project frustration pep talk

[bloke]

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[the elephant]

HALF MAN!
HALF MAN!
HALF MAN!

[the elephant]

When I get stuck on (or just really, really pissed off over) some aspect of one of my projects I take a break and clean and recover my workbench, and I organize my big, rolling tool chests. (Those things always need doing, so I am never at a loss for work.)

I also turn my music up much louder. And I listen to Motown. Cleaning and Motown go hand-in-hand for me. In fact, I do my housework while blasting James Brown on my stereo in the living room. Something about organizing things while having music to drown out everything helps lower my blood pressure and stress level. It is very cathartic for me.

Heck, I can't drink anymore, so I have to do *something*, heh, heh, heh.

Perhaps you need to fire up your smokehouse and toss on some meat. That has a cathartic value, too, and does not involve the use of a Brush Hog or a "zero-turn"…

[bloke]

yeah...I can always buck up dead-fall into firewood...or (being that I'm old) take a nap...or both...or toot on fatbastard for a l'il bit...

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projects:

You know I have not finished the valveset to that B-flat bass trombone cimbasso...and I'm slated to cover 3rd trombone next month...

...but I just took a look at the parts to Dvorak 7 (2 - Dm) and Sibelius Vln...which are both in-the-staff "reads"...so I don't feel particularly motivated to hurry up with that project...

...and the sousaphone:
(I have one borrowed [for Mardi Gras] - and not the one I just fixed - so not that either...but maybe - ?? - I should look through my funky-bass-line cheat-sheet index cards to remind myself which sets of funky bass lines - and in which order - go with which tunes...and in which keys..)

[the elephant]

I am about to drag my a$$ into the shop. I have spent the last half-hour cleaning the crap off my bench. It is a pile of boxes from McMaster-Carr and Amazon, all of which currently have no place to live.) As it has built up I have used that as a procrastination mechanism to avoid working on the horn.

But I have run out of time. I must have this horn fully functional by a week from today. At that time it is frozen until after the season ends.

Today I will rig up the upper 5th lever so that SOMETHING up there works as designed. That should motivate me to "complete the set" (encyclopedias, LPs, steak knives, green glass "fancy" guest dis sets — you remember subscription purchases from the grocery stores) so I can MOVE ON WITH LIFE.

I had a fantastic practice session last night. The rep still sounds crappy, but I have officially thrown off my COVID chops and am back in decent shape. I made a mouthpiece change that better suits the alterations I made to this tuba, and can *finally* play it without using any slides more than very occasionally. I am no longer. afraid of committing my left hand to valves.

So now I have to have a pair of levers up there to use.

My progress in all this is akin to the Russians around Bakhmut: measured in meters rather than kilometers. I hope the Russians continue to slog on poorly in this manner as I get myself back in gear.