And Then There Was...

One! Set of keys in the shop.

Finally!

Two more are due to arrive next week.

And the harmonium is here for it's repairs.

Tomorrow I'm off to a tuning in the morning.

If You Can't Find Me

This is where I am. For the next millennium it would seem. Two sets of keys went out today. One of which was picked up by the tech, the other was shipped out. That left three sets to finish. That is until three more box-fulls were found waiting at my door. Another two are due to arrive at any time. And, of course, the customer with a harmonium needing repair is arriving on Saturday morning.

I hear that sleep is overrated.

That Feeling That The Ax Will Fall

It's just a matter of when. But for now, I'm swamped with work...still. Yeah, there was a week or so just after the new year when things slowed a teeny bit. With the economic situation still VERY ill, I don't understand why business is good. Not complaining, just nervous.

Today was Ipswich afternoon. I went to look at a piano that the owner had seemed very nervous about over the phone. She was afraid that she had made a big mistake in accepting a free piano. Well, it's no great shakes but certainly a serviceable Story & Clark console. We've scheduled a tuning in about a week. Then I went to tune a VERY LARGE Henry F. Miller upright dating from 1902. It had been redone, sort of, mostly weirdly with wrong sized hammers, inappropriate and too thick felts. It played and that was the client's main concern. Played well? No. But every note worked. The piano had been restrung with oversized tuning pins. Before this new owner acquired the instrument, it had been stored on a porch. Most rusty tuning pins I have ever seen. Orange crud was growing like lichen on the bass pins, yet the strings looked shiny and new! Most of the bass tuning pins did not want to turn. That concerned me as with all that rust, I was sure that a pin would snap off. I certainly didn't want that mess. The client stayed in the room watching and listening through the entire tuning. I had expressed my concerns about the rusty pins and she commented that she wasn't nervous at all. "That's one person in this room that's not worried," I said. Finished in just over an hour, and - it sounds better but still plays like...

Came home to a set of keys on the porch. Big job of German tops and fronts and key bushing. Another set due to arrive on Monday, just for bushings. Monday's job may lead to doing production key work for an electric keyboard company. Next week there should be another two sets of keys beyond those I just mentioned. Monday afternoon I tune for a regular customer, Wednesday morning another regular (the Steinway monster). Then the music director at the school called and they need three pianos tuned this coming week. Sometime in there I've got to return the action (back to a customer's piano) that I had in the shop for repairs last week.

Yep, I'm getting nervous.

********************************

Oh, and before I forget to mention it. There's a new book in the sidebar. Ford County is a collection of stories written by John Grisham. A good read and according to Mr. Grisham, the stories are taken from ideas that he's had over the years that never developed in to full novels.

Reason Number One

Why furniture refinishers should not try to do piano key work...

And therefore why sane piano technicians should not be willing to finish up said work.

I've never claimed to be sane, only saner than many.

So the email stated that the keys had been professionally prepped, sanded with 100 grit, to be ready to just glue on new key tops. "Could you discount the price?"

I think not! (Between you and me, I should have charged extra.)

So while they did save me the time of slicing off the old tops and fronts, I was left with this to deal with.Can't just glue those new key tops and fronts on to this jagged edge! Just imagine how messed up that supposed nice, straight, edge of piano keys would be with these two sticking out further toward the front! Yes, there were others of similar ilk. I trimmed them to match their neighbors. That was the most I could do to straighten what still will most likely be a rather irregular line of keys. Then I went on with the rest of the job. During the trimming of the top key wood using my rotary planer set-up, a large area of Bondo filler chipped off two blade tips on the planer. I wasn't happy. Thankfully I had a set of new blades on hand. Everything else went fine.

What do you think? I think that the refinisher got a piano in for a strip and new finish. I think they didn't take the keys out and managed to ruin the existing key tops. Then they decided to not tell the customer and take care of it before their customer could find out. How hard could it be to glue new plastic on? They pulled off the old, leaving several large rip-outs of wood which they then filled with Bondo. Then they sanded. Then they took a circular saw of some sort and wacked off the fronts. Most were sort of in a line. A few were way off. Then they found out that the new plastic key tops (they sent a set they had purchased) are made oversized and need to be machined to fit each key and they realized they were in trouble. I could be wrong, but...

