Piano Pictures

Here is what my piano looks like right now. This was at the beginning of the evening. By the end of the evening I had removed over 50 years worth of dust (and various other items) from the inside.

You can see the straw that I taped to my hand-held vacuum to get into the tight spots.

The ziplock bags on top hold the pads and paper spacers for the center key pads. The piano guy gave me 4 (four!) different thicknesses of paper spaces so I can get the keys to be all the exact same height. As was explained to me, this is necessary because the felt pads are made out of an "organic" material. To be plain, it is impossible to get them all exactly the same thickness, so the paper spacers are to even things out. Before I put in the felt pads though, he suggested that I iron them!

So yesterday evening was interesting. First I mowed the back section of lawn (and it's a good thing too because it started raining after it got dark). Then I ironed 100 tiny round felt pads (they are about the size of hole punch protectors). After that I worked on removing over 50 years worth of dust and other accumulated stuff from the inside of the piano. At some point in the past the piano must have been kept near someone's Christmas tree...because there were a bunch of pine needles in there. And kids must have used it because I found little stickers in with the dust.

The next time I have time, I will begin putting those little pads into place, putting the keys on them, and then begin the exacting task of adding paper spaces to make them line-up just right.

Piano Keys on the Floor

Did you know that a piano can be taken apart with nothing more than a straight-slot screwdriver? Or at least it can be taken apart as far as I want to go with one.

Last night I began the process of replacing the center key pads on my piano. I put a sheet on the floor (because the inside of the piano is dusty) and began taking screws out of the piano.

I removed the several long parts that go over the keys before I finally got to the exciting part. I was warned to be sure to number they keys so they don't get mixed up. Otherwise I would face a giant puzzle. Happily when I got all the boards off the top I discovered that the numbers had already been stamped into the wood.

Now all the keys are lined up on a sheet in the living room. It looks weird to see them lying there. They seem so much longer, because they are actually more than twice as long as what you generally see. That also makes it seem like there are not as many of them there.

Then I began taking off the old and decaying center pads. Some of them fell apart in my fingers. I also got out my cordless hand vacuum cleaner. Boy was there a lot of dust and lint under those keys. I rigged the vacuum cleaner up with a straw so I could get into the tight sections. It worked very well.

Now I just need to find replacement pads, get them installed, and put the whole thing back together!

Nothing

I can't think of anything to say, so I'm not going to say anything. Except that I'm saying something to say I'm going to say nothing. It's a no-win situation. :-)

My Problem

Last night we heard a very interesting speaker and I feel like I have identified one of my problems...I'm addicted to dopamine.

What you may ask? Well it goes like this...
1. Dopamine is released naturally whenever you experience anything pleasant.
2. I'm a very cheerful person and find almost everything pleasant. Therefore I smile a lot, which releases dopamine.
3. Hence I conclude that I must be cheerful in order to get my regular dose of dopamine to which I am addicted.

There...how's that for logic? No need for external substances to give me my fix, I can just smile and that will do the job nicely.

Humm...I wonder if that would be a drug treatment method? Make the recovering addicts smile and laugh a lot.

Gratefulness

As if to make-up for the progress I made the previous two nights, last night I spent my entire practice on one measure of music. Runs tend to give me more problems than lots of notes at once. Ask my fingers to hit 8-10 notes at a time and they will happily do their job. It helps that I have a fairly large hand-span. But ask my fingers to play one note at a time, very fast, and I run into trouble (no pun intended). Ah well...I'll just keep practicing. I almost had it up-to-speed by the end of the evening.

On another subject, I recently read a very interesting article in Reader's Digest about the benefits of gratefulness. It should not surprise Christians to hear that the benefits are wide-ranging. They have now *proven* (scientifically) that being grateful leads to:

• Improved outlook on life/reduces depression
• Better health (fewer colds, etc.)
• Better sleep
• Improved thinking skills (doctors who were given a small box of candy as a "thank you" diagnosed conditions faster and with greater success than those who were not)
• Better relationships (surprise - people prefer being around people who are grateful)
• Larger tips (for waitresses)
• Better grades in school

And the list goes on...you get the idea. I'm sure these are some of the many reasons why we are told to be thankful so many times in the Bible. The study also found that being grateful and saying thank you for things had a "multiplying" effect on those around the person being grateful. In other words, it is contagious!

So when you're feeling down, just start listing all the things you are grateful for and it will cheer you up (among other things).

