Car crash

Last night, after leaving a resteraunt, a minivan tried to turn in front of us, and we smashed head first into them. The driver of the other car was given tickets for everything that they could throw at her...including being arrested for driving on a suspended license. And of course, bitch aint got no insurance.

Things like this never seem to hapen when you're alone in the car. Or in a car that you really don't like. We were in the wifes truck (Chevy Blazer), she was driving , and both the babies were in the back. Wife got taken to the hospital , and we demanded that both babies be checked out. Few hours of waiting later, all were cleared with no injuiries. With the exception of a smashed truck....we suffered no loss except being scared and having to wait 4 hours before finally getting home.

The right front area of the truck took the worst hit (and damage). Thankfully, this was were I was sitting. The right front of scruched up , and the only thing remaining fron the original "front" of the truck is the drivers headlight.

So, we are all safe at home....with a wrecked truck in the driveway....one redneck woman in jail,(did I mention that she also had warrants out for her arrest?)......and no insurance company to sue.

Within seconds of inpact, I assessed the wife and ids and knew that there was no major damage. But I gotta tell you, it was all that I could do to keep from going after the driver of the other car...and ripping her out through her window. Amazing the thoughts that cross yoru mind in a split second.

Trouble in paradice

Not on the homefornt - everythings cool here. But at the dojo..the proverbial shit has hit the fan. The head instructor (only 19 or 20 or so), finally had enough and quit. The second in command is the owners son - son to that pompus ass that hand picks his kendo students. The dojo was formed so the son would have a job when he got older. Currently, it is nothing more than a cover for a day care center. The son is only 13 yrs old, a 3rd or 4th degree black in TKD, and pampered by everyone cause he is the owners kid. The older one finally had it out...I hear it was something about the 13 yr olds inability to teach.....and I can imagine the other issues. Long story short - the head guy left. This means they are in deep shit. The head guy was young - only 19-21, but he was there all day - no skool. The son is 13 , the next rank is 15, and final teacher is 10. They got no one to teach TKD until their son gets home from skool. The answer to this was : a coverup. If wind of this gets out to the parents, they may yank thier kids from the center. The owners decided to put all remaining instructors (all 3 of them) on vacation. I guess they will return from vacation as soon as they find a new Head Instructor.
This has had no effect on the JJ or KF classes......but Im now wondering how much harder the TKD tests will be once a real martial artists is in charge. Until now, test were a cakewalk. But either way, I need to knwo it front and back-----the kendo guy will be gunning for me regardless who is in "charge".
JUJITSU: Been working on things for the next rank. Think I got them pretty down pat. One night, no on eelse showed up, so she showed me some higher leverl stuff....and if was breeze. She even commented on my ability to pick things up. It's just that it flows so naturally.
KUNG FU: There is a newer guy that is lagging a bit behind the rest of us..but seems to have the heart to keep trying. Uniforms are expensive here (around $50 each), and he's been wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Sifu asked when he was getting a uniform, and he said he couldn't afford it. He seems honest, so I scouted out Ebay, and picked him up one. Should be here in a week or so. Just debating on whether to let Sifu offer it to him, or do it myself. I don't want him to feel endebted to me..but if I offer it to him personally, it may promote feelings of inclusion. Make him feel that he's wanted there. I'll figure that one out.
HOME REPAIR: A few years back, I replaced all but one downstairs window. The old ones were single paned glass, wood framed....very old, very cheap , and very leaky. The new ones were double paned, vinyle, fold in to clean, and really nice. Only $100 each from Home Depot. Well..time has gone by, and by an act of fate, I broke a window over the summer, and it managed to be the one that needed replaced anyways. Off to Hone Depot today - $115 for a new window( they went up in price). When I did the others, I bought them out. I checked back, but they never got more windows in. Now..they have more in..but the size is 2 inches taller. They have discontinued the 3ftx5ft i need, and now only carry 3ftx5ft2in. The alternative was a size smaller than what I needed from Lowes - and was twice as expensive. Tomorrow, if weather permits, I'll hack a huge ass whole in the wall(remove old window)....and try to stick the new one in. Got lots of 2x4's to reframe the whole, if I need to. Just hope the supervisors give me room to work ( Logan and the 3 cats).

