Kerry'd Away

Piano Destruction

Posted on August 10, 2014 by civilwarrose5

This is my piano. At least, this WAS my piano. When I was in high school my family moved and I had to leave my old piano behind. It was one of those big ol’ uprights that weighed a thousand pounds. My dad referred to it as my Auxiliary Woodpile and stated that he was NOT moving it with us. My mom and I found this one at a price we could afford (which wasn’t much) and so this is only the second piano I’ve ever owned. It moved with me to my first house, at which time my dad again vowed that he would not move it again. When Jay and I got married I asked him if he would move my piano to our new house, otherwise I was going to have to get rid of it. For some reason he readily agreed and it moved with me.

Fast forward a year and a half. Like I said, this wasn’t the most expensive piano, but it was one that we could afford. It definitely is not a Steinway! However, I enjoyed playing it. For Christmas I asked Jay to have it tuned as one of my gifts. The tuner who did the work told Jay that it really wasn’t a good piano and that he didn’t want to attempt to fix the broken string as that could really snowball quickly. Apparently there’s a high chance of breaking the strings on either side of it when you are trying to fix it. With that being said, and the fact that it was quickly back out of tune, I decided that perhaps it was time to get a different piano. I really didn’t want to buy a new one, but I was getting to the limit of how long I could tolerate the REALLY out of tune note that seemed to be in every song that I played.

Here’s where the story gets interesting. Jay’s mom had purchased a brand new piano back around 1982. She had intended on learning how to play, but life got in the way and she never took piano lessons. It seems that Jay’s brother took lessons for a little bit, but the teacher advised Karen that Justin wasn’t practicing and it would be wiser for her to not spend the money as Justin just wasn’t into it. So there this piano sat in Karen’s dining room, only being played sporadically, until I came along. I tried it out and agreed that I would take it.

It was decided that while Jay was on shutdown he would get some guys together and move the piano. Karen only lives three houses away from us, so it wasn’t going to be a huge ordeal. I was worried, though, as I didn’t want Jay to hurt his back by moving the piano. The other consideration was: What to do with the old piano. I didn’t want to sell it because it takes forever for anybody to even want one (I had tried that at one point when I lived on my own). Also, I didn’t want to stick a young student with a piano that had a broken string that couldn’t be fixed and also wouldn’t hold a tune for long. I told Jay that the better thing would be to take it apart, scrap what we can, use as much of it as possible, and then let my dad burn the rest at the campfires he has during hunting season.

This past Wednesday I walked into the living room and this was what I saw… two pianos. My first thought was, “Please don’t let them fall through the floor!!” If you’ve never lifted a piano then let me tell you… there is a TON of weight in one of these. Thus to have two sitting right there I knew that the joists were under some duress!

Jay insisted that I play the new piano to make sure that it was okay before he started tearing apart the old one. I didn’t have any worries, but I did as he asked. It was fine. Let the destruction commence!

Jay grabbed the screw gun and got started.

Removing the top pieces were easy. His plan of attack was to essentially remove every screw that he could see. This piano was made of some very nice walnut and oak wood, so Jay put it aside for future projects.

It was very dusty and dirty, but I guess that’s to be expected. I’ve seen how a piano looks under the hood, but it’s always interesting to see it again.

One of the points that stumped us for a minute was how to remove the keys. We had to figure out how they were attached to the hammers, and then after that it was a breeze to get them apart.

This was the point where I started to get a bit choked up about the whole process. It had taken me a long time to make the decision that we would destroy it, but when I saw the keys removed I had to get a Kleenex to wipe my eyes. You see, this was the last piano that Chrissy and I played on together. She didn’t know how to play or anything, but she loved to sit with me on the bench and press the keys. She would pound a little on the notes, and then she would watch my hands as I played. Then she would sort of spread her hands out and almost mimic what I was doing. Chrissy loved to snack on Doritoes and would often have orange fingers. If you didn’t realize it and she sat down to play I would then have orange marks on my piano keys that I would have to clean off. *sigh* I miss those orange marks…

When the keys are removed your piano will look like this…

At this point we ran out of screws to remove. Apparently the manufacturer had also used glue. It took some doing, but we managed to get the pieces apart.

We removed the hammers and put those in the pile. There is a lot of felt sitting right there! Later on Jay started to take these apart and ran out of boxes to put all of the screws in that he was removing. He kept saying that all of the piano’s weight was in the hardware. lol

At this point we flipped the piano onto its back. Jay’s initial thought was that we could remove the cast iron frame with the strings still attached, but it was quickly determined that wouldn’t work. He went and got his side cutters and we cut all of the strings off. To keep them from flying across the room I had to hold a pillow against them and hope that I didn’t get hit when the tension on the strings was released.