Memorizing Music

While I await for the new piece of music I plan to tackle to arrive, I plan to re-learn and polish-up some old favorite piano pieces. This will help me remember my lessons as well as give me a shorter timeline for having a special ready for church.

So this week I picked-up "The Lord's Prayer" and began practicing. One of the lessons my piano teacher tried to impress upon me was the importance of achieving a certain level of competence with each section before moving on to the next one. In the past I always chaffed at the suggestion and found myself wanting to plow through a piece without stopping.

Now I find myself quite willing to play the same four measures over and over dozens of times until my fingers have learned the proper way to go. The added benefit of this is that I find I am quickly memorizing the music, something that I did not actually set out to do at first. I have already memorized the first page of music in two evenings of practice. Of course it is the easiest page, but still, it is noticeable progress.

Pianos

Several months ago I noticed that one of the keys on my piano was sagging and not playing properly. With appropriate curiosity and enthusiasm, I took the piano apart far enough to establish that this was caused by the deterioration of a pad in the middle of the key. Then I contacted a piano guy in the area and asked him about replacing the felt pads. The cost of the pads wasn't too bad, but having them replaced was another matter! The unofficial estimate was more than I paid when I purchased the piano! Fixing the piano moved to the back burner to wait until the end of my busy summer.

My new enthusiasm for piano practice has moved fixing the piano to the front burner, so I began investigating more economical solutions to my problem.

Over the weekend I discussed the state of my piano with a friend who is also a piano guy. We established the fact that the piano is worth fixing up a bit, but not as much as the other piano guy was suggesting. He carefully described the process for replacing the felt pads and I felt that it was within my skill level.

Based on additional information needed, I again took apart part of the piano last night to determine how many of those felt pads needed to be replaced. The possibility was presented that at some point in time moths had inflicted the damage that caused them to fall apart. Sure enough, moth holes are clearly visible on many of the felt pads across the middle...although the front ones (a different type of felt) seem to be untouched.

So with a better understanding of the scope of the project, I now plan to replace all those little felt pads in the middle on my own. However, I will have a piano tuner come in when I am done to take care-of that problem. Then I should be in good shape for lots of piano practicing! (Or at least my piano will be.)

Drawer Fronts & Strangers Sleeping at the Kitchen Table

Friday evening I went with my sister to see a performance by "Communicators for Christ." The theme was "One Life: Whose Legacy." It was put on by a group of 13 teenagers who are learning to communicate better with those around them. In addition to the evening's performance, they were holding a 4-day conference for area teenagers. I thought it was very well done.

When my sister and I arrived home I went upstairs to greet my Mom. Much to my surprise I saw a stranger sleeping at our kitchen table. She was a Chinese exchange student and it looked like she had fallen asleep while studying. I reported the situation to Mom and she told me that her host family was gone for the weekend and she would be staying with us.

My sister and I woke the young lady up and assured her that she could use her bed for sleeping. She was quite astonished to wake-up and find two 6' tall blond girls standing next to her! We got everything arranged and we all went off to bed.

On Saturday my Dad had to work in the morning, so I began our weekend project without him. Mom had finished varnishing the kitchen cupboard drawer fronts and I began preparing to install them. First I cleared off a large space on the living room floor and laid out all the drawer fronts. I then decided which way they should be turned and which one should go where. Sometimes there were several options; sometimes only two.

Since installing the drawer fronts involves putting an electric screwdriver inside the drawer, I had to empty them out. It was quite interesting to see the contents of all our kitchen drawers spread out on the counters!

Then I marked the fronts of the drawer boxes in thirds and drilled two holes in each. This was followed by attaching two small pieces of double-sided tape to the fronts.

As I finished this job my Dad got home from work...just in time! After lunch and a short break, we began attaching drawer fronts. When we were done it looked very impressive!

And last but not least, I put everything back in the drawers. Of course, there was no way I could pass up this opportunity to organize all the stuff in the drawers! What fun!

I'll try to get pictures of our kitchen cabinets to post sometime...now that we have fronts on them they look very nice.

I Beat the Sun

Yes I did! I got my lawn project done yesterday evening before the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. This is partly due to the fact that I started earlier, partly because preparations were already done, and partly because the job didn't take as long.

I also practiced the piano some more. This time I dug out my old piano book from piano lesson days and started playing through the pieces I had mastered at some time in the distant past...over 10 years to be more precise. I was pleased that my fingers did a decent job of remembering their lessons. While I would hardly call my playing eloquent, at least I could keep a slow-but-steady pace up while sight-reading the notes. (A far cry from the "have-to-figure-out-every-note-on-the-page" pace I would adopt when seeing a new music piece previously.)

