03/25/2020
March 24, 2020
Dear Clients and Friends:
Our lives are suddenly seeking a floor of some sort of normalcy in the face of an invisible and potentially deadly hunter. State governments are stepping up and imposing even stricter confinements than federal government mandates in an effort to more effectively contain the threat within their borders. As I write this, businesses in both Rhode Island and Connecticut have just today been officially closed for shop work by our respective governors until April 22. I have already heard from some of you asking to reschedule Easter tunings until the crisis has passed and normal life has resumed.
As of today, in the interest of an abundance of caution, I am postponing all Easter tuning and maintenance.
Some of you are doing live-streaming of church services and plan to conduct Palm Sunday and Easter services as scheduled, under quarantine protocols. You have requested tuning visits before the high days, and for you the schedule is wide open. We are standing by to provide whatever service you need unless general travel bans are instituted, taking our own precautions regarding social distancing, hand sanitation, and disposable gloves in order to keep your instruments, you and us, free of germ contamination.
Will those of you doing live-streaming who require instrument servicing in the interim, or who have a servicing emergency, please respond to this email or otherwise contact me directly?
** Again, for the moment, all regularly scheduled Easter tunings currently on the calendar between now and April 22 (except by special arrangement), are hereby postponed until the danger has passed. Once you have resumed normal worship activity, please contact me to reschedule your spring maintenance requirements.**
When group assembly bans are lifted, it may be with short notice and everyone will surely be wanting to celebrate a genuine resurrection with new-found purpose. Depending on how short the notice is, we will do our best to accommodate tuning requests on a first come, first scheduled basis, and as time permits. A reminder though, that organs will be in tune at whatever temperature they were tuned at. For those wanting to avoid the rush and who don't have a problem with having the organ tuned in an empty building, we can provide such peremptory maintenance, observing the requisite precautions in accordance with the prevailing health recommendations.
On a personal note, for all generations except that of our elderly and suddenly endangered parents, this is an unfamiliar and unsettling manner of crisis. We are doing our best to cope, finding normalcy whenever we can, even if it's in the simplest things. We're finding ourselves confined at home, perhaps with partners, children, or animals suddenly attention-starved. Sadly, we're having to avoid any kind of human interaction with each other-- all the more difficult and unnatural because our instinct is to herd and socialize. It's starting to sound cliched, but we really are all in this together, and doing our best to watch out for each other. I'm trying my hardest to keep those around me, (and hopefully therefore those around them), safe. I'm holding my family, friends, and you my clients and those close to you, in my thoughts.
Stay well.
With regards,
Scot
