Let there be bass.

– Leo Fender (attr.)

A few weeks ago, I was trying to focus on some neat new data at work, but there was a huge commotion from the street below. As the noise grew and grew, I was more and more distracted, more and more irritated.

Then, all at once, the noise merged into a glorious major chord, extra-heavy on the bass. Finally, I put the spreadsheets down and peered out the window. There in the tiny park below squeezed an entire drum & bugle corps!

Perhaps my glee is understandable to you only if you too know that five yards equals exactly eight steps, if you can debate the merits of sousaphones versus marching tubas, if you know that a shako is not a fancy breakfast smoothie.

Well, trust me, it was gleeful indeed!  Everyone knows how much I love spreadsheets, but they are no match for a whole herd of mellophones.  I sprinted downstairs just in time for the earth-and-ear-shaking finale, and when I popped back to finish up at work there was a great new spring in my step.

This all had me wondering, how many times have I blocked out the noise in order to focus, when really the noise was a killer drum line?

Dear Honeybees, on these long and sometimes magical summer evenings, may all your distractions turn out to be bass drums.

 * With huge thanks to the inspiring Boston Crusaders and Norman B. Levanthal Park!