Whale Whomping

Shortly after we moved, Ryan and I were awakened by a weird flopping/groaning noise coming from the pool in the middle of the night. In my sleepy haze I thought it sounded just like a whale flopping around in my pool.

Not that I know how a whale would get in my pool - let alone have enough room to flop about.

Nonetheless, in the middle of the night my brain couldn't think of any other explanation.

It turns out that when something gets stuck in our pool filter it sounds like a whale thrashing about.

Fast forward about 10 months and we are approaching Father's Day. Ryan asked for an elliptical machine for Father's Day. And since he rarely asks for anything, we did a little research and ordered one up.

After spending an hour assembling the monster package that arrived by freight, we hopped on to give it a test run. And it was great! So smooth and much quieter than a treadmill. Virtually silent even.

Until the next morning. At 6 am I was awoken by a familiar sound. The whales! I (apparently) called out in my sleepiest voice "Why are the whales whomping?"

It turns out that Ryan was on the elliptical machine and in the middle of silent slumber it also resembles whales thrashing about.

Which really begs the question - why do I correlate all unknown sounds with whales? I wasn't raised on a ship. I have never, in fact, been woken up by the sound of whales.

Whatever the true cause, forever more, when one of us is on the elliptical we call it whale whomping.

PS Once, when I was at work, Ryan texted me that he was going to use the Whale Whomper. His spell check changed it to Whale Whimper. If we are feeling particularly uninterested in exercise we may slip that little gem into the conversation.