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s a pretty heavy bundle of strings that we placed on the front porch for now.

Once the strings were gone we were able to get the cast iron frame off, too. This was something that Jay could look at with a trained eye as his occupation involves casting iron. He doesn’t seem to think that this will fetch very much for scrap, but I think that every little bit is better than nothing.

And so sits my old piano. In a few hours it went from being able to play a symphony to being stripped naked and placed on the deck. Jay intends on breaking it down some more so that he can find room for the wood in his shop, but for now it sits like this. It’s a bit sad. I played on this piano for almost 18 years. To the piano tuner it might have been a junky piano, but to me it was an enjoyable way to spend my time. Those strings had probably been hit a million times by my strikes on the keys. The consolation is that it’s not going to waste. It’s not going to sit in somebody’s house and collect dust. Instead I know that Jay will use the wood for some interesting and beautiful projects.

The new piano needs to be tuned, but I’ve already begun the process of breaking it in. A piano was meant to be played and this one will definitely get a work out! I’ve already spent a few hours this week playing it (I had to play for two masses this weekend so I needed the practice!). Each piano is different, just as each car is different. There are some pianos where the touch is off and it’s not enjoyable to play. I’ve found that this is true for me when it comes to the electric piano at church. The keys feel too plastic-y and it just doesn’t feel like a real piano when you play it. This piano has a very nice touch to it and the sound is nice as well. I think that once it’s tuned it will really be a nice instrument. I love a happy ending. 🙂

Posted in Music, My House, piano | Tagged music, My House, piano | 2 Comments

Fire Pit Area 7-26-14

Posted on August 1, 2014 by civilwarrose5

This is what the eye sore looked like when we first purchased the house. I am talking about the area where the swing set is in this picture.

We tore the swing set down because we didn’t want it. Even if we have kids, by the time that they are old enough to play on the swing set it would have been in really bad shape.

In the past year I used this area to drop all of the extra stuff that I didn’t know what to do with: dirt, pavers, tiger lilies and irises.

It was really looking bad. When I would walk out in the morning to go to work I would refuse to look in that direction. I didn’t want to be reminded of the work that needed to be done.

It needed a LOT of work!

I knew what I wanted to do: clean it up and put our fire pit area over there. This way we would get the fire pit out of the lawn and it would give me an excuse to use all of the creek rock that I had pulled out of the gardens. The previous owners really loved to use them for outlining their flower beds.

Saturday was the day that I chose to finally tackle this problem area. I spent quite a few hours just trying to weed it, clean it out, and get the dirt spread around in a somewhat even layer.

I didn’t do a good job of making it even, though. To be fair I was tired and had already done a TON of work.

Once I had everything kind of even (which really didn’t end up being even at all), Jay and I laid down the concrete pavers for the fire pit to sit on. Then Jay’s mom and I situated the creek rock to make a sort of patio area. Again, it turns out that I didn’t do a good job of making sure that the dirt was even. Oh well.

And I still have some area that I need to fill in. I think that between the rocks currently being used as my front sidewalk, and the mulch that I have left over from my flower gardens, this will fill in okay.

I don’t know.

What do you think?

Posted in Garden, My House | Tagged fire pit, Garden, My House | 2 Comments

Winter Cross Update 7-29-14

Posted on July 29, 2014 by civilwarrose5

Where is the summer going? Wasn’t it just May?

I haven’t had a lot of time to stitch. Between practicing piano for church and trying to catch up on other things I’ve only had a few minutes here and there to work on my cross stitch. Once the weather starts cooling down and I can no longer play in the dirt I will be able to get more stitching done. Here is what the cross looked like last month.

And here it is this month. I guess that I have made some progress. It sure doesn’t feel like it! As long as it is framed and hanging in its spot on December 21st of this year I will be happy.

Posted in cross stitch, Faith | Tagged cross stitch, Faith | Leave a comment

Beach Glass Class

Posted on July 23, 2014 by civilwarrose5

This past Sunday the lady who sits next to me in the church choir asked if I had any plans for the afternoon. Jay would be sleeping as he’d had to work the night before so I had planned on just catching up on some chores. It seemed that this lady had signed up for a beach glass jewelry-making class with her husband, but he was unable to make it because his brother was in town. It was being held at the winery that makes my favorite wine, so I said sure! I’m not much into making jewelry since I have my own in-house jewelry maker at my disposal (thanks Babe!), but I’m always up for learning something new. Plus, I would get a glass of wine!

