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Hey Ryno
Well I'm still alive so I've beaten the odds right there. But it's winter time here and I am sort of like a bear. All I want to do is go to sleep for a few months. And just for something interesting I found bear shit in my back yard last November. It's hard to tell if it was a black bear or a grizzly but it was a sizable pile so it was a big one whatever it was. Across the street there is a choke cherry tree that was full of fruit and the shit was just full of pitts. For a awhile I was having my son look out the window before he went outside at night and to make noise when he did go outside.
I did make some progress with my pain control issues. I thought I had it licked. One day I was totally pain free and only took 15mg of morphine in the late afternoon just so I wouldn't go into withdrawals. But the next day I was hurting like it was the beginning of this adventure. This form of nerve damage is very strange to try and figure out. I have no clue what triggers the pain. But the fact that I did have a whole day pain free tells me I am improving. Sometimes I only take 30mg of morphine a day. 15mg in the morning and 15 in the evening. But other days I'm eating them like candy to keep from screaming.
What I really need to do is get my ass back in the gym. I haven't trained regularly in a few months now. I have gone to workout but it's only a day or two not a regular schedule. So that's my New Years resolution.
I'm going to do two workouts a day. In the mornings I am going to do Tai Chi Chuan and in the evenings I will alternate between Aikido and lifting. I actually used to be fairly good at Tai Chi. Many years ago I met Doc-Fei Wong at a continuing ed seminar. He asked me if I would participate in his tournament( He knew what school I trained at and who I was there). Well you just can't say I don't want to do your stinking tournament when it's the head of the school. So I said OK. He said he was sorry but he would have to charge me the entrance fee, it was like $15. I paid him right there and got the info on the time and place.
I didn't think much about it and showed up in a pair of cut off blue jeans and a tee shirt. Tournaments are very exciting and very energy filled. But to do good Tai Chi you need a calm mind. So I went into the back of the mens showers so I didn't get caught up in the energy. I was warming up and a guy came in and said his plane from Germany had been late and he asked if he could take a shower. I said sure and wondered why this guy was here from Germany. Then another guy came in and said his plane from Japan had been late and asked if he could take a shower. I was wondering why these guys had come from so far away. I started asking around and found out it was international competition and everybody, except me, was wearing costumes. Like in Olympic skating or something like that.
Well to make a long story short I came in fourth. I was one tenth of a point out of third and nine tenths of a point out of first. There were four of use all clustered within one point of first place and I was the only white guy in the top ten.
It's like the song says "The dreams of an old man are the deeds of a young man in his prime." So now it's up to me to make my dreams my deeds again. My son is nine and I'm working with him on Aikido. The basic concept of Aikido is similar to Tai Chi Chuan. When attacked get out of the way. In Aikido they call it getting off the line. Well we home school so we have get togethers with other homeschooling families. One young kid comes from a family that has some difficulties. He has two older brother that are severally handicapped. So he doesn't get a lot of time from his folks and he acts out a lot. He had rolled up some papers and was going around hitting other kids with it. But when he came to my son he just got off the line and the kid couldn't hit him.
If I would have started him off in something like Karate, I have rank in Goju Ryu karate, he would have started hitting the kid back, because that's what those schools teach, and there would have been problems. Parents get so weird when their young sons loose a fight. But this way there was no problems. I bought my son some weapons from Japan for Christmas. He got a new Bokken with leather wrapped handle and a new Jo. There is a place online called the bokken shop. They have some really nice weapons. I bought myself a Bokken made from compressed bamboo. What really surprised me was it was cheaper, even with shipping, to buy them from Japan then some place like Bu-Jin in Colorado.
Well I hope you are doing well and not relapsing so just take it one day at a time, Yea I should listen to that myself, and good luck to you.
Big_Joe
Well I'm still alive so I've beaten the odds right there. But it's winter time here and I am sort of like a bear. All I want to do is go to sleep for a few months. And just for something interesting I found bear shit in my back yard last November. It's hard to tell if it was a black bear or a grizzly but it was a sizable pile so it was a big one whatever it was. Across the street there is a choke cherry tree that was full of fruit and the shit was just full of pitts. For a awhile I was having my son look out the window before he went outside at night and to make noise when he did go outside.
I did make some progress with my pain control issues. I thought I had it licked. One day I was totally pain free and only took 15mg of morphine in the late afternoon just so I wouldn't go into withdrawals. But the next day I was hurting like it was the beginning of this adventure. This form of nerve damage is very strange to try and figure out. I have no clue what triggers the pain. But the fact that I did have a whole day pain free tells me I am improving. Sometimes I only take 30mg of morphine a day. 15mg in the morning and 15 in the evening. But other days I'm eating them like candy to keep from screaming.
What I really need to do is get my ass back in the gym. I haven't trained regularly in a few months now. I have gone to workout but it's only a day or two not a regular schedule. So that's my New Years resolution.
I'm going to do two workouts a day. In the mornings I am going to do Tai Chi Chuan and in the evenings I will alternate between Aikido and lifting. I actually used to be fairly good at Tai Chi. Many years ago I met Doc-Fei Wong at a continuing ed seminar. He asked me if I would participate in his tournament( He knew what school I trained at and who I was there). Well you just can't say I don't want to do your stinking tournament when it's the head of the school. So I said OK. He said he was sorry but he would have to charge me the entrance fee, it was like $15. I paid him right there and got the info on the time and place.
I didn't think much about it and showed up in a pair of cut off blue jeans and a tee shirt. Tournaments are very exciting and very energy filled. But to do good Tai Chi you need a calm mind. So I went into the back of the mens showers so I didn't get caught up in the energy. I was warming up and a guy came in and said his plane from Germany had been late and he asked if he could take a shower. I said sure and wondered why this guy was here from Germany. Then another guy came in and said his plane from Japan had been late and asked if he could take a shower. I was wondering why these guys had come from so far away. I started asking around and found out it was international competition and everybody, except me, was wearing costumes. Like in Olympic skating or something like that.
Well to make a long story short I came in fourth. I was one tenth of a point out of third and nine tenths of a point out of first. There were four of use all clustered within one point of first place and I was the only white guy in the top ten.
It's like the song says "The dreams of an old man are the deeds of a young man in his prime." So now it's up to me to make my dreams my deeds again. My son is nine and I'm working with him on Aikido. The basic concept of Aikido is similar to Tai Chi Chuan. When attacked get out of the way. In Aikido they call it getting off the line. Well we home school so we have get togethers with other homeschooling families. One young kid comes from a family that has some difficulties. He has two older brother that are severally handicapped. So he doesn't get a lot of time from his folks and he acts out a lot. He had rolled up some papers and was going around hitting other kids with it. But when he came to my son he just got off the line and the kid couldn't hit him.
If I would have started him off in something like Karate, I have rank in Goju Ryu karate, he would have started hitting the kid back, because that's what those schools teach, and there would have been problems. Parents get so weird when their young sons loose a fight. But this way there was no problems. I bought my son some weapons from Japan for Christmas. He got a new Bokken with leather wrapped handle and a new Jo. There is a place online called the bokken shop. They have some really nice weapons. I bought myself a Bokken made from compressed bamboo. What really surprised me was it was cheaper, even with shipping, to buy them from Japan then some place like Bu-Jin in Colorado.
Well I hope you are doing well and not relapsing so just take it one day at a time, Yea I should listen to that myself, and good luck to you.
Big_Joe
