June 25th, 2008
Bugle boy
So here’s what we tried:
1. Shaking vigorously
2. Tapping the side
3. Olive oil
4. A long paintbrush with super sticky tape on the end
5. Fire
6. Ice
7. Tapping the side some more
8. Air pump
Here’s what the guy at the brass instrument repair shop tried:
1. Drop a small weight in behind the marble, shake it twice
Pop! Marble. No charge for the repair even.
Nicolaus loved seeing the brass shop. My dad has the exact same setup for violin/cello type repairs, and this was exactly the same and exactly different at the same time. “Excuse me? What happened to that instrument?”
The guys were incredibly nice and patient. They even threw in a quick bugle lesson, answered his questions, and showed him what bugles looked like 350 years ago.
Graham meanwhile yawned and rested his head on my shoulder and tried to ignore the great dane that was sniffing his toes.
He fell asleep as soon as we were back in the car, despite the triumphant bugle music being played just one carseat over.
When he woke up, we were at his favorite place on earth: the pizza buffet. The bugle came with us into the restaurant, because you never know when you might need to make a really loud, continuous tone. We chatted and ate the entire universe of pizza and salad and dessert, then came home and watched Frontier House.
Both boys are 100% onboard with Kevin’s plan to someday go live exactly like the people in Frontier House. Nicolaus is planning the log cabin we’ll build, and Graham woke up in the middle of the night sobbing, “I want to stay with my daddy! I want to be in the woods!!”
I’m fucked.
Actually I’d agree to it if we could live in the woods and also have wireless internet and a freezer full of pre-cooked meals. Oh and! Garbage disposal. Washer and drier would be good too, even though my sons assure me that in the woods there won’t be much laundry to do because none of the men wear shirts.
In the interest of me having time to shower before everyone wakes up, this post will not come full circle.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Sometimes I dream of a simpler life. But then I remember that we are not vegetarians and I don’t know the first thing about cleaning chickens. Apparently people aren’t too keen on eating feathers.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
We live spang in the middle of the woods and have all of that stuff! AND Birds on Plexiglass ™!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
They keep running ads for those cheap pizza buffets here in the NY city area and there aren’t any around. Sonic does the same. I am so jealous. Real estate is so expensive here we’d probably have to pay double but that would be cheap! No fair!
June 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Oh no! I thought it was illegal to taunt people with ads for Sonic where there aren’t Sonics.
Flydaddy (yay birds!) - do you also have chipmunks? Graham insists that there will be lots of nice chipmunks.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Visit the woods, live in the city. That’s my motto.
Thanks for the finish to bugle repair story.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Oh, yeah, we have chipmunks. I just had to rig a baffle on the bird feeder for them last week. We also have lots of bunnies, deer, occasional elk, bobcats, coyotes, and evidence of black bear (haven’t seen one in the flesh yet, though).
Living in the woods is where it’s at! But keep telling people otherwise, Squirl! :)