Vocal Disuse

I wrote a post a while back about whistling.  Ever since then I've been surprised at how much I really whistle.  I seem to be whistling all day long.  I like to sing though.  If you're in the car with me and there's a song on I like, there's a good chance you'll be subjected to my singing, good or bad, along with the artist.

Or do I sing?  I used to sing.  I used to sing everything, even when there was no music on.  But after a week or two of paying attention to when I whistled or sang, I found that I hardly ever sang anymore.  For some reason I stopped singing and started whistling and I didn't even notice it.  So I've made it a point to start singing in the car again (yes, hopefully without passengers so I won't run any friends or family off.)

I always knew the words to the songs.  I would sing along.  But with whistling, you don't need to know the words, only the tune.  I discovered I only sort-of know the words to all the new songs.  I know them enough to know what's coming next, right as it's happening, but not enough to be ready to belt that next word out just before it does happens.  Also, my voice is much weaker than I remembered it. 

All this happened without me even noticing the transition away from singing to whistling.  I'd like to have a reasonable voice.  Oh, I know I don't have a great voice.  I never have and I never will.  But I'd like to be able to sing along with a song and know I'm not causing people to flee from the room.

My niece is taking voice lessons.  Maybe I'll ask her how that's going and see if her teacher would be willing to take on one much older, rusty singer for a few lessons of pointers.

The Big Boy Update:   Somehow, with just the right timing, my son sings, "Happy birthday cake" and it sounds like that's how the song should have been sung all along.  But when I try to sing it back to him, forty years of singing the song the same way and I can't get it to sound right.   Sometimes though, he sings the song correctly, and it's Kyle's birthday.  Kyle is his cousin and it has been Kyle's birthday for over a month now.  Also, let's talk about cream.  He says things like, "I see the cream," and "look at the cream," and he's pointing.  At what though?  OH...you mean, "crane."  There is a lot of extrapolation on what a crane is in his mind.  He does see cranes regularly as the concrete pouring cranes are in our neighborhood pouring foundations and footings.  He insists it's a, "cream" though.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Ball.  She likes balls.  She just spent thirty minutes in the laundry basket putting foam and wiffle balls into the plastic golf bag and then dumping or pulling them out.  When she was done with that she went over near the front entrance and lay completely down on the ground.  She was talking about something or other ball but I didn't understand until I came over to see her touching the large ball-shaped area in the rug. 


Fitness Update:  I slept in today more than usual.  I got up at 6:30, changed the already awake children and then went to the gym while daddy breakfasted them and took them to school.  Don said, "This is going to be your worst day yet," to which I replied, "I'm glad I got that extra hour of sleep then."  Overall, it was a hard workout, but at only four weeks in, I can already see a difference in what I can do so something must be working. 

Someone Once Said:   I don’t think it matters where a man eats his lunch as long as he comes home for dinner.