oysters

We have a New Year's Eve tradition in our household to drive out Sir Francis Drake Blvd, stopping at Perry's Deli in Fairfax for sandwiches, to go look for spawning salmon up Paper Mill Creek and to drive out to Drake's Bay for oysters. Well the lack of rain means no salmon, and we did go a day early, but we did procure a pint of oysters that are currently being baked into a quiche as I type. Now these oysters could probably have been gotten much closer to home, but the drizzle in West Marin, the walk on the beach, and the feeling that my childhood haunts still remain somewhat untouched by 60 years of civilization make the drive oh so worthwhile.

into the next county

On Monday we took a field trip to China Camp State Park. As a Marin County native you would have thought I might have been there before, but no, this was a first. It is a wonderfully crummy, not over developed and on the chopping block for closure, park. We are our scouting for possible boat launching spots for the dory we have yet to purchase. And this was a good excuse to at least get outside.

 

After a little exploring and a  short walk we headed back over the bridge for a bowl of soup. Feeling rather refreshed.

welcome yule

The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Officially the Solstice occurred last night at 9:30 PST. But yesterday and today are the two shortest days, 9h 32m 54s. Tomorrow we add 4 seconds.
I am told by a neighbor that the Chinese say that the earth's energy changes from Yin to Yang on Winter Solstice.

holidaze

Our neighborhood is ablaze with lights. I've strung up a few strings inside, here and there, but mostly am enjoying the neighbors efforts, and their Bureau of Electricity bill. Down at the shop we are all looking forward to January.  The shop is cold, people are coming and going, and our regular lunch spots are crowded. All my regular yoga classes are cancelled for the duration of the jolly days just when I need them the most. And we have not seen one single box of See's candy, but Steve did fill the cookie jar this morning. A couple of cookies and a shot of espresso and I was a little warmer. Only two days to Solstice at least.

plumb barbara

She's piece of work isn't she? Building 14 had a Christmas party today that included a Yankee Trader gift exchange. Old Barbara is a working plumb-bob. And was a highly sought after gift. It was through stealth and good game playing skills that she became mine. The other highly sought after gift was a teddy bear cookie jar, purchased at a thrift store by one of my workmates. Now Steve paid $4.85, which was under the $5 limit, but in fact you can find these on Ebay going for considerably more money. So John and I having numbers late in the game realized that we could get the cookie jar for the shop and I could could end up with Barbara. Dixie, who put Barbara out there for us, was quite happy that she was going home to a woman. And I may have to start baking more cookies to keep the jar filled. Although I am not the only baker in the shop, and the jar could be a good incentive.

key bushings

Today had all the qualities of a Monday. Problems, not insurmountable, but problems. Working my way through piles, with slow computer connections, I just tried to take a zen approach, and was glad that at least I had a lunch of tasty leftovers to look forward to. After giving up on reconciling a very involved credit card bill, I decided a fresh mind could sort it out later and I went down to the shop. The tasty lunch had been consumed, but I needed something else. I walked through the door and Steve said "last half a cookie on the desk". Quickly I stuffed it into my mouth. Hmmmm.

Now what does this have to do with key bushings? What are key bushings?

The above illustrates the task of replacing the felt pieces that line the key buttons, the keys then rest over the pins in the key frame. Above are the balance rail bushings, there is also a set under the front of the keys that are the front rail bushings. This is not an impossible task, but it is also not an easy one, at least for me. I have been working on technique, glue consistency, consistency in general. And there are depth issues. Since I use both my right and left hands for this task there seems to be variation. But today, 10 months later, and I don't know how many bushings, Steve told me the last set I did looked good. Hallejulah, and praise Allah and any other gods that may be around. For the record, I don't use a knife, but single edge razor blades, and I work from the front. And I change razor blades often. Not a wasteful usage, they go into the secondary tub for scraping tasks. And they ultimately go into the metal recycling can. And occasionally I find some errant plastic caul in the pocket of my jeans.

