Kung fu, Osseo, and Moe

I started kung fu again tonight. I want to thank Eric at work, who just ran the US Marine Corp Marathon in D.C. last week, his first. He told me all about the pain and working through it, and the mental condition he had to go through so that when he hit 17 miles and his lower body disappeared, he could keep putting one foot in front of the other. I told him I wanted to do kung fu again, but had to lost some weight to be able to do it. He said, "You won't. I told myself that when I started training for the marathon. You have to go back and do it." That was it.

I also want to thank Cindy for supporting me. When I told her what Eric said, she was all over it in a happy way. Thanks, hon.

I practiced and kept up and remembered and hit and kicked hard and only had to puke once. I work hard. My teacher told me once, "Do you realized how much business you bring me? People come in here and wonder if they can do it, and when they see this middle aged fat guy working his brains out and hear you puking in the bathroom, they think, yeah, I can do this. If that guy can do it, I can." Gee. That makes me feel just super. Guess that's why he never made me pay for a long time. I worked on commission, sort of.

I did ask him to let me start over and test from yellow belt on. I asked him if his father would mind me doing that and he said, no, in fact he would be impressed that I wanted to do it right and not just pick up and muddle through. When you impressed the 8th degree black belt elder master, that is good. I'd better shine.

Made 20 miles to Osseo, WI. Gotta love Osseo. It's the home of the Norske Nook, a little Norwegian shop. Norske is Norwegian for Norwegian. But...more importantly is the home of Moe's Diner, rather the World Famous Moe's Diner. You know. The world famous Moe's Diner. That one. So total of 302 miles. Approaching the half way mark to Thunder Bay. At this rate it will be the dead of winter in Thunder Bay. Yippee.