Thanks for the ideas. It seems the game may not be over quite yet.
By the way, I made about 2900 prints before the ink blobs appeared and the printer is a couple of months shy of five years old.
I wiped the capping station and rubber wiper, and flushed the capping station foam as per José's video.
The waste ink tank is 67% full, and when examined has a large amount of un-inked area---but swapping out the waste tank is easy and cheap, so I might try that.
I like the hair/paper fibers stuck on the underside of the head idea...it's certainly possible...I hope it doesn't involve elaborate disassembly.
Also, a new capping station can't cost very much, can it?....don't answer that!