The Pi-ed Piper

 Two nights ago I had a dream about a mouse.

There was something under my bed.  I am not sure what I thought it was, but I went down to investigate.  I had a flashlight, which I swept across the floor under my bed in looking for whatever it was that I was trying to find.

A mouse jumped out and startled me.  It was a strange looking mouse, however, with a white face that was almost human, though I can't remember clearly what its actual form was.  It seemed like it was actually trying to communicate with me, but in a way that felt somewhat creepy and unsettling.

I at first thought I needed to do something about it immediately, but as I looked at this mouse more, I noticed that its tail was wrapped around some kind of bar.  It was caught in a trap, and wasn't going anywhere.  Seeing this, I realized I had some time to figure out how to best dispose of the mouse.  While in the process of thinking, I woke up.

A mouse in my truck

I had a real life encounter with a mouse last month that was kinda gross, somewhat funny, and mostly really annoying.

In early February, the cab of my truck started to smell like what we all thought was chicken feed.  I had picked up some earlier and left it in the bed of my truck for a bit, so I thought that perhaps the smell of those feed bags had worked its way into the cab.

However, after moving the bags out to the barn, and airing everything out, the smell stayed around.  And not only stayed around, but seemed to be getting stronger.

Besides just being unpleasant, it was a bit embarrassing carpooling my kids' friends to their practices with this super strong smell (of what I thought was chicken feed).

After dealing with this for a few weeks, hoping it would go away but not being so lucky, I determined to do something about it.  My oldest son was helping me track the smell down, and we noticed that if you just sat in the car, with the engine off and no air blowing, there wasn't any smell.  Only after the truck was turned on and air circulating did the smell start.  So we concluded that it was coming through the vents.

I wondered if perhaps a mouse had gotten into my chicken feed and stored it in my engine compartment somewhere.  However, a quick check showed that all feed bags were sealed up tight with no holes, and the lid was on the metal bin I used for any open chicken feed.  Further, the engine bay was completely free of any feed a mouse might have been storing in there.

I did read that sometimes mice can get into a car's HVAC system, but the flaps in my truck that are meant to prevent this were still in place, and again, there wasn't any evidence that any food was available for a mouse to bring into my truck.

Perplexed, I decided that I may as well change out the cabin air filter in the truck, and look at the internals of the climate control system to make sure no debris was in there.  My thinking was that perhaps the air filter had absorbed the smells from the chicken feed bags.  It was a pretty dubious theory but I was stumped otherwise.  I hadn't ruled out that a mouse had gotten in there, either, but I just didn't see what they could have put in there that was producing this smell.

I had to stop in at a store right by the dealership to get some new files for my chainsaw anyway, so while out there I got a new filter from the dealership.  The moment I walked in, the song "Abracadabra" by the Stever Miller Band was playing.  I will get to that at the end of the post, but it was in my head for the next several weeks.

The engineers designed the climate control system on my truck in such a way that you have to disassemble the right side of my dashboard and get behind the glove box in order to switch out the filter.  After getting access, I pulled the filter out, and was absolutely shocked at what came out.

Dog food!

I am talking a massive amount of dog food was sitting on top of my air cabin filter.  The filter sits in such a way that it lies horizontally over the blower motor at the bottom of a well that goes up to the air inlet vents at the top of engine compartment.  When I pulled out the air filter, most of that dog food then fell down into the blower motor itself.

This obviously made my job much bigger, as I had to take apart even more of the dashboard to get access to the blower motor and remove it.  After getting the blower motor out (and the dog food that was packed inside of it), I was able to reach up into the well area and clear out the rest of the dog food that was sitting in there.

Here is a picture of the carnage.

Gross. 

There was even more that had fallen out onto the ground (which my dog was happily eating up).

As best I can tell, a mouse found a way to open up the rubber flap that was meant to keep him and his kind out of my HVAC system, and was shuttling dog food into my car on top of the cabin air filter.  The opening that the flap covers is quite small, so this was a tiny mouse who obviously spent an inordinate amount of time and dedication to get this much dog food moved into my truck over a very short period of time.  

So, I had the culprit and the source of the smell, but where did he get the dog food from?  The bin we keep our dog's food in is a giant rubbermaid tub that was sealed.  There was another bag of dog food, but I inspected that and no holes.  I was a bit stumped.

I finally found the source.  The last time my wife bought dog food, the store had thrown in a smaller bag for free as a sample to try.  I didn't know about this bag.  She had taken the bag out and laid it on a shelf in the garage.  The mouse had found it, eaten a hole through it, and shuttled the dog food one piece at a time into my truck.  To give you an idea of the dedication of this mouse, the bag was on the other side of the garage from my car, and he would have had to bypass my wife's car in order to get over to mine.  It is mind-boggling to me that a small mouse like this could have moved so much dog food into my truck in this way.

Anyway, I got it all cleaned out, everything put back together, and its all good again, but man that was annoying.

The Pied Piper, Black and White, and Pi.

For a refresher on my feelings about rodents, whether rats, mice, or otherwise, you can refer back to my post "Rat extermination and re-establishing links" (which also cites another post about National Rat Catcher's Day).  I am lumping rats and mice together, here, with Saruman the Modest Mouse as our prototypical example.

In any case, late last week I accidentally ran across an interesting fact about the word "Pied" (from the Pied Piper).  Before, I thought it meant something like a broad range of colors.  In the Brothers Grimm tale, the Piper is described as wearing "a coat of many colored, bright cloth, for which reason he was called the Pied Piper".   Further, Robert Browning's poem describes the Piper as being dressed quaintly in red and yellow.  Illustrations of the Piper will vary between these two descriptions, or many times combine them.