I already own a piece of beach glass jewelry. This is a pendant that my mom made me from a piece of glass that I found on the beach. It’s the only piece I’ve ever found, and I didn’t think too much of it. When I brought it home my mom instantly saw it in a necklace. She’s really good with these kinds of things and I love what she did with this piece.

If you look you can tell that this was from a jar or bottle of some sort because there is the marking that all glass jars/bottles have. I think that it makes this piece really interesting.

I arrived at the winery, collected my glass of wine, and headed out to the tent where the jewelry-making would be taking place. I told Jay later that there weren’t any guys there at all so I’m glad that the woman’s husband couldn’t attend. He would have really felt out of place! Jay said that if he had found out that this guy had gone to the class he would have taken the guy’s Man Card right then and there. lol

We picked out three pieces of glass and settled down for our instructions. This wasn’t real beach glass. It was the kind of fancy glass that you can find in the floral area of craft stores. These are glass pieces that you can use to put in the bottom of vases and other things. Beach glass is hard to find so the woman who was teaching the class bought these so that we could practice on them. Essentially what she was teaching was the art of wire wrapping.

I followed the lady’s instructions, and this was my first piece. Something simple and probably nothing that I would ever wear. Mainly because it was silver and I can only wear gold. I was having fun and drinking wine, so it was all good! My friend told me that I was very good at the curly-q’s. She was having difficulty with it so I told her that if I could give her some of my curly-q’ing ability that I would. The ladies sitting across from us found that humorous.

The next lesson was how to add beads to a design. This woman had all kinds of beads that we could use. I honestly wasn’t too involved in the whole thing. I was just there to have a good time. Some women spent FOREVER picking out the right pieces of glass. Then they spent FOREVER searching through the beads to find just the right ones. What did I do? I figured we would be wire wrapping them so I chose three big pieces of glass… two blue and one white. When it was time to pick out the beads I took the one bin that nobody was looking through (the plastic pearls) and picked out a handful of blue and white. (Have you noticed the common theme?) When it came time to wrap the wire and put the beads on I just did whatever first came into my head. Other women sat and pondered… then asked everybody around them if they liked a certain idea… then undid what they had just done… then had to ask the instructor if theirs was looking right. My friend would ask if she was wrapping hers correctly. I made sure that the glass was secured by the wire and then told her yes. She worried that she wasn’t doing it correctly and I had to keep reminding her that there wasn’t any one correct way to do it, that whatever looked good to her was the correct way.

The third lesson involved adding charms to the design. We were allowed to choose two charms. There were two different cats in there, so that’s what I picked. This just seemed to throw the other women into a bigger frenzy. What charm should they use? Was their pendant looking right? Should they add beads? I felt sorry for the instructor because she had to keep telling them that if it looked good to them, it was correct. Again, I just took my beads, charm and wire and tossed it onto the piece of glass. I wasn’t stressing out at all. To be fair, I was nursing my wine over the course of the two hour class and I was definitely feeling it. lol

After we were done with our practice pendants we were allowed to pick two pieces of real beach glass. This was glass that our instructor had found herself. She had a tray of glass that had been tumbled, and a tray that had just been cleaned up and not tumbled. For a change of pace I chose a green pieces of glass, but my other piece I chose was blue. I don’t have a picture of the blue piece because I hung it in Jay’s car and it has stayed there.

Anyway, I had one bead left and my second cat charm to use. Looking around I saw the gold wire on the table and decided to use that. I have no idea what I’m going to do with these, but they are pretty. I guess. We have a ton of nails that are just pounded into random spots on the walls (courtesy of the previous home owners) so maybe I will get some fishing line and randomly hang these around my house. Wouldn’t that make for some interesting wall décor??

It was an interesting class and I enjoyed myself, but I can’t say that it piqued my interest in jewelry making. I will leave that up to my mom. The best part? I came home with three bottles of good wine. Mmmm…. :-))))

Posted in Cats | Tagged Beach Glass, Jewelry | 2 Comments

Dresses for Missions Update 7-13-14

Posted on July 13, 2014 by civilwarrose5

I have been busy so I haven’t actually sewn anything since the beginning of June (where has the time gone??!) and also it is a sauna in my sewing room so I try to avoid it if I can. I do have an exciting thing to tell you. In our church bulletin today there was a snippet that said Dresses for Missions has recently been recognized for their outstanding contribution in the Missions program for a large University. I’m not sure if it was the Dresses for Missions organization as a whole, or my group specifically. Either way, it’s good to hear.