The finished keys were sent back today with the photo enclosed and a BIG disclaimer and warning about future work.

Magic and Mystery

I can't believe it has been so long since I wrote here! I have been keeping busy and by the time free time comes around, well, I fall asleep. So, today is the first chance that I've had during daylight hours to take some time to update.

It snowed a bit New Year's Eve Day but had stopped in time to get most of the roads and walkways cleaned up for Rockport's New Year celebration. I did my usual volunteering at our church, which was listed as venue number 8 of 15. Each location was host to 3 double performances. The first two sets at the church were the Bullock Brothers, a super gospel group. I was secretly hoping that they would perform His Eye Is On The Sparrow. The first 45 minute set finished up with no Sparrow. Oh well, I supposed that I could have requested it. Then after a half hour of the second set... they sang it! Magic. As the Bullock Brothers finished up, I noticed some rather strangely dressed folks waiting near the door behind me. Oh, they must be the next act, The Jolly Rogues. Yep, as the Bullock Brothers packed up The Jolly Rogues set up. I stayed for most of the first set. Quite good, but not my thing. Three pre-teen girls sitting with their grandmother (possibly) looked thoroughly bored. I headed for another location in town to hear the Maple Sugar Jazz Band. 45 minutes of Dixieland and Big Band jazz. That's when he appeared. Taking a seat nearly in front of me was a tall, very white-haired gentleman. He wore a long dark woolen overcoat and had a knit, piano keyboard scarf around his neck. He sat quietly appreciating the music of the band, paying particular attention to solo parts of the piano player. After the set was finished, he walked up front to chat with the band members. I know this man from somewhere but I can't figure it out. Who is that mystery man? As best as I can think of, it could be a customer. I'm not sure.

I finished my evening back at our church with two wonderful sets performed by Stambandet, a Scandanavian vocal ensemble, who's twelve members sang traditional holiday music in Swedish, Finnish, and Latin.

That's how I finished off 2009. And now it's on to 2010. A dangerous year at least in number. 1809 was the last year and we won't have another like it until 2211.

A Super New Book

I got new reading material for a Christmas present. I've put a book cover picture in the sidebar. The book is titled, Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town, Dogtown. It's extremely well researched and written by Elyssa East.

I finished reading it tonight. Yep, that good. A real can't put it down book that wraps the history of Dogtown around the 1984 murder of Anne Natti in it's woods. While I admit to being fascinated with the unusual, and Dogtown certainly qualifies, I think most anyone with the slightest inclination towards history and the unique atmosphere of an island community will be as enthralled with this book as I am.

Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas

Any of you know how to read Finnish?We found this card in the Lanesville house. It is addressed to the long deceased V. E. Haapa Natti (subsequently Storns). A fitting card to post here. We've been feeding the large clan (flock) of Bubbas and Squirt has reappeared to steal what he feels he's due. He hasn't been very pushy about it as there are an abundance of acorns this year. Today, he was having fits just trying to get one peanut as the bluejays kept landing around him and dive-bombing him. Poor little Squirt was frozen in place and ducking!

Even more wildlife have been coming around. Some not so welcome...

On Sunday there was a lot of shoveling to do. Near the end of the day I shoveled the back garden walk near the birdfeeder and deck. As I scooped up a shovelful at the base of deck steps, I nearly sliced up a small, dark grey mouse under all the snow. He scurried out of the way and burrowed neatly under a nearby drift of snow. Eeeeeew. That makes me real enthusiastic about snow removal back there for the rest of the winter.

On a more interesting note, today after Squirt and the Bubbas were finished with their feasting on peanuts, a hawk landed on out deck railing. Wish I had had the camera handy.

I wish you all the best of the holiday season and I'm so thankful to have you all visiting here.

It May Look Pretty, But...

it's no fun to shovel or drive in. Here are the requisite photos of what I woke up to this morning.The initial shoveling was backbreaking. With drifting the snow depths were from 0 to 18 inches or more.As noted by the snow plastered against our sliding doors that go out to the deck, it's blowing a gale outside. I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes with my first shovel out. I'll be back at it again shortly. My face is so red it looks like I spent an afternoon in the sun. Only in my dreams. 'A' has to be at work at 2 p.m. I was sort of hoping she'd call in sick since she has a sore throat. No such luck.

