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.