<HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-= 1"> <META content="IncrediMail 1.0" name=GENERATOR>  </HEAD> <BODY style="BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0px 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; MARGIN: 5px= 10px 10px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bgColor=#ffffff background="" scroll== yes ORGYPOS="0"> <TABLE id=INCREDIMAINTABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100= %" border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD id=INCREDITEXTREGION style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; CURSOR: auto; FONT-F= AMILY: Arial" width="100%"> <DIV> One of my memorable payments for a tuning was for tuning a Pla= yer piano. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>When I finished the old man said to me..."I can't pay you"...Bu= t, I can give you a First World War .303 rifle and a violin!!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It suited me fine, as I was into target shooting in my younger = days. The rifle had a good quality target shooting scope. It even had "Mo= ther" engraved on the butt.</DIV> <DIV>As for the violin...I have never used it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Robin Stevens</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV id=IncrediOriginalMessage><I>-------Original Message-------</I></D= IV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV id=receivestrings> <DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>From:</B></I> <A href="m= ailto:pianotech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Date:</B></I> 07/05/05 16:= 52:22</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>To:</B></I> <A href="mai= lto:tune4u@earthlink.net">tune4u@earthlink.net</A>; <A href="mailto:pia= notech@ptg.org">Pianotech</A></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt" <i><B>Subject:</B></I> Re: Sweet= !</DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At 10:49 PM 7/4/2005 -0500, you wrote:</DIV> <DIV>>What's the best or most unusual "extra" you've been offered.</DI= V> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The dentist's wife gave me a big plastic bowl full of sticky candy! = Maybe</DIV> <DIV>she was trying to drum up business?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Down in Stockton, CA I got a big grocery bag of walnuts in the shell= , new</DIV> <DIV>crop. Delicious, easy to break open. And somebody gave me some elk h= eart</DIV> <DIV>and liver once, frozen, luckily. Flowers, big bundles of them. Cooki= es</DIV> <DIV>(usually I don't get home with them.) A dozen eggs from her own chic= kens.</DIV> <DIV>Plants! Shasta daisies, autumn crocus, iris, etc. One family nearby,= on</DIV> <DIV>land which the lady's grandparents had settled, with 100-year-old gi= ant</DIV> <DIV>sequoias her grandfather had planted, gave me starts of the local bl= eeding</DIV> <DIV>heart (cutleaf, a bucket full of little starts, I had to run home an= d plant</DIV> <DIV>them pronto), the native currant with some of the duff from under th= e</DIV> <DIV>sequoia to make it feel at home, and a walnut tree bred by a 90-year= -old</DIV> <DIV>local retired prof. They had gotten it at a class they took, and pla= nted it</DIV> <DIV>a bad place. All this stuff thrived, and the bleeding heart hitched = a ride</DIV> <DIV>with the hostas when I moved them to my new house.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Several customers have given me old tools and supplies from tuner</D= IV> <DIV>relatives, long dead ones. Usually they smelled fusty from damp stor= age,</DIV> <DIV>but some are really neat old 19th century stuff. I also found a nice= old</DIV> <DIV>letoff tool under an inch of dust on the floor of an old upright, wh= ich I</DIV> <DIV>was told I was welcome to keep. Rosewood handle, brass ferule, nicel= y</DIV> <DIV>shaped so it doesn't bend the eyelet as easily as the new ones.</DIV= > <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This isn't a tip from anyone, but after tuning at a big apartment co= mplex,</DIV> <DIV>I found a beautiful big Japanese beechwood rocking chair just dumped= in the</DIV> <DIV>dumpster. It took me twenty minutes to rearrange my Tercel hatchback= enough</DIV> <DIV>to fit it in. I had to get it foam for cushions, and upholstery fabr= ic, but</DIV> <DIV>I've used it ever since. Here's Donnie Byrd sitting in it, when she = visited</DIV> <DIV>and we worked on a grand action together.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Grapes. Meyer lemons, by the bag. (delicious, so mild!) I really mis= s the</DIV> <DIV>Meyer lemons. If I make a greenhouse, I'll plant one. Apples, also b= y the</DIV> <DIV>bag. Plums. A couple of really good nursery catalogs. A video of the= life</DIV> <DIV>of Christ. I gave it to a Sunday School.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Newly arrived in Oregon, way out east in Sweet Home, somebody raided= his</DIV> <DIV>woodpile (He had a cast iron stove), and gave me beautiful big hunks= of</DIV> <DIV>cherry, walnut, maple, and (the real treat!) several big rounds of c= lear</DIV> <DIV>Pacific Yew, garnered from slash piles. They were stripping the bark= back</DIV> <DIV>then to make taxol for cancer patients. What a waste! Glad when they= </DIV> <DIV>synthesized the stuff. I called him a couple of years later to see i= f there</DIV> <DIV>was any more yew, but it was all gone.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Back when I was just starting in the business, a customer out in the= </DIV> <DIV>country, sort of run-down place, heard me talk about getting tools, = and he</DIV> <DIV>reached down and picked up an old, rusty, bent chisel from the grave= l</DIV> <DIV>driveway (nylon handle, though) and handed it to me. "There! Now you= 've got</DIV> <DIV>a chisel." <grin> I took it home, unbent it, ground a new beve= l, blasted</DIV> <DIV>the rust off it, more or less, sharpened it, and have used it more t= han any</DIV> <DIV>of the good ones ever since. It was such a wreck I never had to worr= y about</DIV> <DIV>what I did with it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Okay, now, what's the most unusual thing you have _given_ to custome= rs? I</DIV> <DIV>gave one of mine two Washington hawthorn seedlings, which she says h= ave</DIV> <DIV>grown well. Another's daughter found a home for two huge miniature r= ose</DIV> <DIV>bushes which I was eager to get rid of.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Susan</DIV> <DIV> </DIV></TD></TR> <TR> <TD id=INCREDIFOOTER width="100%"> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"> <TBODY> <TR> <TD width="100%"></TD> <TD id=INCREDISOUND vAlign=bottom align=middle></TD> <TD id=INCREDIANIM vAlign=bottom align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></T= ABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BODY></HTML>