Sigh...

I'm dreaming of a sun-drenched Christmas,
Where temps are eighty and above.
Turquoise waters and orange blossoms,
And palm trees swaying are what I love.

Sigh again.

Can't Say I've Been Bored

Just so you all get to see what I've been keeping busy with...my job board in my workshop is pictured above. It's from the beginning of November up until the present. The two left hand columns show key work. Each job is a three to four day turnaround time. Some of the individual jobs are multi-part, therefore requiring up to one weeks shop time. Divide all that in to less than 60 days! The upper right hand column is devoted to tunings, estimates, and small in-home repairs. The lower right hand corner lists upcoming repairs, minor and major and some known January jobs. Although getting all the key work out on schedule can be, and has been for the past couple weeks, stressful, I really like seeing so much work coming in.

Over-doing

'Tis the season. Last December my work was down by 75% from the previous year. The piano business was really taking a hit from the down economy. This December, well, I think folks have finally gotten fed up with doing without. I'm presently swamped with work. So much so that I have postponed two new customers to having more involved work done after the new year. I tuned a somewhat decrepit, yet tunable, Welte - Mignon studio 'mirror' piano on Friday morning. It needs three hammer flanges (doubling as damper flanges) repinned. Things are playable and he agreed to schedule the repair for after the holidays. Friday afternoon I went to take a look at a Starck console. Just needs tuning (pretty routine). It does need new key tops. I'm scheduled to go back on the 30th to pick up the keys.

So what's the deal? I've got 12 hours days worth of key jobs in the workshop for the next week - at least! A rush job of key bushing, ivory repair, and backcheck releathering for a regular customer. Key tops and bushing for a new customer. Two sets at once of key tops for another newbie.

So far.

In shipment, due to arrive next week, three more key top jobs and one key bushing job. Next week I also have a tuning and repair on Tuesday morning.

I am sooooo tired. It'll all get done. On time. Somehow.

At Least It Didn't Snow

But it was sure a yucky day.

We had our first snow of the season early last Sunday morning. That didn't amount to more than a dusting, but it was annoying to have to scrape the windshield. For the past couple of days the meteorologists have been predicting a doozey. "Watch out, we're going to get a major snow storm," was all I heard on the weather. It started with heavy rain in southern California (thanks Scribbs) and spread itself halfway across the country with snow in New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, then Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and the upper midwest. Today was our turn.

But not here.

It's very rainy and very, very windy. Very grey and gloomy. Squirt and Squeaky had their breakfast in the lee of our big oak tree.

NO SNOW!

Drive a few miles to the west or north and they had snow. Up to 10 inches in some places, but NOT HERE! Of course, we have huge puddles and the wind was blasting so violently that a cement weighted sign in Stop & Shop's parking lot blew over doing some significant paint damage to the hood of a shiny, black Mustang parked in front of it. It was a small enough sign, on a metal post, with a circular mass of cement about a foot thick and 2 feet in diameter. The metal post did the damage. Yes, I braved the wild and wet storm to go in to the store to tell the manager.

So, now we're all home, nice and cozy. Thankfully, I've got key work in to keep me busy with more arriving tomorrow and Friday. Dinner is cooking, the Christmas decorations are all out. I'm heading for the living room to stare at the tree.

Free For All

Last week, on a weird fluke, 'A' decided she wanted to pick up the daily newspaper. Upon turning to the Rockport page a headline caught my attention. Over a week later, I don't remember the exact wording of that headline, but it indicated an interesting article to be read below it. The article was about the planned upgrade and 'restoration' of the Rockport Community House AND it clearly stated that the building would be open on the following Saturday for residents to TAKE anything available that they could use. WOW!! A free sale!

The Saturday rolled around and I really didn't feel like rolling out of bed early. The words FREE STUFF kept rolling around my brain, so I did roll out. I thought it would be best to beat the scheduled opening time of 9 a.m. by about a half hour. Folks in this town are known to line up well ahead of time for bargains. I was first to arrive so I waited in my truck and watched the door. When one other 'shopper' arrived, I headed for the door. There were two rooms set up with an assortment of items. Tables, folding chairs, glassware, desks, file cabinets, an electric keyboard, stove, refrigerator, and assorted miscellany. Some neat stuff that I really didn't need.

