Danny in Nassau: 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.