Dress #16

This was the last one that I’ve actually sewn on my own. I finished this on June 5th. I did do some sewing, just not on my own stuff.

Dress Group 1

This is why I haven’t done anymore of my own sewing. I was asked if I could finish off a few dresses with the trim, etc. I agreed, but didn’t realize how many I was being handed. You can’t tell, but in this pile is 13 dresses. Yep. 13. And I only had a week to get it all done. Needless to say, I didn’t have time to add lace or anything fancy to them 😦

Dress Group #2

Okay, so I forgot to take a picture of the second group of dresses that I had to work on. Instead I had to post a picture of Chester laying on the futon in my sewing room.

The second group consisted of 10 dresses and this time I was given three weeks to get them done. With everything else that I had going on I definitely needed the extra time!

I haven’t done any sewing since then. I’ve just been so busy! It seems like just as one obligation is finished, another one pops up. But it’s okay because I want to show you what Jay made me for my birthday….

A sewing table!

I wanted something a little sturdier to set up my serger when I need to use it. I didn’t have a lot of room in which to put something, though. So I gave Jay the measurements that I wanted and he built it for me! It’s not overly big, but it suits my needs perfectly.

He made the top by slanting the boards at a fancy angle.

And then added a decorative border that he said reminded him of me playing in the dirt. lol

I have already set it up and it’s perfect. Everything is within reach and it has helped to free up the table on the right on which I cut my fabric. I am so tickled about this table. It was definitely a great birthday present!

Posted in Dresses for Missions, Sewing | Tagged Dresses for Missions, Sewing | Leave a comment

Playing In the Dirt!

Posted on June 30, 2014 by civilwarrose5

When Jay and I moved into our house I knew that it was going to take a lot of time to get the gardens where I wanted them to be. Due to my allergies there are a lot of things that I just don’t want to have near my house. Technically, I’m allergic to everything. *sigh* However, the people who lived here before we did really seemed to have enjoyed the wild-looking flowers.

This is my front corner flower bed as it looked last year. This was after I had weeded it! There are a ton of Irises on the right that hadn’t ever been thinned out, so their roots were all growing together. On the left were something else that I didn’t care for. Also, I had read that Azaleas don’t like a whole lot of sun, just a few hours. Well, this flower bed sits out in the open under the sun for most of the day.

I needed to move the Azalea bush, so I dug out another bush that I hated by the corner of the house and put this one there instead. No shovels were broken in the moving of this azalea bush. I was worried that I had killed it because I had a really hard time getting it out of the corner bed. This picture was taken last month and you can see that it did just fine.

I also thinned out the irises, gave a bunch away, and spread them out a little better. Here they are in bloom last month. I would say that they managed to survive the winter.

And here is my corner flower bed now. Not a whole lot going on, but that’s how I like it. Since this bed gets sun almost all day I decided that I would have this be my rose garden. I love roses and have always wanted to grow them.

I have two climbing roses in the back and then three regular rose bushes in the front (along with some petunias for color). I actually thought that the one climbing rose bush was dead. You see, I had removed it from the side of the house near where the azalea bush was relocated. That side of the house gets a few hours of sun a day, not nearly enough for a rose bush. This spring, though, the canes were all dead and I seriously thought that I had killed it with the shock of being yanked out of the ground and transplanted. I cut it way back and was going to remove it completely after I had something to replace it. I’m so glad that I waited to dig it out because I discovered some new growth. It’s not dead! It will be a few years before it flowers, but that gives me time to train it onto the fence and baby it for a bit. My goal is to have the climbing roses trained onto the fence. Won’t that be gorgeous?!

This is another front garden. I’ve dug a lot out of here, too. Again, it was all wild-looking flowers, but there was way too much of it. They had tiger lilies all over and poor little hostas planted under the hydrangeas so they weren’t getting any sun. And I planted more petunias.

Then there’s my little garden around the flag pole. I love pansies, so I had to add some in here. I actually had a few come back from last year! This fall I’m going to protect them a bit and see what happens in the spring. It would be great if I could get them to grow back.

And you can see the post-bloom azalea bush in the background on the right (behind the petunias).

One of the few things that I haven’t touched is the clematis that is growing on our fence. I will need to trim it back a bit after the blooms are gone, though, as it’s almost reaching the sidewalk.

