A Fresh New Look...

for Spring.  I'm going to make an attempt to be cheerful.  Hah!  But, yes, I'll give it a go.  It's got to be cheerful someplace so why not here.  I'm working on lots of keys for customers all around the states and as the warranty key person for KawaiUSA.  Thankfully it keeps me very busy and financially in the black after having to give up much of my tuning business.  I still tune for established customers in Rockport and Gloucester and by select referrals within the two towns.  Much of my time is devoted to caring (or trying to) for my mother who has dementia.  It's not fun.  It's draining, frustrating, tiring, exasperating.........
But, even though I don't get out much other than errands, a once every 3 week visit with a friend, and very rarely a quick breakfast or dinner out with Ray, I am managing to find time to paint.  While it requires a lot of thought and energy, it is not directed toward caring for someone else.  And....it is a calming and relaxing process.  When I get to it, I'll post some pics of my more recent work.

For now you'll have to be satisfied with a brighter blog look.

Is This So Difficult to Understand?

I got a call from a tech today that kind of went as follows:

Tech:  Yes, hi, do you have extra ivories that you would sell?

Me:  No, I have never sold ivory as I use it for my own customers and for keyboard restoration work for technician customers.  Also, it is currently illegal to sell/trade in any ivory across state lines.  You are from Florida, right?

Tech:  Ah, yes.  When did it become illegal?

Me:  The federal government passed the ban in interstate ivory sales/trade on July 6, 2016.  You will have to find someone in your own state if you wish to legally buy old ivory.

Tech:  Oh, I don't know of anyone here. 

Me:  I'm sorry.  I can't help you.

Tech:  Maybe I can find someone out west that will sell me some.

Me:  Well, I can't say whether anyone will, but it is illegal for them to sell out of state.  That's now federal law.

Tech:  I'm going to Texas.  Maybe someone there can sell it to me?

Me:  (ready to scream)  They would be breaking a federal law.  That would be up to them.  Sorry I can't help you.  Best of luck.

Is the meaning of interstate and illegal difficult to grasp?  Wow.

Reflections on Work

Some shots taken while at work.  What's up?

A lid shot

And yet another

Now do you know what's up and...

...what's down?

And When I'm Not Shoveling...

The key shop is busy! The two sets pictured got finished today. There's another set in that cardboard box. That set is now in the works. Then there is the set that arrived today after this photo was taken. More arriving this weekend? And...another set on Monday! Love it!

When Patience Is Priority

The piano was supposed to be on the stage.  The recital was in the afternoon and as I sat it was 11 a.m.  I had other jobs scheduled for later in the day.  A return visit was not an option.

My view of the piano-less stage.

The Stage Manager was frantic.  The guy in charge of moving the piano knew that it needed to be on stage.

I waited.

And waited...for 45 minutes.

The guy wasn't showing up, wasn't answering his phone.  It was a no-go or improvise.

Did I mention that the manager was frantic (and very apologetic)?

Finally, I went backstage and located the piano.  The Stage Manager found me exploring the options for getting the piano from backstage to on stage.

He said that there was a ramp and I found it.  Then I located a power driver and some drywall screws.  I attached the ramp to the edge of the stage and the manager and I rolled the piano on stage.

Not without mishap, though.  Managers do not make good movers, nor are they used to listening and following directions from someone else.  I pushed and steered, he guided and pulled.  I said take it slowly.  He rushed and managed to yank the piano part way off its stage dolly.  The homemade dolly wasn't attached!  Thus, another problem...

Get the piano back on the dolly correctly so that it could be rolled across the stage.  With a bit of searching I found the necessary items to force things back in line. 

Finally, an hour and a quarter later.........ready to tune.  Much to the relief of the Stage Manager who offered to go get me lunch.  I settled on a bottled water, got to work and collected my pay.

Leftovers...

from last year.

Last year I made the New Years Resolution to stop using my stairs as a filing cabinet for bills, paperwork, etc.  I am very pleased to report that only one item was allowed to reside on the corner of a step between the posts...the extra car keys.  That's right, I kept that resolution (see link).
http://harmonyclubwaltz.blogspot.com/2012/12/resolution.html 
As a matter of fact, it worked so well that it is my resolution for this year!  Let's see if I can keep the stairs uncluttered of paperwork for a second year!

