I went to a duet recital: Saint-Saens, Schubert, and Gershwin, played by a pair of sisters.

Labèque sisters?

"Today" is now yesterday, but let's see.... A newly-rebuilt A at a college that had to come up 50 cents, then replace a broken G6 string on a Baldwin grand at the same college, then over to a church for a 70s vintage Hamilton vertical. After that, a D. H. Baldwin grand at a private residence, and then finally another early 60s Baldwin Hamilton beater in a practice room. Those old blonde Hamiltons are amazing. They're kind of like the old Volkswagen bug of pianos. They just go and go and go and go forever....

No, thank goodness!

Not a fan?

No. The Labèques have some strange interpretations.

What did I do today? Today I cut my work day short around 11:30 so I could race home, step into 4 inches of water in the basement, and call a plumber to replace the hot water tank that busted and was spewing water all over the place!

Oh boy! Lucky you! NOT!

ME???? I played hookey!!! I have 7 tunings left at the college, was running ahead and so, I played hookey!!! Still, I spent most of the day doing office work, answering emails, returning calls etc... That part never ends.

Loren, did you put a drain pan under the new water heater? The pan collects water leaking, and a hose diverts water to a floor drain or sump pump drain. Some have an alarm that senses leakage.

I tuned one, pitch raised three, and bought a Steinway A for a rebuilding project.

That'll keep you out of trouble for a while too Bob! Watch out for those snakes!!!

When I replaced my stone foundation with concrete block I built a moat around my water-works with a floor drain going to a gravity drained sump. Ahhhh. Great place to wash the hound, too!

Wouldn't have helped. The tank itself cracked and the water was SPOUTING out of the top of it around the exhaust flue. Anyway, $600 and a sore back later, I have hot water.

You deserve to play hookey today now! Go on, go for it!

Haha I wish, Jerry! I have $600 to make up, PLUS the day of work I lost yesterday!

OK. Double time for you then. Hop to it! Make it snappy!

I tuned 4 at the college today. All verticals. Used my new Cyberhammer on 2 of them, the other two, Yamaha U1's, the hammer tip is a bit to short, the top part of the thingy that covers the pin block is right in the way. Besides, the tuning pins are to tight so, I used the Fujan on those two but, the CH on the other two. It does work well for pitch raises and it is less stress on the body, if the tunings pins aren't to danged tight!

Yep, Jerry! You'll get into a rhythm with it, and use it when called for! A great tool to have around. I ALWAYS use it for the first pass on a pitch raise because there's no muscle strain at all.

An awful thing today! We were supposed to be celebrating the birthday this month of the Vallejo police chief. Instead, we are mourning the shooting death of one of his officers.

Sorry to hear that BDB. A friend of ours here in GR, her husband was a Walker Cop. She is a school teacher in the Northview School system. He, Trevor, was readying, spike strips when the driver ran him over and killed him. That was only a couple of weeks ago or so. On top of all of that, the teachers cancer had returned in her spine and, they have kids. She had just finished telling him that her cancer was back when he said, I gotta go hon, I love you! Those were his last words to her. The two people in the car that ran him over? They got out, weapons drawn and tried to kill other cops. Both of them were killed instead.

Oh my...that's terrible.

Closed the piano lid, packed away my technician's tools and joined The Hyperacusis Network.

Mark

That's awful. Have you any idea what brought it on? Let's hope the network will help.

I've been having a run on 200+ cent pitch raises. Ever hear a Whitney spinet from the 60s that has never been tuned?

Speaking of spinets built by Kimball…

Tuned a Kimball spinet with a different scaling than I remember seeing before. Although the break was at E3-F3 as usual instead of the usual two wound bichords followed by unwound trichords, this one had six wound bichords followed by 4 unwound bichords. The lowest unwound trichord was D#4! And the tone was better than any spinet, or most consoles and many studios, that I remember. There wasn’t that nauseous, nasally, tubby tone in the temperament. It was actually acceptable. The volume wasn’t great, but for a single room it was fine. The bass was decent, too. I was able to find the “best place” rather than the “least bad place.” But then, of course, there were all the false beats in the treble, sigh.

Oh, it only needed a 100 cent, one pass PR, so it must have been tuned before.

Ian,

I have some idea of possible triggers. I suspect a slight high frequency hearing loss (I'm talking above 10 kHz, which audiologists don't measure), and I had several severe stress factors earlier this year, plus possible inflammation of the jawbone joint (which I'm having checked out next week). But who can really tell? One fine day, your world just collapses. After intense reading and discussions, I can tell you that tinnitus and hyperacusis are still pretty poorly understood, and there are lots of crackpot "remedies" out there...

Even moderate piano playing is unpleasant, as the sound is too percussive. So much for taking up piano technology... And I've quit the brass band weeks ago.

I'll possibly go for TRT (tinnitus retraining therapy), depending on the outcome of the jaw-joint examination. But if you see less and less of me on the forums, you'll know why...

Ironically, I've recently had TWO requests for tuning, one of them including action work. Go figure... You make plans, and then, life happens.

Mark:

Really sorry to hear about this. I was hoping your earlier post was a joke.

Monday I had a panicked call from someone at a venue that I tune at that someone had pushed their Bechstein concert grand into the wall, and it was damaged, and that they wanted other work done. On my way there yesterday, I recalled that the Bechstein had skids screwed on the side, so I could not imagine that there was much damage to it. Sure enough, there was a nasty hole in the wall, and a corresponding white plaster mark on the skid, but it was really no worse than you would expect on any 100 year old piano. I prescribe that wonder elixir, black shoe dye.

So I am actually more concerned about the wall. The building is an architectural masterpiece, and I hate to see it damaged.

Roadwork for the last two weeks and going back out tomorrow.

Can’t comprehend why many people get in their cars and create the havoc they do out there. So I have been thinking about a few new bumper stickers to be made;

“Forget about World Peace. Visualize using your turn signal.”

And for the seemingly endless highway expansion project going on here at the moment this one is a takeoff on Star Trek;

“Boldly going nowhere.”

Not sure where this one came from;

"Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps the kids in touch."

Tuned 9 on Tuesday, 11 Wednesday, 4 this morning, drove 400 miles, two nights in motels...........

Now off to the U to tune a D and a B for a concert

HO HO HO!

Day of rest tomorrow.....just one unknown piano in a home, and another D........

You go Bob!!! What are you getting me for Christmas this year with all of that extra $$$$$$$$$???? HUH??

May haps I'll make it up there this summer, Jerry! Too cold now to go . I ended up attending the Concerto Competition after tuning the B and D for it - I like hearing the students play and seeing them get better with time. I knew one of the judges from UF Gainesville as well. Good to see him again.