This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment What title for the book? How 'bout 'Letters from a recalcitrant = tuner' ----- Original Message -----=20 From: Joe And Penny Goss=20 To: Pianotech=20 Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005 12:13 PM Subject: story time Suggestion, These tidbits by themselves could not fill a book. However if = collected would make for fine reading. I'm thinking if we could donate our stories for a PTG fund rasing = book. ?? whadyathink Joe Goss RPT Susan,=20 What a blessing to see your warm homey soapstone oven.=20 Your account of the key washing reminds me of a frantic call=20 I received many years ago. I stopped in mid tuning and=20 rushed to a the mansion of a very prominent family in town.=20 The heirloom family Steinway was being given to the grand- daughter and the maid was told to wash the ivories.=20 Whereupon the maid put ivory soap in a bucket and was happily scrubbing the inside of the piano.=20 Several months and many dollars later I asked if the maid=20 was still working for them. I'll never forget this line - "Yes, the poor dear never was too bright".=20 And, finally,=20 Connie and I returned home from a great evening of dinner and a movie. The answering machine was=20 filled. A piano teacher friend of ours was frantic.=20 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=20 for that mess as your lady did.=20 However, I did learn that the students homeowners=20 policy paid for the clean-up.=20 Here's hoping all a healthy 2006. Happy New Year.=20 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=20 <fire 7.jpg>_______________________________________________ pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/e8/d6/7d/8e/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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