Update - The Piano Leaves my House

I own(ed) a family heirloom - an 800lb upright concert grand piano that is now an antique.

This piano, a George P. Bent "Crown" Piano, was purchased before 1910 by my father's godmother's grandparents. They sold a horse to purchase this piano as a wedding present for their daughter. My dad's godmother, who was "a true proficient" owned it until the late 1970's, when she had to move to a nursing home. My parents, who had four small children that they wanted to educate muscially, purchased the piano for about 100$.

The piano made the move from Cleveland to Portage and then to Texas Township. It was loaned out to JasonJ for a couple of years. And then, when I was in Germany, Jason wanted to return it. And because I was in Germany and unable to defend myself, it was delivered to my living room, where it remained for 5 years, until this summer it had to leave the house so that I could get new carpet and flooring.

The piano then found its residence in my garage, but everyone knows that pianos aren't supposed to be stored out there in winter in Michigan. So it needed to find a new home. Dad and Mom and I looked for opportunities, but we couldn't find anyone to buy it (at least not anyone that wasn't going to scrap it for metal and wood).

Then we called Action Piano Service (http://www.sytekdavies.com/pianos/), and Rick said that the piano might be worth something someday, and that we could get it back into playable condition for a reasonable fee.

After a quick family consultation, we decided to do it! So... the piano left my garage in November, and now I can park in my garage again! It's AWESOME!

oh - yes. The piano may come back to my house once it is done being repaired, but we are hoping to move it (sell it) to a home where someone may play it.

Update : Houghton Trip (October 2008)

So - I (almost) broke my arm on October 3rd at 7:42am.

I was dog sitting for friends who shall remain nameless, while they went to a birthday party out of town. They have two very sweet Weimaraners, one of whom likes to play games in the morning before going into her kennel.

Unfortunately for me, on 10/3 at 7:42, she wanted to play, and I didn't. I chased her and wound up tripping over my own jeans (really!) and fell. On my elbow. Against the edge of a side table.

After much maneuvering by some good friends from work (Joli and JasonS), both I and my car made it to the emergency room, where I was x-rayed and told "Your arm isn't broken." No - I had bruised my ulnar nerve. My "funny bone". It wasn't very funny. I couldn't bend my arm, in fact for the first two days I could barely lift it. And I was scheduled to drive a minivan loaded with a dryer and a lot of electronics to Houghton for the MTU fall recruiting trip on October 5th. Yeah - great timing!

Fortunately for me, my dad was willing to drive to the UP to do some historical touring, see the Copper Harbor Lighthouse and the Quincy Mine and such, so he volunteered to drive me up. And a bunch of people from work helped me load the van, so I didn't have to do much in that respect. Recruiting went fine, and the HR person was pleased to be able to choose the best of the best from our many interviewees.

But this blog is just to put up some photos of our "tour" of the Copper Country. So - here we go!

The Mackinaw Bridge











Entering the UP!









Colors!









MTU!









The Lift Bridge!









We visited Fort Wilkins :









Copper Harbor Lighthouse - we didn't make it across the harbor though









Eagle Harbor Lighthouse






















Eagle Harbor Yacht Club - formerly the Eagle Harbor Life Saving Station. The LSS originally had two doors that opened up to boat ramps. When they needed to get out onto the lake, the crew would run the boats down the ramp into the water, and then row out to a boat in distress to rescue the crew. Here is a page about some of the rescues that the LSS crew conducted, and has pics of the original LSS and crew. http://www.michiganlights.com/EagleharborLSS.htm











You can still see the boat ramps from the doors to the water. I couldn't get a good shot of the interior, but we could see an original LSS Surf Boat inside the LSS. It was pretty cool (very few surf boats have survived).









While I was interviewing, Dad did some exploring :









He also visited the Quincy Mine (and Lift Hoist)!










The Rockhouse / #2 Shaft House













The tram that the miners would ride down to work.














The hoist

Copper Country Explorer does a good job of showing more pics of the Quincy Mine (more time to photograph the Mine, and other areas in the Keweenaw Peninsula). http://coppercountryexplorer.com/category/quincy-mine/

Catching Up - Appliances

I really love appliances. Seriously. And I think they are underrated by most people. But if you can find a person whose life has not been made better by the fact that they have a dishwasher or washing machine, a microwave or stove then that person was most likely born into wealth and priviledge and 24/7 maid service. People like Paris and Nicky Hilton or Prince Charles.

For all the rest of us working class stiffs, there are these wonderful time savers known as "white goods".

I love my own appliances best though, because they are the ones that do the most for me! When I bought the house back in '02, I agreed to test drive a washer / dryer set to see how a stacked pair did for sound & vibration in my home - I tested different parts / loads / detergents and fabric softeners etc.

But six years later the time had come for me to upgrade to the latest and greatest, newest washer and dryer pair. And boy was I ever excited. I arranged for a friend to help me haul the old ones back to the crusher and get the new ones from work to my house. At the same time, we were going to pick up a work bench that was no longer needed in a lab at work, and had been given to me.

See the old set on the right, washer sans toe-panel (open for diagnosis)!

So Pat came to my house with his Suburban and his trailer, and we unstacked and packed up the old washer and dryer and took them off to the crusher. And we picked up the new set (along with the n-used work bench) and brought them to my house!

Bye bye old set! Hello new set (and a workbench too!)!

I had left the stack-kit at work, so Pat and I settled for just moving the washer into place before he left. I hooked it up and was able to run a couple loads of (air dried) laundry before I left for Arizona to visit akg. It was awesome. My only complaint about the WED9600s is that they have to make their little "ring tone" noises when you turn them on and off. Really, I don't need ring tones. I just want them to wash. But that's okay...

The washer.... it is ALIVE! Dryer in waiting....

Zanorak came and helped me assemble the dryer to the washer on the 27th (no pictures, sorry) so now I have a fully capable home laundry facility again. Yay!

Catching Up - Mechanical Issues

akg has been diligently keeping us (all her peeps) updated with what is happening in her world, and I've been falling down on the job. So, since I am enjoying those three QUIET days between Christmas and New Years, I figured I needed to get on the stick and UPDATE.

We'll start with the car. Yes, the car.

Those of you who know know me, know my car. the blue 2000 Ford Focus ZTS that has been hauling me back and forth between SJ and Kzoo and Cleveland since ... 2000. Well, this fall it rolled over 167,000 miles. It is now "mature" and rapidly approaching old age. But until November, it didn't look or even act like it. It looked like any other "original" Fucus out on the road, and drove like one too (I want AWD). But then in November, a series of unfortunate events took place... On Election Day I had a tire go bad. JasonB (awesome co-worker) helped me change the tire (ok... so I let him change it for me, because he is AWESOME) and I had to buy new ones.

Then a worse thing happened... The Fucus got whacked in the face by a piece of sheet metal (definitely ecoated steel, probably .028 or thicker). Fortunately, the metal hit the car and didn't go through the windshield and hit me. (I am very grateful for my guardian angel!). People who drive with unsecured loads in their pickup trucks are bad!

According to the guys at the SouthHaven Ford Dealership, the car has not been more than superficially damaged. But it looks like it got into a drunken bar fight - and lost. The front grill is all broken, the lower air dam grill is saggy, the hood is dented and the latch for the hood is clearly visible (it looks like the car has either a broken nose, or is in the process of being converted to a post-Apoctalyptic death machine, a la Death Race. Compare for yourselves :

Okay - so maybe it isn't that bad, but it is still not pretty, and approaching Mad Max style from a direction I never intended to inhabit. Shoulder pads and spiky hair are one thing, a busted-up grill is something totally different.