Weekend ramblings

Beautiful water. Cute little island. Enormous cruise ship coming in. I don't know what the little needle-looking thing is, but it's probably just a gazebo or some such. The cruise ship is way in the distance behind that. Sorry the picture is so small.
















Here's the scooter I'm riding. I stopped here to wade and look around.




Here are a few shots from my trip to Atlantis, the largest casino/hotel complex in the Bahamas. the whole place is just an incredible spectacle and is really, really big. I know the pictures won't show it, but here they are.



















One of the multitude of swimming pools. The area behind the hotel on the ocean side is an enormous water park and gardens. That's not the hotel in the background but just some large structure that's part of the water park.



















This is two of four wings of the hotel. I'm taking the picture from quite a distance away across a completely different body of water from the previous picture. I don't know what's in the bridge spanning the wings -- I didn't get up there. I couldn't count the number of different swimming pools, pools where swimming is not allowed (like this one), about 1000 different waterfalls of all shapes and sizes, not to mention a huge beach right on the ocean with spectacular white sand.



















This is the casino section of the complex which adjoins the hotel in the previous picture. I know it doesn't look like it, but it's very large. Each of those waterfalls toward the center of the building are about 15 feet tall.



















Chihouli is a very famous glass sculptor in the US, and this is one of the three sculptures of his that are in the casino. This globe sits atop a stand that's about 15 feet tall, and the globe itself is probably 10 feet across.



















This is another one that sits atop a stand like the last picture. Each one of these sculptures cost 1 million dollars. I don't know when they were completed.























And this is the last of the three. I don't like this one as much, but it sure is interesting

I have more pictures, but the internet connection is very slow for some reason and I'd better go check on my piano.

Tonight I'm going to hear a concert by Mississippi Valley State University Choir from the Mississippi delta area which is touring here. The Bahamas National Boys Choir will also be on the program.

Saturday morning

Here's Thursday's picture of Carmelita. What she's wearing is actually a black dress with two straps and just a sort of drape in that beautiful teale color. Her hair is covering the other strap, and that's where the flower is pinned. Anyway, she's beautiful as usual. I just wish you could hear her talk because she has this wonderful Bahamian accent, and I can only understand about every third word that she speaks. She has learned that when she's speaking directly to me that she must speak slowly and clearly and that works out OK, but when another Bahamian local comes into the office/workshop (which happens ALL THE TIME) I can hardly understand anything they say.

Carmelita has been a great help to me here, though, and Thursday evening when my regular ride did not show up (about which I was incensed and she just shrugged her shoulders) she personally took me on the bus to get back to my hotel. I didn't find out until today that that meant that she had to ride the bus for an extra hour just to get to her own home. I didn't understand that at the time or I wouldn't have asked her to do it. Thank you, Carmelita, for being so generous with your time.

I don't have a "Carmelita on Friday" picture because I forgot to bring the charging cord for my camera. I guess I was just so wrapped up in trying to remember everything for the piano restoration -- AT THE LAST MINUTE -- that I neglected some of my personal things. Anyway, I walked all over downtown Nassau today looking for a cord to match my camera with ZERO success, BUT I came across a helpful young sales clerk in a HUGE and very famous jewelry store here called John Bull who couldn't sell me a new cord, but who WAS willing to recharge the battery for me. That meant no pictures for today, but certainly more to come.

This is a picture of one of the "repetitions" within a Steinway piano action. It's missing a part toward the back that I will replace, but just to restore this one action part I have to:
Number all the repetitions

Brush each one to remove dirt

Unscrew all the repetitions
Clean the repetition springs

Clean the repetition spring slots
Strengthen the repetition springs
Remove the old vertigris-filled repetition support flanges
Replace the old repetition flanges with new ones
Paint the repetition window, jack tops, and jack toes with graphite
Burnish the repetition windows, jack tops, and jack toes (much harder than the painting process)
Clean the repetition support felts
Lubricate all action centers
Re-install the newly refurbished repetitions
Each one of these procedures requires picking up and performing a task to each of the 88 repetitions in a Steinway piano action. I hope some of you are getting the idea that this is a tremendous job to accomplish in a very short time frame. What I've written so far has no relation to all the work that has to happen with the hammers (88 things), the strings, (238 things on a Steinway M), the tuning pins,(another 238 things) the plate and soundboard, (only two things, but they're big), the pedal systems (only three pedals but lots of parts), the regulation of the action (35 different operation to each individual key), or the voicing of the hammers.

All of this work I can do and have done on many, many previous pianos in my own workshop, but it's different and difficult in a space that's not your own. I am managing, though, with my own procedures, but now I just need parts.

I've rented a scooter for the weekend, so now it's time to go get on it.

Wednesday evening 3-5-08

Here's today's picture of Carmelita Nespitt.


