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<DIV>Tom, Phil, Richard,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>You guys are BUSY!!! I would have a hard time keeping up that pac=
e
and keeping my sanity--and my marriage--together! All that said, I fee=
l
fortunate to be almost as busy as I want to be. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The majority of it is now home tunings. It took a few years to re=
ach
the point where I have very little, if any, time to do in-store
work. If I have any spare time during a work day, making phone ca=
lls
to the month's clients generally has a better payoff than doing in-store
work. But I do feel that I owe certain people in the buiness some=
of
my time for jump-starting my business when I needed help.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>We are a driven lot, and many of us are loners, using this list for
camaraderie, and as Terry F. says, "the water cooler." It's easy to get=
so
wrapped up in it, we forget other parts of life that are meaningful.
Scheduling time off can be really difficult, but it's important to "recreate=
"
ourselves from time to time. One of the major attractions of this fiel=
d is
that we have control of our schedules(most of the time).</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'll be back after my bike ride,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dave Stahl</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 1/30/05 5:03:48 AM Pacific Standard Time,
tompiano@bellsouth.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><=
FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fef9b4" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Richard,<BR>I hope that you realize that you stirred the beehive,=
so to
speak, with your <BR>inquiry of " how do you do it?".<BR>For many of us wh=
o
have been in this profession for many years, and I use <BR>the term
"profession" strongly, end up being engulfed into a magnitude of
<BR>procedures that we must master in order to properly address all the th=
ings
<BR>which presents itself in this line of work. That being said, it's no
wonder <BR>that the time allotment that many of us devote (to our work) go=
es
well <BR>beyond that of a normal 40 hr. work week. The notion of a 40 hr. =
week
seems <BR>like a vacation in retrospect. But you asked the question and I'=
ll
give you <BR>my spin on the subject.<BR>I normally see 5-7 instruments a d=
ay x
5-6 days a week. 70% is concert <BR>related work as I'm the house technici=
an
for 3 concert venues, plus the <BR>local Steinway concert technician, plus=
being the local Yamaha concert tech <BR>which adds oodles of engagements
through the course of our busy season. Many <BR>days I have as many as 4 m=
ajor
concerts occurring in one day, which means a <BR>lot of jockeying back and=
forth between theatres,meeting with the artists <BR>making sure everything=
is
in proper order. In between those times, I <BR>sprinkle in a few
customers along the way.<BR>My day usually starts around 6 AM at the one t=
he
theatre and usually <BR>finishes around 7:30PM or later depending upon if =
I'm
on standby or not for <BR>the concerts. I also do a fair bit of rebuilding=
which is used for any <BR>tuning downtime that occurs. Normally there 2- 4=
instruments in production, <BR>as being the case at this time.<BR>So all i=
n
all, my work week usually hovers around 60- 80 hrs. per week. We <BR>have =
4
children and I'm the sole bread winner in our family. I have 2 recent
<BR>college graduates and 2 in private school. We live in a very nice area=
of
<BR>the town, have the nice house, the 2 cars, the whole bit and
caboodle....<BR>Bottom line is that I have found a profession that inspire=
s
me. Yes, there <BR>are times when it gets to be a bit much, but luckily I =
have
other interests <BR>as well that re-energizes the batteries and gives me m=
y
balances. On top of <BR>this I'm also a professional clarinetist playing w=
ith
an excellent orchestra <BR>and do some free-lancing with other groups when=
time permits. I count myself <BR>as one of the lucky ones who have found a=
profession which inspires me and <BR>gives total satisfaction. It's a
profession that the artist community solely <BR>depends upon to bring thei=
r
performances to top order. Knowing that I have a <BR>hand in making the
performance scene operate more smoothly gives me great <BR>pleasure. Thus,=
this no longer becomes "work" as it becomes more of a duty <BR>and obligat=
ion
that I have been called to perform. I take great pride in <BR>being =
able
to be apart of such a noble profession. I seriously couldn't <BR>imagine b=
eing
more happy and fulfilled in any other profession.<BR>Tom Servinsky,
RPT<BR><BR>----- Original Message ----- <BR>From: "Phil Bondi"
<phil@philbondi.com><BR>To: "Pianotech"
<pianotech@ptg.org><BR>Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2005 5:47
AM<BR>Subject: Re: How do you do it ??<BR><BR><BR>> Richard, the last t=
ime
I checked, which is right now, this profession, if <BR>> you're in it a=
lone
like I am, is a minimum 12 hr. day everyday you call a <BR>> work day. =
If
you're tuning 3-4 a day, rebuild, repair, research then <BR>> you're
looking at 12 hr. days. Some people have spouses to take care of <BR>> =
the
paperwork and make scheduling arrangements. That cuts down a little <BR>&g=
t;
bit on the time. If I were in the position of having the luxury of having
<BR>> a spouse to take care of the paperwork and scheduling, that perso=
n
would <BR>> already have strong office skills and be a savvy scheduler =
with
MY time. I <BR>> don't see that happening anytime soon for
me.<BR>><BR>> Learning how and when to say no works for
some.<BR>><BR>> -Phil Bondi(Fl)<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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