What I ended up with was a large, and very heavy, folding screen covered with old and cracking Naugahyde, a very nice, newish, tall folding chair, an iron candlestick, a roll of white plastic tablecovering, and a Mission-style oak plant stand that needs refinishing.The picture is rather blurry, but it beats the other one I have which is way too dark! (No, I'm not taking another.)

Then I went on with my morning.

After dropping 'A' off at work at 11 a.m. I thought, oh well, might as well stop by and see what's left. The two ladies in charge of the give-away were getting ready to leave as I entered the main room. They hung around while I loaded up two metal shelving units and a collapsible, rolling clothes rack.

So...I haven't a clue what I will do with the folding screen. Right now it's a bit of a divider in the workshop. The tall chair is down there as well. It will be good for the craft shows next year. The candlestick is awaiting a good spot. It may wait for years! The roll of plastic table covering is sure to be handy, even as a dropcloth. The plant stand has been taken apart (it needed a reglue anyway) and will be refinished this winter. The shelves are in use in the workshop as is the rolling clothing rack which has been equipped with window screening which all the ivory jewelry is hanging on, covered in clear plastic, for the winter. For craft shows it will be the new stand for the ivory process photographs that I have as a backdrop.

Free stuff is great.

More Than I Should Have When I Should Have Done Something Else

I was all set to head to church this morning when my mother asked if I would help her get the Christmas window boxes in place on the shed and at my porch. She had spent a few hours for the last couple days getting the greens and berries all arranged. Well, darn. I might as well stay home and get work finished up because I just knew the next question. "It's a beautiful day. Are you going to rake more leaves?"

Yep.

So after the window box carting, I finished up two sets of key tops. (Tomorrow at least one more set is due to arrive, maybe two. And I've got a tuning in the morning.) Then I set out to rake more oak leaves. That was at about 11 a.m. I came in for a fifteen minute lunch break at 1 p.m., then it was back to raking and bagging.

42 large lawn and leaf bags! And there are still more leaves - I ran out of bags. That makes the seasonal total, to date, 83 bags. That's a heck of a lot of oak leaves.

Now every joint hurts. One Aleve and a good night's sleep and it starts all over again tomorrow.

Funny How One Thing Leads to Another

After last Wednesday's tuning job, I made a dash to finish my Christmas shopping. My driving route took me past New England Biolabs and I remembered that I hadn't written my follow-up post.Mary called to tell me that she had picked up this magazine and noticed a familiar company featured. It seems that the founder of NE Biolabs is quite the guy! The title of the article in Northshore Life is Don Comb: Generosity is in his Genes. Indeed! I quote from the article by Heidi Paek: "Those who know Comb describe him as a remarkably generous and productive person. Though he is a great-grandfather, he seems ageless, working daily in search of answers to pressing scientific questions. Motivated primarily by his desire to advance the greater good, Comb has been a life long advocate of science and the environment, and an influential supporter of the arts." The article continues for three pages sprinkled with explanations of tidbits such as gene research, enzyme development, Filariasis (a parasitic organism) and DNA, environmental stewardship, environmentally sustainable construction, Ocean Genome Legacy Foundation, art as a universal form of expression, and bio-diversity of the world. What I gleened is that primarily NE Biolabs is involved in advancing the 'pre'curing of disease by discovery of the genetic cause and treatment at a genetic level. Pretty cool guy.

But, before that article there was another that held nearly equal fascination for me. The Danvers Insane Hospital: What Evil Lurks, by M. Renee Buckley.Having grown up on the north shore and having made the trip back and forth on Route 1, through Danvers, hundreds of times during my life, I've always been fascinated with the enormous Gothic presence of, what we referred to as, the Danvers State Mental Hospital. It sits high on a barren hill above acres of fields. Ominous. The main building, called Kirkbride, is a 70,000 square foot brick structure surrounded by many large 'out' buildings. The article was a superficial swipe at the more mysterious and possibly haunted aspects of the hospital which was closed in 1992. The hospital was built in 1878 and was designed to house 600 patients. At it's worst, 2000 poor souls were crammed in to the facility. By the 1980's only about 200 patients remained.

