[CAUT] Return of the swallow

[JOEL A JONES]

Bill, 
Are these pianos at the University/College or private teachers? 
I learned that if this is a private teacher you can check with 
the parent's home owners insurance for coverage.  It made me 
feel better about the mess to know that some resonsibility $$
comes back to the student & parents.  

Replace everything.  Don't even touch it.   My motto for the day. 

Joel




----- Original Message -----
From: maxpiano <maxpiano at sc.rr.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 7:33 pm
Subject: [CAUT] Return of the swallow
To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org>


> Tomorrow will be my third occasion to clean up a vertical for a piano 
> teacher (different one each time), whose pupil came to the lesson ill 
> and proceeded to empty her stomach contents into the piano.  My wife 
> received the distress call today.  Parents teach kids to cover their 
> mouths when they cough, why don't the kids also turn the head aside 
> when the irrepressible spews forth?
>  
>  The previous two occasions, one was a Baldwin Hamilton where the mess 
> had been there over a year, had dried up and responded to a fairly 
> routine cleaning under the keys.  The second was a Kimball spinet (why 
> do people teach on those things) some distance from here, where it 
> took me over a month to schedule the trip.  There was this black hairy 
> mass of growth under the keys, and key bushings to replace.
>  
>  My question is, how best to be prepared for tomorrow.  I assume 
> rubber gloves and some dilute bleach for starters.  The piano is a 
> Steinway (living room edition of the 1098) which I would like to leave 
> as unruffled as possible.  Not that I have any particular affection 
> for the 1098, but there is a lot of good workmanship in those beasts.
>  
>  Bill Maxim BJU
>