When to turn around and leave

[Joel A. Jones]

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Susan,

What a blessing to see your warm homey soapstone oven.

Your account of the key washing reminds me of a frantic call
I received many years ago.  I stopped in mid tuning and
rushed to a the mansion of a very prominent family in town.
The heirloom family Steinway was being given to the grand-
daughter and  the maid was told to wash the ivories.
Whereupon the maid put ivory soap in a bucket
  and was happily scrubbing the inside of the piano.

Several months and many dollars later I asked if the maid
was still working for them.    I'll never forget this line -
"Yes, the poor dear never was too bright".

And, finally,

Connie and I returned home from a great evening
of dinner and a movie.   The answering machine was
filled.   A piano teacher friend of ours was frantic.
It was flu season and one of her students had ....
onto the mid section of the keyboard. Still warm.
I would have preferred she put the keys in the sink
for that mess as your lady did.

However, I did learn that the students homeowners
policy paid for the clean-up.

Here's hoping all a healthy 2006.   Happy New Year.

Joel

Joel Jones, RPT
Madison, WI

On Dec 31, 2005, at 2:02 AM, Susan Kline wrote:

> At 08:36 AM 12/31/2005 +1030, Robin wrote:
>> Yesterdays temperature here in Port Pirie was 45 degrees C (113F) and 
>> going for 106F today.
>
>
> And here I have chicken and a potato roasting in the soapstone stove's 
> bakeoven, after a nice fire to 250C. In here it's warm and dry, and 
> outside we've had such rain that the whole yard squishes. Luckily I 
> don't live on low ground. There's flooding and mud slides out there in 
> vulnerable areas. We call it a "Hawaiian Wet Front."
>
> As for deciding what not to put up with -- I was a real softy for far 
> too long, and did some totally ridiculous jobs, but I have worked out 
> a few things over the years. First to disappear were square grand 
> tunings (I just said too hard on my back, though my back is good.) 
> After twenty years of doing every upright player-with-pneumatic-action 
> which came my way, I balked after a really hard one, where I had 
> trouble getting the rewind to work after I was finished, and it joined 
> my "too hard on my back" list. I figured, twenty years was long enough 
> -- I had served my sentence.
>
> I used to hate tuning for road shows. In Stockton, CA, a guy used to 
> call me for them. After one, which involved climbing a ladder to a 
> little platform and tuning a terribly false electric grand, with tons 
> of noise going on all around me, I had a couple of convenient 
> "conflicts" when the guy called to schedule. He got the picture really 
> fast, and stopped calling, and I hardly felt guilty for the fibs.
>
> There was one mentally ill old lady in a bad part of town -- I had to 
> go out on the porch to keep from fainting. I had managed to tune for 
> her several times, but the next time she called me, I told her she 
> should try someone else. I felt sorry for her, but I couldn't face any 
> more. She really needed a good house fire (while she was away), and 
> some help from a social worker.
>
> I often clean the keys, especially in schools and churches. Clean keys 
> feel better while working, give that little smug glow of superiority, 
> and also show people (some of whom are not particularly good at music 
> and pitch) that someone has been there. Also, I think that a piano 
> with a clean keyboard gets a little bit more respect than one which is 
> filthy, so perhaps people won't beat it up as badly.
>
> I learned one day to hold my tongue about how filthy a piano is. I 
> evaluated an old upright which was truly filthy and I said so, as I 
> vacuumed and dusted. When I came back to bush the keys, the lady had 
> them out and was washing them off in the sink! It was retrievable with 
> a lot of glue and persistence ... barely.
>
> Susan
> <fire 7.jpg>_______________________________________________
> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives

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