@Dale-Proctor Wright's is good. I have used it for years. In theory, I suppose it removes a few molecules. But I haven't seen any detrimental effects.

... but that simply has got to be the last high-rise window inspection of my career. I'm just too old to do that stuff any more. I haven't been so exhausted in decades.

...HOWEVER, I had to spend every day this last week hanging off the side of a tall building in another city inspecting defective glass. I only managed to get one practice session in the hotel room with the pocket trumpet and a practice mute. Most notes were only off by a quarter-tone or a little more, but it was something. That's my longest layoff in the last 5 years. I'll get back to Mitchell On Trumpet Book 4 tonight. I don't think I'll need to fall back to Book 3, but after a week off, you never really know.

Only 41 years. Funny how time flies when you're having fun.

I really try to either practice or play (or both) 6 days per week. But that has been slipping to 5 and sometimes 4 days. The range has survived, but I know the stamina hasn't.

Does anyone know if Bach sells slightly stiffer than normal valve springs? I can find standard and "light" replacement valve springs. But I would like springs that are just a little bit stiffer, faster, and less "mushy." I know I can try to stretch the standard ones slightly, but I would like springs that come from the factory just a little more "aggressive." Thanks.

I am always reminded of the time Doc Severinsen called the flugelhorn a trumpet with a thyroid condition.

I used to have a friend named Rodney Leibold. But in the early days of spellcheck, it would always try to autocorrect his name to Rodent Libeled.

@administrator I belong to the Unitarian church, which uses the "flaming chalice" as one of its symbols. (One wag once said the flaming chalice looks kind of like a candle in a martini glass.) So, I make these chalices out of different woods and give them away to other churches or individuals. They are basically big candle holders. The photo of me at the lathe is a purpleheart chalice in the early stages. The red colored chalice is made from a tropical wood called "bloodwood." (But tropical woods are marketed under many different trade names. There's no telling what species of wood it really is.)