parking problem and that I should go outside to see if I could move my car or something. When I stepped outside it wasn't long before the shock hit me; I was staring at a moving van that said "Tom's Piano Movers". My wife was smiling her head off saying "Happy Birthday", and all I could say was "what did you do?, what did you do?". Yep, she made the deal with Theresa and bought that piano over a week earlier and set the delivery date for my Birthday. I couldn't have been more surprised.

Weeks before when Sharon asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told her a few things as well as jokingly said, "you could buy me the piano...", never thinking in my wildest dreams that she would actually do it. It was so incredible, and to have so many of my friends there to watch the movers roll this 970lb instrument up stairs, down a ramp, through the studio and into the music room was more fun than any one birthday boy should have. Sharon of course gets the Birthday present giver of the century award, but there were definately other players in all this. Trish Allred was the one who gave me the referral which made the sale of my G3 possible. Her husband Devon who constructed our new bathroom, decided to come a bit early on my birthday to do a minor repair job on the pocket door he installed. The biggest reason he did this was so that he could help the piano movers by taking down the doors and such. I didn't know my Christian friends could be so sneaky. The Oscar goes to Theresa at Music Exchange. You realize that the week before my birthday when I took my little drive to Walnut Creek, Sharon in a frantic rage had to reach Theresa by phone and tell her that I was coming and to take the "Sold" sign off the piano and keep cool. Theresa, You were amazing. I never suspected a thing. and Sharon, you're the most amazing wife a man could ever be blessed with. I love you!

The piano is dedicated to Sharon's mom. It will have an engraved brass plate which reads: In Loving Memory of Linda Carol Rebuck 1943-2000 the beautiful song goes on...