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11am.. fix harmonica
I bought the Low F reed plates for my Lee Oskar harmonica even though I didn't need them.. other than that I didn't like the high pitch of the regular key of F that Daniel in Olympia bought me last year. It was a good experience changing them out today. I had trouble twisting hard enough. The screws are self tapping.. meaning I'm twisting them and cutting the thread right into the metal on the other side. This is one reason for remembering the screw positions specifically when taking it back apart later. I lost one of the new screws. I chose the best looking old one and reused it. The cutting new threads couldn't happen with just my hands. I pushed down with my teeth on the screwdriver. The instructions said there might be squeaking. I was going so slow that it was just weird clicking that I thought at first was something breaking. It was working and I got the three screws in! woot!
The other difficult part was putting the covers back on.. The covers are spring loaded.. bent so all the layers must be squeezed together while pushing a screw through and getting a tiny nut to grab the thread. It turns out the lapel clip from my microphone is just the right size for one side. For the other side, I finally ended up stacking it all on top of two popsicle sticks which kept the screw and all the layers in place while I pressed it all together with my thumbnail on the center of the little nut. It's a square shape, so that left just enough showing that I could flick the corners and finally turn the nut onto the screw enough that they were then holding it all together. After that it was easy enough to tighten up the screws and there was just enough friction that the little square nuts eventually stayed tight.
I was really excited to hear the new sound. I played a little tune and found out the 4 hole draw note wasn't working. I tried a few pushes from inside the hole to give the reed a little more space.. opening the gap, I think it's called.. and finally I realized I would have to take off the cover and look at the reed directly.. ugh.. I finally got it bent just right and it plays beautifully now! Also, putting the cover back on was now a science, and went much smoother. woohoo!
I took off to lunch to celebrate and when I got home, Ken was home already.. that never happens. Turns out he looked exhausted at work and his coworkers all insisted he go home and take it easy for a day.
7pm.. story swap
I got on the zoom meeting for the Story Guild up in Olympia. Randi told the story about boating with her dad and sister. I ended up singing the hearse song, telling the rose surprises death story, the little almost joke size one about sad you don't see.. where a ghost says to an unbeliever how sad it is they don't see ghosts.. when they look up, the ghost is gone.. and I ended with the transplant story about my nephew being an organ donor. It was fun! I was so happy that I went to the casino and donated $60.. haha! and ugh..