Hi Mulligan,
With your intro and avatar I could say a couple of things and you can take them as a joke ….if you like dry humor. You might want to try to play a horn WITH valves and you'll find that you will not burn out as quick (although trying to play with that horn for 5 years is quite a bit, IMO) and your wife would probably reconsider divorce by developing a better ear for music if she heard some more notes from that horn of yours.
Now down to the serious part. You are probably wanting some advice on how to build up your chops among other things and I was thinking lately about this because of the situation of a dear friend of mine, George Graham. He offered and sold to many trumpet players on the TH forum a RANGE BUILDER some time ago. I have been in touch with him a short time ago to see if he would offer it for sale again and to see if there are others who are interested in buying/using it. I do not recall the price at that time but I know that it was nominal and affordable by everyone even if they had no job at all, were divorced, had child payments to make and couldn't even put gas into their own car, etc. I have not yet received a reply from him but when I do receive his reply, I would like to know how many would like this RANGE BUILDER.
Construction? That was one of my jobs working my way through school. When I finished school, I was laying cardboard for subflooring…….one hit on the 6 inch nail and it was all the way in. Be careful of those trumpet fingers!
Liad Bar-EL