Not a Great Sign

I'm playing the piper's lament on Sunday, so I figured I should my pipes out this week to make sure that they're okay, and that I'm okay to play them. So I did so on Monday, and they're broadly fine.

What is of some concern, though, is that this was pretty much the first time I'd played them since the Mid Calder Gala Day in early June. And then, having planned to play them every night this week I failed to do so on Tuesday due to a stinking headache and on Wednesday due to taking Surprise! to rugby. I'm at band practice tonight, so I'll make sure we play the pipes at some time tonight, and then will try to play again tomorrow and Saturday to give myself the best chance.

But it's not a good sign. Especially since it looks like my other annual performance of the lament looks to be cancelled this year, our Christmas events are definitively off (both because the organizing committee doesn't exist any more and because we don't have a band to put out). Which means that the next time I have cause to play them may be as late as next June.

There are, of course, several reasons feeding in to this:

• Simple motivation is a factor. If we're not playing events, there's much less reason to make the effort. And morale at the band has dropped dramatically, so that's even harder.
• It suddenly became much harder to practice at home when Surprise! arrived. Oddly enough, that wasn't the case when Funsize was born, but I think the issue is that two kids really required attention from two adults so much more of the time, where one child allowed more of a tag-team approach. Adding Lion to the mix exacerbated the issue, as she's really not a fan.
• And then there comes the issue of it being a habit - as long as you're practicing daily it's relatively easy to keep practicing daily, but as soon as you stop...

It's all rather troubling, really.