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Winter is getting close. Monday was a bout 35F (2C) as I left the house yesterday morning for an “All Day Monday In Town” day.
DND game. Workout at the home dojo with Sensei. Late lunch. Root beer across the street from the school dojo. Class. Groceries on the way home. Collapse.
Working on Iron Shirt, so letting an 11-year-old punch me in the stomach as part of training drills. (Block. Clear. Bap. Bap.) He’s learning to actually try to hurt someone (kid’s an artistic soul), and I need the practice. Don’t even hurt this morning, but can tell you he was punching the right side of my stomach and not the left.
Never got warm yesterday. I park the car at the middle of town, then walk down to a coffee shop a few blocks away after breakfast. Sit in there and write for an hour or so, then meet the nerd herd.
Walked by a pavilion on an empty lot that the city leaves up. Last year, this time, I was training under it at odd hours. Whenever Sensei had space in his floating schedule. Remembered a morning when it was snowing and we were bundled up doing kata. Had to write an essay, meditating on that day and on the use of violence itself as a tool.
I am literally writing a book called “My Blackbelt Journey” filled with these essays in real time as I learn things and as he adjusts his curriculum. (And I have lots of notes, so I can prove it when he denies changing anything, but that’s a different story for him to tell.)
Worse, he showed up and called when he saw my car, then walked down to the shop, and also had those same thoughts about the pavilion and cold weather. But it was a dojo day, and we talk dojo things in the spare time.
Writing has me working on the thriller a bit (slower going) and A’Zedi Survey Corps 3. Should finish that in a week or so, because those go fast. Lots of other ideas, and things to publish and write.
Heather 1 is out for preorder: https://www.knottedroadpress.com/products/warlord-of-yaumgan
There is also a unit patch for Shanhai Pass (Heather’s flagship). And those are easier to do these days, so we will be adding patches as merch in the store. Red Branch is the one I’m looking forward to, but also figuring out how to do an easier version of Auberon that looks better (the old one is pretty, but the CNC sewing machine can’t keep up.)
Not much past that. It’s Taco Tuesday somewhere. And it is November 25, which would have been Donna’s birthday. Lost her to breast cancer in 2008 and I miss her, but life goes on and she ordered me to make sure I enjoyed myself, so I’m working on that.
You do the same.
Chat more later.
shade and sweet water,
b
West of the Mountains, WA
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