I continued the research this morning and checked some Clarinet prices on eBay and craigslist. I also weighed the rent vs buy equation and found i could buy a used clarinet at Sam Ash and trade it back in for half of what I paid for it. This is a pretty good deal. I also read a lot of buying advice online. in the meantime i received a phone call from learn online, a web service in San Diego that has Clarinet instructors starting at $15 per half hour. I had a nice chat with them about a female instructor in Davenport, Florida that i will probably use if I go that route.
Libbie accompanied me to Sam Ash to do an exploratory trip. The guy in the woodwinds department named ian turned out to be a Clarinet player. He played a Jean Pierre student clarinet then also a Yamaha 250. The Jean Pierre sounded great and will be perfect if i can make it do what i heard. The John Pierre is $99 plus reeds an other stuff. The bottom line was $164. Ian is coming to our condo tomorrow at 1 to give me some basic lessons. I don't know what I'm getting into but I'll give it a shot.
We had the leftover Quesadilla from yesterday for a later lunch. We then drove down to Nokomis and picked up grapefruit juice and honeybelles. While down there we also had a couple of orange soft serve cones. The ice cream business they do in that place is amazing. We had a couple of cheese and crackers as we got dressed for the oopera tonight. Left the condo at 6 and got to the Opera house parking garage in about a half hour.
Madama Butterfly was fantastic. No many how many times I have seen this opera I never get tired of it. it went so fast and the singing was top notch. We sat in the center in row J and thoroughly loved the performance. It was a wonderful experience.