WTF-Beta

@realplayer as @wtg already mentioned, the vaccines don’t offer protection from ever getting sick. While they do increase the chance of avoiding it completely, the important thing is that they offer protection from severe illness. So we’re happy with that, and very happy to have had our vaccines early enough that they should be in full effect. But not so far back that their efficacy is waning.

So Mr SK doesn’t seem to be getting worse. It’s like his symptoms got to the point where they are and now he’s just in a holding pattern. He’s on day four of active symptoms. My main concern at this point is that his cough not develop into something worse.

Well and the other concern is that neither of us have ever had Covid before. So although my understanding is that current variants are much less severe than earlier ones, it’s still uncharted territory for us.

Which brings me to @andyd ’s comment about herd immunity. My understanding of the term is that it means that there’s so much immunity that the disease no longer circulates. Like polio.

So there’s no herd immunity for Covid, the flu or the common cold. And it may be impossible for humans to achieve herd immunity for these viruses because they mutate so much.

I could be wrong about this, but that’s how I always thought herd immunity was defined.

@jon-nyc said:

Yeah few people seem to know that we went off of DST in the 70s and reversed ourselves within a year.

You know, I don’t know if I knew that.

Of course for southern states it wouldn’t matter too much. But in the north, especially on the western edge of time zones, it would be a big deal.

Yeah it would be so awful. I don’t get how people do not realize this.

@jon-nyc said:

I still don’t get all the fuss this issue brings.

Oh for the record, I don't either! I was just laughing at how many clocks we have.

Also FTR, I really don't want them to do away with DST, move to permanent standard time or DST. I love the late, late summer evenings when it's light until practically 9:30pm, and I would hate for it to be super dark in the mornings all winter long.

I get that changing the time comes with some issues, but I prefer it to the alternatives (as I understand them).

Sashimi

@RealPlayer said:

too clean, sterile side.

Yep, I think that's what I'm hearing and of course @adagiom 's comments.

@AdagioM said:

It would be interesting to ask your uni tuner if he tunes the Fazioli.

I know that he doesn't any more, because he is fully retired, but I don't know if he used to. I also don't know how long they've had the Fazioli, but for some reason I think it's somewhat recent.
Anyway, I'll ask the next time he's here.

@rontuner are you semi-retired now or still keeping a full schedule? (my memory is semi-retired?)

How many pianos do you think you see, or used to see, a month?

@Mik said:

If he's not feeling terrible now he's not likely to.

this is encouraging, thank you!!

I am also hoping not to get it...
I talked to my colleague and he's ok with me joining him in the car to our conference (presuming I'm not actually sick).

We'll see how it goes.

@Jodi thank you!!

Yes, I’m glad we got vaxxed on schedule this year !

Trapper

@Rontuner Do you "forget" pianos you've tuned if you only meet/tune them once?

P.S. @rontuner I sent you a pm

@Rontuner said:

MrsTuner and I have each had Covid a couple of times without much discomfort.

That's good to hear! As I mentioned, this is a first for our household, after all these years!

We've never passed it from one to another - and we never masked at home or slept apart from each other. Go figure.

Wow! Well, I am hoping I don't get it. I sure would like to 1) not get sick, and 2) go to my conference as scheduled!

@Rontuner said:

perception and preference

Yes, of course! But still.... I was planning to ask my teacher her thoughts after playing it, but we've canceled our lesson today just in case (bc Mr SK has covid and I don't want her to get it). I'll try to remember to ask next week.

@Rontuner said:

Some people (tuners too!) just like a bright and direct tone. Some like it dark and warm.

I think I like both. I love my Yamaha C2, which I think is a pretty standard Yamaha sound (it was made in 2000, before the Cx series btw), so more on the bright side than the warm side.

But I've also heard some pianos that I would call very warm and/or dark and I really liked them (esp. a Feurich grand and a Petrof grand, specific pianos I've encountered in person, I mean) .

So I think I have a more flexible than fixed set of piano preferences.

But yes, ultimately I get that most of it is preferences... but since I heard this same piano in the past and loved it, I can't help but wonder about the prep it's getting and whether that's a big part of it.

Which gets back to this:

Some pianos are capable of quite a range for us to manipulate, others seem to have a narrower range.

Two piano tuners have told me that they think my Yamaha is very responsive, I don't if that's my specific piano or common to Yamahas in general.

