Five in four

Notes from the Berkshires, Day 10

Lenox Coffee, 7.17 a.m.

There are a couple of regular baristas here, and I’ve been here enough in the past two weeks to get to know their habits a bit. The one who works more and seems to be here first thing most mornings appears to have it together with his job and the clientele. The Wednesday morning opener, alternatively, tends to sit out on the front porch smoking until a customer arrives to interrupt his morning inhalations. He also sets the Noise Pollution Unit to ‘stun’ while he’s outside. This morning it’s music-appropriate-to-dance-clubs-but-at-lower-volume. But the coffee is good; wi-fi and proximity to the Tanglewood grounds seals the deal for me.

Yesterday I had my hands on five different pianos in four different buildings. One full tuning plus keyframe bedding, a couple of touchups, one full regulation, and various acts of violence on hammers with needles and emery cloth. I felt like an actual, working piano technician, and the day passed remarkably quickly. We are starting to button up the pianos we’ve been working on for the past week, and getting ready to start going out to off-campus sites with pianos for tuning work. There are also pianos waiting to go to their final destinations which are not ready to accept them for various reasons mostly having to do with work of the construction and maintenance type. Next week the string quartet and opera fellows arrive, and our access will become much more limited.

It’s a grey morning, with fog rolling across the mountains. Quite beautiful, but it feels like one of those days when it never quite becomes as warm as the forecast temperature. In another month, a day starting like this will probably turn into a real steamer. As long as it doesn’t storm, I’m hoping to get a run in after work.