When, I wonder, did my piano playing improve so much in the last 10 years? I think it must have come from the experience of playing hymns at church all the time. While playing 5+ hymns a week doesn't seem like very much practice on the surface, multiply that by 10 years at 52 weeks a year and it starts to add up!

It has encouraged me to practice more at home...and I'm even daring to begin learning a new, substantial piece of music on my own. I would like to find another piano teacher, but the one I'm most interested in doesn't teach after working hours. Not that I blame him for that!

I am also going to have to get my home piano fixed. It has some keys that don't work properly and really does need to be tuned!

Evening Activities & Sick Friends

My task last night was to apply lawn fertilizer to all the lawns. The directions called for applying it to a wet lawn with no rain expected for the following 24 hours. In addition, the spreader must be used both directions on the lawn to prevent "stripes" from appearing. (Our rule, not theirs.)

Most of our lawn is watered by an automatic sprinkler system. The large front lawn is actually a "shared" lawn with our very friendly neighbors. Hence I needed to manually activate our neighbor's automatic sprinkler system (in addition to our own) in order to get the grass wet. Our system has a few zones, all currently assigned to the lawn. Our neighbor's system has 12 zones! I was not sure how many or which ones were assigned to the lawn.

After a little experimentation (our neighbors were not home) I discovered that there were three zones to be activated...but that they could only be turned on one at a time (to prevent the water pressure from being too low for any single zone). All very fascinating.

Finally the grass was wet. I prepared the spreader...using half of the recommended setting since I was going to cover the lawn twice...making passes each direction...and began the job.

My first observation was that it seems to me spreaders should spread behind you instead of in front of you. I realize this isn't really practical in one sense, but it would mean your shoes didn't get covered by whatever you are spreading. Next I noticed the pattern the spreader uses and tried to keep my "passes" on the lawn even and straight.

It is a good thing that I carefully observed how it all worked because guess what?! Yep, it got dark before I was done. So I finished in the dark. It was just light enough for me to see where I had been on my previous pass, so I'm pretty sure it was a nice even job.

Last night my housemate went to bed early. This morning she was feeling sick. That feeling developed into actually being sick. When I got to work I discovered that another co-worker called-in sick. Still another co-worker who is gone on vacation got sick (as did his wife...she reported it on her blog from their vacation location). And a former co-worker (who the above two co-workers still visit with regularly) has also been sick. Ugg. I'm taking my Airborne!

Mowing in the Dark

Just about every time I mow the lawn I think of a book I read when I was a child. It was about a sheep that was responsible for mowing the lawn around the town hall/park. He would make designs in the lawn with his eating of the grass for special occasions. i.e. A heart for Valentine's Day, etc.

Then one day they purchased a lawn mower and the poor sheep was out of a job. But the lawn mower cut all the grass the same every time; there were no more designs. The book ended happily with the townspeople protesting that they liked the old way better and the sheep got his job back.

Now I realize that this book totally ignored reality. Not only would a sheep not make designs, but it would leave other unsanitary evidences of its presence. Nevertheless, it was a cute story that left me with a fascination for making designs in lawns.

Thus it is that when I mow the lawn, I am very conscious of the design I am creating. No matter how carefully you mow with modern machinery, a subtle difference in the length of grass is apparent. This allows you to see which direction the mower was running the last time the lawn was mowed (unless it has been a very long time since it was mowed).

Last night when I mowed the lawn I was very careful to create a new pattern in the lawn; one that was different from when I mowed last week. I have convinced myself that this is also healthier for the lawn (not to be mowed exactly the same each time). It also helps keep me mentally occupied while mowing.

Another thing that happened last night was that it got dark early. Earlier than the week before that is. Which meant I had less time to mow the lawn. Which meant that I ended up finishing the lawn in the dark. (It looks fine in the daylight.) I used the 180 degree, walk-back-the-way-you-just-came method of mowing, which is very useful for low-light situations. I had also walked the lawns earlier to eliminate any hazards for the mowing machine.

The other thing I did last night was resume my piano practicing. It is hard to get practice in when your housemate goes to bed 1 hour earlier than you do (and gets up earlier), and you usually stay outside until it's dark. That's just about bedtime in the summer.