exclusive buttons

Today I took a long lunch (it has been a long week) and drove to El Cerrito to Exclusive Buttons. I am not not sure why I have never been there before. Mike has even been into the store. But there I was greeted by Mary Sortile who gave me the history lesson of the store, and a good tour. And then she pulled out the box from the back room of single buttons and let me sort through, giving me a very good deal and stuffing more buttons into my purchase. She even brought out the stool for me to sit on. Her husband was a button salesman in the dime store days, and they ended up with a rather large stock of carded buttons when the dimes stores all closed. So this store has been in operation for 28 years. I felt like a small child playing in my mother's button box again.
Then I moved on to the drawers and the walls. Guess I'd better get knitting. Or come up with some other button projects.

chopin b minor sonata

There are several movements to this sonata but here is a sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPm7Cd9IMaw
My workmate Douglas often plays this, and  there are magical mornings when I pull up to the shop, get out of the car look at the view, and hear this coming from one of our pianos that is almost ready to leave our care.
For the first time in almost 10 months, Rhys and I came back to the shop after lunch and dug around to find a CD of this piece. And he explained to me why various parts were good to test out how a piano was voiced. Somehow, all the tedious work doesn't seem tedious, and we realize why we are doing it. And count ourselves lucky to be given the chance. There is a job satisfaction in piano restoration work that I have never experienced before. I am working on a 100 year old Steinway at the moment that belongs to a church. I have the feeling it has stories to tell.

moebius, perfect wear for cold shops

Do I look serious with my glasses? You might note I also have my ear buds installed. I have discovered music helps the tedium, I've been polishing all of those pins. But I don't like to tune everyone out so I only listen when I am by myself in the shop. And this week that only happened for about 45 minutes this Friday afternoon. Most weeks I have hours to myself, but for unexplained reasons not this week.
Weather shift in the shop, I'm wearing shoes and extra layers. We do have heat, but it is loud, and not terribly efficient. If someone is tuning, voicing, or just trying to play a piano it  gets turned off. I noticed a client playing with fingerless gloves on this morning, so I guess it was a bit nippy.

how many piano technicians does it take to change a light bulb?

We gave it the old college try, but unfortunately, despite the fearless scissor lift driving of Douglas we failed in our attempt to get all of our fluorescents to work. Ballasts we fear, and that is not the forte of piano technicians. I just kept trying make sure no one banged their head or ran into any of our pianos.

the explanation of signed dates

I was wondering why these dates were appearing in the piano keys of my 1928 Steinway AIII. Douglas gave me the answer. Evidently it was very common for tuner's to date their work, and usually upside down, which these are. This piano was living in Hawaii so it is interesting to think of what was happening at the time of the tunings. I am working my way through the keys, now I will keep my eyes out for more dates.

the steingraeber

Since 1852, these pianos have been built in Germany. Our Model 205 is only about 10 years old, and in rather good nick, with some detailing needed. That's where I came in. I said today in my seventh hour with a q-tip in my hand "this is not attention to detail, but neurosis to detail". I was trying to clean in between all the pins, amongst other places. I did get to polish some agraffes with a sanding sponge, which at least was satisfying in that they became shiny. The finish on the plate of this piano if very matte, a real contrast to the big Bosendorfer we had in the shop which was very flashy orange. Steinway plates run somewhere in between gloss and matte, and Mason-Hamlin's claim to plates is a rather unusual cast of green. These were things I did not know a year ago.

 

Douglas is doing the skilled labor, regulating the action. We all like this piano, it has a very nice sound and a light touch. It will be even better by the end of the week. The owner is looking for a new home for it, if you are interested.