Tidying up went even further at the end of the year.  I hired my super electrician to properly wire my workshop.  Thank you Bruce of Bayside Electrical for completing the work on schedule and doing a super job.  As you can see from the clutter of wires photos below, this work really needed doin'.  Each time Bruce had been here for some other minor work, he nagged about the workshop.  I had told him that 2013 would be the year and it was.  It's hard to show neatness in photos but I've added a couple below the messy ones.

A triple plug extension cord to help with my overhead lights.  You can see some of the new work in this photo.

Another multi-plug for overhead lights

Mass mess for a few of the machines.

Nice neat work running wiring for the new circuits.

Now I have convenient wall switches to operate the two sections of overhead lights.

Look how many extension cords have been eliminated!

Yesterday the girls headed to the mall to return/exchange Martha's useless (in my opinion) pan.  See my last post for details!  Macy's readily returned my mom's money, but the salesclerk was unnecessarily flippant.

Mom:  "I need to return this pan.  I was told that it could be used in the oven for a roast and it says it can't be used in the oven.  You can't even wash it in the dishwasher!"
Clerk:  "Well, you can still make a roast in it."

Macy's only had one pan that met our requirements and it was over $200.00.  For one pan!  We went to Sears next.  Nothing.  On to Kohl's where we found nothing except an enameled cast iron dutch oven that was shedding specks of cast iron off the edges.  At least it was too expensive, too.  Well over $100.00 as I recall.  On to Target.

Success!  The Giada De Laurentiis collection had a 6 qt. stainless steel roasting pan with lid.  Oven safe, dishwasher safe...all for $39.99!  Phew, Christmas exchanging done!

So, now that it is a new year...today I,
took down our outdoor decorations before the upcoming blizzard (Thursday/Friday 10 - 14+ inches, winds gusting possibly to 50 mph, and temps too low, wayyy too low for me)

finished my business bookkeeping for the year

got my last estimated tax payments ready to mail

corresponded with 5 techs (some in the last day or two) about upcoming keywork

cleaned up the kitchen table (it had become a dumping spot...remember that resolution? stuff has got to go someplace!)

did some emailing

took A to work (must remember to pick her up tonight!)

2014 is off to a good start!

Except for the weather.

Jake the Thief

I had a bit of help with a job estimate on Saturday.

The job was to evaluate a used, well-known name, grand piano.  The customer had purchased it only a week before and was anxious to know if his money was well-spent.  (Why don't they ask before they spend it?)

Anyway, the estimate was a combination thing of checking the piano and also determining whether a climate control system should be installed.

The client could have spent twice the amount and still have gotten a very good deal.  He was happy to hear that.  It was determined that it would be best to wait and see on the climate control system and also decided that he would have it tuned during the first half of April.

Jake, my helper on this Saturday morning venture, was a Jack Russell Terrier (I think).  Actually, by Jake's behavior, I'm darn well certain that's the breed.  While Jake clamored for attention, I did a quick check on the tuning.  Supposedly the piano had not been tuned for over a year...and it had just been moved.  All things considered, it sounded remarkably good.

Except for two bass notes which I offered to touch up while I was there.

I opened my tuning kit and grabbed my tuning lever.  Jake watched, then settled down under the piano.  Other than a couple grrrrrrs Jake was quiet...and seemingly motionless.

I should have wondered.

Jake was a thief.  While my tuning kit was open on the floor, Jake stole my upright lid prop and settled in with his new 'bone'.

Mauled lid prop with the leather half chewed off and very soggy

It took some coaxing with real treats to get him to give up the mauled lid prop.  Leather and wood was evidently a good toy treat and the leather was great fun to chew on...and pull apart.

I'll remember Jake the Thief when I go back to tune.  My tool kit and my newly releathered lid prop will remain well out of reach!

Piano Tuning and Repair

I am making reference to my new website.  As part of promoting search engine hits on the site and thus upping my ranking I am writing...