Interestingly, a 'many colored' coat brings to mind the biblical tale of Joseph's coat of many colors.  Given that I have associated the Piper with Faramir-Eonwe, and the seer who will be like Joseph (and perhaps bearing his Stone for awhile), I don't think we should be surprised to see a coat like this show up in his story.  This coat, or something like it, is perhaps what Saruman was trying to replicate or copy when he showed off his new threads to Gandalf at Orthanc.

In any case, because of this, I assumed Pied meant 'many colored'.  Not so!  Or, at least, not completely so.  "Pied" comes from the words "Pie", originating with the species of bird known as the Magpie.  While it is used, per Etymonline, to describe things that are "parti-colored, variegated with spots of different colors", it's original connotation is with the colors Black and White associated with the Magpie.  Here is a further note from Etymonline:

...as if it were the past participle of a verb form of the Middle English noun pie "magpie" (see pie (n.2)), in reference to the bird's black and white plumage. Earliest use is in reference to the pyed freres, an order of friars who wore black and white.

So, "Pie" references the Black and White of the magpie, and its earliest use was in a religious context describing "Pied Friars", who wore black and white.

Here is a picture of a North American magpie:

One might recall another animal that we have associated with the Faramir-Willy Wonka character (and sometimes even also seeming to fly, though having no wings):

And, of course, there are the White and Black Rabbits that have both been connected with him as well.  And Black and White Holes.  Let's not forget the Black and White of the Oreo cookies, either!

As I was thinking more on the Pied Piper and his story's analogy to the story here, I realized that Pi is also hiding in plain site.  One might also say you were Pi-ed, in the past tense, if you were to have experienced Pi in some way.  

In my post on the Kirtland Temple, I made some associations with Pi.  The symbol for Pi sits on the east wall, and the solar eclipse (a White-Black Sun) will pass over the Kirtland Temple at 3:14, the number associated with Pi.

A follow-up comment from WJT spurred on additional thinking on my part relative to Pi's connection with Pay Lay Ale, and thus another post by that title.  In that post, I posited a meaning for that phrase as a "Mouth to God", perhaps being a double meaning as a door or gate to God's presence, as well as acting as a mouth or voice for God. 

The additional meaning of "Pied" seems clear in this sense, then.  In addition to the Black and White symbolism, to be Pied as in to have experienced the events associated with this other symbol - to be Pi-ed.  Pi, in the things written on this blog, stands in for Holy Places, Doors to Heaven, etc.  To have not only spoken directly with Heaven, but to have also physically entered there.

The Pied Piper (Faramir, in this story, and perhaps representing others, also) will be pi-ed, because he will have both spoken with and entered Heaven, and thus will have a pretty good grasp on what exactly he is gathering the Family of Light back to.  And then they will be Pi-ed, also.

This pattern is not unfamiliar to the original call and gathering of the Elves back to Valinor in Tolkien's story.  There were 144 Elves (a number that is important in Joseph Smith's writings as well as Tolkien's) that originally awoke under the stars.  The number became a symbolic one as more Elves were born beyond the original 144, but that number was still used to describe them.  All of them were invited back to Valinor by Orome (later JRR Tolkien-Frodo).  Because of Melkor's lies, these first Elves distrusted Orome, but 3 Elves (one from each House) agreed to come back.  They experienced Valinor firsthand, and then returned to their fellow Elves to describe the glory of Valinor (Heaven) and encourage everyone to come back with them.

This event created the Sundering of the Elves - or their division.  Many chose to follow Orome on the Great Journey into the West (roughly 2/3 of the Elves), while the remainder refused, and became known as the Unwilling (Avari).  Even for those who decided to join Orome, not all continued on the path until the end.

In some of Nephi's final words, he described a 'great division' that will occur in the Last Days:

For the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people, and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire.

My current thinking is that what will occur to bring about this division will be along the lines of or recall that original Great Journey.  A path will be made, stories restored, doors open, and invitations extended, and this will be done by and come from Beings who have 'been there' and have been 'pi-ed'.   

Abradacabra

I mentioned that song "Abradacabra".  It really stood out to me for whatever reason as I walked into the car dealership.   First off, that words showed up in my words before, as recalled in my post "Earthquakes in the night, Magic, and Michael Jordan".  Specifically, I had "Abracadabra - Magic!", and these words seemed to follow those other February 2022 words which appeared to have something to do with gathering Beings home.

I have also associated Stones with Cars, and suggested that there may in fact be many Stones-Cars that will be used in bringing people home, referencing Joseph Smith's words that all Beings who enter Aman-Celestial Kingdom will have a Stone.

And here I was in a car dealership - a place that trades in cars and quite a lot of them on the lot and in the showroom - listening to the song Abracadabra, perhaps referring to the magical means by which Stone-Cars will help bring a family home.  I don't know - just the analogy I made as I thought more about it later and why the song stood out to me in that place.

Anyway, I couldn't get the song out of my head for several days.  The chorus goes:

 

Abra abracadabra
I wanna reach out and grab ya
Abra abracadabra
Abracadabra

To 'grab' can have negative connotations (i.e., to seize forcibly or roughly) but it is also can be traced, per Etymonline, back to the Old High German garba, which means 'sheaf', or literally "that which is gathered up together".  

Here is the song.  Some interesting imagery in their music video (complete with a rat):