Saturday on Break: Two More Days Before Going Back to Work

Break Chronicles: Picture has a background image of a meadow with several tall trees, the sun shining through leaves, and a lake in the far background. The text includes the author’s Instagram handle, @musictherapyworkslandaker, the title of the post, “Break Chronicles,” and the URL of the website, www.musictherapyworks.com.
I found my flute!!

I still haven't found my copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which I have been wanting to read this summer, but I found the flute! It needs lots of work, but it is mine, and I have been wondering where I put it. I found my clarinet and my saxophone, but the flute was absent from my instrument room. Why? It was in the library boxes. It is a WT Armstrong flute that I found in a thrift store. It is pretty beat up, but it seems to be a good instrument overall. It is closed hole but appears to be silver plated.

This is sparking my interest in learning how to repair instruments. Perhaps that is a next job type situation - becoming an instrument repair person.

There is only the weekend between me and the extended school year program at my job. That is all that I have left before heading back into the grind. At the moment, my house has been taken over by a very large dehumidifier and three air movers. There is a consistent sound happening all over my home at the moment, and there are things everywhere. Books, instruments, toys, visual aids, boxes, and all sorts of things just piled up everywhere. I cannot finish any project until I get some more movement with my homeowner's insurance claim, but time is ticking away quickly. My home has to be liveable on the 28th - all three bedrooms!

I am overwhelmed.

That is not uncommon. I just cannot seem to figure out a way to get anything finished up. I move things from one place to another and then back again. So, I will spend the rest of today moving things from the bedroom where I have stored stuff to the downstairs living room and back again. I want to put some shelves into the closet, but I have to clear the closet and empty the boxes that are there right now before I can make the shelves. I have to decide what will be stored on those shelves so I can make things fit. All of that has to wait until I can move things back into the library room on Monday. I also have to decide how I am going to put the library room back together. I need to make some repairs to the bookshelves that were in there - the back panels need to be changed. After that, as I mentioned, I want to make some shelves for the closet. Then I can move things into the closet and have more space in the actual bedroom for activities.

I have a plan to put two file cabinets in the corner of the instrument room for all of my file folders. I put all of my drums up on the wall this week, so things are looking interesting in there. I have more storage coming on Tuesday, so I will have lots more options for putting things away. The file folder hangers came yesterday. Today will be reserved for making more space in the instrument bedroom.

Step One: put things off the floor onto the bed to make space for sorting, trashing, and organizing the stuff that is in there.

Step Two: take out the entertainment center that was originally going to be my laminating station.

Step Three: move file cabinets to space behind the closet door, by the window, and stack them.

Step Four: go through boxes to toss things out and organize things into categories.

Step Five: take trash upstairs to the bins.

Step Six: categorize the stuff that is left into zones - instruments, visuals, objects/materials, and books. Big instruments will eventually be kept in the closet, but I still need to get the shelving materials.

Step Seven: measure the closet for shelving material. I have a vision of built-in shelves in the left side of the closet where I can keep my larger drums and things like the flute, clarinet, and saxophone, not to mention my cornets and trumpet. After that, who knows what I will do.

I hope that I can get through all of these steps as I go through today. If I can, then I will have made significant progress during this break. Writing about it won't get the job done, though, so off I go!!

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