LaurenandLloyd.com

This is a story probably a decade in the making. Long ago, my parents brought my grandmother’s piano to my house. Dad would have taken it to Colorado but it came from Missouri and the humidity change would have been too drastic. So, it came to Nebraska to hold my mail.

Many, many years ago (8? 10? wait – 6. There is documentation.), one key stopped working. (Yes, I did try to play occasionally.) When I owned a crummy thrift store piano back in Maryland, I dismantled that and put it back together, so I thought I could diagnose this, too. I took it apart, put it back together….. and eight keys were not working. Rats.

I just covered it with more mail.

Well, sometime this fall I thought I should maybe think about fixing it. My motto was, “It’s already broken – I can’t break it more.” (I obviously forgot about the one key/eight key fiasco of yore.)

I opened the hood.

I saw that some thingies were broken: they’re called bridle straps. I ordered some more that just clipped on. In this photo, the red tabs are the new straps, the grey, crumbling ones are the old straps.

Now, this is where my ADD really bogged things down. I thought I’d just have to replace a few straps, but realized that ALL EIGHTY-EIGHT straps would have to be changed. The old ones just … disintegrated when touched.

88!! UGH! Ain’t nobody got the attention span for that. I came up with a system: change five straps, get a Starburst.

That worked for three rounds, but then I needed to go watch tv. Slowly, slowly over many many days, I got most of them done.

This brings us to Saturday morning. I was up bright and early and only had 30 more straps to do…. and I just DID it. It must be what people with real attention spans feel like. When Lloyd got up, we took the action out and I worked on fixing the eight broken keys. Apparently, when I took it out all those years ago, the broken straps let pieces get all caddywompus (technical piano term), and that was the problem.

When I got to the final key – the original broken one – Lloyd helped me figure out what was wrong and helped hold everything still so we could fix it. When we put it back in, there was one injury to a damper that required some Laurening.

But, it works!! It’s not 100%, but it plays! I was so pumped, I rewarded myself with a very, very simple book to try and remember how to play.

“The Easiest Easy Piano Songs”. That sounds perfect.

So, what should I say? We are months away from the last post. August: School started. Some other things probably happened, but I there’s no telling what. September: I don’t even know. Life is a blur of chaotic sameness. October: I bought a food sucker! That’s the highlight of my life. If I ever get […]

(Reading the past entry: we did get a new a/c system, and the rash cleared up with the medication. If it happens again, I’m supposed to call for an oral steroid first, then go in.) This entry is mostly about the storm. Other things have happened that I will surely forget (and already have), but […]

If it weren’t for this site, many things would be lost to our poor memories. Not posting very often has put me in a bit of a mental bind lately, so I’m jotting this down for Future Me. 2. I can’t remember if I wrote about my Horrible Rash last spring? It started with a […]

Whenever we attend a get-together, Beth always brings a veggie tray. She has the divided Tupperware tray that has seven spots for different things. It’s always nice to have vegetables around, and this is a good way to do it. She says she keeps in in her fridge all the time for handy munching. When […]

Anyone who reads this thing knows that we are not big spenders. I can be incredibly cheap and later have regrets, but we’re also frugal. For instance, I spend the big money on Smartwool socks, but they last For-Ev-Er. The cost per wear is pennies. Maybe ha’pennies. The current problem, though, is that Lloyd has […]