A Percussionist's Notebook

  It's been over 20 years since I was able to see these two play together. Elsa was our Lab/Pyre mix and McKinley was our friends' Malamute.  He weighted 150 lbs. and she ....about 95 lbs.  The first time they met they became instant friends, within 10 minutes they started to play and this continued until McKinley's death about 5 years later. We made the mistake of letting them play in the house the first time, but with a combined weight of over 200 lbs. it felt like a 4.8 earth quack in our house. Two years after his death, Elsa and I saw another malamute during our daily walk. This dog was about 50 yds. away walking towards us. When Elsa saw him she raised her head and I swear she had a smile on her face. She started to pull on the leash walking faster but when he was just a little bit closer I could see that she knew it wasn't McKinley. She lowered her head, slowed her pace, and lost all interest for the rest of our walk. Elsa died 3 years later.  When a clap of thun

A week ago while trimming in my backyard (a chore that I like even less than mowing) I had to stop a number of times to untangle the cords in the automatic feed. This is a procedure that I have learned to do quickly since it's an ongoing issue with this model. I can do it with my eyes closed (which led to my latest disaster). As I turned on the trimmer this time I heard this horrendous rattling sound and saw all of the line spin out of the trimmer.   Actually it was kind of cool looking. There was no discernable end showing and there were tangles that were technically impossible to create. Except they did. After trying to untangle this impossibly formed DNA Helix I gave up and just cut the cord in pieces to remove it. After a trip to Ace Hardware to pick up the proper weight cord I returned and wound it back on. It was now that I realized that the cord retainer cap was missing. Evidently I did not pop in the cap securely the last time I fixed it. So...... I returned to the backyard