Be prepared for several paradigms of nature to possibly suddenly change.

[bloke]

Beginning tomorrow afternoon, Doc - and beautiful family - will be visiting blokeplace.

[DonO.]

When Worlds Collide?

[Schlitzz]

I hope he has enough toilet paper.

[Three Valves]

Pics and food reports.

[Casca Grossa]

There can be only one.

[Mary Ann]

Ya'll have fun!

[bort2.0]

Pics, or it didn't happen

[prairieboy1]

Pics, or it didn't happen

Agreed!

[bloke]

[the elephant]

BOOM! There he is.

Worlds collide.

[bloke]

So far,
- They (his entire family) arrived last night, and we fed them some of Mrs. bloke's barbecue.
- He's shown me his 496.
- He's played the 32"-tall Holton.
- I repaired a FUBAR mouthpipe/receiver/brace on a pre-model-25 Meinl-Weston (for a friend of Bill's - who is on a cruise, so I discussed the repair with them while they were out to sea). That instrument (kranz) is (now, with the mouthpipe un-FUBARed) in remarkable condition, with very quiet S-arm linkage. I also (not solicited) straightened out the carriage posts, and (wow!) suddenly the finger paddles are all in a nice straight line.
- I aligned the #1 and #4 slide assemblies (on Bill's 496), and he's now going to decide for himself how freely they will ultimately move.
- We drove (up through cypress swamps and cotton fields) about an hour north of blokeplace to relay the brought-back-to-life un-lacquered 1966 Miraphone 186 5-valve C to it's new owner (via a student of the new owner, who's heading back to school). Remember the Alamo !
- They (Mrs. Doc and teenagers) caught some 3-1/2 lb catfish (delicious) and a 7 lb. catfish (so-so) and - along with revisiting last night's bloke-be-que, everyone dined on all that (including Mrs. Doc and the two teenage children - one of whom caught a couple of the catfish).

I'm tired, happy, and feeling less-and-less as though I had been cut apart and put back together. Mrs. bloke holds court, and Bill is a good listener.

They were planning a further excursion up into eastern Kentucky to explore ancestral lands, but decided against it. I'm encouraging Bill to (using caution and watching their backs) to take the kids to see Graceland, tomorrow...instead of driving right back home (damn far!)

bloke "We've not yet run out of eats. (Their 8th grader might well end up being another Mark Finley. )"

[bort2.0]

For real, that's some cool stuff, Joe.

[Three Valves]

Pic, food and tuba report.

[JRaymo]

Sounds like a great time. Wish I could have been there to meet him and family. Might have been crowded with our little family in town and our crabby teenager. I will have to plan a trip to texas in the future after this trip.

[bloke]

Sounds like a great time. Wish I could have been there to meet him and family. Might have been crowded with our little family in town and our crabby teenager. I will have to plan a trip to texas in the future after this trip.

With fishing holes, silly cats, great big old friendly dogs, and pasture animals (a few which come up for petting) around here, crabby teenagers don’t stay crabby very long.
I suspect teenagers are mostly crabby, because they are forced to sit in little desks all day and be subjected to a specially-formulated mixture of truth and nonsense.

[JRaymo]

Well dang that sounds really nice,

I wish we had more time to spend with you too. I planned a whirlwind road trip and will also have to make it to Louisville ky on our way to Indy. Hopefully we can spend enough time to enjoy most of that. We will have to come down again when my big project is finished. The few times I have been in Tennessee Ive loved it. I recently looked into transfers and found that if I were willing to go back to a job and I am probably too old to do I could transfer to Nashville or Memphis right now. I think for now we will plan trips down maybe every year to visit the state. I will probably drag a tuba down with us every time.

[Doc]

I was enjoying myself too much to think about photos. The only pics I took were of Mike’s 1965 Meinl Weston BBb.

3E2477DB-FA70-4105-8EA2-536BB96C7B44.jpeg (131.61 KiB) Viewed 931 times

[bloke]

Does he have it back, yet...??

If so, how angry is he - with me - for ruining it ?

' interesting that you and I - on the same day - dealt with two nearly-made-at-the-same-time (1965 AND 1966) German-made rotary tubas - one having been made in a far-southern suburb of Munich, and the other having been made in a far-eastern suburb of Munich.

Likely, were a photograph made - during those two years - in either of those shops, most - who would appear in those pictures - would now have been laid to rest.

[Doc]

Does he have it back, yet...??

If so, how angry is he - with me - for ruining it ?

' interesting that you and I - on the same day - dealt with two nearly-made-at-the-same-time (1965 AND 1966) German-made rotary tubas - one having been made in a far-southern suburb of Munich, and the other having been made in a far-eastern suburb of Munich.

Likely, were a photograph made - during those two years - in either of those shops, most - who would appear in those pictures - would now have been laid to rest.

I'll be getting it to him tomorrow. I'm betting he will like it just fine.

Pretty cool on having matching vintage competitors/contemporaries there at the same time. Some similarities, but some marked differences.
Yes, I imagine those folks are nearly all gone. But the legacies they left behind still (and thankfully) endure.

[prairieboy1]

A terrific trip report. That is a very nice picture of Bill and Mrs.Bloke!