The Water Buffalo meets The Chihuahua. Both have spastic colons…

Karate was great last night! Tasha had to miss out because she was preparing her resume and cover letter and dropping it off to a new prospective employer. She’s pretty excited about this job opportunity, so I hope she gets it.

Despite the lack of my wife, Karate went very well last night. Sensei Brewer was there and we got one of the classic “slow burn” warmups. It was then followed by some partner drills, where due to some strange pairings Garls-san and I were left out of the mix to help correct.

I spent most of my time with the troubled yellow belts, trying to keep them in line. I’ve taken to hawking them a little more lately, with firm instructions to keep them in line and it seems to work relatively well.

A good example, the one that always comes up with some crazy excuse came running up to me before class complaining that the other yellow belt was talking to him and he didn’t want to listen. I told him that it was hard for someone to get close enough to talk to you if you’re doing kata. He says, “Oh.” and runs off. About ten minutes later, he is acting up again so I grabbed him by the arm and started counting him through kata. He moaned and groaned a little, but with some prodding his kata started to look pretty good.

I know the other one has some attention-span problems, but nonetheless I still tried to keep correcting him so he wouldn’t be a danger to the white belt that he was partnered with. If I was standing right there watching him, his technique got about 10 times better. After the first class, I noticed his Dad walk over to Sensei Brewer and say some things at which time I noticed Sensei glance in my direction. I hope I didn’t step in anything.

Just after seven or so (during the beginners class), the shorter yellow belt got excused by Garls-san. After I noted that fifteen minutes had gone by, I went to check on him. I saw a yellow belt on the ground of the bathroom and I asked if he was OK. The response: “I’m not feeling well. I shouldn’tve had that steak sandwich, french fries, and ranch.” followed by some straining noises. Ew. OK, I believe you this time. He came in with about five minutes left looking much more relieved.

In between classes, I noticed that was looking about the color of pea soup. He was also performing the lips are seperating from the rest of my face puff that usually immediately proceeds praying to the porcelian gods. He claimed some burny acidy feeling lately, I think it’s compounded stress leaving his system from being done with school. I used to get the acid poops for about two weeks after the end of a semester.

The advanced class was GREAT. After a quick kata warmup and some basics, we partnered up. I started out with Oedewaldt doing a reverse punch drill. He popped me in my sore rib a few times, but I can’t fault him for that too much as it was a reverse punch drill. After a little bit, we rotated and I ended up with . It was really great training. I haven’t had that throbbing, heat radiating off the top of my arms feeling for a long time. We did get going pretty well toward then end and my reverse punch was starting to feel better than it has in a very, very long time. More of this cannot be a bad thing.

I also got the good fortune of being able to thank Sensei personally for the sculpture that he made Tasha and I for our wedding. I told him that it was among my most prized possessions. He said “wow, you need more stuff.”

He told me that he decided to make me an eagle because right before college I drew him a picture of a flying eagle that he still has next to his desk. I remember drawing this picture because I was lamenting leaving the dojo for college, I was shocked that he still had it.

Anyone who says the dojo isn’t like family apparently never trained at ours.