 And this was my reward for working an 8 hour day. The sun was setting and close to a full moon was rising. I made myself sit and watch the sun sink below the horizon.

drill, fill, drill, and fill again

We were discussing drill, fill, drill, and fill again as the life of a piano technician. My portion is the first drill and fill, and if I got paid by the hole I would definitely have more in the bank than I do now. None of the glory that the concert tuner's and tweeker's get. No one says to me, "wow Agnes, nice job on those plugs or wood epoxy fill". But, the view is nice from the shop, the company of my workmates is good. And the coffee, well, an added perk. And I am about to clean and polish a Steingraeber 205. Not many of those come along.

putting in a new soundboard

I enjoy listening to this task. It requires two people working together coordinating movements. There is wet glue drying and a critical need for precise placement. Rhys and Thomas seemed to worked smoothly and the results are being clamped in for the glue to set up completely. Another piano is on it's way to a renewed life.

done

I stood at my bench for 6 and half hours long hours today mixing small batches of wood epoxy and filling holes. I've decided the reason we all get along with each other in the shop is that we all possess the quirky character trait that tolerates endless tedious tasks. Since endless tedious tasks are the nature of piano work the gods have joined us together for the purpose of piano restoration. We had ice cream after lunch from Yumy Gort that we took to Crab Cove and sat and watched the coots bob in the water while we licked. And we watched two Molly the Moo-Cow cartoons that were great. I ended my day polishing  88 wippen screws on the wire wheel. Really a pretty good day.

to chisel or not to chisel

Rhys laughs at me when I say my favorite job is chiseling. He thinks it's a sign I was meant for a life in the trades. Smoothing out the wood plugs that fill the lead holes is sensory satisfying. But I am back at work on my Mason-Hamlin after a week away, and it just wasn't the best candidate for plug filling. First of all, it has 6 or 7 holes in most of the keys, and they are placed close together. Second, the holes are pretty uniform, the lead was smaller and applied in such a manner that it all came out leaving the holes smooth. Drilling out the holes so they will fit the plugs we buy just seemed like taking away too much of the key when it didn't need to be removed. There are no smaller plugs commercially available and past attempts at making plugs were not successful. So I am left with the wood epoxy solution for filling. My technique is improving with practice, but using the epoxy adds angst to the process. The epoxy is two parts mixed together with a 15 minute window to use. And you must wear gloves which end up getting covered with crumbly bits which seem to be attracted to the ivory and ebony of the keys. The trick is to figure out how much to mix up for that 15 minutes window and to keep rags around to attempt to keep your fingers crumb free. I use razor blades like a putty knife to smooth the epoxy in the holes and if you are clever you can get everything smooth enough to avoid having to sand later. The whole process is just not as relaxing as the chisel slipping through the wood plugs. But since it's for my Mason-Hamlin I just have to let go of my desire to chisel.

october, tom's place and surrounds

We were not only blessed with good weather, but an amazing lack of crowds driving through Yosemite. Olmstead Point was even uncrowded and taking our sandwiches up the rocks we could get as high as the top of Half Dome, with an easy 15 minute climb. Over the years I've found I've wanted to escape rather than enjoy the park, but this trip was different. RV's were minimal, and the drive was pleasant and relaxed. Coming back home we even spotted rising fish in Tenaya Lake.

I got my aspen fix, both  the color and the quake. The patterns on the ground were as interesting as in the trees.

Hiking to Rainbow Falls on the San Joaquin we ran into the brand Z tree.

shadow duck

The evening light produces ephemeral shadows in our upstairs bedroom. I seem to be drawn to things ephemeral. We are leaving tomorrow for the eastside of the Sierra, hopefully, to catch the aspens turning gold. And to get one more fix of high desert air before the snows make getting over there more difficult. Fishing gear, cameras, knitting, books, and food are being sorted and loaded into the trusty Subaru. But let's hope the weather gods are kind and all wheel drive is not necessary.

It was a busy week at the shop, another piano is on it's way to Hawaii.

Not much clearance on this. And below is all that remained of the piano in the shop.

no extra screws!

