Fruits of My Frustration OR Rude Neighbors Are Good for Reed Making

I managed to muster up some post-PRAXIS motivation yesterday to do some much needed oboe reed maintenance. Initially I had planned on only shaping about a half dozen pieces of cane and tying 3 blanks while I did some laundry. My concentration was low, and I was looking forward to slipping into a cane-shaping trance. As I let some cane soak, I wandered down to the laundry room in my building. There is only one washer and dryer for the 8 units, so I am not surprised that someone else has laundry in the machines. It is a Saturday, afterall.


About a half an hour later, and well before I got myself too involved in reed making, I found my way down to the laundry room. The washer was open. Sweet! I throw in a load and head up stairs to get to work. Once I am done shaping my 6 pieces of cane I decided to pop into the laundry room and see if the dryer is vacant. Nope. Well, not big deal- the clothes in the dryer are still warm. I tell myself, I will just keep working on reeds until my laundry gets dried. Nearly 3 hours later, 9 pieces of cane, and 8 tied-initial scrape-tip started reeds later, my neighbor has yet to claim their clothes. Now I am feeling less than congenial. Usually I will not take someone's laundry out of the machines and put mine in, but I felt I had waited long enough and did just that.

While my laundry was finally drying, I went back to my reed maintenance. As I was sharpening my reed knives and re-organizing my tool box, I could not help but worry about the laundry. I begin to wonder... Will my neighbor be really upset, or will she realize she left her things in a shared space a bit too long? Would she do something to my laundry? Oh, don't do anything to my green sweater- I love it! No, she won't be upset. I reassure myself, I doubt she'll even come down to get her laundry before mine is done. Sure enough, she did not retrieve her clean laundry. I quickly stuffed in back in the dryer and scooted back to my unit. How ridiculous of me.

My *Helper*: Carmen waits for me to turn my back
so she can steal a spool of thread

On the bright side, my determination to keep working on reeds until my laundry was dry was a rather fruitful decision. At the end of this little adventure I have 8 reeds in progress. Look how much happier my reed case looks! Actually, I am feeling motivated to do even more reeds today. Perhaps I will have an almost full case before the semester start. Woo!


What is your next project?