I slept in. It’s already after 9:00. I did wake up to say “hi and bye” to Jameson (our 15 year old), but the old hands did demand Tylenol PM last night and that means I’m fairly groggy in the morning. So no AVAC. Yet.

I’m debating.

Do I go and exercise, or do I stay home and start dwelling on reeds?

It’s a tough choice, to be honest. I want to exercise, but I put reed making off so much of the time and I wonder if I’ll really do it if I don’t start right NOW. I’m the Great Procrastinator. Still, exercise is a good way to get my mind and body settled.

I guess I’ll go into the bedroom and stare at my exercise clothes and see if they call out to me.

Meanwhile, if you want to get a glimpse of what one reed player deals with, check out this page of Brian Sacawa’s. He plays saxophone, so it’s a single reed life for him, but still it gives you a bit of an idea of the reed plight. I do sort my reeds in a similar fashion. (Most go into my “Maybe if I pray over them they’ll work someday” pile.) One difference between us is that I have to shape and wind and all that jazz. If you look at my Reed Making Tutorial you’ll see the steps we oboists have to go through (although I leave out the gouging and shaping processes there). Oh, and I don’t know what a box of sax reeds costs, but oboe reeds run anywhere between about $13 to nearly $30 per reed. Can you imagine? Some reeds last only a week. (I have a knack for “milking” reeds for all their worth, though, and getting a much longer life span from them.)

(Hmm. My keyboard is “squeaking” as I type. Odd. What could be up with that?!)
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