Temperament$

[A440A@AOL.COM]

Greetings, 
    It was the last tuning of the week. A really nice, burl walnut Baldwin 
with a pinblock whose "attitude" has been softened by the 50 years of tuning 
that my customer had been paying for.  He is a 
high-powered-exmilitary-executive-type-A-Republican-take-charge-now kinda 
guy.  
    He doesn't have "opinions",  he has "facts".  He knows what he likes and 
hasn't been shy since his school play in kindergarten.  Just the sort of man 
that you have to respect, and given his willingness to go ashore in front of 
machine guns on Iwo Jima some 54 years ago,  I don't mind saying "Sir" to. 
    He was recovering from back surgery and told me that he had just been 
getting around to being able to play again, but felt like he was losing 
interest in it, so I asked him if he was interested in taking a walk on the 
wild side.  He asked, "What did I mean?" and I told him that there was more 
than one way to tune a piano.  
   I gave him a quick explanation of what seemed to be going on in the 
Broadwood factory in 1880 and he said, " I never heard of anything like that, 
but go ahead".   I called on the spirit of Owen Jorgensen and wound up my SAT 
III with a "Broadwood's Best" slapped on top of his FAC.  Since we were going 
to be a little avante-garde here, I also threw in a .5 double octave stretch 
compensation, too.  
   I finished the job, asked him to take it for a spin, and he sat down and 
played "Somewhere, Over The Rainbow". He plays well and it sounded good.
I started to say something, but before I could, he began a Brahms piece,  116 
nr.6 (in Eb, I think).    When he finished, he looked up and I was startled 
to see that he had tears in his eyes.  He said that he had never heard his 
piano sing like that, and was staggered by the beauty of the sound.  I hemmed 
and hawed while trying to look like what I thought a genius should look like. 
 
   He asked what the bill was and I told him it was $100, (normal fee).  It 
was only when I got home and handed the day's checks over to my "business 
manager"  (that I sleep with!) that I noticed the check had been written for 
$150.  I called him to clear up the mistake and he said that it was barely 
enough for what he had received.  His exact words were "Epiphanies shouldn't 
come cheap".  
   Not all customers will react this way, but if we don't dare to reach, if 
we don't look for ways to broaden our life experiences, we stagnate.  
Everything changes with time. Today we have Owen's research to open doors 
that many of us have walked past as we clung to our status quo.  I would like 
to encourage my fellow techs to look for growth, take a chance, and enjoy 
what new vistas we might find.  It is soon to be a new year, a new milleneum, 
 and I can only hope that we all find the new in our future. 
Regards to all, 
Ed Foote RPT