During the late 1940's, my great grandmother was commited to Danvers State Hospital.Nancy had spent a short time living with her daughter and family prior to her commitment. In those days the family lived in an apartment behind the office of GP, Dr. Peris. By today's standards it seems an odd arrangement. The only telephone, located in the doctor's office, was shared with my grandparents (and my mother). During the hours that the doctor's office was closed, my grandmother would answer any emergency calls and then call the doctor at his home. Also, the doctor's office had no facilities for sterilization. Dr. Peris would let himself in to my grandparent's apartment to boil his instruments in a pan on their kitchen stove. Nancy went to live with her daughter's family, in her latter years, as she began suffering from dementia. My mother remembers that in Nancy's short stay with them her condition worsened to the point that she would frequently wander unclothed. Considering the living (and sharing) arrangements, this posed an insurmountable problem. Long before the days of skilled nursing care or nursing homes, Danvers State was the only option. Nancy lived the last few months of her life there.

Today, the Kirkbride building is designated as an historic building and has become the central part of a high-end apartment complex, Avalon Danvers, built upon the same footprint as the Danvers State Hospital atop Hathorne Hill.

So, what started out as the coincidental discovery of an article that tied in to my blog post then led, for me, to a much more personal search in to the past.

Fair Saturday

...started off bright and early. I was up and out to the school complex just after 7:30 in the morning. Once at the school, I uncovered everything that we had set up on Friday evening and neaten, then put out the little Christmas tree for displaying the some of the easel miniatures as ornaments. I had time before opening to take a picture of my table.Not exactly a prime location in the gymnasium. I was located in the center aisle. At least it was a corner table so I got more traffic than the middle ones.

Around 9:30 a few people started milling in to shop. I kept reminding myself that last year had started off slowly - don't worry. The first hour past and I had had no sales. I was getting a bit nervous. Then a lady came by and was so excited to see the ivory necklaces. She told me that someone had given her one as a gift last year and she loves it. She bought two to give as gifts. Then I sold a couple packages of notecards. A twenty-something guy came and bought an easel miniature, then more necklaces sold. I lost track of how much jewelry sold. Mostly necklaces and a few pairs of earrings, no pins. I sold HALF A DOZEN miniatures!!!!!!!

Now add to that those four custom ordered necklaces - which, on Friday, became a sale of six rather than four AND today we had company and they asked to see the jewelry and I sold two more necklaces - it's been a good three days!

Oh yeah, dickiebo, I saw you peeking around the corner. (It was you in the elf costume wasn't it? You can tell me. I can keep the secret.)

Shameless Self Promotion

Yeah well...the biggie fair is coming up this Saturday so I thought I'd let y'all know. I've got everything sorted, repacked, and ready to go. Set up time is on Friday evening. The Rockport PTO Holiday Fair begins at 9:30 Saturday morning and ends at 2 p.m.Here's a picture of some of the latest additions to the jewelry. The photo shows just the painted ivory - before the findings are added. Top six verticals are necklaces, four of which are for the custom order and will be delivered on Friday. There are six pairs of Christmas earrings, two additional Christmas necklaces and three horizontal Christmas pins. This may or may not be the last fair of the year. The only other consideration would be a church fair coming up on Dec. 12th - a little seasonally late for most shoppers.

***********************************

Looking forward - I've got an update on NE Biolabs and some other local stuff (thank you Mary). I'll be posting all about that soon.

To Finish With the Last Two Posts and Then Some

Well, it has turned out to be a busy week - again. This is good for the pocketbook, one would think. Well, at least there is the hope that some of the money due will materialize. Nothing in the mail today, however (except the electric bill). Two more key jobs did arrive today and with the one that arrived yesterday, I'm busy. I also have to return a call about an estimate and possible tuning for a new customer.

So, the last key job to arrive is an enormous mess. I'm taking pictures as it progresses and will share them here in the future. It's a piano that was saturated with water. The tech sent the entire keyframe (keys and the structure that holds them). Everything is rusty, broken, unglued, moldy, younameit. FUN!! The other jobs are routine.