It is really pretty, though, and I’ve had a lot of compliments on it. If only I could take credit for it!

Then there are my vegetables.

Last year when we took a couple of trees down we had our friend grind this stump away when he did the others. This one was rather large and I’m still digging up pieces of the roots.

But I needed somewhere to plant my tomatoes and I thought that this spot would work great.

And it does! Jay built me the trellis last year. If you’re wondering, I weeded that area this past weekend. They had tiger lilies and mint growing over here. Plus the grass. It’s hard to keep all of them at bay.

Then there are my cucumbers. Again, a trellis that Jay built for me and wave petunias in pots above them. Over the Fourth of July weekend I plan on repainting the deck. I didn’t want the cucumbers to climb on the trellis until after I had repainted so that I would be able to move it. Well, the cucumbers had a mind of their own. So now I will have to be careful when I paint it and will have to cover them up while the deck is being power-washed.

In my backyard we have a flower garden that runs along the fence next to the sidewalk. This is the same fence on which the clematis climbs. The blooms were past their prime, but I wanted to take a picture of this rose bush. Last year it didn’t do anything. Not a single bud! This spring I had determined to dig it up. My theory is if plants want to remain in my garden then they must perform the task which they have been given. Roses are supposed to be fragrant and beautiful… or at the very least at least have blooms. Something kept telling me to wait a little bit and I’m glad that I did. It had a BUNCH of blooms on it! I’m not sure what kind of rose bush it is, but it has earned its keep this year.

Even with all of these various gardens that I’m working on, I still have more to do in the yard!

This picture is from last year, but I can use it to tell you what I need to do.

Do you see the hostas to the right of the closest orange cones? The two on the left have been transplanted into the side garden where the clematis and one rose bush live. The other one remains. I might leave it there, but I have to finish cleaning up that spot.

We had a large pile of dirt left after the driveway was done, which I have moved, but now I have a pile of mulch sitting there.

Also, we took down the swing set that you can see in the background.

We haven’t really done a lot with that spot. However, I have a plan.

Currently when we have a fire we put the pit in the ring of stones that you can see in the middle of the yard. The previous owners had a pool that sat in that spot, so the grass was gone, and thus the reason for the fire pit going right there.

Now that the swing set is gone I want to clean up this area and make it into our fire pit area. This way we don’t have to worry about leveling it out with the rest of the lawn and we won’t have to reseed it with grass. It will also get the fire pit out of the middle of the yard and make it easier for Jay to mow. I just have to find the time to actually do it. I can’t play in the dirt on Saturdays if I’m going to sing the psalm in church on Sunday because being out in that stuff messes with my sinuses. I will get it done, though. Especially since I’m tired of looking at that mess. I can’t wait to get it cleaned up!

Posted in Garden, My House, Roses | Tagged flower bed, flower garden, Garden, My House, rose bush, rose garden, Roses | 1 Comment

Winter Cross Update 6-23-14

Posted on June 24, 2014 by civilwarrose5

I love summer! The warm temps, the flowers all over, and the wonderfully fresh air. The only thing is that it doesn’t leave me a lot of time to play inside. It looks like the last time that I updated you about my Winter Cross was over a month ago. I thought that it had been more recently, but apparently not!

You can’t really tell from this picture, but I managed to fill in completely the top of the cross and a good part of the middle section. I also filled in the background words and did the outlining on the cross. I am now starting on the right arm. I will wait until I have this arm done and am doing the outlining before I will add the other outlined sticks that come off of the cross. If you look on the left hand side you can kind of see the ‘sticks’ that come out of the greenery and into the words. I need to add these around the top part of the cross, but I’m tired of outlining and want to get back to making my ‘x’s. Thus I will wait until I am outlining the right arm. Hopefully I will remember to do that!

I have been eyeing the spot on my wall where this will be hanging. Even if it’s not winter when I finish this (though at this rate it will probably be close to Christmas when it’s done!), I’m still going to hang it up. Then I will start on either the Fall Cross or the Spring Cross. I haven’t quite decided which.

Posted in cross stitch, Faith | Tagged cross stitch, Faith | Leave a comment

Mass Piano Playing

Posted on June 17, 2014 by civilwarrose5

If you know me, or if you’ve followed my blog at all, you might know that I play a little bit of piano. I realized the other day that I’ve been playing for about 30 years. Yikes!

