A downside to self-employment

[Diane Hofstetter]

Dear Sunday Sofa Spud,

Actually, that's the upside to self-employment---that you can learn what 
your limits are and respect them.  And the sooner the better.  I've had a 
lot of trouble learning that lesson, and it continues to cause me problems 
when I forget to take care of myself.

I just spent four months of not tuning at all.  The pain in my hands, arm, 
shoulder, lower back--- ALL WENT AWAY!  What an eye-opener THAT was!

I hope you feel better very soon!
Diane

Diane Hofstetter




----Original Message Follows----
From: piannaman at aol.com
Reply-To: Pianotech List <pianotech at ptg.org>
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: A downside to self-employment
Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:44:26 -0400

You don't get paid when you don't work.  That's the big downside.  Vacations 
we generally tend to account for, but it's hard to plan sick leave.

I probably should have taken this whole week off.  I had a couple of nights 
of fever and chills, and was feeling weak most of the time.  But like the 
stubborn ox I am, I pushed through what I thought was a cold, capped by a 4 
tuning-with-some-voicing Friday that included a fair amount of driving.  I 
ended up in the ER that night with chest pain.  Turns out it was a mild case 
of pneumonia, not a heart issue.

Do others of you notice a difference in sound perception when you have a 
fever?  Even pianos that I tuned that passed every interval and etd test 
available to me sounded unpleasant and off.

Next time, I'll listen to my body when it screams, "take the time off."  It 
would be a lot more costly to end up in the hospital for a long stretch than 
to miss a few days of work.

Be Well,

Dave Stahl, Sunday Sofa Spud

Dave Stahl Piano Service
650-224-3560
dstahlpiano at sbcglobal.net
http://dstahlpiano.net/
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