Sunday was a You Tube free day. No tripod to trip me up on the way to the kitchen, or in the opposite direction, back to the piano. All in all, I survived my first day of camcorder related withdrawal without any serious side effects.
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Coming into the piano room, the ground floor teaching area now looks different with the foil driver visors mounted inside, flat against the wooden blinds, so they are a full blown eyesore. Basically, the landlord had his way after he demanded that my outside window dressing be dismantled so he could fill three rental vacancies. From his point of view, the silver suggested drug related activity.
Thus far I’ve seen two moving vans in two days carrying furniture out of the development.
Nevertheless, I still enjoy the great insulation provided by my Auto Zone purchased driver visors while they keep the sun’s glare away from the video recording area.
Aiden, my graceful male feline enjoyed Sunday without all the nervous activity that surrounds my you tubing. He got a chance to prance freely about the piano room and then jump up onto his favorite chair to doze off and receive the vibrations of Bach and Chopin compositions coming from my Steinway grand. Who knows what cats really process through the sound medium? I do sense that when I play a very loud chord in the midst of a soft passage, he will have a visible jolt, but I can also feel his purr when I spin out a very cantabile (singing tone) line of music that has a hypnotic effect.
Aiden does not in any way resemble Nora, the Cat of You Tube Fame. He will not “play” the piano on command, or traipse all over the keys. For one thing he’s a huge cat weighing nearly twenty pounds who would be ungainly treading the 88s, and more importantly, he has been trained to stay away from the keyboard because of his shedding long hair.
In the past, Aiden used to jump onto the piano bench and sit comfortably beside my students, but in no time he would decide to wind his way into their laps making their playing virtually impossible. That’s the point when I called a time out and put him back in the bedroom where he has his toys and snuggly bed.
Lately, Aiden has almost mastered a new trick that may be You Tube material, but who knows?
He likes to lie on his back like a baby inviting coos and cuddles. In this disarming moment, I gently nudge his front paws out to full length, saying, “stretch the putty cat,” and he responds very willingly.
I’ve done this stretching activity so many times over weeks, that one day when I came over to him and said, “stretch the putty cat,” without prodding him with my hands, he performed the task on his own, unassisted. At that point I rewarded him with a Greenie and ever since he’s catching on to my Pavlovian driven experiment.
Aiden will sometimes rest comfortably on top of the Steinway, which is permissible because he has a soft mat to cushion him and his sharp claws. And right above, on the wall behind the piano is a picture of him in this very pose. He’s also gotten feature status as my screen saver with desk top icons streaming over him.
Aiden has another trick he’s known to perform. He will jump up onto the sink top on command and drink the running faucet water. I will say, “Do you want a drinkie?” and he will run like the dickens to the tap.
Finally, what cat in his right mind would not enjoy the safe, nicely fitted area of a bathroom sink, especially during spells of grueling summer heat. Aiden is no exception. Watch him enjoy the comfort of his porcelain container without any worries in the world.
Don’t you love him?
