And the hits keep rolling

Trying to think back over the Nationals weekend and come up with a general theme. Not being much of a writer (not all Steve's are named Perry) the best I can come up with is it was one series of great moments after another. Just when I thought this will be one of the most memorable moments, another would come along.



Thursday


Leaving for the Airport bears discussion.


First I was quite concerned and extremely distressed to find that my teacher Mushtaq would not be making the journey with us. I kept telling myself Randy was pulling a fast one on me. But moreso, he was quite sick and we were all concerned that he was going to get worse and we were off selfishly having fun.


I asked my wife what time she thought I should leave for the airport as she does a fair bit more flying than I do. She said 7:30. In answer to my query why, she said "cause knowing you, you won't leave till 7:45". Right. Well, I'll show her.


I had all the bags packed in plenty of time so I wasn't rushed to leave and forgetting something. I told Cole to go warm up the truck. When he came back in I didn't hear it running. You guessed it. Keys were locked in it. After some frantic searching for the spare, Cole brilliantly suggested calling Onstar instead. Bright boy that one. They had it unlocked in 5 minutes and we were on our way by 7:43.


Now why is this so significant? I had just called Onstar a week prior to let them know I probably wouldn't be continuing on with them after my initial year as it was too expensive for the few benefits I got.


Boy, the possiblity of missing my plane sure changed that eh?


But I got to thinking, if they can remotely unlock my truck, can't they just as easily remotely LOCK my truck to make me realize I really do want them???????





When we left is was a bloody cold 20degrees.
LA however was a comparatively balmy 65. I stayed in shorts until midnight 5 days later.

After some sprited driving around LA (abought 2 hrs at 15mph) we arrived at the Best Western (hey, they had a hot tub!).
Afer a quick check in, we headed of for the first momentous point. Seeing my good friend Roger Agbulos.
Roger and I met several years ago by phone and hit it off quite well. We've stayed in frequent, fond contact and Roger has also aided me in some high quality distance learning as well as council as to who I am and where I'm going. Needless to say, we were both pretty geeked to finally meet in person.
Roger is one of Edger Sulite's Lameco Orihinal backyard students. In that tradition, he and his wife graciously hosted our group in their home and spread out the Filipino food. Roger has a beautiful house and great patio surrounded by fruit trees to train in. As an additional treat, my good friend Master Gabe Rafael and son Gerald of Upakan Bara Bara were in town for Nationals and dropped in as well, also being friends of Roger.
And yet even further as a show of our friendship Roger invited top US Tapado Instructor Joe (dammit, dammit dammit, I can't remember his last name!) along for the night as well.
I really enjoyed meeting this skilled, quiet gentleman and having him grace us with a demonstration of Tapado. It was something I was always curious of, videos not doing it justice. I now have a dramatically improved understanding of the power and concepts. It is the real deal.

Myself, Guro Gabe, Guro Roger, Guro Joe.
Interestingly, Joe took a fond liking to the Navadisha movements I showed, saying "that is the old way". That's why we're doin' it!
Roger also demonstrated his concepts from his system Astig assisted by his student Marco. I don't know if the kids grasped it all but I have video of both of them which I won't post here out of respect.
The only downside was that by the time we left it was 2AM at home and the kids were pretty worn out. Me, for once I could have stayed another 5hrs. It was certainly an experience the kids won't get every day in the midwest.