<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; =
charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2716.2200" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Re: The Square. Aw, Joe. The customer =
only
<EM>pretended</EM> to be happy. Truth is, you broke her heart: She was =
hoping to
make a desk out of it. Who shot it, anyway? Must have been a =
tech.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Didn't know if it would be too "OT" =
(new term I
learned here) and bore people. But since you described your day, here =
was my
very memorable yesterday:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>8 hours in a nursing home doing =
major work on
a Chickering older than most of their residents (1910). Piano can't be =
moved to
any place more private than right where it is. So ...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gentleman in wheelchair kept rolling =
past very,
veeeery slowly, saying "Come on, come on. Can't get goin'. Come on, come =
on.
Can't get goin'." Over and over again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Woman kept alternating between crying
and SCREAMING the filthiest obscenities you can imagine, telling =
everyone
in sight where to go and what to do when they get there (things not =
anatomically possible, BTW). Over and over again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lady in wheelchair kept rolling =
past asking
everyone for spare change. Over and over again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Another lady in wheelchair rolled up as =
I was
bringing some new bass strings up to the neighborhood of pitch (Mister =
Rogers?).
She said: "Play Deep Purple." "The piano isn't ready to play," says I, =
"I'm here
to fix it and tune it." "Okay," she says, "then play Stardust." "I =
can't." says
I. "Okay," she said, "I'll sing it for you." And she did. Over and over
again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Man in the room right next to the piano =
was
watching marathon westerns. Horses galloping, guns blazing. Gene Autry, =
Hopalong
Cassidy, Gunsmoke, some baaad movies, and The Lone Ranger. He's pretty =
deaf, the
TV turned up to Stun.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(How come Tonto can't say: "He went to =
town" but
CAN say: "Him go town, back Wednesday." LOL)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Man in the gunfight room had a small, =
cheap guitar.
He got it out every half hour and played for about 10 minutes (TV still =
going).
Sounded terrible. Finally offered to tune it for him with my =
"professional
tuner." Being a pianer tuna and a concert guitarist, I figured I could =
really
improve his instrument. It was waaaaaaaaay off. Tuned it, he said thanks =
and
went back to his room. Started playing and it sounded exactly as before. =
Peeked
in at him and saw that he was just making up random "chords." Over and =
over
again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Their handyman had done a decent job =
refinishing
the piano. I sold them a stencil and lent him a burnisher. He put it on, =
very
nicely. I told him to put a coat of the urethane he'd used over the =
stencil. He
did. Right there, right then. The fumes finally drove me =
out.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>These are just a few of the highlights. =
The whole
experience was sad, funny, and aggravating at the same time. Such mixed =
emotions
are very tiring.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I get to go back this week to adjust my =
new
dampers, repair the soft pedal assembly (unique design, very =
Chickering), raise
the pitch about 150 cents on some pretty rusty strings and tune the =
thing (A435,
thank you very much)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Pray for me. Over and over =
again.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Alan R.Barnard</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Salem, MO</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>P.S. To demonstrate the "ruralness" of =
this area:
This nursing home is an hour from my town. Most of that time you are =
driving
through oak and pine forests. You pass through two towns with pop. < =
200 and
see very few mailboxes, let alone houses. There is exactly one place to =
buy gas
and get a soda 'twixt here and there. It closes when it gets dark. My =
tunemobile
has 214,000 miles on 'er. Keep praying, brothers and sisters, I sure do =
when I'm
on that road at 9 PM!</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>