I think she's absolutely beautiful, and she has been a great help to me in this foreign land.






This is me taking a picture of me blacking in the lettering on the plate. I'm doing this outdoors at the front of the theatre. There's a shaded space there and a constant breeze, so it wasn't too hot.









These are some kind of floweres that are everywhere here. Maybe bouganvillia? I don't know, but they're beautiful.





















I don't know this woman's name, but she's the one who fixed my lunch of fried red snapper. This is not a really good picture, but she is beautiful

and VERY good with a carving knife.









This person with the megaphone is a sidewalk preacher who was nothing if not annoying. We have these types in Pensacola, but thank goodness they haven't discovered megaphones yet. This guy almost put me off my feed.

Tuesday evening 2-4-08

Here are the pictures for today.

First of all – Carmelita in full Bahamian regalia. She’s beautiful again in this wonderful blue outfit. She's being very demure in this shot, but I liked it. I can’t wait to see what she will wear tomorrow.

This fine officer and gentleman showed up at just the wrong time to help me get the plate out of the piano. I don’t know his name, but he was a great sport about it and never took off that beautiful white jacket. I warned him that the plate was nasty and would soil his uniform quickly and easily, but he brushed off my warnings like he would a housefly and jumped in there to do what was needed. Afterward he told me that they are trained to keep those coats clean and that they’re constantly aware of them. I guess so. Can you imagine having to work in a startlingly white jacket every day. As a piano tech having to deal with the likes of this piano in Nassau and many, many others that are REALLY dirty I can’t picture myself in something this pristine. Thank you, Mr. Policeman, whoever you are!!!

This is the "before" picture of the plate.

This is the "after".

Maybe you can't really see the difference, but it's HUGE. I haven't blacked in the lettering yet (or even figured out how I'm going to do that!), but the finish is on and it looks beautiful.

I also scraped, sanded, and refinished the soundboard today with one coat of finish. I'll do two more coats tomorrow while I'm working on the action in between.

I haven't taken any time to explore the island yet because I'm trying to get as much done on this piano as possible in the two weeks that I'll be here. What doesn't get done on this trip will be finished up when I come back in May, and the length of that trip will be determined by what gets accomplished on this trip.

Here's where I'm working. It's the "National Center for the Performing Arts". I'll be playing a solo handbell concert here when I come back in May.

All for now.

Tuesday morning

This beautiful young woman is Carmelita Nespitt, who is the secretary to Alfred Dean. She spent the whole day with me today through the noise of me breaking strings on the Steinway. She unfortunately will have to come back tomorrow for more noise and commotion in the office which she shares with Alfred – and me.

Just to prove that I AM working while I’m here (ahem, Bill), here is a picture of the piano in the disassembly stage. This is after all the strings, dampers, tuning pins have been removed. Today (Tuesday) I'll take the plate out and paint it.

I got most of it apart today in spite of no less than 25 people parading through the office and around the piano and my work benches. Not what I would consider an ideal working situation, but I managed it and actually got a lot of work done.

Here in Nassau

So, here I am in Nassau, The Bahamas.



I was met this afternoon at the airport by Mr. Alfred Dean, a multi-talented young man who is the co-director of the Bahamas National Children's Choir, and who also, as far as I've been able to find out from this shy and self-deprecating musician, plays for multitudinous church services each week, arranges all the BNCC tour details, teaches seminars, AND takes care of visiting piano technicians. I'm priviledged to have made his acquaintence, and especially priviledged to have him taking care of me during my stay here. THANK YOU, ALFRED! He treated me tonight to a delightful dinner of grouper fingers, cole slaw, fried plantains, and "peas and rice". Here are a couple of pictures I took of him.











Alfred has a great soul, a terrific personality, and tremendous musican talent, and I'm sure I will cherish the time I get to spend with him.

I did get a little time to walk around downtown Nassau this afternoon, and, even though all the shops were closed, it was still very interesting.


I can't get the "add image" icon to work right now. Nothing really spectacular this afternoon, anyway, except for some nice shots of the wharf area where all the HUGE cruise ships come in. I have a hard time believing how really big they all are. I'll try to get some pictures later, but they probably won't show the real nature of the thing, as usual.

Change that, I DID get it to work. This is a picture of a tree just outside of my window that's COVERED in some kind of seed pods, and they rattle in the wind to make this tremendous sound like a hurricane is coming or something. It's really weird!

Here are a few more for today. These are some steps I walk down to get to downtown Nassau. I don't know if I'll be at this same establishment for the whole time I'm here. Alfred indicated that I would move to a larger room or a different place before the end of my stay.

For now, it's time for bed. I've been up since 4:30 after a long night as the symphony "piano preparer" last night, and I'm just beat. Steinway reconstruction begins tomorrow!

Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. Hmmm.

One of the beautiful shots of downtown Nassau.