Debra Legg Piano Service provides professional piano tuning and repairs to Rockport, Essex, Gloucester, Manchester, Hamilton, Wenham, Beverly, Salem, Peabody, Danvers and Rowley, MA.  Debra Legg also services player pianos and reed organs.  Visit her website at:

www.debraleggpiano.com  

Some of you might even post a link to the site on your blog!

As time permits I will be adding a photo gallery page as well as some images on the other pages.

A Big Project...

still in the works.

You might notice a new link - at the top of my Links list in the sidebar.

This has been a major undertaking with a very steep learning curve!  I started at 9 a.m. and it's now 2:48 p.m.  I've only taken a 45 minute break for lunch.  I'm done for today.

There is still much more that I want to do with the site and over the next few days I hope to add more...including pictures, and change the contact page with a contact form that uses my site email.  It'll all get done.

Just not now.  Not after a grueling 4+ hours.

Up for Air

Ivory keys stained by mouse urine - yuck

Regluing all the loose ivories using special clamps

 Yeah, it has been busy around here.  Mostly work, work, work.  Which is a good thing.  R and I have been to Maine to service a player piano.  Then I went to Wakefield the following week to repair another player piano.  I've had a lot of ivory key repair work in the shop.  I love the finickiness of regluing, bleaching, and other key repairs but three of them at the same time takes up a lot of bench space!  I put some pictures here and you can see more on my FB page.  Just look for Debra Legg Piano Service on FB.

Same set of ivories - much prettier after bleaching!

Anyway, I'm finally down to one set of keys still working their way through the process, so I'm a bit more relaxed.  Today, R and I went to the Cape Ann Museum.  Every January they have free admission for Cape Ann residents.  We spent about 90 minutes taking in a whole bunch of neat stuff.  I wanted R to see the Ralph Coburn exhibit, so we started with that.  Then we worked our way down from the third floor checking out all the rest of the neat stuff there.

So yes, I'm still alive and have resurfaced!  And.....



the staircase is still clear!

Done

Another one?  Really?

Tuned the last of the pre-Christmas piano tunings this morning.  The last one was supposed to be the same piano but tuned last of the day on Friday.  That is until the church decided they didn't want to roll the extra piano into the sanctuary until after Sunday's service.  The tuning got moved to today.  The permanent sanctuary piano turned out to be the last tuning on Friday.

Got that?

Merry Christmas to everyone out there still reading!

Ho, ho, ho 'tis the season.

Player Piano Analysis...

I've been corresponding with a player piano owner who is really too far out of my service area...yet they want me to come out and find out what's up with their piano.

I offered some suggestions to the owner based on an initial description of the problem.  She said her husband is an engineer and he would take a look.

Here is the 'official' report from the engineer.

I must say that I love this report.  So typically an engineer...yet with humor.

This is not their piano.  It is my yet-to-be-finished player piano.

Summary of Researches and Findings Pursuant

to the

Player Piano

1. The machine is robust and possesses a non-trivial inertial mass.  Moving it away from the basement wall produced a 10-yr storm in the tendons and connective tissues of my upper and lower abdomen.
2. To the extent that the machine is massive and relatively immobile, it is equally aloof and unreliable as with regards to producing music.
3. It does, however, when energized, utilize compressed air to cause a set of bellows to operate in a reliable rhythm.  Of principal interest here is the observation that this hive of activity causes a shaft to rotate.
4. The location of this shaft appears to be the cause of the problem.  The shaft spins in a constant direction, but is able to slide along a left-right ordinate.  When it is in the leftmost position, it causes the music rolls to rewind, often with alarming speed.  When it is slid to the right a sufficient distance, the gear on the left end of the shaft disengages the rollers, and instead a gear on the right end of the shaft engages a different mechanism, and the music roll is turned in the forward direction.
5. When the latter occurs, the machine produces a clever compendium of sounds as its designer no doubt intended.
6. I was able to cajole the machine into playing entire music rolls by manually sliding a linkage to the right, which dragged the shaft to the right, and caused good things to happen.  It didn’t always stick, but after a few attempts it would get my drift.  Adjusting the speed of rotation in the early stages of the process seemed to be helpful in keeping the shaft engaged with the rightmost mechanism.  It seems to want to slide to the left and go into rewind mode more often than not, and in the time that I spent scratching my head and wondering whether or not I would inadvertently get a finger ground into chuck meat by a gear, or deftly grab hold of something electrified, I didn’t quite parse the reason for that personality flaw.  Once it gets going, however, it will play an entire roll.
7. At the end of the roll, another bellows fires and pushes the rotating shaft back to the left so that the roll rewinds.  That part seems to work okay, but needed a bit of help at the end of the roll as well.  So, somehow the shaft and the mechanisms that move it back and forth are just not quite on top of their collective game.