I’ve never been very good at it, though. I can’t play by ear. I can’t play just by looking at the chords. And I never have enjoyed practicing. It would bore me out of my mind to play the same song over and over, hoping to not make the same mistakes. I did something right because in my ten years of piano lessons I think that my teacher made me redo the same lessons again only once.

I LOVE playing piano, but I hate practicing. Are you shaking your head yet? It’s the same as exercising… I hate to do it, but I really enjoy taking walks. Doesn’t make sense, does it?

I play piano for the pure enjoyment that I derive from it. If it’s just me and the cats then I play and sing all that I want without worrying about wrong notes, pauses for turning pages, or not finishing the song. Yes, I’m notorious for not finishing songs. I will start into it, maybe sing the first verse and a bit of the chorus before I decide that I’ve had enough of that one and move on. I can easily play through an entire piano book without playing a single song all the way through.

In high school I decided that I would accompany the elementary select choir that I had belonged to at one time. Our choir director was not a strong piano player and she welcomed me taking over the piano part while she worked on the voices. Then she had me accompanying the high school chorus… and then the various select choirs that I also belonged to.

Then after my school merged with a neighboring district there was enough money in the budget to hire a full-time accompanist. I was no longer good enough. In fact, after the merger I was barely good enough to be in the chorus. Sure, I had a strong voice, but I was no longer somebody to whom my chorus teacher looked to for leadership in my section. If other altos were having trouble getting the notes they were told to sit near me so that they could hear what I was doing. Yet, at the end of the year I didn’t receive any of the special certificates that were given out for chorus. The popular girls received ‘Strongest Voice’, ‘Section Leader’, and ‘Most Musical’. Again, I wasn’t good enough.

I’ve just realized that perhaps that’s where my fear for performing in public really started to gain traction. I had always had a case of nerves before a concert, but they have managed to get worse over the years. To be fair, I haven’t had a chance to perform in public since high school. Except once or twice in college. And now that I think back on it, the choir director had me accompany the group during practices but when it came to the actual performance he hired somebody to come in and play.

After college I continued to purchase piano books and plunk around here and there, but I didn’t play very much or very often. A lot of it was because when I lived at home my piano was relocated to the living room where it seemed like somebody was always watching TV (so I wasn’t able to play). Then when I moved to my own place it seemed like I just didn’t have the time to spend playing it. There was even a point where I decided that maybe I should just sell it.

But I didn’t. Instead, Jay moved it into our new house for me. I joined the church choir shortly after that and I have played it steadily since then. Again, most of it is for my own enjoyment. I don’t like to play when I think that Jay can hear me because I don’t want him knowing just how bad I am at it.

I tried to keep my piano playing to myself. I didn’t want the choir director at church knowing that I can play piano. Everybody instantly thinks that if you play piano then you are like Elton John or Billy Joel; you sit down at the keyboard without any music whatsoever and every song comes out flawless. Nope. Not me. I need music to read. I was never taught how to play out of a Fake Book (one where just the melody notes are given and you have to make up your own accompaniment with the left hand using only the chords that are written). Not to mention that the thought of playing in front of a group of people makes me as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs!

Then one night at practice the choir director was trying to go over a bass line, but since her primary instrument is guitar, she was having a hard time recalling which notes were which. I couldn’t take it anymore and asked her if she would like me to play the notes for the men. There went my little secret… I was able to explain to her about my weaknesses and she was very nice in not trying to push me. Jay, however, had his foot firmly planted in my rear to push me forward. For some reason he thinks that I’m good enough to play in church. I wanted to ease into it, but that didn’t end up happening.

After having accompanied the choir on one or two songs it was suddenly decided that I would be good enough to fill in. My choir director’s parents live out of state and she had to take off to go help them out. She gave us a heads up, but somehow all of our usual guitar players were all out of town that same weekend. At mass we typically have two acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, and then the director’s acoustic guitar. She will play piano on most things, though, to help round out the sound. Well, it just so happened that on Father’s Day NONE of the guitars were going to be there. Which left just me… One of the other church members plays guitar and will fill in sometimes for the director, but nobody else plays piano.

Due to other obligations I only had one week to practice. I was a nervous wreck! I just knew that I would play horribly enough that people would comment on it later. I’m not familiar with a lot of these songs because they aren’t the songs that I heard when I was growing up the few times that I attended church. I don’t know the tempos for the different songs… I wasn’t sure just exactly where the various mass parts come in… and I was terrified that I would mess the Allelulia up enough that Jesus himself would look down from the cross and scowl at me!

