Tikkabik

So Bob is in fourth grade, and he can play a musical instrument in school this year. The choices of instrument they'll let you play in our schools is somewhat limited for his age group -- clarinet, flute, sax, xylophone and a couple of others. Interestingly, Bob opted for the flute -- the same instrument Bonnie's cousin Sarah played in school, and Sarah was only too happy to offer her old flute to Bob, saving Bonnie and me the cost of a purchase or rental.

I asked Bob what interested him in playing the flute, and as usual, video games had something to do with it: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time inspired him.

So Bob's first music class was this week, and when he mentioned he already had a flute but wanted to get it serviced, the teacher offered the name of a guy up in Hyannis who could do it for him. Bonnie and Bob took a spin up there yesterday; the guy was nice enough to oil the keys and inspect the pads for free. He said that Bob should be able to get another year out of the pads before they need replacing. Given that it's been gathering dust in Sarah's closet for a while, I think that's great.

And, of course, I laughed when Bob came home and excitedly told me the nice man lubricated his instrument for free. If Bonnie hadn't been with him I'd have been worried. If fact, while he was there, Bob picked up a cheap plastic ocarina, just to fill his life long ambition of becoming a heroic video game character.

Not sure what Bob wants to do with the flute long-term, but I can only hope he leans more towards this end of the spectrum than this or this, because the latter two would require me to kill myself in shame.

Or maybe his tastes will change as he gets older and he'll eventually pick up keyboards or a guitar. We'll see.