But hey, I watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, so there is that.
Can you believe they made us work today? Not only work, but they expected us to actually be productive! Someone whom I can neither confirm nor deny may or may not have been me said, "This is like trying to teach on the last day of school!"
But the last day of school finally ended and I came home to my first Christmas card of the season, from my Australian pen pal! Look at the little Koalas! Aren't they cute?
I've got to finish doing mine. Maybe this weekend.
Insomnia hit me hard last night, and I'm really feeling it now. While I was laying there, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, I got to thinking about that Peg Dope stuff. I hadn't want to get into taking the strings and pegs out of Cody's violin, because I was afraid of messing something up. But then, I said to myself, "Self, you should watch a how-to video on YouTube" because you know there is going to be a how-to video somewhere on YouTube "before totally giving up on the idea."
Laying there in bed, in the middle of the night, I grabbed my phone and opened my YouTube app. A quick search brought up several videos on how to stop pegs from slipping, including one from the online violin tutor I'm using to try to learn how to play. One thing she said was that you don't have to buy that expensive Peg Dope. She uses a regular bar of soap. She even showed us the one she keeps with her violin. It's one of those mini bars you get from hotel rooms. I know some of those sites I'd looked at said not to use soap, but Ms Sparrow has been playing since she was 7-ish, and has even played professionally. If she says it's OK, I believe her.
Anyway, one thing all the videos said was to make sure the strings are wound correctly. They are supposed to be wound around the pegs so that the end going to the bridge is snug against the inside wall of the peg box. Hmmm, that seems simple enough. Still in the throes of insomnia, I got out of bed and padded down the hall to the kitchen. I got me a bit of cheese to nibble on, then got Cody's violin out of its case.
Sure enough, none of the strings were snug against the peg box wall. Simple enough to loosen the peg and re-wind the strings. Carefully...slowly, I began loosening the tension...but apparently not slowly and carefully enough. I did something wrong, and the string came completely loose and flew across the room, and the peg fell out onto the counter.
Dang!
I hadn't wanted to get into all that, and certainly not in the middle of the night. But there it was.
Since the peg was out already, I might as well soap it up. I picked up the errant peg, and carried it into the bathroom. I rubbed my bar of bath soap onto the peg the way Ms. Sparrow showed in the video. I went back into the kitchen and put the peg back into the violin peg box. I retreived the errant string, and after about three attempts -- it was still the middle of the night, you know -- I got it re-strung.
I put a little tension on it so it wouldn't mess anything up, finished my cheese, and went back to bed, where I promptly fell fast asleep.
After work, I opened my tuner app, and tuned that string up. It's my A string, for those of you who know about such things. Not only did it produce a beautiful, clear tone, but it held it's tuning! None of the other strings did, but my A string stayed in tune. Probably after Thanksgiving, I'll pull the rest of the pegs and soap them up, too.
But for now, I guess I'd better get to bed, or I won't be even able to cook anything tomorrow. Good night, all.
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