u/Mattturley

Just me, or was this pretty common this time of year? Man, were we stupid.

TL;DR: I discovered the Kalimba today. Despite history and experience in music, instruments have always been a struggle for me. Why aren’t Kalimbas standard in primary education? And a Kalimba could be a solution to your anxiety you haven’t ever thought of.

OK, look, I have a musical background as a singer. In fact, I went to college partially on a vocal performance scholarship. I can (fundamentally) read music. I have taken music theory in high school and college. In grade school I played Viola and percussion, including bells, xylophone, and drums. Heck, I was even with/married to for 18 years a professional opera singer who performed on both the Kennedy Center stages (with WSO) and at the Metropolitan Opera. Our friends are musicians - more classical/professional for his side and folk/country/rock for my side.

I have always wanted to play an instrument. I have always wanted to sit down and join a jam. I have significant injuries to both hands from 7 and 10 years old. I mostly have always wanted to play guitar and since I am right handed I have always been taught/encouraged to play right handed, meaning forming chords with my left hand. I only have full feeling in the fingers of my left hand in my thumb and index finger and have significant muscle weakness in my ring and pinkie finger on that hand. When I was ten, I was out playing with friends and running down the hill on the back of my parents property that backed up to a large municipal park (where my friends had many tree houses and shacks - stories for another thread and time). While running down the hill, I tripped on a tree root sending me face first toward the earth - and as a kid my first instinct was to put my hands out to stop the imminent impact. I landed on a piece of discarded sheet metal (we think from an old washer) that was very sharp.

I immediately grabbed my hands and wouldn’t let anyone see but the blood was pouring everywhere. My 4 year older friend took charge of the group telling me I needed to go to the hospital and I freaked out. Not because I was scared of the hospital, but because I was scared of waking my father who was at the time working night shift. Waking dad meant hell to pay. The older friend lived 3 houses away in a suburb so it wasn’t a long walk to go to his house and that is what he decided was best. His mom immediately took me to the kitchen sink (while fretting over her new shag carpet - this was 1984 - and turned on the water. She told me I had to move my other hand so she could see, so I did. After she finished throwing up, she told Chuck (the older friend) to go wake my dad. Even he was afraid of doing that.

VERY LONG story short, when I got to the hospital and had X-rays, got my hand put back together and stitched up, spent a few days in patient it was clear that my left hand would never be the same. (The injury left only skin holding my pinky and ring finger on - bones had been separated at joints. The middle finger was a bit of a mix with the bone between my first and second knuckle broken, and my index finger only had a severe cut. At this point in my life, at 52, my hand is mostly fulling functional. Except I have no sensory nerves working in my ring and pinky finger, and the strength in those fingers and my middle finger is very diminished.

So, after very long story, guitar has never been for me, even thought I keep trying and keep trying. Neither is piano. Viola fell to similar fate, percussion fell to me being too timid. So, I have tired many, many instruments and have gotten so frustrated with them.

I got hooked on Temu and ordered a Kalimba as one of my free gifts. I think it is probably a high to mid grade one. It seems to be made of teak or a similar wood. Came with tuning equipment and instructions.

More importantly, I was actually playing songs within 15 minutes of taking it out of the box. Within an hour, I opened videos of friends playing guitar on there custom songs that I know intimately and could play along with them. And it sounded good! I have always dreamed of jamming with my friends! (Now, I understand, a 52 year old man playing along with his folk music friends isn’t jamming, but you get my point. I could participate.)

I am left thinking about why in the hell isn’t every kid in grade school given one of these. It doesn’t have to be at all high end. It doesn’t have to be expensive. So it should be just a here - take this, play it, we will use it in music class, keep it until it breaks or your graduate high school.

What I also realized is that within the first half hour, my anxiety which has been skyrocketing lately from my chorionic illnesses, was significantly reduced. Without taking a Xanax or pain pill. Perhaps therapists should issue one to every new patient as well.

PS - I suspect at least a few will say this post was written by a drunken AI. Due to my writing style. Drunken, perhaps. AI, no. Feel free to ask questions and I will respond.

Over the course of the last week, updates have made navigation incredibly difficult. The swipe left isn’t closing posts on either iOS iPad or iPhone apps. The phone app then takes 2-3 clicks of the close button, and the iPad is similar, though it frequently opens any add in the post. It is infuriating.

I have now tried for the fourth time to do a one pot pasta recipe. I had a larger, older instant pot before that did not have the burn prevention feature. I hate it. None of the recipes have been successful. I tried browned sausage, alfredo, water, and farfalle today. Same result, never gets to pressure before the burn warning shuts it off.

Any advice? My experience with this newer, smaller model makes me want to just give it away and either find my older, larger one in storage (but I live in a motorhome full time now, so space is limited), or just give up on instantpot and when I want to pressure cook use my old school stainless steel pressure cooker on my propane range.