A Wake Up Tune

This morning I started work earlier than usual.  This customer had been postponed (rescheduled) twice.  Both times by me. I was feeling a bit bad about that so I agreed to be on the road an hour before my usual start time.

The front gate

The view from where I parked

More from my parking spot

The building where the piano lives

Not a bad looking place!

The only down side will be waiting for my check to appear in the mail.  The secretary handles all bill paying and she wasn't there yet.

Money

I've been playing phone tag with an out of town restaurateur.  First it was someone calling on his behalf.  They left his cell number. I called it and left a message.  Later yesterday, I had a message on my machine from the person.  I called back this morning and got voice mail...again.  This time though, within 5 minutes, said restaurateur called back. He wants to sell the piano.

The short of it is that I volunteered to do a free (it's kinda local), quick check, prior to this piano being offered for sale, of a year old tuning that had been done by someone else.  I ran over to the restaurant before it opened today.  Yep, very out of tune.  Double checked tuning pin torque on some of the more offensive notes.  All fine with that.  Got back home and called the restaurateur with the promised report.

It went like this...

Me:  The piano needs tuning.  It's totally up to you whether you want to tune prior to selling it or if you want to explain that you've had it looked at and all is satisfactory for tuning after moving to a new location.  (it'll have to be tuned then anyway.)  As I said before, my tuning fee is $$$$.

Him:  Would you tune it for a small cash payment plus gift certificates for a couple dinners?

Me:  No, I'm sorry, I don't do that.  (Honestly, I'd be rich in food coupons, play tickets, etc.  but unable to pay my electrical bill or put gas in my car.)

Not going to tune.

Afterthought.....I tune at a lot of churches.  I can see the offer now....we can pay you a portion of your fee in cash and offer the balance in the promise of salvation!

Sigh.

Waiting...

 and waiting...

Sometimes you just have to wait!

I've been working on a Mason & Hamlin reed organ rebuild for a church in Boston.  It's a complicated job.  Bits and pieces of oddly manufactured stuff.  Fun and annoying at the same time, if that's possible.  So, right now I'm waiting for my glue pot to heat up and thought I'd fill some blog space while I'm waiting.

'A' and I went for a long walk this morning.  I'm trying to walk at least 5 days each week with her.  She's trying to lose weight and, well, I am too.

So here are some of the things we saw on our walk today.

The seven swans that swam

Added my bit to some sidewalk writing.  Nice that they left the chalk!

Guess that glue should be hot by now.

Business on Facebook

Since Facebook had already provided a basic page under my business name, I decided I'd better claim it.  I'm not a big fan of Facebook, nor of its clumsy approach for doing just about any kind of modifications, however, since people had visited the 'blank' page...well, you know how things go...

There's not much on the page right now.  I plan to add photos and some piano related tips in the future.  If you so desire check it out here and please Like me!

Me tuning at the RAA last year.

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!

*************************
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.

*************************
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.

********************************
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!

New-sy

Well, the first thing is trying out the 'new' Blogger.  Not thinking that I like it much, but like most other changes it will become routine after a while.

This week, or so, has been/will be birthday week.  Mom's came first this past Tuesday and A's will be this coming Tuesday.  As normal, and to avoid too much baking and eating out, we combined the two, celebrating on Thursday with a trip to Skip's (they had opened for the season on Wednesday).  We came home for presents and cake. Thursday was the only evening available in A's schedule.  She had an extra load of hours at work this week.  39 hours when she's supposed to be part time.  Her boss claims it was because of another clerk being on vacation.  Weird that everyone else only had between 15 - 20 hours though.

