---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Susan, What a blessing to see your warm homey soapstone oven. Your account of the key washing reminds me of a frantic call I received many years ago. I stopped in mid tuning and rushed to a the mansion of a very prominent family in town. The heirloom family Steinway was being given to the grand- daughter and the maid was told to wash the ivories. Whereupon the maid put ivory soap in a bucket and was happily scrubbing the inside of the piano. Several months and many dollars later I asked if the maid was still working for them. I'll never forget this line - "Yes, the poor dear never was too bright". And, finally, Connie and I returned home from a great evening of dinner and a movie. The answering machine was filled. A piano teacher friend of ours was frantic. It was flu season and one of her students had .... onto the mid section of the keyboard. Still warm. I would have preferred she put the keys in the sink for that mess as your lady did. However, I did learn that the students homeowners policy paid for the clean-up. Here's hoping all a healthy 2006. Happy New Year. Joel Joel Jones, RPT Madison, WI On Dec 31, 2005, at 2:02 AM, Susan Kline wrote: > At 08:36 AM 12/31/2005 +1030, Robin wrote: >> Yesterdays temperature here in Port Pirie was 45 degrees C (113F) and >> going for 106F today. > > > And here I have chicken and a potato roasting in the soapstone stove's > bakeoven, after a nice fire to 250C. In here it's warm and dry, and > outside we've had such rain that the whole yard squishes. Luckily I > don't live on low ground. There's flooding and mud slides out there in > vulnerable areas. We call it a "Hawaiian Wet Front." > > As for deciding what not to put up with -- I was a real softy for far > too long, and did some totally ridiculous jobs, but I have worked out > a few things over the years. First to disappear were square grand > tunings (I just said too hard on my back, though my back is good.) > After twenty years of doing every upright player-with-pneumatic-action > which came my way, I balked after a really hard one, where I had > trouble getting the rewind to work after I was finished, and it joined > my "too hard on my back" list. I figured, twenty years was long enough > -- I had served my sentence. > > I used to hate tuning for road shows. In Stockton, CA, a guy used to > call me for them. After one, which involved climbing a ladder to a > little platform and tuning a terribly false electric grand, with tons > of noise going on all around me, I had a couple of convenient > "conflicts" when the guy called to schedule. He got the picture really > fast, and stopped calling, and I hardly felt guilty for the fibs. > > There was one mentally ill old lady in a bad part of town -- I had to > go out on the porch to keep from fainting. I had managed to tune for > her several times, but the next time she called me, I told her she > should try someone else. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn't face any > more. She really needed a good house fire (while she was away), and > some help from a social worker. > > I often clean the keys, especially in schools and churches. Clean keys > feel better while working, give that little smug glow of superiority, > and also show people (some of whom are not particularly good at music > and pitch) that someone has been there. Also, I think that a piano > with a clean keyboard gets a little bit more respect than one which is > filthy, so perhaps people won't beat it up as badly. > > I learned one day to hold my tongue about how filthy a piano is. I > evaluated an old upright which was truly filthy and I said so, as I > vacuumed and dusted. When I came back to bush the keys, the lady had > them out and was washing them off in the sink! It was retrievable with > a lot of glue and persistence ... barely. > > Susan > <fire 7.jpg>_______________________________________________ > pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3997 bytes Desc: not available Url : https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/29/f6/e7/31/attachment.bin ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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