Two days in one

Notes from the Berkshires, Day 14

South St, Pittsfield, 8.42 p.m.

A back-posting day, after a busy weekend. Yesterday started with some cleaning detail in the room that will become our home base on the grounds, followed by a different type of cleaning detail: dismantling a home that a mouse had tried to assemble inside the action of the model A in the chamber music hall. This was the second go-around with this rodent; Scott took care of it the first time, but this one fell to me. There was stuff scattered throughout the action cavity, and a number of hammers had been either chewed or scratched for felt. I spent the better part of an hour cleaning things out and then another hour repairing the damage. Not my idea of a good time, and not what I would choose to spend my time as a technician on, but when one is a technician for a facility in the woods, one does what one has to do.

We broke at noon, and went as a group to the Clark art museum in Nearby Williamstown MA. Our technical justification was the two art-case Steinways on display there. One is fairly modest, but the other is extremely elaborate, fully carved and shaped with inlays galore. However, the main attraction for me was the rest of the art collection, which included a very decent selection of French impressionists, Duch and other realists, and a very cool exhibition of Georgia O’Keefe and Arthur Dove oils and watercolors. I don’t get out to museums often, but I’m always in awe of the skill involved in representing three-dimensional scenes on a flat plane. We spent a few hours there, then headed back to Pittsfield, where I allowed myself a nap before dinner, and followed that with a walk to the brewpub for a couple of pints with John.

Today was planned to be a partial day of work, getting caught up on a couple of pianos which only today were able to be placed in rooms, but it didn’t quite work out that way. I started out in the Manor house on a Steinway L which needed complete set-up and tuning; managed to get it into fairly decent shape in about three and a half hours, including a full tuning. Went straight from there to Miss Hall’s School, a girl’s academy which is used for housing and rehearsals. My assignment was a Boston grand, but when I arrived I discovered that it was not on it’s feet yet – nothing to be done there, so I looked around and found an upright which needed tuning and wrestled with that for about 90 minutes. By that time the grand was set up and ready to be unboxed. This is a piano in a reherarsal/classroom, not a performance space, and it was already 3.00 p.m., so I did the minimum to the instrument in terms of set-up and regulation, bedding the keyframe, lubricating the keypins and bushings, and making sure everything functioned at an acceptable level, and then gave it a good tuning. I was finished shortly before 5.00, and called it a day. On my way out I heard a string quartet rehearsing; the performance fellows have begun to arrive, and our time of having the place to ourselves has come to an end.

Even though I really didn’t eat much during the day, I decided to go for a run when I got home – the weather was absolutely perfect with temps in the low 70s, sunshine, and just a bit of a breeze. I was also inspired by V reporting that she went for a 30-mile ride today. I haven’t ridden 30 miles on a bicycle for probably six years, so I was suitably impressed and felt like I needed to do my part to keep pace in my fitness regimen. I was low on energy, but still managed to keep my normal pace, but I was beat afterwards. Had dinner, called V, and pulled out the computer to get the blog entry done. I’ll post tomorrow morning at the coffee shop; tonight I’m dribbling.