Lotsa Stuff

Well, a very non-typical Florida picture (postcard). Since I'm still showing warmer climes, you may assume it is still freezing (below) here. Yuck. Anyway, the postcard is of Coral Castle in Homestead, FL. They have a nice website so check it out. If you live in FL or visit, and like the really off-beat, you've got to see this! It *is* very amazing.

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It's been a darn hectic week. Mom's neck was bothering her again, so we all had to go through that trauma. She had an appointment for a cortisone shot on Wednesday, but the doctor's office called on Tuesday to reschedule. Another trauma over that. She has, however, started driving again, so that's a relief to me.

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This week was the first time that a Hospice social worker came to their house. I am so glad that they liked her as my mom is not overly fond of the Hospice nurse that comes once a week. Maybe having the social worker will give my mom an outlet for her whining! I hope! All is okay on dad's condition at present other than he developed a very sore throat yesterday. Once again mom gets on edge over that.

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Amanda has been a royal pain in the you know where. She just can't seem to stop the whining and "mouthing off" at me. She'll be 25 in April and I feel like she's acting like a 2 year old. Well, actually she was a fantastic 2 year old, but you know what I mean. This is driving me so nuts I'd really like to just scream at her. Problem with that is it would do no good and she would then just complain and whine that all I do is scream at her. We were supposed to go out shopping this afternoon. I had privately decided to see what her attitude was like in the morning. The pits. So I canceled. Of course, now I'm the worst mom who never does anything for her. "GROW UP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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Had an appointment this morning with my attorney to sign my will and the POA papers. His office called to say that he wouldn't be in as he was sick. Oh well, he's supposed to call me to reschedule next week.

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Been very busy with work this week. I went to the high school to tune the other two pianos that they wanted done. Oh my! The first was a Yamaha P22, very weirdly and badly out of tune. Pretty much up to pitch in the midrange. I've never heard anything so askew. Anyway, this one had a missing bass string so I replaced that. The previous tuner had a new one at his house so I had picked it up. He'd had it for 5 years! The piano had no A1 for 5 years! Well, turns out it apparently is not quite the correct string for the piano, but I think I made it work. It sounds okay but the windings are definitely shorter than the surrounding strings and the coil end was already cut waaaayyyy too short. May keep slipping because of that. Time will tell. (Maybe this is why it never got in the piano) So string went on and I started tuning this mess. Click, click, click, click. Oh crap. Every flange screw was loose. It's winter and dry, everything loosens. Out came the action, tighten 176 screws. Not over tight or come summer wood flanges may split. Action back in, tune, tune. Click here, click there. Crap again. Hammers unglued. Action out and ran CA on each, twice. Had to stand and hold the action upside down while the CA set up. Action back in and finished. By then it was 4 pm and I still had another piano to deal with and had to pick Amanda up at work at 6. So...............on to piano number two. A Baldwin Hamilton. This shouldn't be too bad. Yeah, right. First to deal with three sticking keys. They were warped and rubbing together. So...took case parts off and shaved the edges of the offending keys. Started tuning. Click, click, click, click. NOOOOOOOO! Flange screws again. The tuning wasn't a big ordeal on this piano so I quickly finished it up, then pulled the action out. Tightened all the wippen screws and started on the hammer flange screws. Looked up at the clock to see that it was 5:15. Ooops. So, what to do? Tightened the midrange only, got the piano back together and headed out. I had to stop at the office to turn in my visitor pass before leaving. Just made it to get Amanda.

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High School Day Two (ha, ha)
Stopped to check on that funky bass string. It had dropped a bit in pitch but not much. Reached in and gave it a nudge back up. Checked out the rest as I had made such drastic changes. Sounded good.

Headed for the Hamilton to finish tightening flange screws. Oops, rehearsals for concert that night so can't get to the piano. So.....

The other P22 that I said I'd look at because of a sustain pedal problem. Fixed that, fixed the soft pedal. Found a screw in the bottom of the piano. Hmmmmm....found where it went in the top of the piano and fixed that. Made a big mistake. BIG. I played the piano. Click, click, click, click. Okay, pulled the action and tightened another 176 flange screws. Checked the hammer heads. 2 dozen so loose that I could just lift them off the shanks. Re glued those and got everything back together. Why was it a big mistake to play it? Well, I was fixing the sustain pedal gratis. So, lots of work, no pay. At least not monetary but *I* feel good having taken care of those things. At least if and/or when they call to have that piano tuned, I won't have all that extra to do. BTW, this P22 is missing the same A1 bass string as the other.

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And finally, two sets of keys in this week. One announced, the other a surprise. Another two sets to arrive next week. Tomorrow is the melodeon estimate. Sunday afternoon I may be going to the Western Electric Derby nickelodeon. Seems likely that the dry weather has gotten to it. It only plays very softly. This is another very discouraging thing about living here and the winter weather. It's murder on player pianos and the like and the customers just can't fathom the need for humidification. That is, until things stop working.