Some relief?

 I was up all hours, and practiced at least an hour on the flute. I'm getting stronger, and my holding position is slowly becoming more sure. Practice, practice, practice, it's non-negotiable. How else am I going to get good on this thing? 

I woke up with only a slight headache and was able to pack a couple more things right away, have coffee, 1/2 oz. of baker's chocolate, some raw walnuts, and a Lipovitan. 

I was idly thinking I need to finish both Wye beginner books (I don't even own the 2nd one yet) before I get into other methods, like the one I have 4 volumes of, that's based on popular tunes. But the holidays are coming up and I've just got to get out there, and got to get a bunch of Christmas carols under my belt. 

The only answer is to practice every day. 

A good discussion here:  https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/xvntc0/a_sort_of_uncomfortable_truth_about_emigrating/

I follow r/AmerExit on Reddit daily, because a guy can dream, can't he? And r/homeless too. One thing I keep seeing is, both in the case of AmerExit where people hope to leave the US without any skills, so that they're not particularly desirable even *in* the US, and on r/homeless where they're suddenly past 40 and their only skill was working in a factory or construction work etc. 

Suddenly they're dumped on their ass, with their only ability to earn a living being dependent on having a young, healthy, strong body that doesn't injure easily. 

One thing that's stayed with me, however many decades ago I first read the book, was in "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, all the meatpacking workers got broken down and the one guy who had a way out was the violin player. His problem was that he believed in "honest labor" or something and injured his hand so he could not longer play the violin, and then he was ground up like the others. 

This might also be why "high tech" jobs are so underpaid. At least it's not lifting boxes all day in a warehouse, or picking fruit and veg all day, or working up on a roof with hot tar, etc. Physically, it's easy work. In my bench tech days, I hardly had to lift more than a pound or two.