Monday, September 18, 2006

Fiddling While Cuppa Burned

We live in a townhouse. It's far from grandiose, but it does have three floors. The lowest is unfinished, but I have been practising the fiddle down there: mainly because it's cooler in hot weather but also because I fantasize that the local dogs won't hear me and commence a neighbourhood pack howl. As it is, the cat's litter box is down there, and most than once he has come down to use it (in a most foul and malodorous way) when I am playing. I have a hunch that it's his way of demonstrating what he thinks of my efforts. Do they still make the strings out of cat gut, I wonder?

As many of you know I tend to wander at night (stick with me here — it's relevant). Though not as much now that I have cottoned on to it a bit, I have been known to head to the depths to go over my linedance steps at two o'clock in the morning; it's something to distract my brain when my eyes will no longer focus to blog or read but when I must do something to relieve my stress  and, perhaps eventually, be able to get a wink or two of sleep. So ... the other night (do you begin to see where I'm going with this?), I went down at midnight to fiddle around as it were. I reasoned that I would bother no one because "Cuppa is two floors up and sleeps soundly."

Of course, I reasoned wrongly. Apparently, violin sound carries extremely well, even up two floors. Whodathunkit? I guess what really took the cake as far as Cuppa was concerned was the fact that when I was eventually done (at almost 1:00 a.m.) I came upstairs whistling merrily and loudly. You see, by then I had rather forgotten that it was the middle of the night and that normal people were trying to sleep.

The new rule is that I am to get all fiddling out of system by midnight and, even then, I must refrain from being an exuberant whistler when I come back upstairs.

Yes dear.

(PS: Lightning must have struck for Cuppa has already blogged her version of this event . But I had this up in draft first — really! — and refuse to permit a completed blog to go unpublished.)

8 comments:

methatiam said...

Hey, claim it was a serenade…
Cuppa blogged?
CUPPA BLOGGED?
This I gotta see!

Ginger said...

How funny! (Although had I been Cuppa I wouldn't have thought it humorous in the least.)

I know they make electronic violins; do they make them with headphones?

Sue said...

I have every sympathy with Cuppa!! I *hate* being woken in the night, and even a slight sound will wake me. The thought of someone playing a violin after midnight, or - worse - whistling just doesn't bear thinking about..! I think she's very generous to say you can play till midnight. 10pm would be my limit...

mreddie said...

Hilarious, still smiling over the mental picture - even the sidebar about the cat gut strings. I tend to get totally emersed in what I am doing as well and don't know anyone else is around until I crash-land. ec

Turtle Guy said...

Having been single forever and living on my own since what seems to be the dawn of time, (really only since graduating college) I find myself in my office at all hours when I can't sleep. I do, however have a tenant downstairs, so practicing dance moves in the wee hours is something I very much try to avoid.

Anonymous said...

hehehehe.. I must admit to siding with Cuppa on this one.

Julia said...

lol.. this is a funny story but I have to side with cuppa on this one...I hate noise when I am trying to get to sleep...any noise!

PBS said...

You need a soundproof room for your midnight activities. I'm with the commenters above, hate being awakened at night. Then I lie awake for hours and can't get back to sleep.