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Walking the dogs

Shortly after we got Pippi, she got a hold of Sherlock’s Gentle Leader collar and chewed it up. So, not only didn’t we have one for her, we no longer had one for him, either. We finally got to the pet shop in Eau Claire over the weekend and remembered to buy new ones. They are quite expensive, it turns out, but the investment was well worth it, because now I can take a nice, leisurely walk with the two of them, without having to fight with either one. Pippi has actually taken to it very quickly. She knows it means a walk, so she just sits there quietly and lets me put it on. I had thought I’d have a struggle getting it on, but I was delightfully wrong! Now that I can get her outside, I’m hoping that some of her destructive behavior will lessen. I think she needs a lot more activity than she has been getting in the winter!

Update on pianos

First the one at work – the piano company informed me that the electric  part was added after the purchase, so tomorrow I try to track down someone at the company that made that part and see if they can recommend a service person in our area.

On our piano – turns out that in the fiasco of the last move, with the leg having to be cut off, etc. some screw heads came loose and lodged themselves, along with multiple paper clips, under a wooden piece that is somehow related to the damper pedal. But it isn’t the damper pedal that is the problem – it is the middle pedal. It has a rod that runs along on top of the damper pedal rod and the damper pedal rod is elevated because of this wooden piece that was bowed upwards because of the stuff stuck under it. The thought is that now that the stuff is all out, the wood will begin to relax into place and we can further tighten it down every few days, until the pedals work properly again. I’ll admit, it is somewhat better. Good enough that I can practice, although there is still a constant note in the background, because of one string in particular vibrating all the time, because the damper is not firmly down on it. I’m hopeful that it will eventually correct itself and we will save considerable expense of getting it fixed.

Piano problems

Both of the grand pianos I’m responsible are giving me headaches. My own has this crazy vibration of the lower bank of strings and I thought tuning it would fix it, but it didn’t. Then I had Mr. Skerhutt here for a couple hours yesterday, and he couldn’t fix it, but he didn’t leave a note or anything, so I’ve got to call him and see what he thinks I should do. I’ll probably have to call in the experts from River Falls, which is going to cost a bunch. But I really can’t stand it the way it is.

Then I still have to find someone to fix the one at work before my May recital. No one around, and that includes Eau Claire, seems to be able to work on it. So now I’m emailing back and forth with the company that made it. It is a baby grand piano with a player piano attachment and we think the problem might be in the interface between the electronics and the action on the keys, since when it plays, the keys actually move. And a couple keys don’t play right when you just use it as a regular piano.

Both problems are kind of weird and very frustrating!

Hoping this is it

This may very well be the last couple days of bitter cold for this winter. It was well below zero again last night and will be tonight as well. But then, temperatures should rise considerably over the weekend and into next week, enough that we may lose much of our very dismal snow cover. Sure, it may snow again before the grass gets green. But just being past the really, really cold stuff will be nice. This winter seems to have gone very quickly for me, but that was probably because of starting work again.

I got another couple piano students the past week. The number is getting to the point where I can almost say, “enough!” I must be at about 25 now. I know there are only two after school slots here and one in Cameron, without having to go into the supper hour as I already do on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is enough that, with going to school to practice in the afternoon, it seems like I’m working a very long day. I went in at 6:45 this a.m., had about an hour between work and school, then another half hour before lessons, then right up to church after lessons, then will be home about 12 1/2 hours after I started the day. But I like everything I do, so I’m not complaining!

Choir clinic today

I played for a couple of Cameron’s choirs today up at UW-BC for a choral clinic. One group dropped out, so we got extra time for both of our groups. The clinician was from the Cities (I’m not sure exactly where), and he was amazing! Very good at working with the kids and had very good methods for getting them to do things. Of course, the Cameron groups are always so good that the clinicians can work on very picky things, which makes it incredibly interesting for me. Monday is there concert and I’ll be playing for two more groups for that. Their high school is about the same size as Chetek and they have 3 choral groups, with no overlap of people – a women’s ensemble of about 25, and mixed choir of about 60 and a chamber choir (by audition) of about 30.  Plus their 7th and 8th grade choir has about 75 and sounds (again) like a very good high school choir.

I haven’t played for them for a few years, because of schedule conflicts with Chetek things, but working with them again is going to make working with Chetek very frustrating, because I know the choir could sound so much better if someone cared enough to ask them for it. Let’s see…. one middle school choir is working on uniform shaping of vowels and placing the sound in their mask and the other high school choir is allowed to breathe just anywhere and the only diction is making sure t’s and s’s on the ends of words are together. Agggghhhhh!

UWBC lesson day

This was the first of the lesson days at the college for the semester. I played for a one hour lesson at 9:00 and a 1/2 hour lesson at 10:00, then was free from 10:30 until 12:30. I just stayed there and worked on stuff on my laptop while the teacher practiced music she had to memorize. Then we had a student at 12:30, another at 1:00 – 1:30 or so and another at 2:00 until almost 2:30. She was actually the 9:00 student, but she came back for some more work since the regular 2:00 person was sick.  It was a fun day.

Now I’m home and waiting for my lessons to begin in about 1/2 hour. Seeing the passion Erin has for her teaching always is a boost for my teaching, not that I’m terribly un-passionate. But it is good to see how other people deal with things like poor preparation, etc.

Two pictures for you

Here is a very cute picture of the two dogs cuddled up on the couch.  And then, a picture of Dad relaxing in our new recliner. I feel like such a good wife when I come in and see him so comfortable in our living room!  His knees have really been bothering him, so you can see that he has ice packs (or maybe they are heat packs) on his knees. They don’t hurt when they are straight, so he can stand forever, but when they are bent, they bother him.  So the recliner is very comfortable for him. We got it at Menard’s, after shopping around quite a while. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, and if I couldn’t get the style I wanted, I figured I might as well get a good price. At least the color is nice. Actually it is as comfortable as it looks. Just a little too puffy for my decorating tastes.

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Dim sum

Have any of you tried Dim sum? I heard about it on the radio last night. They were doing a show on Chinese cuisine because yesterday was the Chinese New Year.

Another fun week as a working woman!

I really enjoy being over there with all those people at the Center. I got the March newsletter done this week and started a 6 week core strength class with 3 people. Everyone got along pretty well (no drama this week!), so I think it will just take time until all the hurt feelings start to melt into the past and be forgotten.

It is supposed to be really, really cold again tomorrow, but that won’t change the fact that it is Valentine’s day. We don’t have a thing planned, but it is still a nice holiday to celebrate with candy and cookies and whatever else. (Not so good for the diet, but what can I say??)

Then there will be about two months until we are off on our annual outing to see every one. I’m looking forward to that!

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