The Purse

As we returned from picking up THEGIRL at the daycare tonight, I spotted a purse in the road.

Uh oh. I’d better stop and get that. Maybe some little old lady had it on top of her car as she drove. Gotta do the right thing, show the kids how we handle this.

I hoped there was some I.D. inside. I pulled into a driveway to turn around and go back for it.

Walking briskly up the road was, in fact, a little old lady.

“Ma’am, is that your purse?” I asked as she quickly closed in.

“Yes,” she said.

“Oh okay, we just wanted to come back and check on it,” I said.

And just as she reached for it—

ZIP!

It skidded off down a side street. In fact, only with the setting sun right there could I now see that about 50 yards of fishing line were tied to the purse. Two teenage boys were pulling the line, and just hauling ass up the road.

“The wind blew the purse, the wind blew the purse!” said Wolfboy.

For a fraction of a second I was indignant.

But then I just doubled over with laughter.

THAT was funny!

***

And that wasn’t her purse after all.

***

Wolfboy is better. He is most likely going back to the school tomorrow. He briefly had a 99.4 degree fever today, and that got him his only dose of Advil. He wants to return to school. “I want to learn about France!” he said.

***

I am having a bit of difficulty with this post, as my neck, an important part of my body, isn’t working right.

See…

I went to Muay Thai tonight. I enjoy it quite a bit. It’s physical, it’s new, it’s different… I think it dovetails with my Krav Maga training pretty well.

And before I get into the neck bit, let me just say that this was one of the top 10 hardest workouts I’ve had in my life. I’ve been busting my butt for two years to stay in shape, so that’s saying a lot.

We worked on the Thai clinch tonight, something I’ve always liked but never got a chance to DO much. As I go along and learn techniques, I find myself making note of what I do well and what I don’t do well. In my brief experience with the clinch, I felt like I did it well.

SO after a brutal 10 minute “warmup,” followed by a few rounds of kicks, we devoted the last half of the class to the clinch.

It was eight rounds of me and a kid of about 17 pummeling for position to get into the clinch. He was strong and he was good, and for a lot of that time I felt like I was supporting much of his weight with my neck. I got genuinely tied up a few times.

But in the last couple rounds something clicked. Elbows in, quick hands, base of the skull and pull him in… I tossed him around like a rag doll. Once I sunk it in he had almost nothing to counter. For those first six rounds he had an advantage, but after I figured out what I was doing it was all over.

You know me. I’m no Bruce Lee. I get my butt kicked plenty, and I admit it. Tonight, for once, I finally got the upper hand over an opponent.

But after all that, my neck muscles are worn out. If I don’t hold my head straight up it wants to flop forward like I’m made of rubber. Nothing popped, nothing’s tingling… this is just extreme muscle fatigue. I’ll be sore tomorrow, but I’d like to think this won’t be a heinous injury.

And I called Whit to remind him that again, somehow this is all his fault.

***

Drag out your favorite CD and give it a spin, folks. Enjoy life.

***

Good night.