As promised, this week I sent off the parts to that piano tech who called last week. He should have them by Saturday and I sent a bill in a separate envelope. He called today. To tell me not to rush on sending the stuff as he thinks he may not need it after all. HAH. Guess he should have thought things through before he requested the parts. A half hour on the phone, more than two hours finding, dissembling, packing, reshelving the leftovers, and shipping. Now he's mad that he owes me money for it all. He ended the second phone call rather abruptly.

Tonight I emailed a tech that owes me for key bushing. At the time of the job he assured me that he had sent payment separately from the box of keys. I wonder what his excuse will be?

Amid it all, I'm almost ready for the PTO Holiday Fair. Just two Christmas necklaces to string and one last set of earrings to finish. Then it's get all packed up ready to go next weekend.

********************************

On a totally different subject - I finished reading The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. There was a lot of hype about it seven years ago when it was first published. I didn't really care for it. It seemed, to me, quite simplistic in writing style and in plot. Oh well. It did have one paragraph that caught my fancy. The main character was trying to decide if there would be a medical condition that she would be embarassed to admit suffering from. This is an exerpt from the resulting paragraph: "She felt terribly sorry for people who suffered from constipation, and she knew that there were many who did. There were probably enough of them to form a political party - with a chance of government perhaps - but what would such a party do if it was in power? Nothing, she imagined. It would try to pass legislation, but would fail."

One of the Downsides

of being self-employed is having to do follow-up calls for overdue payments.

Today, I made one of those calls. I tuned at this private church school nearly two months ago. September 15th. I submitted my bill, as instructed, to the secretary. I waited almost six weeks, then sent a second billing. Nada. So, today I asked the secretary about the missing payment. She replied, "Oh, our bookkeeper was out with THE flu. I'll check on it for you."

Wow, THE flu MUST be horrendous! Eight weeks worth of misery! Humph, I'm not convinced.

This prompted me to check my dry erase board in the workshop where I keep track of my workload for each month. Shop work and tunings and such. I added up the payments still pending on completed work and was duly depressed to find the total of $540.

Certainly there should be some checks arriving in the mail - soon!

Seven Varieties

If all weeks could just be like this past one!
Monday was retail, of course. It was just busy (or not slow) enough that it didn't get too boring. I knew it was giving me the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming week.
Tuesday it started with the first set of keys arriving. These were in for new bushings and needed to be finished up and shipped back out on Thursday. Everything went along quite well. Also on Tuesday, I got a special order for four ivory necklaces, so I did some ivory sorting and laminating at night.
Wednesday rolled around with keybushing in the morning and afternoon and evening! I worked it in around shaping and painting ivory and a late day tuning. The call for Wednesday's tuning went like, "We just got a piano for free. It's a white upright. I don't think it's been tuned since it was originally bought in the 80's."

Oh boy.

It turned out to be a 1986 Samick. The tuning record in the piano listed a free warranty tuning in 1986 and a second tuning in 1989! It was nearly a half step flat. I raised the pitch by 'tuning' the first note to the pitch of the next highest note, working my way up the scale. Then I went back and tuned. I'll be doing a follow-up fine tuning this week. At Wednesday's tuning I got to meet two ENORMOUS dogs. One was 11 months old and very pleased to have company. I was smothered in doggie kisses by the time I was finished. I also tuned with a picture of the second President Bush and wife watching from a picture above the gun case adjacent to the piano. The picture looked like it was taken on the customer's front lawn.

While I was at the tuning a box arrived at my house. Keys for new tops. A new customer. I stripped off the old tops and fronts, trimmed the key wood as needed and glued on new Wednesday night.

Thursday morning I finished up the keybushing job and got them packed and shipped. After lunch I did some more ivory painting while waiting to get ready to head for another tuning job. That tuning was a Kawai upright that I had tuned last year. It has extremely tight tuning pins and is really a bear to tune. It's nearly impossible to get a feel for the pin turning. I took several breaks during the tuning to play with the customer's cat. I'd dangle a long strip of felt over the edge of the bench for it to attack. Then I tied the end of that strip to the wire end of a tuning mute while I was using it. Every time I moved the mute along during tuning the cat went crazy. I went home and painted more ivory. I also had two phone calls for jobs in town and an email. Friday morning was free so I got both calls booked for then. The email was from the key top customer. She needed to find a couple replacement key coverings for a 1970's vintage Story & Clark piano. These are weird wraparound plastic coverings no longer available. I had a few and sold them to her - to be shipped with her key top job.

