Be Careful Out There

[David M. Porritt]

Avery:

I'm glad you're OK after this.  I hope you haven't had too much stiffness
from that fall.  If that had happened to me, my wife would probably be out
looking for burial plots!

dave

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/5/01 at 2:12 PM Avery Todd wrote:

>List,
>
>(Some of you have already seen this post elsewhere, so sorry for the
>duplication but thought others might get a 'kick' out of reading it.)
>
>Just as a reminder for everyone, concert work "can" be dangerous.
>
>I though I might relate what I guess could be called a "near death
>experience" that happened to me a couple of weeks ago.
>
>I was tuning for a piano concerto with our orchestra. The pit had been
>raised for the piano. The artist bench wasn't there at the time, so I just
>grabbed a chair from the violin section. As I got up to the highest octave
>or so, I moved the chair closer around the end of the piano to maintain
>tuning lever position to clear the case.
>
>You already know what's coming, I'm sure. :-) Well, I forgot that the
chair
>had flared out legs on the rear and I was very close to the edge of the
>stage anyway, so......... over I went, down on the floor on my back with
>the chair with me.
>
>As I'm sure you know, one's reflex is to grab whatever might be near to
>stop the fall, so of course, I grabbed at the piano. The treble leg came
>over the edge of the stage and came to rest on top of the railing for the
>orchestra pit!
>
>This is one time I'm very glad we DON'T have the big brass wheels on the
>legs!!!! It would have probably kept rolling right over the edge of the
>stage onto me! Right now we only have the shop cup type of wheels on it
and
>when it went over the edge, the cup came off. Talk about an adrenalin
rush!
>:-)
>
>I went and got a couple of students and we lifted it back onto the stage
>and everything was fine except for a little wood damage on the edge of the
>stage. Nothing on the piano. And only a little bleeding cut on my left ear
>where I'd banged my head and a very sore muscle in my left tricep area
>which I must have hit on my way down. Oh, and I'm going to have to get a
>new watch. :-)
>
>At the time, I didn't think of it but later, I wish I'd had a camera and
>taken a picture.
>
>I'm usually extremely careful in those situations but this time, I simply
>forgot about those flared out rear legs on the chair. That's one mistake
>I'm quite sure I'll never make again.
>
>May none of you EVER have this happen to you!!!!!!
>
>Avery
>
>P.S. "Only" 35 recitals/concerts from April 23 through April 30! That's
our
>last class day. Hallelujah! Last Saturday I did 5 pianos and a harpsichord
>and on Sunday, 3 pianos. This Saturday (today) is also 5 tunings but only
2
>on Sunday! I'm definitely ready for a break! :-)




David M. Porritt
dporritt@swbell.net
Meadows School of the Arts
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX 75275