A MOOD LIFTING SATURDAY BEFORE VALENTINE'S DAY

The past couple weeks, for reasons I don't want to go into here, have been a bit stressful. Saturday night (February 11th), I went to the local thrift store to get a walker for a relative. They had a couple nice ones for cheap prices.

Now, like I've said -- I wasn't in the best of moods... But the lively crowd inside the Goodwill thrift store was enough to pick up one's spirits decently -- it was a lively shopping crowd, with all sorts of people in there.

Colorful Valentine's balloons, early Valentine's morning at a local grocery store.

Some young women were there, dressed in what would have been called "grunge" fashion back in the 1990's (which was a bit surprising, actually), and there were people of all races and socio-economic strata -- all shopping, milling around the busy thrift store around 8 p.m. on a Saturday night.

I went over to the electronics section -- there was a Sony Sports boombox that looked very appealing. But I was there to get a walker, so I went to that section of the store, which was about halfway towards the back wall of the place.

As I was looking over the walkers, I noticed the sound of classical piano coming from the back of the store.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a guy sitting at an old upright piano, playing away. He played delightfully -- Claire De Lune, Fur Elise, Liebestraume, and many other classic piano pieces. Even the broken key somewhere on the right side of the keyboard didn't interfere with his playing.

Soon a small crowd gathered around -- myself included. We all listened, enchanted by the lively music in the back of a thrift store on a dreary Saturday evening.

Some were recording the man playing the piano on their smartphones. The liveliness of the jaunty music, the man's European style cap and fancy style of playing, and the milling crowd all gave the thrift store a festival atmosphere -- which was just what I needed that evening.

A massive Teddy Bear at a local Fred Meyer box store.

As the Valentine's Day holiday approached, one couldn't avoid all the Teddy Bears, Stuffed hearts, stuffed hedgehogs and other little (and gigantic) stuffed animals which were all for sale for people to buy for their lovers in all the stores -- from drug stores to grocery stores to box stores.

I've included a few pics of them here. It's kind of nice when there is a holiday dedicated to love, especially when love seems to be in somewhat short supply in the world today.

This holiday I kept getting reminded of Valentine's Day past -- especially one V-day long, long ago. I kept having to shove it out of my memory.

Here's hoping your February is full of Spring and good cheer.

CC 2-15-2017