Choices

This, which I could snap up as we speak:

[ARGH! TOO LATE! IT'S DISAPPEARED, EVEN AS I WENT TO POST THIS. NEXT TIME I'LL SAVE THE PHOTO, I PROMISE. A TWO-POINTER, IN CHERRY NO LESS.]

A lefty model, so some investment in the switch would be needed. But a sweet little piece, from a small builder in Nevada, now for sale on the Mandolin Cafe classifieds section.

Or this, the line below it--a little brother (mando, not mandola) of the one I bought last month:


Again, right in my price range, sans a stretch.

Or do I turn away, for now, from instruments, to learn some actual new music for them? This looks promising:


And this sounds lovely--by which I mean, I haven't seen it yet, but you can hear the tunes on-line:

Rationally speaking, I know that I'll get the most pleasure out of learning to play new music--more from that than from acquiring a new instrument, especially one in a register I already have covered. I could buy both sets of music for, what, 10% of one of those instruments, and spend years enjoying the pieces.

But wait! There's one more option: leave them all on the table, and just keep saving. Who knows what might show up next?