Well..enough for today.....hope ot post more martial arts stuff tomorrow....stay tuned.

Keeping busy

BABY NEWS: Everythign is going fine. I think I got a momma boy on my hands, though. The new baby is tolerant of me, and will even fall asleep on my belly, but let's face it-momma got the boobs. Which is, in all honesty, a contributing factor in my "daddy" was attracted to her in the first place.

Darth Logan News: I've noticed that I've started to become increasingly less patient with him. Things like: in the mourning, I always change his diaper. Now he throws a tantrum when I try to change it. Can't let it slide, or he'll overflow it. I gotta start taking a step back , and start remembering that he is still a baby himself. He needs to start listening, or we'll end up on a Springer episode when he's 10yrs old...but for now, I think I need more patience.

Additional Logan News: ALERT! The Frigin MOON is missing! IT's Lunar Lunacy!
The other day (almost 2 weeks ago), I taught Logan to say "moon". He loves that word. When he goes outside, he points up and says"mooooooon". Sometimes, at night, I can get him to say "star", but moooooon is his favorite. Exept that there's been NO MOON for over 2 weeks. Rain, cloud cover....even on a clear night, like tonight, still no moon. What's the deal? Im trying to raise the next NASA astronaut here, and the friggin moon is playing gone fishing".

MARTIAL ARTS NEWS: Kung FU is going fantastic. Jujitsu is starting to "flow". On the TKD front, i decided to skip the last test...but attended to video tape it. 2 batteries, and 4 minutes of power between them. That sucked. They said they were fully charged too. But at least I got to se what tht test proceedure was like. 2 forms, and I'll be ready to advance in December. One of the forms is one that I "should" already knwo to hold the rank I do. Better learn that one fast!
Still no word on when the sash test for KF is going to be. Or when the next JJ belt test is. I'm confident that Im ready for the KF test. The JJ one , I know the techniques, but it would be helpful if the sensei would make up a "requirements" chart for us.

Well..that's about it. The Force still flows here.....and in new and interesting ways. Gonna go put in The Last Samurai , get some snacks, and head off to bed. Decent auction on Ebay ends tomorrow mournign around 10am...can't forget about it.

Just a quck update

Baby Lance is doing just fine. Even sleeping thru the night (at times). Darth Logan is the gentlest, kindest 22 month old big brother I ever could have hoped for. When the baby squawks, Logan grabs my wife or I , and drags us over the the cradle.

I didnt test today (TKD test). I figured it best to watch a test before I jump into one. After watching it, it was a piece of cake. I've got 2 months to tweak some things (some self defense combinations and a new kata) and I'll be on the way to black belt in no time. There were some things that I saw today that were sooo simple (when you can see them done) - things that had been a question mark to me - after only reading them described on paper. A few things I had sen performed once or twice, but it was so fast that I didn't remember it right. After sitting thru the 45 minute test, MY test for high blue shoudl be no trouble at all.

Well- that's about it. All is well here.

Monday

Finally was able to go off to the dojo tonight! The wife was able to handle the 2 kids for a while, so I was able to attend Jujitsu and Kung Fu classes. I planned to attend the TKD class, but ended up missing it. Logan wanted to watch Karate Kid, and wanted me to hold him - and that took precedent. Tonight in Jujitsu, we worked on some orange belt requirements, specifically these things called "shodans". In the police academy, we learned a few of them , and they were called "come alongs". It's a manner of controling a person by almost bending their wrist in half. Really neat.

