Eclipses and Your Mom

I suppose the advantage of posting every other week is that things of nominal interest actually happen in the intervening time span.

I've kept busy with the usual this past week. I did the demonstration for the cub scouts using wood that was somewhat harder than expected. As a result, my knuckle is rather bruised (worse than when I punched a desk last year) and my wrist, too. It's hard to say which is the more impressive. My knuckle was swollen about three times the usual size, and the swelling has only finally gone away today. But the area around my radius (the "inside" bone of the radius and ulna) also had a nasty knot hovering above it, and the bruise extends from the wrist half up my forearm. It's yellowing nicely already, however.

This naturally made teaching Tuesday just awesome. I couldn't supinate the wrist without some pain, and there's still stiffness there—but I can move with speed again, which is something. Hopefully it'll be right as rain by next Saturday, when we tournament.

Wednesday was the eclipse, which I got some reasonable shots of:





They've been cropped. I'd really like to register the images so that you can follow the path along the sky, but that will take some extra work. It was chilly outside, so I didn't stay past the full ending. The 55-200 came in handy for this sort of shot, and I appreciated the remote, too.

Dad and I also looked at it through his binoculars, but he felt like the color was better to the naked eye. I didn't agree. The color was enhanced on the camera due to the extra exposure time.

Wednesday, my new shureido arrived, too. Unfortunately, it fit me like an apron, and I had to order one of a smaller size. Mom is going to try to trim it before the tournament, because she's a gem.

Teaching on Thursdays has been going well lately. I've been able to concentrate heavily on fighting and spent most of the second class this past week working on tempo control. It was a good workout—something missing in some of our classes lately—and I hope instructive. The week prior was dedicated exclusively to the roundhouse kick, and it was probably one of the better classes I've taught.

D (of Abracadafrica fame) is here for some time, waiting for L. We're enjoying family time together.

Yesterday was a trip with some folks from church to an informal concert. I believe that all churches have coffee on draught brewed somewhat in the center of the planet. It tastes the same, no matter where I go. I don't know how they do it, but every single church I've had the (sometimes mis-) fortune of attending has the same coffee.

In any case, there were some talented players, and less talented singers. I'm sure the studio probably cleans them up some. We left halfway through the second act's set to get food, as most of us were about ready to chew our legs off at the knee. It was enjoyable, and good for K who lived out that way.

I got stuck in someone's driveway, as I missed the venue (a small church) and turned into it in order to turn around. Due to recent weather, it was icy and I couldn't back out. Since I was driving a carpool, though, the girls were able to push us out. (I did get out and ask someone else to pop it in R and such, but no one listened to me.) They handled it with good grace, and we had a lot of laughs.


The previous week was pretty boring, the most notable event being Saturday ice skating. They were running a twofer special, so it was very crowded, and especially with little people. Dodging rugrats when you're really tempted to run them over was difficult, but I managed.

One guy was evidently an OSU fan, as he had his son in a Buckeyes hat. I commented to him as I passed that he was raising him right, obviously.

It had been awhile since I went skating, and I was glad to be out on the ice. My backwards skating is unfortunately quite rusty, and the ice was terrible. I didn't spend much time in reverse due to my fear of death and the crowds. Maybe next time.