I couldn’t tell the director ‘No’. In fact, I have a very hard time telling anybody ‘No’. Jay doesn’t even hear it very often! I felt that as part of the Music Ministry it was my obligation to step up when needed. So I did. My mom always used to tell me that practice makes perfect. So I practiced… and practiced… and practiced!

Poor Chester was all out of sorts last week! Every time I play piano she complains and walks out of the room. If I continue to play piano she will walk back in the room, complain to me, and walk back out. She is NOT impressed by my piano skills at all!

After Jay would leave for work I would sit down and practice for two or three hours. One night I spent an HOUR on the Alleluia! And I still didn’t have it right. Sunday was edging closer and I felt like I was going to ruin mass. Except, not only was I playing for the mass that I usually attend, but I was also playing for the second mass, too!

To say that I was stressed about it would be an understatement. Sunday morning Jay got up way before me, but I didn’t really get much more sleep. In my dream I was practicing the Alleluia. Can you believe that even in my dreams I wasn’t getting it right?? I couldn’t take it anymore and so I got up to actually practice it again. Yes, it was only 5:30 a.m. but I needed to get comfortable with it.

Despite my nervousness, I had a lot of compliments after both masses. Nobody pointed out my obvious mistakes, which was very nice of them. I just hope that they don’t expect me to play every week. I don’t have enough time to practice! I think that it would raise some eyebrows if they knew how much time I had actually spent on just those few pieces of music that week.

I did learn something from this experience. I learned that I never want to own a digital piano. Sure, they seem really cool and are actually much cheaper and lighter than a real piano, but it’s just not the same. Even when they weight the keys and set it in a piano-like frame, it just isn’t the same. The keys still felt like plastic. The keys didn’t have the same feel to them because of the lack of hammers. And when the power is out you can’t play it!

When I was in college our chapel had a Steinway Grand Piano. The chapel was open most hours of the day, so on the days that I didn’t have afternoon classes I would take a piano book and head over there. The Steinway was not in the best shape. There were dings and scratches all along the case and some of the keys were chipped. However, it still had that marvelous Steinway sound and the keys felt heavenly beneath my fingers. I often joked with my friends that if that piano ever disappeared they were not to ask me any questions! The sad thing is that I don’t know if many people would have missed it.

I won’t ever be able to afford it, but I would be perfectly happy with the Steinway Baby Grand Piano (Model S). Even with it being a baby grand it would take up a large portion of my living room. But can you imagine the sound? If I were to win the lottery I would build a house that would have a music room where the acoustics would be perfect to set off my Steinway’s gorgeous tones. Again, I would only be playing for myself, but it would be some of the most enjoyable hours ever spent. Maybe if I had a Steinway Chester wouldn’t yell at me for playing the piano!

Posted in Music, piano | Tagged music, piano | Leave a comment

3D Printing: Robotic Arm

Posted on June 6, 2014 by civilwarrose5

Even though the weather is really getting nice, the 3D printer has not had much of a rest!

In fact, the other day Jay used it to print out a miniature of the sewing table that I’ve asked him to build for my sewing room. I didn’t take a picture of it because it looks just like a regular table.

In my last Dresses for Missions post I showed you the spool & bobbin holders that Jay made for me. These are SOOOO nice! I had to do a marathon sewing session this past week and these really worked perfectly. Luckily he has made me a couple more because I’m quickly filling them up!

Jay also decided that we needed to clearly mark who is allowed to use our bathroom, just in case there was any confusion…

Yes. He actually put the ‘No Cats Pooping In Here’ sign on the bathroom door. Don’t worry. The cats’ potty box is located in the basement, so this sign is actually accurate.

Of course, I think that it’s too tall for the cats to actually see. lol

The big project, besides printing off the quad that he designed, was to create a robotic arm.

Why? Because he can, I suppose.

The really sad thing is he already had all of the hardware, servos, wire extensions and receiver. All he needed to do was print out the parts.

This was V.1. I called him ‘Armando’.

Jay has printed out more parts, done some revisions, and refers to it as Version 2.

Does it work?

If I wasn’t so cheap I would pay for the extra function of being able to post my own video. I don’t want to post it on YouTube because I refuse to create an account with them (it’s a long story). So you’ll just have to deal with the still shots that I took while Jay was using it.

On V.2 he changed the jaws a little bit. He explained to me what he did, but that was a while ago and I have forgotten. I think that it had something to do with the teeth that move along the gear-looking doohickey that causes both of the jaws to move at the same time.

The second one he also secured to a board so that he doesn’t have to clamp it down all of the time. He also did something differently to the base so that it sits a little better.