@rontuner Have you ever worked on a Fazioli? What did you think?

I think I’ve written about this before here, but one of the concert halls at my uni has a Fazioli grand. I would guess it’s the one in the 7 foot range, because it is definitely not a 9 footer, and I think that’s the Fazioli line up in the concert sizes, a 7.5’ and then a 9’, or something like that. Anyway, I think this Fazioli “lives” in this hall. In other words, if there’s an event in this hall, the Fazioli is the instrument.

So, the first time I heard it (maybe two years ago), accompanying a violin performance, I thought it sounded great. I was completely enamored of the instrument and thought “ah ha, so this is the mythical Fazioli, it’s glorious!” That was long enough ago that my memory is fuzzy though, so I couldn’t tell you what about it made me react that way.

Anyway, about a week ago, I attended a cello performance (by the person I played with over the summer!). This time, again the stringed instrument was the main event, but my first thought about the piano was that it sounded ”clinical.” Don’t ask me what that means, I have no idea! That was just the word that popped in my head to describe it. The piano wasn’t the main event, and the cello was amazing, so my attention was there for the most part, but I wasn’t impressed by the Fazioli the way I had been when I heard it accompanying the violin two years back.

Then the other day, I went to a lecture/performance by my piano teacher (which I should make a separate post about btw, it was really cool!) This time, the piano was the main event of course. So I could really hear and focus on the Fazioli. And I definitely wasn’t impressed by this piano.

First of all, I thought it sounded dry, cold, and too bright. And yes, clinical. I also thought it sounded like a very expensive Yamaha that had been poorly prepped. And no shade to Yamaha, I love Yamaha pianos and currently own a C2 that I absolutely love.

The upper registers in particular sounded too bright to me. To the point of being unpleasant and harsh.

The bass I thought was pretty good.

But really, it made me wonder who’s prepping this piano.

So, here’s where my over-imagination kicks in. About three years ago, I had my piano tuned by one of the main piano tuners at the uni. And it was terrible, I thought she did a terrible job, and I never called her back. I happen to know that she’s relatively new there, so I wondered if the results were due to her inexperience.

Since then I’ve had my piano tuned by the former (retired) head tuner at the uni, and he is absolutely amazing. I love how my piano sounds and I’m convinced that he just does the perfect tuning for this piano. He also spent pretty much his whole working career as the head tuner at my uni, where there are about 500 pianos that need caring for. Whenever he’s here, we talk about pianos and it’s clear that he just has such true mastery of the instrument and such a keen devotion to acoustics as an artistic science.

So back to the Fazioli. I couldn’t help thinking that the dry brightness in the treble could be just a maintenance/prep issue, and I would hate to think that the woman who temporarily destroyed my piano with her crappy tuning is now destroying this Fazioli with more crappy tuning.

In the other concert hall in this building, there is a 9 foot Steinway, which I’ve heard at least four times in recent concerts, most recently, by my piano teacher from last year. This Steinway sounds just glorious. Exactly what I think of when I think of the perfect concert instrument.

So, either the same person isn’t prepping these two pianos, or they only know how to prep S&S but not Faziolis…. Or the Fazioli is a terrible piano. Those are the only possible explanations.

@Bernard thank you!

Fortunately we both got the flu and Covid vaccines already (in mid-Sept I believe).

I am supposed to go to a conference on Friday, Thursday and Saturday are to be the travel days, my colleague is driving. I’ll contact him today to consult.

As I see it, the options are: 1) don’t go. 2) go and wear a mask in the car. 3) go and we both wear a mask in the car (if I go, this would be my preference). Presuming I don’t get sick of course.

Ugh, what a hassle, this is kind of an important trip. I really do not want to miss it, but I would hate to make him sick, or get sick while there, or have Mr SK get worse while I’m away…

This is why I’ve spent 6 years masking, is to avoid situations like this.

Phooey.

@Rontuner So presumably it’s connected to… the internet? what year is it?

Metal

@Bernard I didn’t know that wind up clocks can’t go backward… well maybe I did but I forgot.

None

@kluurs said:

Phooey - I managed to avoid it by following your plan. Hope it works for you.

You mean, you avoided in-home transmission from your spouse? That’s encouraging!

Thanks @wtg !

Good grief!