Went today to a new client. Recently moved house, wanted piano tuned. Nice 1930s Danemann upright. There was no piano stool, so I asked for a kitchen chair or stool to sit on. They had none! The seat inserts were all away to be re-upholstered and all they had was chair frames with no seats. The woman was going to lay a framed (with glass) print across one of the chair frames for me to sit on. The neighbours were out, so she couldn't borrow a chair. I ended up tuning the piano standing up, but it wasn't comfortable for me. I'm 6'1" (182.5 cm, bearing in mind recent metric discussions!) Maybe its a good idea to carry a little folding picnic stool in the car in future! How prepared does one have to be? Last week I bought a small but powerful vacuum cleaner half-price in the supermarket for piano work, having recently wasted about half an hour trying to get a customer's vacuum cleaner to work with the nozzle attachment , when I was cleaning out the keybed along with some other work. I congratulated myself on remembering to take it today just in case needed for new customer. A chair would've been better. Do you ever get the feeling with a customer that they live in a universe slightly out of phase with yours? Today's was one of those. I dunno, just somehow "we're not communicatin' here". David.
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