on just about to turn 60

Do you like the outfit? Respirator and glasses, ever so attractive. I was about to spend the next two hours using the bead blaster. Steve liked the look so much he decided he should capture it for the record. Too bad I don't have a photo of how attractive one can look wearing a face shield when using a grinder.
Never would I have guessed this would be my world as I enter into my sixties. But I can't really complain. I spent the day figuring out the best technique for drilling lead out of a Hamburg Steinway keyset. Normally the US made Steinways can just be pushed out, but not so with this guy. Everyone seems to dislike this job so much, they seemed happy I was doing it. It is not difficult, just messy. And the thing about most piano work is that you get a lot of practice. The 88 keys have anywhere from one to four leads per key, so by the end you get good at it. Or so I cockily thought. My last key I had the drill bit so buried in the key I had to take the bit out of the drill press, try applying ice to get it to shrink, and then carefully wiggle it enough to finally free it. Then I had to devise a different technique as most of the lead was still in the key. But I did. The keys are all quite intact, ready to be plugged with wood, and then redrilled and refilled with lead. Fortunately this task is passed along to Steve, who carefully weighs each key and places the new lead according to a precisely designed pattern. We all joke about we drill things out, then plug up the holes and then drill again, and then plug again. And we do this in multiples of 88. This whole world seems to suit me though, just was never cut out for the corporate life. So I'm happy to be in piano shop, about to turn 60.

ephemeral

The only problem with the night blooming ceres is you have one chance, at night, to catch it in full glory. This shot was taken this morning, slightly past it's full potential.  Tonight it is all closed up, spent. I will have more chances in the next month, there are more buds, if only I can remember and stay up late enough to catch it. But there is something intensely appealing about such short term beauty.

on the road and back

Fish needed to be caught, books read, and vitamin D needed to be applied to foggy skin. And for the first time in many moons we tried a new location, Milton Lake, about 40 miles north and west from Truckee. Milton Lake is operated, managed, overseen, etc. by the Nevada Irrigation district, which is not actually in Nevada at all. The unofficial campground has a well kept outhouse, and nothing else to offer accept free lakeside camping and canoe docking. It did start as a very quiet, peaceful spot with very large trout. The trout remained but as the week progressed the quiet diminished. I think one of the two old guys next to us was making his statement about the din, and large number of people who just about parked themselves on top of him by taking a boom box out on the lake in his electric propelled pram, and playing an assortment of music that got more and more comical. The afternoon was a selection of Ray Charles, followed by a well know version of "Mack the Knife". Somehow I knew I was going to hear "Volaire"  before the day was out and I was not disappointed. "The William Tell Overture" was followed by "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and then we seemed to move on to the Rolling Stones and right into what must have been the 99 cent collection of old folk favorites. So when was the last time you heard Johnny Cash sing "Don't Think Twice It's All Right"? Hopefully so long  ago you don't remember. I have to admit that most of the lyrics to these standards, such as "You are My Sunshine" seemed to have lodged in my brain and made their way to the surface. The singing didn't seem to have any effect on the rather voracious mosquitoes, unfortunately, but the fishing improved. And we decided three nights did the trick and packed up a day earlier than planned. We thanked our heavily loaded old Nissan for making it over and back Donner summit and returned to the land of fog.

celestial monochord

 

You may ask what is a celestial monochord? Hmm, I don't know but the original for this design was drawn by Robert Fludd ca. 1617. And perhaps it can do something to keep the sun shining on building 14. 

A fast week passed, and a new task was assigned to me that caused a lot of deep breathing on my part to complete. But I completed it, drawing no blood or breaking anything. And I think my role in the shop (other than providing weekly fresh floral arrangements) is to keep track of things. Pianos have so many wayward pieces. Some of them smaller than others, and some of them more expensive. I'm getting better on parts terminology which makes life a little easier. But damned if I can find the glide bolts I know I ordered and put away. They should not be with the regulating tools, or the back checks, or the steel wool. I suspect they are in the box they came in sitting on someone's workbench. I need a few moments by myself to sneak around looking. 

The highlight of today was the "coffee cupping". Similar to wine tasting in esoteric snobbery.  I surprised myself by getting right into the vocabulary saying things like "this one tastes a little thin in the middle" and "slightly acid". The Ugandan won the event. Meaning Steve ordered some for future roasting.

the fog

It was cold and gray and foggy at Building 14. And everyone seemed cold, gray and foggy. One small circle of blue appeared at about 2:00pm and then it disappeared. Everyone was either muttering to themselves or hiding behind headphones and muttering to themselves. Cartoons were good, and cheered us all up for a few minutes, but then we all went back to cold, gray and foggy. I came home and ate ice cream and pretended it was Summer.

shaking the building

This very large machine has been pounding steel beams into the ground next to our building. Somehow all of these beams are going to be connected with a series of wires that will heat up the soil and then noxious vapors are somehow collected, removed, released, gone to the who knows what, but we are supposed to be better off. This is all part of a 20 million clean up the Naval Air Station project. All I know is our building and the floor vibrates and it is very unpleasant. And one wonders if this is the best way to spend 20 million dollars.
At least at Building 14 we have learned from our past, and are careful with our paints, solvents, and other toxic, noxious materials. I learned where to dump the used solvents this week. Unlike the Navy we just don't put them in the ground. I did clean out a glue pot, and dumped the water and old glue into the weeds outside the building. It's an organic product, and I'll be curious to see if my patch of weeds starts growing. 

somedays you just want to be a girl

Or an update on my Ryobi DP 100. That would be my drill press. Now, if it isn't bad enough that I struggle with loosening and tightening things, you add double nuts, and springs, and too many things that go up and down and around and I was ready to retire. But I was encouraged to continue and try to conquer. And conquer I did not. I said uncle. But in the end I was saved, and all is well. I didn't have to play the girl card, but it was close.

lucky likes catnip

Lucky is the building cat. For the last 5 months he has totally ignored all of my attempts at friendliness. This morning I had the backdoor open and was arranging flowers (which included catnip). I looked down and rubbing against me was Lucky. Since he is not allowed in the shop, I lured him out the front door and into the entrance way. He proceeded to chomp on  the catnip. Then he wandered down the hall. I worry about the next person he encountered.