<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> Mark, I tell myself that piano owners probably aren't going to hire me to tune their piano so that they can run the vacuum and make it impossible for me to do a nice job. Maybe there are a few malevolent ones out there, but it's unlikely, e.g., that the person with the power mower is aware that he is following Bob Davis around town. Unfortunately what that means is that a whole lot of people have to be educated/reminded when the noise is just too much (I have even seen *piano tuners* talking loudly when another tuner is tuning nearby!) My point being that we need to set the stage for the tuning, and that includes asking for the quiet that we need; I normally do this as needed rather than every tuning. Treat it as part of the job description, if you will. As soon as a noisy situation begins, I'll speak up. Where we get into trouble is when we _assume_ that everyone knows, and remembers, that there has to be silence. The most difficult situation is when it starts out quiet...  then people start talking in a whisper...  which turns into normal speech...  which gets punctuated with laughter...  and pretty soon they're screaming. That one can sneak up on me. You have to be very in touch with your feelings to know when to say "enough" before it comes out "ENOUGH!" Tom Cole Mark Dierauf wrote: <blockquote type="cite" cite="mid003901c37f77$33bebd80$c000a8c0@mark"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; "> <meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"> <meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"> <link rel="File-List" href="cid:filelist.xml@01C37F55.A96322A0">  <style>  </style> <div class="Section1"> I’ve been doing this for like 25 years, and I still haven’t figured out how to deal with customers who insist on using the piano tuning appointment as the ideal time to catch up on their vacuuming, carpentry, chainsawing, or to finish watching that copy of “Armageddon” on surround sound DVD. Or rather the only way that occurs to me once the noise has begun wouldn’t lend itself to much in the way of repeat business. No matter how diplomatic I try and be in requesting that they keep it down, I’m afraid that I can’t hide the fact that I’m already annoyed. I’ve thought about possible solutions like painting in large block letters on my tool box: “QUIET – TUNER AT WORK!”, but given the high rate of illiteracy I have my doubts whether that would be effective. Does anybody have any helpful ideas?<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> - Mark<o:p></o:p> </div> </blockquote> </body> </html>