The first job of Friday morning was to solve 'knocking' keys (customer's description) on an old spinet. I knew a lot of the things it wouldn't be as I had worked on the piano and tuned it two years ago. Mrs. J. had thoughtfully put a smidgeon of tape on all the keys that were knocking. It took me far too long, amid a good deal of conversation, to notice that the fallboard (wood part that closes over the keys) had slipped slightly forward and all the sharps (black keys) were knocking on it when they came back up from being played. Whew! Easy stuff and I could go home before heading for my next in-town job. But wait...Mrs. J. decided that she would like the piano tuned...since I was there. Okay, at least there would be some pay for the trip! Once finished I headed for the second job, an estimate, arriving just in time. When this guy had called he had been hard to pin down as to what he wanted. Yes, he needed a tuning, but there were a couple missing bass strings, and well...he didn't know what else may be needed. Less than a mile from my home so I offered to take a free look. Turns out to be a Helpinstil (I think that's a close spelling) piano. One of approximately 100 still around (or maybe total made, I don't know). Built in the 1970's it's a hybrid of acoustic piano (spinet) and electronic keyboard. It folds up for traveling. I went over the immediate needs - 2 new bass strings (he had the old ones but, due to the location of the break, they couldn't be spliced and reused) and tuning. At some point there would need to be additional work like hammer filing, key bushing, regulation. I priced out the bass strings and tuning and he seemed unlikely to bother. I left a business card and headed home to work on that key top job. A tech called needing some player piano parts and I promised to find time to get them together and shipped.

Saturday morning I buffed the keys and got them packed and shipped. 'A' came downstairs to help me with collecting together the player piano parts and packing them up to be shipped next week. Then I painted more ivory jewelry. Around 2 in the afternoon, we decided to tackle some leaf raking. Then I made English pancakes for all of us for dinner.

Today, Sunday, I had a special piano job. Many years ago( in 1972 to be precise), friends of our family purchased my childhood piano. It's a 1961 Baldwin Acrosonic. They had just had it tuned a few weeks ago and ever since their tuner had left, the fallboard wouldn't work right. They had asked if I could take a look at it sometime when we visited. Today was the day. It was a gorgeous day today with temps in the high 60's. Hard to believe having a jacket free day on November 8th! Anyway, my mom and I made the drive while 'A' was at work. Once I'd gotten the piano opened up and a few screws removed I could see what had happened. I just find it hard to believe that this guy did what he did! There are four screws that hold a complicated array of metal linkage attaching the fallboard to the inside sides of the piano - two screws on each end. The top two screws on each end were fine. With the bottom two he had missed the holes and instead forced the screws in to new spots, creating two new holes in the wood. Why? Why would someone FORCEFULLY make new holes. Didn't he realize that he had missed the old holes? Four holes, four screws. Seems like it should have been simple enough! I lined up the screw holes with the holes in the linkage and screwed it all back together in the correct way. Guess what? It works now. Geeze. No charge, they are friends. They insisted on taking us out to lunch, though.

So, another week begins. So far I've got two keytop jobs that will be arriving and that fine tuning at the large dogs/piles of guns/Republican household. But first it's retail again.

More of the Odd

I admit it. I get overly fascinated with odd stuff. So, last week I was browsing the 'Buck-a-Book' shelf at the library and managed to find three that sounded worth their prices. One of the books was The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant (see the sidebar). It's fiction, or should I say faction? A novel based loosely upon the real life story of a very early settlement in the center of Cape Ann. Extremely well composed and makes you feel like it IS true history. I imagine it's close. I've referred to Dogtown in the past on this blog. One of these days I'll get around to some serious exploring out there. If you'd like more information (it's really nifty) check out this site . Be sure follow the links on the site for lots of interesting stuff.