He originally bound the arm to his DX18 that he uses for flying his RC air craft. Currently Jay is teaching himself how to code an Arduino board so that he can eventually program the arm to move in a certain pattern when a key on the computer keyboard is pressed.

I work with electronics at my job (on paper) and I don’t even really understand all of it. I definitely would not want to be trying to learn how to program a board! I guess that my mind just doesn’t work in that way. It would rather try to decide just which lace would look better with the fabric that I’m going to use for the next sundress that I make.

I have no idea where all of this is going to lead. Especially since I just gave Jay permission to order the CNC router he’s been drooling over for a few months. In July it will be a year since Jay smoked his last cigarette and I felt that he deserved a reward for that kind of a milestone. So many people don’t reach it. So we’ll have to see what comes out of his workshop once he receives the new toy!

Posted in 3D Printing | Tagged 3D Printing | Leave a comment

2014 Flying Season Begins!

Posted on May 30, 2014 by civilwarrose5

It has been a while since I’ve written an R/C related post, so I thought that I would take the time to remedy that situation.

The birds had begun to migrate north so I knew that flying season was quickly approaching! (Jay claims that they were migrating up from the basement, but I still say that our family room is more of a staging area for his planes than an actual living space…)

There have been a few fun fly’s over the winter (I didn’t attend any of them because it seemed like either I was already busy or sick), so this past weekend was the first real time of flying for me. Jay and I decided to head up to the field and we were happy to see that a few of the guys decided to show up, too.

We had a beautiful day. The field was quite wet still, but that was to be expected since we’d had rain earlier in the week. There wasn’t any standing water so floats were not needed.

Jay had put his FPV gear on the Sky Surfer that he bought for this single purpose and then took to the skies. It was so neat! Everybody took a turn with the goggles and Jay was tickled pink. He even had a camera on his F16 jet and took me for a ride on that. It was so much fun!

The most interesting event of the evening, however, involved our windsock. Our flying field is located next to an operating private runway. The people who own it used to fly gliders a lot, but as they have gotten older this activity has slowed down for them. They still maintain the runway and have the windsock out there just in case.

Well, one of the guys was maidening a brand new Piper Cub that he had purchased and assembled over the winter. I was watching as he took off and started the turn around the field. I was holding my breath because it looked like he was having some issues as he was turning. Just as I thought that all was good….

He ran into the windsock! The prop got tangled in the sock and came to a grinding halt. He even bent the pole! With a Styrofoam airplane! lol

I think that this is a first for our club.

At our annual club dinner we give away an award to the person with the most spectacular crash each year. I think that this guy already has that award all sewn up. This is going to be a tough one to beat!

The good news is that after they retrieved it (and bent the pole back into shape) there wasn’t too much damage. Some glue is definitely needed, along with a new wing strut, but this bird will definitely fly again. What a lucky Cub!

Not all foam airframes have been so lucky this year. This was the F16 that Jay had put the camera on from earlier in this post. We took it out to his aunt’s camp for the Memorial Day picnic where he gave his family members ‘rides’ on the jet. They always look forward to seeing his airplanes fly.

This was the F16 that he put through the power lines at this same camp almost three years ago.

The following year he put this jet through that same exact power line…

It’s not a stretch of the imagination to believe that I now dread those power lines and am anxious the entire time he is flying at this particular place.

To be fair, it was not the power line that took out this year’s jet. Nope. It just suddenly exploded in midair. It was weird because he wasn’t pulling too hard on it or anything. Since he was giving ‘rides’ he was taking it easy (in Jay’s terms, at least). We were shocked when we saw the wing fly off and the fuselage drop to the ground. We were lucky in that it was on our end of the field (instead of way out at the other end where he was flying), so I ran out and made sure that everything was there and quickly unplugged the battery. It was as if the fuselage just gave up and separated. Jay said that when he was putting it together he thought that the Styrofoam looked a bit ‘punky’. The silly thing is that even though it cut short the flying time, everybody was happy. They had all had a chance to look through the goggles and then they even got to see the plane crash. What could be better?! I was happy that it hadn’t gone through the power line! Jay was informed that he has to rig a crash every year. Yikes!

I’m a bit curious to see how the rest of the flying season goes considering the way in which we’ve opened it! I will do my best to keep my camera at hand so that I can update you on all of the excitement as it happens!

Posted in EDF, Jets, RC Planes | Tagged EDF, Jets, R/C, RC Planes | Leave a comment