My sister and I have decided to tackle a new musical piece (I play the piano and she sings). We do so from time-to-time. It usually takes me 1-2 years to prepare, so I figured I'd better get going. We're also going to brush-up on some of our old specials so we have something to share at church in the meantime. Now if only I can find where that old music is now...

Obituary for Louise

On Saturday I attended the Memorial Service for Louise. The number of attendees and variety of ages present gave testament to a life of service to all God brought into her life. She will be missed, but is in a better place. We will meet again on that beautiful shore.

Louise T. Moore
Hero of the Faith, Volunteer of the Last Half-Century
September 1914 -- August 2007

Louise was born in Cushing, Oklahoma as Louise Estelle Tucker to Ida May and Edwin A. Tucker, the fifth of six children: Earl Landsberger, Charles Landsberger, Sylvia May, Bernice, Louise, and Edwin.

In Perry, Oklahoma in June of 1939, Louise married Harold Moore of Blackwell, Oklahoma. First residing in Blackwell, they later doodle-bugged their way around the oil-rich Plains States. Eventually, they planted their roots in Enid, Oklahoma to care for Harold's father. After a time, they journeyed to Arkansas, owning and operating a chicken farm. Restless, they hit the road again, stopping in Seattle, where they both worked for Boeing. Alas, the wind blew once more, and, selling all their earthly possessions, the couple traveled America's coastlines, beach combing and beach bumming all the way.

Finally, they planted permanent roots in Olympia circa 1962. Louise began volunteer work, as well as employment with the State of Washington as Harold's health began to decline. He died in 1973. Louise continued to work as an accountant for the General Services Administration until retirement. Her favorite saying was, "Old accountants never die. They just run out of tape."

At this juncture, Louise increased her generosity to her community. She became a decades-long member of the First Assembly of God on Plum Street, which eventually became the Evergreen Christian Center. As an active member, she led many Bible studies and was the greeter on the children's Sunday school bus. Louise also dedicated many years of service to the mission of the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Thurston County.

In 1989, she became one of the founding members of the Bob Williams for Governor campaign -- her entry into grassroots American politics. In 1991, she lent her direct mail coordinating efforts to the Williams for Congress campaign in Washington State's Third District. Next, as the Direct Mail Coordinator for "Washington '92", Louise found herself deeply involved in the defeat of Booth Gardner's Children's Initiative, which she felt was "anti-family", and the passage of Linda Smith's Rainy Day Fund mandate on State Legislative spending. Louise was tireless in her efforts and meticulous in detail. Somewhere in the midst of this groundswell of activity, she added the Christian Coalition to her list of direct mail and volunteer activities.

In 1991, Louise began as one of the founding volunteers of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-profit public policy organization, and served there for 13 years. "These," she recalled, "were among the days and friends I cherished most." In 1995, Louise was the Direct Mail Coordinator for the effort to repeal Washington State's affirmative action laws, which she felt were "State-mandated discrimination via quotas", as well as the campaign to bring education vouchers to Washington State families, the Taber for Superintendent of Public Instruction campaign.

Her campaign and public-policy volunteer activities continued until May of 2004, when Louise decided it was time to slow down. She moved to Aberdeen, Washington as adopted family to one of the first children she had greeted on that Sunday school bus 32 years earlier. Louise still stuffed an occasional envelope, but mostly complained about the volume of political direct mail she received from the Democrats.

A little-known detail about Louise is that she had a robust and lengthy fling with belly dancing in the 1970s. She loved the natural beauty of the United States of America. She was an avid reader, unceasingly witty, a spring of generosity to many, and a faithful, gracious Christian woman. There is so much about her that is unsaid in this little space. What a woman! She is the one of whom friends and family say, "Thank you, Louise, for giving to the Lord. Mine is a life that was changed." She said repeatedly that she was satisfied with her life. In the family home, she recently passed away peacefully of old age.

She is survived by her nieces and nephews, Steve Daniels, of Taos, New Mexico, Judy Beals, of Sun City, Arizona, John Beals, of Canastota, New York, Mathew Beals, of Scottsdale, Arizona, Barbara Kaufman, of Holden, Missouri, Erlene Cusick, of Oklahoma, Susan Tucker, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Sylvia Vargas, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and her adopted Aberdeen family of John and Candis Wright and their children, Courtney, John, Noble, and Kaitlin. Louise, though we'll never meet again this side of Heaven, we will see you... on that Beautiful Shore!