And I received complements from my co-workers, that it looked good. "Real pretty", to quote Thomas. More parts will be added later, but the frame is one piece again.

my first mason hamlin

With great enthusiasm I have completely disassembled the stack of a 1928 Mason Hamlin AA.

The real test is going to be the re-assemble. The piles of whippens and hammers will be replaced with new parts, but the metal pieces will be bead blasted, polished with steel wool, or wire brushed. New sandpaper will be place under the hammers, new let-off buttons will be added, and hopefully it will all look something like this:

For the record this photo is a Steinway stack, on a full action. Quite a week for me, I learned how the sostenuto attaches with the monkey. Which is shown in the above. This sort of knowledge and no one will want to sit next to you at a dinner party. Unless of course it is a group of piano technicians.

the feast of saint francis

Things were back under control in this shot. Father Dana had to call in St. Francis himself to help him when things were getting a little unruly. The dog below had to be separated when some one tried to get in line behind him, husky in tow.

The guinea pig stayed in it's cage and caused no trouble. The stuffed animals seemed to get along with everyone, well mannered as you would expect.

Gris-gris slept soundly in the basement through the whole event. Like us, he chooses to get all of his blessings through osmosis.

the bo leaves the building

No easy task! We were all happy to see her go. We decided a lovely piano, but high maintenance. She seemed to be popping bass strings too, something that makes an incredible sound and then launches this projectile out the back of the case. Now since I was working directly behind her, I was starting to get a little nervous. And we are all praying she holds together for the inaugural concert.

We practically attacked our UPS driver today for the package containing the above replacement string. And we even held off lunch so this could be installed, as the movers were on their way. And lunch is a very serious event in our day, not to be messed with.

chloe and the big bo

Chloe Ma is 11. She won the Oakland Symphony's Young Artist Competition this summer while she was still 10. It has been a rather interesting week in the shop with "Big Bo". And certain evil spirits have been exorcised listening to Chloe play this huge piano.

 

Her mother says she likes to play things loud, and the power of the sound from Bo is quite impressive. We had a bit of mini piano party in the shop today, with several generations present. A good time was had by all.

will this piano make it to Hawaii?

Rebuilding this piano may actually have been easier than getting it back to it's owner. It came from Honolulu and is on it's way back. Now if  I was a freight company and someone was arranging shipping a crate containing a grand piano in it wouldn't I assume it might be large, and heavy? Two hours, two trucks, and a forklift later it actually made it onto a truck, which has to take it to LAX where, hopefully it will be loaded onto a plane and air freighted to Hawaii. Then somehow the process has to reversed and it has to get off the plane, onto another truck and taken across Honolulu to a very posh neighborhood, where I am sure a forklift is not readily available. We have our regular movers, all lined up, to get it out of the crate, and hopefully into it's happy home. We all may be saying a few prayers. But we have another piano all lined up to take it's place in the crate and come back to our shop.

Four of us were wearing these OSHA approved safety sandals during this whole process.

Well, we were all just getting ready for the beach! And I was just trying to document all of this.

evening activities

Gris-gris has finished his early evening neighborhood checkout and decided it is safe for all, but now he'd like to just hangout. He's good company. I am sitting at my desk surrounded by projects. There's a quilt in progress, balls of yarn being interviewed for moebius scarves and tams, notes I mean to write, oh, and my website that hasn't been touched in months. My friend Liza asked if I was knitting much right now. And the honest answer was no. She was worried that my creative juices were not being exercised. Oh my, I thought. I had better get busy. And we decided at lunch today that tams might have to be the uniform for the winter in the shop. Let's see how much can I get done tonight?

