A Very Sticky Joint

When I repaired my bass clarinet, I had to "MacGyver" the repair as I did not really have time to dismantle the rods and keys necessary to fully remove the key cup to properly re-glue the errant pad.  Fortunately, the age of my "frankenhorn" was beneficial in this regard, as the original pads were glued into place using a heat-able glue that would set and harden upon cooling.  This particular key cup was deep under a variety of rods and finger keys and would have taken quite a bit of time to reach, and I would have had to dismantle at least four other keys to gain access.  

So, what I did, was... using a thin blade of a butter knife, I re-positioned the original pad appropriately in the key cup.  I had to rotate it so that it would be at the original radian position as well so it fit in all the crevices of the glue that still remained IN the key cup and ON the pad itself ... sort of like interlocking pieces of a puzzle.  I then held the pad in position in the key cup with the knife and then proceeded to use the heated blade end of my wood-burning tool to heat the key cup (it is a nickle plated metal).  I could just barely finagle the heated blade end of my wood-burning tool into position without risk of igniting any nearby corks or pads.  With the hot blade resting on the key cup,  I was able to reheat the glue to a melting temperature.  I then gently pushed and gently twisted the pad (with the butter knife) so that the glue would mix and adhere to the pad.  Upon letting the key cup cool, I tried out the beast, and it worked fine.... at least temporarily. 

At rehearsal last night, I was glad to be able to play again!  Because of COVID restrictions, we are practicing outdoors in a parking lot.  It was awfully damn cold and windy, unfortunately!!!!  The temperature was hovering ~48 degrees (~9 C) and the wind was around 12mph (~20kph).  I and most of the other musicians had on winter coats.  I also wore long-johns as well (insulated, long underwear).  My heavy knit stocking hat was greatly appreciated on my head.  

Because of the cold temperatures..... I unfortunately found another repair need I *should* do.... TWO different rods on my beast (rods are used to attach key cups and position them and to allow them the key cups to pivot closed when pressed) were sticky due to the cold and would not move freely.  This is disastrous when a key cup does not open fully upon release, and resulted in my having more than a few of my notes sound akin to geese squawkings.  I kept trying to warm the errant rods with my palms when not playing, but the warmth from my hands would be shed after only a few minutes after I started playing again. So, I *should* probably dismantle the two rods and clean and re-lubricate them just in case it is again very cold next week.  

+ + +

Ran 10.2 miles this morning.  There was frost on the ground on many areas of the trail this morning.  The grandmother and young girl were not out this morning.  But, an elderly fellow I see fairly often was out making his rounds.  This fellow is an elderly fellow, somewhere in his mid-80s and is a Korean War Veteran (he always wears one of his several hats that say this).  He walks in a very prescribed fashion down the trail and has in one hand a plastic bag, and in the other a "grabber" tool.  As he walks, if he sees any discarded trash or debris he will pick it up with the "grabber" and collect it in his bag.  Once when I was running past him, I thanked him for his work in picking up litter, and he told me he liked doing it because it gave him a feeling of purpose and gave him something to do while walking.  

 + + +

I had a somewhat odd, small snippet of a dream that I recalled vividly from last night.  In the dream, I was tooling around, driving in the old Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel car I owned many decades ago, and yet, I was my current, old, curmudgeonly self.  I was smoking one of my full-bent briar pipes.  And, there was no sound, no real background scenery, it was just a silent sort of "video" of myself that I was viewing in the dream.... just driving and smoking my pipe. 

PipeTobacco