I felt like making music tonight, which is a clear sign that I’m almost done with this cold. (Another day of rest, I think, should put me past it.) I went straight for the drum machines and started working on some new loops. Starting with a couple of built-in patterns, I changed the drum sounds, laid in a straight-up 4/4 beat, tweaked the fills, shifted the parts around… and when I took off the headphones to give my ears a break, an hour and a half had passed. I’m not very good at this yet, but I can hear pieces of the sound I’m looking for start to come through.