I am so sorry to hear this. Thinking of you both and sending healing thoughts your way.

Reading a hyper local book, beautifully written touching on many aspects of life here. The farm she writes of goes on, run by the 4th generation. [image: CE2B5B0D82AB1BE9E7ABDFBB46D054082566C3F3.jpeg]

I tried an informal tasting some time ago. It was subtle but it was there. You might get more flavor by biting into a dry leaf. My recall is that it was kind of camphor-like. Or maybe I’m remembering California bay laurel, plucking leaves off the plant and tasting.

Remember that I'm thinking about the back side of the pedal - which makes a lever idea possible because we want to push UP the back side to lift the dampers. That way it will be pushing between the floor (support) and the underside of the back of the pedal. Getting the mechanical linkage to wrap around behind could be an interesting challenge, which is why I like the idea of a solenoid (like in a player piano system) connected to a pedal or knee switch to activate. It would be "all or nothing" which is simpler than a servo that would allow for half pedal and more sensitive movement. Again, because it is a grand piano, there is access to the back of the pedal to apply lift between that and the floor.

Works great. Never have to pay to sharpen, which I do regularly.

Israel's Iron Dome has spectacularly failed against Iran, so it is only logical to conclude that we need one and should have it. Alrighty, then.

Social services suck. This reminds me of social workers. Social workers suck. This reminds me of non-profits. Non-profits suck. They are private businesses in all but name. They give themselves very large salaries and help people in need in a nominal way. Charities suck. Same set up. They give themselves very large salaries, etc There was a St. Pete con artist who started a non-profit LLC to manage $100,000,000.00 in pooled trust assets for the disabled and their families. He walked off with $100,000,000.00. He was sued but the money was gone. The disabled individuals and their families recovered nothing. I can easily see social services abandoning a child. I'm not buying the stupid non-explanation. Fwiw, I think about how much money non-profits take in and consider the fact that society's problems they are meant to mitigate if not solve not only continue unabated but continue to worsen. I'm reminded of when hospitals dump patients in the street under cover of darkness. We seem to live in a vicious society that feels the need to hide its true nature with a false veneer of caring for its own sake. Social insurance programs are what work and those are being attacked here and in Europe in various ways. Why? Greed, once again. I'm not trying to be cynical. This is only what I have observed over several decades.

What a great concept!

I love higher order insects.

@Steve-Miller said: But the garage would be so worth it!

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Bless him. May he rest in peace. And all day I thought it was this damn time change. Huh.

Spring won't start until March 20th. Even now it's what I would consider early summer weather. 83° or 84° can easily end up being 86° or 87° inside. Nothing noteworthy here until Thursday when it will be 75° with heavy rain and moderate wind.

@Steve-Miller said: Have you visited that store, Al? Yes, I have. I was in Philadelphia on business once and finished in time to visit the store and meet Rich in person. A second visit was a piano party that he hosted there a number of years ago. Big Al

Even though the angles are set by the block, the angle is really determined by the steadyness of the hand. The other thing with rods is that they are good at maintaining an edge, but tend to introduce a wavy edge more than a flat over time. I didn't notice until I started using the rolling sharpener. One issue with the rolling ones I didn't think about was that many thinner knives won't stick up over the magnetic block without some fooling around. Not a dealbreaker, but something to work through. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJRF3S7T?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1 I went with a cheap one first to see if I liked it. The better ones offer the option to replace grits.

I'd take one of the grand pianos. I'll have my private secretary call them Monday. Upright & grand pianos https://share.google/nUhoCgM4ODZUqqQuQ 🤪