<!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 6.00.2900.2523" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Hi List,</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I did 25 years in the Royal Canadian Navy, retiring in 1981.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>My career manager offered me the option of staying in the Navy till age 55.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I said no, as I had about 100 people wanting a piano tuning. Remember this is about 5 years after I started tuning.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I started doing pianos in 1975, part time, when our piano tuner had a stroke.</FONT></STRONG><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>My Wife said, "who is going to do our piano now?" I was reading a magazine at the time, and saw an ad for a course in piano tuning. I completed the course in 1976.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>(I have since found out that is the bottom of the list, as far as tuning courses go.) But it did get me started.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>I joined the Guild, and began attending conventions. It was true, the course I had taken, was a bad course. </FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>But many conventions later, I now feel that I give good value for money.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial></FONT></STRONG> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>This list and the conventions are the best.</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Arial>Best regards,</FONT></STRONG></DIV> <DIV>John M. Ross<BR>Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada<BR><A href="mailto:jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca">jrpiano@win.eastlink.ca</A></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><FONT face=Arial size=3><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>