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 8, 2007, at 1:00 p.m. at the Rupp Hall at the Evergreen Christian Center, 1000 Black Lake Boulevard, Olympia.

Pretty

This lovely plant is in front of our house. It bloomed the day before yesterday.

Random Observations (from the last 24 hours)

-When you buy a powered video splitting box, you need an additional video cable.

-Leftover banana-nut pancakes are the ideal meal-on-the-go.

-It takes less time to mow the lawn if the grass is shorter (because you don't have to stop and empty the bag as often).

-It takes 1.5 hours to prepare and bake one batch of chocolate chip cookies (with clean-up while they are baking). It would go faster if I had larger cookie sheets.

-It is getting darker earlier and lighter later (at a rapid pace).

-Looking through old photos brings laughter and tears.

-It is possible to almost forget an old co-worker's name.

-Headaches can cause someone to throw-up. (Not that I know that from personal experience.)

-Head massages help headaches.

-The number of people who don't eat chocolate chip cookies (for diet purposes) is astonishing!

Technology

Technology is a big part of my life. Without it my job, not to mention the jobs of millions of other people, would be totally different (if not impossible). I am very fond of technology, especially when it works.

There are times when I wonder what a piece of technology is "thinking." Take today's example. I received a KVM switch I had ordered. (That's a keyboard-video-mouse device that lets you use the same keyboard, monitor, and mouse for two different computers by switching between them.) The packaging proclaimed the ease of use for the device. Maybe for idea conditions yes...

I plugged everything in. I turned on one of the computers. No keyboard or mouse control. I fiddled with the cords to make sure all the connections worked. No good. I tried hitting the caps lock on the keyboard (the most basic thing I could think of). No good. I restarted the computer. Nothing but video again.

Thus commenced 15 minutes of fiddling which only someone with true dedication would attempt. I used standard troubleshooting techniques...unplug all but one "part" at a time and see if it will work. Check each connection. Repeat.

So, what was the result you may wonder. Well I got it all working perfectly after I:
1) Plugged the keyboard directly into one computer, restarted, verified the keyboard worked, then switched the cord from the computer to the KVM switch.
2) Switched mice (from a USB mouse to a PS2 mouse).
3) Repeat step #1 with the mouse.

After I got computer #1 working I turned on computer #2 and it worked fine. The switch works like advertised. Excellent!

Except I can't help but wonder what on earth everything was thinking to begin with! The components are hooked up exactly the same (with the exception of switching the mouse) as they were the first time when nothing worked. Even if the mouse didn't work, the keyboard should have. Very weird.

Another thing...video cable splitters (the cable kind) don't work very well (unless you are not bothered by double-vision on your monitor). You really DO need a powered video splitting device.

Plans

Another very good reason for not getting too attached to plans is that they tend to change. Not unexpectedly, my weekend did not go quite like I thought it would go. I did get one book read and I did work some on my piles of paperwork. We did have family and friends over on Labor Day. But besides that, it held lots of unexpected activities (not that I didn't enjoy myself).

The first thing we did Saturday was drive to Issaquah to have the hinges installed on our kitchen cabinet doors. (What? you may say.) The story goes like this:

Many years ago we built our house. (And I mean that literally. We did have help here and there, but for the most part we did build it by ourselves.) We have friends who are cabinet makers. When we got to the kitchen, they generously offered to help us build our own kitchen and bathroom cabinets. So we did. The cabinets were built and transported to our new house. We installed them. The cabinets, not the doors or drawer fronts.

The cabinet doors and drawer fronts were purchased, but were unfinished (because we wanted to finish them ourselves). The project of finishing the doors and drawer fronts was way down on the list of things to do to finish the house. This is partly because the absence of cabinet doors and drawer fronts does not prevent you from using the kitchen cabinets. There were other things much higher on the list (like putting in doors on the bedrooms and bathrooms and finishing them).

Well those cabinet doors and drawer fronts finally made it to the top of the list. Mom has been working on finishing them for several weeks now, and she had the door fronts done so we could get the hinges installed (by the same generous friends who helped us build them to begin with) and hang the doors. We carefully loaded them into the trunk of my car, drove to Issaquah, had a fun time installing the hinges, (WOW! Having the right tools for the job makes a big difference!!!), and transported them home. Dad and I spent Saturday afternoon installing the doors. They look great! We spent part of Monday morning installing the bathroom cabinet drawer fronts. They look great too!

The rest of the weekend was spent cleaning-up for company and having company over. It was fun.