Our view from our car.  The parking lot was near capacity.

Our timing for Skip's was good, arriving before it got too busy.  As you might notice by the picture, by the time we were nearly ready to leave, the line was out the door.  I'll add that the line started inside, to the far right, about where it says Skip's.  Tradition dictates that we eat in the car.  The weather was beautiful.  In the mid 70's.

Which does bring today's weather to mind.  It's now in the mid 40's...and raining.  It's going to rain tomorrow, as well.  A real Nor'easter, they claim.  We do need the rain.  We're somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 - 8 inches shy of norm this year.  Beats getting a late season snow like upstate New York and western Pennsylvania (hi Norma!).  The bad weather has brought a halt to a search for a little girl missing from Long Beach since Thursday noon.  A tragic story that can be best read through the Gloucester newspaper.

It's been a bit over a week since I got a copy of the book that's new in my sidebar.  Mark Carlotto had written "The Dogtown Guide".  "The Island Woods" is his newest book.  Guess who got an acknowledgement?  Guess who also wrote a 'blurb' for the back cover?  Did you guess?  Did ya?  Yep, me!  And you can bet I got my copy autographed by Mark. Why my presence?  Well, through the historic society I was able to read the proof of the book.  When I emailed Mark with some comments (mostly praise), he asked if I would contribute the back cover blurb.  I had no idea that my comment about an additional D.T. Sq. boulder would earn me the acknowledgement.  I'm very pleased.

In other news...things are looking pretty favorable for a contract on a Mason & Hamlin reed organ rebuild for a Boston church.  Tomorrow I will be pricing out some movers for them and sending along the contract for the work.  Fingers crossed.

This morning, as I looked out my kitchen window, sipping the first of my coffee, I spotted this rather large bunny hopping down the front walk.  He (or she, I guess) sat at the end of the walk for a couple minutes looking around before hopping on into my mother's front garden.

Bart the bunny

Indoors, we started our vegetable seeds a few weeks ago.  Tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans and pumpkins. It's been about a 50/50 success rate and I've planted more seeds...just in case.  We've been carrying the tray of seedlings outdoors on sunny warm days and they do look better for it.  At worst, the garden will be mediocre.  At best, we will also have a second crop later in the summer. 

I'm still working on my web site.  I wrote the text and R is doing the editing.  I've accumulated a few more pictures and I've picked a template on a web hosting site.  As soon as a large, uninterrupted block of time is available I'll be getting it done.  Yay!

Today was the day to take artwork out of the Rockport Art Association Contributing Member's  Show.  R and I went down at noon to retrieve the painting and the photograph that I had exhibited.  No sale this year.  At least it keeps my name in circulation.

Haskins Hospital depicted on an early Rockport postcard

In a couple weeks, I'll be running a PowerPoint presentation on the former Leander M. Haskins Hospital of Rockport.  Another SBHS member will be doing the talking.  I'll be doing a bit of explaining about what remains of the property...now a town park.  Getting all the photos scanned and also exploring and taking current photos, not to mention a heck of a lot of research has kept me busy for weeks.  I am happy with the photos and hope that the entire presentation is a good one. It should be.

So, there you have it...I think.  Pretty much what has been going on around here recently.

More of Another Tech

I seem to be finding some innovative problem solving.

Today, as I was packing up a set of keys to be shipped back to 'Another Tech', I came across an interesting repair.  Why had I not noticed this while I was working on the new keytops?

Really?  You've got to be joking!

Obviously (hopefully) a field repair with nothing else(?) available?  I find this one hard to believe!  The key button, that raised area of the key, center frame, had split and had been glued back together with this bread wrapper clip-thingie glued on as a splint.

A bit better, not great, and it didn't work long-term

The above photo shows another key from the set with a somewhat more acceptable field repair.  You may notice, though, that this was a broken key and the repair did not hold.

Always carry some veneer.  It's stronger and looks eversomuchmore professional!