tangents

KALW celebrated it's 70th birthday last night with a concert at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley. Our preferred Saturday night occupation is having dinner at home and listening to Dore Stein's Tangents, which comes on at 8:00 pm. We do occasionally enjoy having friends join us, who appreciate the eclectic mix, and will put up with us stopping all conversation to listen to the radio. But occasionally one must branch out, and since we basically could listen to a live Tangents, with the friends who also seem to enjoy the musical mix we went out. Now to picture the whole evening you have to first experience the Berkeley student scene at Jupiter Pizza, conveniently located within walking distance of the Freight to allow for seat getting and dining before the music. This is a loud, young crowd, many tattoos and piercings. But the pizza and beer are good. And my friend Liza and I are amazed at the height of heels some of the young things can wear. We both have bad knees, flat shoes are our life. So after the pizza we wander to the Freight, where the average age of the crowd must go up by 35-40 years, and almost all of the women are wearing practical shoes.
But now the fun starts. The evening features three sets, and opens with the very traditional Flatt and Scruggs Tribute Band. Peter Thompson, who hosts Bluegrass Signal, the program that comes on before Tangents, announces. He is a familiar voice, and low and behold he is a real person. I realize how much I enjoy bluegrass, after a verse or two the tunes are easily hummable. Then the second set. George Brooks and Kai Eckhardt with others, including a tabla player, doing, well, hard to describe. Bridging the gap between jazz and Indian classical music the program states. And that is what it is. This set is of course is announced by Dore Stein himself. Again a face to the voice. After cake, well it is a birthday party, we get the third set. If you have listened to Folk Music and Beyond, a Saturday afternoon program you'll recognize the voice of JoAnn Mar. I have to say I think I hear her and think of pledge drives. But the third band is Wake the Dead. And we get Celtic Grateful Dead music and more. This was a concept I would never have thought up. Surprisingly it worked. And the end of course had a sing along.
This was one of the friendliest, enthusiastic crowds I have ever been a part of, which made for a very enjoyable evening. And I was really struck by how wonderful it is to able to throw aside your concepts of music, and just listen and be open. And if you have never been to the Freight and Salvage, I recommend it highly as a venue.

shakers, movers, and big bo's

So the shakers is in honor of the Hayward fault wrestling around and waking me up, and then yesterday morning striking again while I was sitting in a rolling desk chair. I think rolling desk chairs amplify the shaking. I hustle myself back from World Headquarters (the office at John's house) to the shop so I can get back to finishing the key bushings on my Bo. I have a love/hate relationship with key bushings, they should not be that difficult a task but there are many factors. To name a few: the key pin size, the felt thickness, the glue consistency, the depth of the bushing, the personal preferences of the person who follows you. And the fact that I have never had to do the next step, I don't fully understand my actions. I'm "jonesing" for that task, which maybe a mistake. Anyway, I get to the shop and it is filled with extra people (not to mention we have more pianos than usual setup on the floor). And one of those people is John, who is extremely capable of diverting me in my pursuit of task completion. John has a new Iphone and he wants access to our wireless. And our wireless was setup by Steve, who was angry at ATT that day, and has no idea of the password and the clue for the password is "I hate ATT". Yeah, well so do most people. And the router is different from ours at home, and all others I have encountered in past lives, so I'm struggling a bit. I resort to the reset button. Giving the warning that if we loose all internet service, I am not responsible. Time passes, passwords are reset, and nada, the wireless will not connect. John gives up, Steve gives up and guess what it is lunch time?
Glue pot bubbling away for nothing.
Lunch, Chinese, not bad, back to the shop. And what's this? An extremely large full size moving van parked in front of the front door. What another piano? And these are furniture movers, not piano movers. Scary. And the piano needs to be setup. For those of you unfamiliar with moving grand pianos, they are put on skids and moved on their sides. This piano has come from Connecticut and the movers were two elderly black men from the south, who were extremely amusing, and had spent time in jazz clubs in NYC. So they had some good stories, but thank the gods Rhys supervised them in setup. Before they had completely pulled away, our usual movers, the Irish contingent were backing up to the door (our door is big, but not big enough for a convergence of movers). What is going on? My unused glue pot, keeps bubbling. Now a piano is leaving at least. But there needs to be a major shift, and we bribe (yes, money exchanged hands) to accomplish this. Okay, they leave. I bush maybe four keys (and remember Bo has 97, not 88) while listening to band saw, table saw, and grinder. Then the extra person in the shop has run out of work to do, so I'm called in to find something for him to do.Okay, four more keys, and guess what it's cartoon hour!
At 4:00 pm. I have actually completed my task, I think. When I find a key laying apart from the others. I think I was scraping the old leather out of the key button the day before when the phone rang and I put it aside. I now count to make sure I have 97 keys. I do. And I get the approval as to depth and thickness, and I'm not bleeding, although many fresh razor blades were used in this job. But now I have to corner the approver (that would be Steve) to give me more direction as to how to proceed with key frame cleaning etc, to move this project along, as he is leaving for a couple of days. And I am trying to consolidate key frame and keys before I loose or break anything.
Thursday morning
I arrive at the shop with Douglas playing the piano. It is just the two of us. I polish pins, and work on the wireless again. Quietly two more shop mates arrive, no panics, no movers. By 3:30 this afternoon, the Bo keys and keyframe are one unit, the wireless is working and I go off to yoga. Although we did skip cartoon hour.

