I haven't had to clear off any nativity scenes yet but I've had my share of situations where the owner just didn't think that anything other than _playing_ the piano would ever occur: an upright _tightly_ wedged into a small space so that the top could not be opened (or piano pulled out), a 5-gallon fish aquarium on a tall upright, and who hasn't heard the line, "Oh, well, can't you just open the front like this" (swings out the music board of an old upright). The list keeps getting longer (and the owners keep getting more creative). My all-time worst encounter with a cerebrally challenged pianist was when, several years ago, I walked into the living room of a modest house and was shown to a Yamaha G2. Its lid was open. The reason that the lid was open was so that all of the plants that were placed on the plate could get light and have room to grow. I suppose. Being a piano technician and not much of a gardener, I'm only guessing. As Dave Barry would say, I'm not making this up. This guy was for real. Yesssss, I stayed to tune the piano but only out of pity for the instrument. When I left, I offered him some helpful suggestions (like, a CFIII could hold more plants). The ingrate hasn't invited me back. Tom ps: Marcel touched on another pet peeve: the key-under-the-mat appointment. The usual snafu is that they _forget_ to put the key under the mat. Yesterday, I had a tuning where the wife put the key under the mat but the husband unconsciously locked the deadbolt (which requires a _different_ key). Ah, well, first time that's happened. A voice cackles in Calvin's (F-4 Phantom) radio. "Enemy fighters at two o'clock!" "Roger. What shall I do until then?" Bill Watterson Marcel Carey wrote: > > Hi List! > > I wonder if you like it as much as I do when you get to a piano with nobody > home (owners left the key under the door mat) to find the stereo (the one > with 4 speakers) on the top of the piano with the 23 pieces nativity set... > Candles, decorations, everything goes. > > Some day!!! -- Thomas A. Cole, RPT Santa Cruz, CA mailto:tcole@cruzio.com
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC