Good Deed

I am learning to play the guitar. Six weeks in I can play a few guitar riffs (from "seven nation army" and "smoke on the water") and play a few chords. I can play one chord per bar for "let it be" and "the house of the rising sun" at a dirge pace and sing along. I started playing with a friend of mine who asked for joint lessons for his birthday and am really enjoying it even if it is clear I am not a natural.

For the last several years I have been spending a month every year at Michigan State University working with Keith Promislow, with whom I have had successful research collaborations for the last 15 years. He is also a personal friend at this point. I come out to visit to find new things to work on together. I usually stay in a glorified dorm room (with a kitchen) on campus but this year there was nothing like that available so I am in a long term suite at a local motel.

I didn't want to bring my guitar with me on the trip, but I also didn't want to lose momentum on playing so I looked into renting a guitar here. I found the store, "guitar centre" which seemed promising but when I e-mailed about a possible rental, I heard back from the manager that they did not rent guitars. However, he said that he had an old guitar that he could fix up for me to use. So I have a guitar to use at no cost. It was waiting in the store for me to pick up when I arrived. It always makes me feel good about the world when strangers help you out expecting nothing in return.