everything is super sized

So the key set for Bo has come my way to remove the key bushings. I was given the task with warning that these usually turn to mush, as they are leather, not the standard felt. Undaunted (well there was a little trepidation) I took the keys out of the key frame placing them onto the frames we use to hold the keys when we work on them. Now there are 9 extra keys on this piano.

So now I have to deal with 97 keys instead of the usual 88. And the keys themselves are longer, and heavier, making them more awkward to move. Ah, but the gods were kind to me, and the leather, upon wetting with water and alcohol, did not dissolve, but separated with encouragement of my trusty exacto knife and hemostats. It does take patience, and vigilance, but not an unpleasant task. As I worked away, completely absorbed in my task, I was smiling to myself, realizing that a few months ago I had no idea what a key bushing even was.

big bo

This is the latest piano to grace the shop. I think there is suppose to be some secrecy about this. Not sure how you keep a secret about a 9'6" concert grand. Actually we all will be glad to have it gone and out of the way. This is not a Steinway, but a Bosendorfer, Austrian made. And so shiny we are all afraid of scratching it. Rhys and I covered it with blankets yesterday because we were sure we going to bump into it with something.
But it has been a good week at the shop, for me, at least. Somehow I seem to manage to keep straight what pianos we have, what we need to order, and deadlines. Considering I am the worst person in the world at note keeping, this is pretty amazing. I've realized that if I do make notes, they are either so cryptic I don't understand them, or I can't read my own handwriting. I do greatly admire good note keepers, but some how it's just not in my personal makeup. It was decided I was no longer the "FNG", which I will leave up to your imagination as to what that stands for. I have taken over the job of cleaning the espresso machine weekly. I think I may be able to add barista to my resume soon, I can now crank out an espresso in short order. I made one this afternoon for a new Fedex delivery guy. Not every stop on his route that will do that.

a gate between gardens

Our backyard was filled with party goers last night, a 40th birthday party. The birthday girl, a good friend of the Michaels, is someone who shares the honors of being half of a two Leo couple, like Mike and I. The gate was open so people could come have their fortune told, visit the tree of mystery, and eat fried chicken and potato salad.

This was a kid's party for adults. People were wearing mustaches, glow rings, and emergency bow ties removed from the tree. We were visited by Marga Gomez, who had us all laughing as a comedian should do. And Mike and I are trying to decipher what having the "wheel of fortune", "the devil", and the "high priestess" on top of three cup cards really means. The parade of pies was a major success. And we stayed up until almost 1:00 am, something very unusual.
Raccoons and possums visited, seeming to enjoy the party too. Some people find it unusual that we have a gate between our gardens. I find it completely natural. Doesn't everyone have joint garden parties with their neighbors?