Tentative Decision

Behind door number one or number two?

No really...I'm thinking on trying to post more often by sticking to shorter posts.  Like a paragraph or two each week.  I'll see how it goes.

The photo above was taken at Salisbury Beach.  The beach itself is beautiful white sand.  Unfortunately, the surrounds aren't even as pathetic as they used to be!  Years upon years ago, my friends and I used to frequent the amusement park at Salisbury Beach.  It was small but still some good summer fun.  Thinking back on it I'm surprised there weren't more accidents from mechanical failures.  I can only remember hearing of one bad one with the Ferris wheel.  I did used to ride that a lot.  That and the Himalaya. When I was much younger, there was the Frolics at Salisbury Beach. 

A 1930 - 1940 period postcard view of the Frolics

It was an Art-Deco styled nightclub that drew some top performers such as Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darren, and Liberace.  My folks would go once in a while and sometimes would take me along (I saw the above listed).  It's where I had my first 'drink', a Shirley Temple!

Just Because It's My Birthday!

This is the Rock's Village Bridge.  It's part of our main route to Skip's. I guess it's about time to fix that wooden road bed.  Yep, macadam over wood.  In recent months the sign has changed from "Only one school bus at time may pass" to "One way traffic" (with a traffic signal at each end of the bridge to alternate the flow.)

Within a reasonable distance, we have three alternate bridges we can use to get to Skip's.  The Groveland/Haverhill bridge is a very rusty span but is open to traffic while they build a new bridge next to it.  The Interstate 95 bridge is open in Newburyport, as is the Route 1 bridge there.  The Hines Bridge in Newburyport has been closed and under repair for several years.

I wonder how long Rock's Village will be closed?

Three More Things...

since the first post today.

First it was Bart the Bunny.  He was over a month ago.  Several weeks ago, as I looked out the kitchen window while enjoying that first bit of morning coffee, I spied more wildlife in the driveway.

Mr. Turtle bewildered on the pavement, no water in sight!

We were very concerned that Mr. Turtle's fate would be being run over by a car.  It was going to be a very long trek for him to get himself back to water.  So...

Oh no!  Mr. Turtle doesn't like captivity!

I will say he wasn't happy about being in that box.  I had put on some heavy garden gloves and approached him from behind to lift him in the box.  Once boxed, R and I carried him down the road to Loop Pond.  Mr. Turtle managed to provide a half inch of liquid in the bottom of the box during the short walk!  Once he got within detecting nearby water he was anxious to dive right in.

He ran for the water and before my camera could cycle for another shot he had dove in!

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So second,
A local piano tech has pretty much retired and he decided that he should liquidate some of his stock.  R and I headed to his house last week to take a look.  Now, it's not like I really needed all this stuff, but sometimes I just can't resist the idea that there might be a hidden treasure.

There are lots of goodies including a lifetime supply of damper felt, a set of Steinway B hammers, several sets of wooden caster cups, and a Spurlock hammer hanging jig.

And there was.  So it was a good purchase and there may be the offer of more at a future date.

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And finally on Friday I found myself helping R reinstall two valve units in a pipe organ.  Fortunately(?) I can manage to squeeze into even tighter places than he can!

Thanks, R, for the picture taking of the top third

And the middle third

There is still more work to do before the job is complete...including more squishy work.

Would You Be Angry?

If your kid did this to your new piano?

Must have been the entire bottle of metallic blue fingernail polish!

Well, about 1/3 of the keys were gobbed with the stuff.  Enough on some of them that it even went down the sides of the keys.

New key tops and fronts for them! Along with many other customers last month.  Yep, the key business has been good.

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In other work-related news.  I got that reed organ rebuild job!  Here are a couple pics of the beautiful, original artwork on the case.

Come back here for more newsy stuff later.  We've been very busy!