A Bee in the Key of G above Middle C

Karla and I led two mules and two horses down to the neighbors’ place this evening. It was interesting because we used lead ropes that are not ideal for tail ties. You put a rope loop around the neck of one horse and tie the following animal’s lead rope to both the neck loop and the tail of that leading animal. The old three-strand-braid cotton rope is best because it holds onto tail hair. The ropes we used were smooth round synthetic ropes, and they come loose more often than not. As a result two tail ties kept coming loose, so instead of re-tying them again, we simply removed them, took off the halters, and let one mule and one horse just lope along without ties. At one point as I looked back it looked like a perfect string of horses and mules only there weren’t any ropes. I called it “using invisible ropes.”

Karla leads one mule, and the following horse and mule pretend to be tied into the string.

We relaxed after our adventure by having a nice Mexican beer while sitting by the fish barrel behind the house and watching the local raven eat some dog food off Raven Rock, about eight feet from us. At least one raven has little fear of us, and I figure by filling him up with dry dog food he won’t be so ravenous (pun intended) and eat up other birds’ babies and eggs. It’s only a theory but I’m probably right.

As we relaxed we were aware of a black bumblebee, the kind that likes to eat wood (our house is all wood) buzzing around behind us. I asked Karla if she knew the note its humming made. She and I lack perfect pitch, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out my iPod Touch which has reminders and alarms that schedule my every day and went to the piano keyboard application. I determined that our bee hummed a perfect G. I didn’t know if it was above or below middle C, so I went out to the Steinway grand in the studio and played the note. Above middle C it was. Hitting any note on that magnificent instrument runs a chill up my leg, so I had to plunk out the only tune I ever really learned as a young’n (besides Chopsticks). What a waste of years of piano lessons!