Completed 20 push-ups pretty easily.  It’s amazing to me, even after a couple of months, that my push-ups are still not very good on a regular basis, but that some days, like today, are significantly better than others.

The two qi gong forms went about as well as expected.  In the tai chi form, I’m up to Bounce the Baby on the Knee, moving on from yesterday’s maneuver, Heel Kick,  and tomorrow’s Box Ears with Fists.  (I also note with minor disappointment that yesterday’s Hymn to Vulcan seems to have passed more or less unnoticed).

Anyway… this morning I did tai chi and the related exercises, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn’t write the poem.  So here I am, doing so at nearly 5:00 in the afternoon.  The movement involves ending the kick with the heel, and then planting the left foot, lifting the right foot, and bringing the fists together to a position on either side of, but above, the lifted right knee.  Anyway, here we go:

Plant the left foot firmly upon the floor,
and gradually move your mass to that sole.
Shift the weight fully, press down even more;
lift both hands to the right, and make them whole
fists, each of them ready, and apt to strike.
As weight shifts, swing both hands downward, and left:
hands aligned, and both fists firmly alike;
Swing both from the waist, lending extra heft.
As both fists reach the nadir of their course,
let them bounce. And next bring the right knee up.
The chi between your hands, bring down with force
atop the knee. Your thumbs are out and up,
or maybe with palms grasping empty air,
or seizing a foe’s ears, fingers, or hair.

Gaah.  Ugly image popping up in the last couple of lines.  Scary. But probably right, at least as my teacher explained it to me.

My Lady and I have some friends who celebrate their wedding anniversary every year by attending the Cummington Fair demolition derby (run by Stoney Roberts).  I don’t know how long they’ve been cheering on the car-wrecking crews, but it’s been at least five years. A trio of years ago, I was invited to go along, and I went reluctantly.  I became, almost overnight, an enthusiastic supporter of cars revving their engines and slamming into one another backwards (to protect the engine, and the driver, as long as possible in the game).  Yesterday was the event; the best part of it was the mini-vans and the six cylinder heat.

Due to our relatively-distant seats, I had to use the extreme zoom function on my iPhone to get any pictures at all. But given that we’re talking in this entry about Bounce the Baby as a smashing technique, for forcing your foe’s face into the flat of your thigh, I figured that some (blurry) photos of some car smash-ups would be entirely appropriate.

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