Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I've had a minimal drum kit (kick/snare/hat/crash) set up on the third floor for a few weeks, after not having played drums for quite a while. I keep looking at that room and thinking I should rearrange it a bit to be easier to get around in when I'm actually using it to make music with another person, and this afternoon I allowed myself that distraction from a few other things I should be doing instead but lack the concentration to dive into properly. And I decided to pull out more of the kit -- partly to get it out of the way downstairs, but mostly just because it had been so long since I'd put it together. And also because I was wondering how much of it I could still set up without the stuff that got stolen a couple Darkovers ago. (Both stick bags were in the van when it was burgled[*], and some small parts lived in a stick bag because that was the most convenient place for them even though it meant sometimes carrying them to places where I didn't need them).

Okay, I couldn't hang all the cymbals that I used to because the stacker was in one of the stolen bags (as was the splash cymbal, I think). That I knew. I wasn't sure I still had all the pieces needed to put a cymbal on the stand that I used to put the stacker on -- the parts that came with the stand had been attached to the stacker -- but I found a bottom metal piece and a nylon spacer thingie and wingnuts and more felt washers than I remembered having, so as long as it's okay to leave off the top metal washer, I can hang a ride cymbal. So far so good ... Then I found my good clutch, but couldn't remember which hi-hat stand it fits on. And startled myself with the thought, "How did I wind up having multiple hi-hat stands to keep track of, when I'm only sortakinda a drummer?" (I think I have three, but I need to search under boxes in the living room to find out for sure.) Then again, I've got a fair bit of bronze in the really heavy round bag (less than I'd like, but...), and I had quite the assortment of sticks before the theft, so it fits the pattern. (Hey, ever notice that nobody seems to play a low-hat any more? I don't think I've even seen one in a catalog, only in old photos.) Then I went to set up the Roto-Toms, and noticed two things: first, that it's been so long since I sat behind the full kit that I can't remember where everything has to go for me to reach it all comfortably, so I'll need a bunch of trial-and-error time to work out a configuration; and second, that I no longer have a drum key, which is needed to adjust the height of the Roto-Tom stand. Whoops. Add that to the shopping list ...

Then I got dizzy from making too many trips between the first floor and the third floor carrying stuff, and decided to inflict my thought processes on y'all for a few minutes. It was the "which hi-hat stand does the good clutch fit on" that threw me into a "write this down" headspace. I still want to arrange amplifiers and guitar stands and chairs. But once I feel rested I should probably switch to other parts of my to-do list.

All of this reminded me that when I was in a music store recently to buy drumsticks, I looked at the stick bags. Of the pair that got stolen, one was part of a package deal on eBay and the other (IIRC) was a freebie with a music store logo on it that I got when buying a cymbal or something. So I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I saw how much it costs to buy a stick bag. I think I'll find a way to do without that particular convenience until another free one comes my way.

And wow, I am like chock full o' typos today. What's wrong with my fingers?

[*] Can I use that word when it was a vehicle, not a building, that was broken into?