Last year, in the dead of winter, Henri had multiple seams open up, requiring a trip to the luthier and a re-evaluation of my humidification infrastructure. You see, Henri actually sounds better and is much easier to play in low humidity…when his seams aren’t yawning open to create more of a hurdy-gurdy sound. As an aside, I am thiiiiiiis close to getting extra weird and trying to learn both the hurdy gurdy AND the hammered dulcimer. This is where your friend Emily’s mind goes when she’s on multiple tight deadlines: ah yes, I shall alphabetize my sock drawer, clean the floors with a toothbrush, and learn the banjoloon.*

This time last year, I was using dampits and a tiny CVS humidifier (an odd choice, but it was recommended by Consumer Reports) that was perfectly serviceable in DC. Up here, in a house with no insulation and frigid gales capable of extinguishing a match coming through every outlet, window, and crack, it failed to raise the humidity above 25%, even in constant operation. So this year, I went out and got a different model with a massive reservoir, fancy options, and an oddly soothing light running around the bottom of it.

So now, I give you…my pean to the humble, indispensable humidifier. Full warning, I wrote this after an edible kicked in.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
I need you not in June or May
So perhaps a wintry tableau will do
To explain how fondly I think of you.

You fill the air with va'prous mist
Whilst Henri is in repose, contemplating Liszt
I'm relieved at least it is not Chopin
I might have let his seams stay open. 

So it's you, kind reader, I must profess
This goofy poem is meant to address
There is no good or proper reason
For your instrument to crack, this season! 

If dry climes do thee beset
It's not too late, no not quite yet.
Acquire with haste, your own humidifier
To make wintertime a bit less dire.

Get a good humidifier (and an external hygrometer) unless you live in a humid/temperate or tropical environment, friends! The hygrometer is useful anyway. Find your climate zone here. In LA, I had one going 24/7. In the UK, I never needed one! Baltimore, DC, Minneapolis, CT, I need one running about half the year.

*not a real instrument, I fear, but that’s never stopped me before