In Kung Fu, we worked on what the Sifu called "jart kicks". It's a kick that used the rear foot, strikes the opponent very low (shin or knee level), and cross-attackes. This is to say my right foot would attack the opponent on their left side - my kick crosses my own body. Very unusual, when you compare it to karate and TKd styles, that teach straight kicks. Even spinning and hook kicks are nothign like the effectivness (and deceptiveness) of these kicks.

I took in a few pics of Lance to show anyone who asked. Several students asked, and so did my 2 instructors. The owners never gave me a second look (or thought). Im really getting the feeling that these people are rather rude. It's a shame that to test in TKD, I have to amuse the male owner (the same guy that won't let me into his precious sword class). TKD test is on saturday - I have the money to test - and I have the time blocked off - just need to work on a few more things. My master plan is to test for high blue. Then only 2 reds stand between me and black. Now that i think of it, I really need to start video taping the jujitsu stuff - it's so easy to forget a simple thing, and not be able to do a lot of stuff because of it. For lack of a nail, a shoe was lost...for lack of a shoe, a horse was lost....and so on. The KF stuff, although like nothign else I've ever studied before, facinates me enough that I practice it all the time - no need to video tape anything there. When I took the first "trail lesson", I loved both the jujitsu and KF class. I even thought to myself (regarding the JJ class) "I'm going to be your top student". So far so good. After my first KF class, i thought "This is neat - I may not be top student, but I'll learn something here". So far, I've attended the most classes and seem to "get it" more than most of the other students. I knwo it's not a competition...but it's really nice to know that the classes make me feel a sense of importance - of accomplishment - and of belonging. I really look forward to each class - to see what bits of wisdom the instructors will have for me each time. It will be a big honor to be among the first group of student to receive a sash rank from our Sifu (he has taught before, but only private lessons.). He had to develope a "criteria" for each sash when he started at this dojo.

Well - that's my day and life in a nut shell. The babies are doing fine - and dada got to go play today!!

Just a quick note

LONG weekend of work, but it was worth it to be able to pay off some credit cards. Wife and baby are home now (they came home on Friday ). I had to work all Saturday, so they spent the day at her mothers. Hope all will be well enough tomorrow night so I can go to karate. Only a wek off, and it feels like forever!

The baby is doing fine now - the first night was total hell. He would sleep only 20 minutes tops - then scream! The dog herd the baby and started barking - I guess her motherly instincts kicked in as well. So far, Logan has been just fine with having a baby in the house. When Lance cries, he'll come drag one of us over to him. I think he's going to be a fine big brother.

Tae Kwon Do test is this coming saturday. Im going to take the next few days to exaluate where I stand on testing. As I stated in earlier blogs - my first test will be an evaluation of sorts. They said they would honor my previous belt status. So the more I can cram for, and learn , the higher I can test for. This also means the faster I can get that black belt - and less money spent in testing. Below Black belt are 2 degrees of red, and 2 degrees of blue. If I can get a few things tweaked, I will test for either low or high blue. Worst case would be 3 belts to go for black. But worth noting is that the tester person will be the kendo instructor that won't let me join his class. I fear that he will be unusually hard on me - 1. cause he don't like me and 2. All but 1 or 2 other people testing for rank will be kids. Make no mistake, i can take anythign this walking hoho can throw at me...but thre's a lot of memorization...I must have things down pat, or I will wait to test in 2 months.

Well - haven't heard from Lance since I sat down - so I'm off to check on the newest Dark Jedi in the family.

more: end of day 3

Still dont have the cradle brought in - it's really REALLY buried back there. Will put that off to tomorrow. I rearranged 2 rooms, and in the process, got a couch stuck in a door way for an hour. Now I have more room in the "usta be living room - gonna be nursery" room. Also have that cool car bed, that the 3 cats have declared THEIR own.

The wife and baby are to be released tomorrow morning...but not sure what time. I really should have hit the hay before now, but I wanted to get the house in order for her return. Off to bed (finally!!)