Intent

Doran Sensei taught on Tuesday. Cool class, lots of yudansha, which always makes for a good learning experience because they actually know what they're doing - or at least they've been practicing for a lot longer than I have.

What struck me about this class was not so much the actual technique that we were working on but, rather, this statement:

'If you train without intent, you are going through the physical motions and are training your body, but you are not training your spirit. You must train your spirit.'

Aikido is both body and mind. In some ways, it's more mind than body. If you can conquer your attacker's mind, you need not deal with the body. Sometimes it's hard to remember that.

Learn by Doing

"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." -Confucius

This is exactly how I learn.

A couple of weeks ago, I was shown how to adjust brakes on a bike. Today I adjusted both the front and rear brakes of my road bike. They were super-tight, pretty much on a hair trigger, touching the rims all by themselves. I suppose I could have taken the bike to the shop, but, hey, why not be adventurous and try it myself? The first wheel took a long time, lots of back and forth, loosen this, tighten that, squeeze this, rotate that. Finally, I got the brakes just the way I wanted them. Then it was on to the rear wheel. Much faster. More efficient.

It's cool to learn to do new stuff.

My Son, The Fashionista

Here's a typical series of morning conversations between myself and P, my three year old.

Monday
P: I want to wear my dinosaur shirt.
me: Here's it is.
P: I want to wear my fishie shorts.
me: Here's that too.
P: I want some long socks.

Tuesday
P: I want to wear my dinosaur shirt.
me: It's dirty. Choose something else.
P: Where's my Superman shirt?
me: Here it is.
P: And my Spiderman shorts?
me: Here's that too.
P: I want some long socks.
me: Here are some.
P: They're not soft enough!

Wednesday
P: I want to wear my dinosaur shirt.
me: Still dirty, choose another one.
P: Mama, we need to wash my shirt.
me: Yes. Choose another one.
P: Where's my Lightning McQueen shirt? And my fishie shorts?
me: Shirt is here, shorts are dirty.
P: Noooooooooo! I want my fishie shorts!
me: Argh. Just dig them out of the dirty laundry and let's go.
P: But my socks are too short.

Another Three Stitches

Saturday afternoon resulted in another visit to the Urgent Care Center. D hit his chin on the kitchen counter and split it open. There was lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth - with good reason! - we could see the fat tissue starting to spill out from the cut. Praying that the doctor would be able to just glue it together, we set off. No such luck, stitches were necessary.

Now, D is not known for his tolerance for pain. In fact, the thought alone of getting stitches (like his little brother got on this forehead last fall) was enough to send him into panic mode. Imagine our surprise and relief, then, when he made it through the whole ordeal with barely a whimper. YIPEEE! It was fortunate that he could not see the needle and that the anesthesia worked quite effectively. That's my boy.

So that makes two little boys with three stitches each within the past year. May it never be worse than that.

Let me just say that I really love the Urgent Care Center , especially for kids. We made an appointment, arrived at the scheduled time, saw the doctor, got the stitches in and were out of there in about 45 minutes. Try getting that kind of servide at an emergency room. I think not.

The Kindness of Strangers

I took my brand-spanking new road bike out for its maiden ride this morning. Just a short one, I thought - no more than 15 miles (was actually 11 miles), just in case something goes awry. Sure enough about 7 miles in, I hear this horrible rubbing/grinding sound that's coming from my rear tire. Gulp. Should have brought my tools but I didn't. Now what? It appears that the rim is contacting the brakes even when they're not being applied. I decide to ride home the rest of the way. Another mile later, I spot another rider ahead of me who looks like he's toting gear and ask him for help. About five seconds later, I've got three guys all looking at my bike, figuring out that the rear wheel is not true, adjusting it as best they could on the spot and suggesting that I (a) go back to the bike store to get it trued, (b) travel with tools and (c) go clipless. They wish me well and I'm on my way again.

Whew! Bless them.

Yonkyo Hurts

When executed correctly, yonkyo (the fourth lock) results in a piercing pain just above the wrist that just makes you want to beg for mercy. When executed correctly many times, uke ends up with a nice brown spot right where the pressure was applied. Today was lock review time: ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo, yonkyo and I was the demo uke for nikyo and sankyo. It's always a privilege to be chosen to be the demo partner but - oh! - my poor wrists and shoulders! Got to love the effectiveness of these techniques when done by the instructor. I remembered to tap out earlier than complete pain blindness and to do it loudly!

I predict nice brown bruises on my arms tomorrow.

A Day at the Beach

Oh, a Wednesday spent at the beach is infinitely better than one spent behind the desk at work. Little to no traffic on the way down to Santa Cruz. An overcast sky that cleared up after noon and gave way to a cloudless blue. An ocean temperature that, while nowhere near the balmy delight that it is in the Philippines, did not induce hypothermia. Waves that came in waves. A short game of bocce in the sand that's very different from one on grass. Sequential burying of co-conspirators in the sand and photographic evidence thereof. A chili cheese dog and garlic fries. A taste of deep-fried Twinkies and Oreos (once is good, more is not recommended). A little lazy time on the towel in the sand. A perplexing way home (how did we end up back on 17 after exiting onto what we thought was 85?) that was luckily also not bumper-to-bumper traffic. M picking up the kids so that I would not be racing to get back home in time.

A good day. I'm a little on the sunburned side and tired. Wasn't quite ready for a full week of work after my two weeks off and this was just the thing I needed. Ready for tomorrow.