field trip, the Rettie way

Now many of you, if choosing a day in San Francisco, would probably do something like go see the Stein exhibit at SFMOMA. But we are the Retties, the people who go to London and don't see the changing of the guard, spend five days near Milford Sound, New Zealand, but never see it, we've yet to go to Alcatraz, or see the new Academy of Sciences. We tend to shy away from the usual adventures. But we do like the ferry ride into the city, and began our trip on the 9:30 boat. Our first stop was the Municipal Railway Museum. Free, donation a nice idea. And well worth the time. We then wandered our way to our favorite part of San Francisco.

 

North Beach, yes the location we dream of retiring. Since all we probably ever will be able to afford is a small dark studio apartment, with no parking, we have decided that we we will just have to start frequenting on a monthly visit basis. We have found the perfect lunching spot, Cafe Puccini, on Columbus. Perfect for us at least. Since it was Mike's birthday we decided to celebrate and had a glass of wine with lunch. The spaghetti carbonara was more than good, as was the minestrone, and my antipasto salad. The window seat gave us a view to the world, and who needs to go to Italy. Traveling to Italy, while desirable, is about as likely to happen as our actual moving to North Beach.
So given that we were completely stuffed we wandered back to the ferry via Grant Avenue, taking in all the sights along the way. A stop at some of galleries on Geary, and then a brisk walk to catch the 2:00 pm ferry back to Alameda. We do fit a lot in a short period on these trips.

getting comfortable

Today at lunch, Ann said "anyone want my croutons"?  Rhys said "yeah, I'll eat them". And I realized how comfortable we all are with each other. Last week Steve ate Rhys' soup. I've been known to consume the fried grease, the rice cracker type things that come with various dishes at our Vietnamese restaurant. And Douglas will eat the other fried grease, or wontons officially, from our Chinese dining establishment, that are passed up by someone. I'm not sure if we are family, or just hungry, but we seem to make sure all food is consumed.

Six months plus, I am also gradually getting a little more comfortable with the piano work, tools, the building cat, the espresso machine, and the ins and outs of Quickbooks Online. And the view, even with fog, continues to be enjoyed.

sun and shade

Often after lunch we wander over "yummiegort", which actually is Yummy Yogurt, but the sign is hard to read. Be careful of typeface selection when posting signage. However, name aside, I recommend the mint chip, which is not frozen yogurt, but good old regular ice cream. There are those of us who like to pull our chairs into the sun, and those of us who prefer the shade. The plastic loveseat here, is carefully straddling that sun/shade divide keeping everyone happy here.

I spent the weekend on Tomales ridge, also straddling that sun/shade, or sun/fog divide. A large part of West Marin seemed to be populated with spandex encased bicyclists, and vehicles carrying plastic kayaks on roof racks. I had neither spandex or a kayak with me, choosing cotton and my feet instead. Ice cream was consumed however. And the bbq'd oysters tasted good even as the temperature dropped. The locals tell me the economy is keeping people from going to Europe for the summer and instead choosing Point Reyes. Sure seemed like that. If not exercising everyone seemed to be shopping. I will admit to buying a t-shirt at Point Reyes Books.

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.