This afternoon I had planned to take some completed surveys to our scanning contractor, then drop the red car off at the shop for an oil change, and (stopping at Walgreens for trail mix if I had time) catch the Transit Authority of River City bus back to work. But I left late and realized I wasn't going to make the #43 bus, which I believe came once an hour. I chatted for about 20 minutes with Mary, one of the Firestone managers. Imagine my surprise when I walked out of Firestone and found the #43 bus on Broadway outside (a #19 TARC bus pictured above top). But I couldn't see the bus stop, and the bus plowed forward west on Broadway. I took off across the street to chase it down. As I sprinted for the block between Preston and Brook, I saw that the light at Brook and Broadway turned red as the bus got to Brook, and so I made the bus easily. But the driver realized I was the person outside the bus the block before, and she apologized. And it turns other riders had actually watched me race behind and aside the bus, and so a number of them congratulated me for making it. The driver actually gave me my money back as I got off - ironically, just a few blocks down the road, as I headed for the Shell station to buy trail mix, and then to work.
Instead of taking the bus again, I drove home from work in time to take Vincent to do something he hadn't done at least since fall - and probably since last school year: go to his Shaolin Kempo martial arts (a mix of Karate and Kung fu) class for the third time in one week. We pay tuition for him to go three times a week. But what - with rehearsing for the 10-Minute Plays, preparing for the Kentucky United Nations Assembly, being sick constantly, and what not - he's been lucky to get there even once a week this winter. I consider Kempo an important part of his regimen for combating mediocre cholesterol counts (especially since physical education classes ended after his first semester of high school) (Vincent also sometimes walks or rides his bike to and from the martial arts school) and another opportunity to sustain friendships with adults and other kids. Master Joan (Rickert) (pictured above middle in fighting position at the school) and her colleagues are great teachers and a good influence on Vincent (even while he learns - potentially - how to beat people up. It also continues something he's been doing off and on since soon after he and Stephanie moved to Florida: taking martial arts classes (mainly the Korean Tae kwon do - even as a class in 8th grade!). It also helps sustain an interest of his in Asian culture, what with anime, manga, food, and martial arts.
Instead of taking the bus again, I drove home from work in time to take Vincent to do something he hadn't done at least since fall - and probably since last school year: go to his Shaolin Kempo martial arts (a mix of Karate and Kung fu) class for the third time in one week. We pay tuition for him to go three times a week. But what - with rehearsing for the 10-Minute Plays, preparing for the Kentucky United Nations Assembly, being sick constantly, and what not - he's been lucky to get there even once a week this winter. I consider Kempo an important part of his regimen for combating mediocre cholesterol counts (especially since physical education classes ended after his first semester of high school) (Vincent also sometimes walks or rides his bike to and from the martial arts school) and another opportunity to sustain friendships with adults and other kids. Master Joan (Rickert) (pictured above middle in fighting position at the school) and her colleagues are great teachers and a good influence on Vincent (even while he learns - potentially - how to beat people up. It also continues something he's been doing off and on since soon after he and Stephanie moved to Florida: taking martial arts classes (mainly the Korean Tae kwon do - even as a class in 8th grade!). It also helps sustain an interest of his in Asian culture, what with anime, manga, food, and martial arts.
(For video on goings-on at Vincent's martial arts school, click here: http://pl.youtube.com/graychuan or here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qABzVkGzJlA&feature=related )
Speaking of activity, neither running nor fighting really your cup of tea? How about swimming? My friends, colleagues, and former neighbors in the Phoenix Hill Neighborhood Association have been raising a ruckus about the city's budget-cutting proposal to close a number of neighborhood pools, mainly in working-class, inner-city neighborhoods - like my old neighborhood - around town. They helped get the Louisville paper to run a front-page story and - today - an editorial about the threatened closings, and today apparently CBS News also ran a piece about it. The Breslin pool is in the neighboring Irish Hill neighborhood, very near Phoenix Hill. It (along with the Presbytis one of the few such facilities left in the areas, after the city closed the library in neighboring Shelby Park and others closeda community center in the old Clarksdale housing project in Phoenix Hill and another couple of other centers in neighboring Butchertown. Our friends have also helped recruit two area businesses to contribute money to try to keep the pools open. It's very hot in the summer in Louisville, and the kids are home from school, and - although we've never been to this public pool - we hope there is a way to keep it open. (My old Phoenix Hill apartment is pictured above bottom.)
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