For about a week now I’ve been working through one of those really tiresome head colds that changes every day. You know the ones, where one day you’re congested and the next day you’re sneezy and the next day you can’t stop sniffling. Of course, this is our busiest season, so I’ve been playing every day, and it’s been interesting to see just how the oboe has been affected. Interesting because so much that happens when I play is invisible. The process is not as simple as just puckering up and blowing through the reed - there’s a lot of back pressure that comes along with it and, evidently, a lot of different things that I normally, naturally, unthinkingly do with that pressure as I play. Early on, the biggest issue was my swollen throat. The passage between my mouth and nose felt unusually big and oddly shaped as this cold got underway, which caused air to escape from its high-pressure passageway. So, as I tried to blow my usual stream of air through the reed and instrument, the so