Belt testing for Taekwondo.

Got the test secured for next Saturday. Fees all paid up, and my eldest is actually practicing unprompted in preparation for her exam. They have punch combos, kicking combos and two patterns to do for the test. Plus a sparring session and a board breaking feat of strength to perform. Should be a whole lot of fun. I believe that had we started a week or two sooner she would be testing for her green belt now and not the stripe. But I’m proud of her for advancing by one belt nonetheless.  Progress is progress. We aren’t here to judge our own progress against others. That path lies madness. I’m just glad she is trying hard, and sticking with it for atleast 2 or 3 nights per week every week, thus far. Made the expense more palatable knowing she is following through on it.

Here we are – again. Saturday morning. One child slept in, the other awake since just before dawn. I was out late so I didn’t wake up until 8:00am. Have been getting private pattern #1 & #2 lessons off of my eldest daughter. It’s a whole lot of twisting, punching, kicking, and arm movements all while paying attention to the height of punches, blocks, and kicks, and the direction your feet are facing for any one movement.

I’m thinking I should swap over my wife’s winter tires today. I just don’t know if she has to go, or be anywhere earlier today. I’m going to need atleast an hour, maybe more to swap them all out. Hm.

Yeah turns out about 75 minutes to swap them all over, torque them down to the appropriate 140 ft lbs, and then check the air pressure on all four tires is my magic number. Needed a little ugga-dugga help from my impact wrench that can bust out 1150 ft lbs of nut busting power. Otherwise I could back off all but two lug nuts myself unaided. Having the tool to take the nuts 90% of the way both off and on helped to save my wrists. Always good to save my wrists. It did drizzle briefly twice over the course of those 75 minutes, but being nearly 10°C it wasn’t much of an issue. My 3 ton jack didn’t have any issues with my wife’s GMC terrain. I should probably buy a second wheel chock though. My one truck sized chock works well, but the vehicles to rock a fair bit when you give the wrenches the beans.

Not going to say I told you so, but my back aches worse this time around, because it wasn’t 100% healed after I did my own tires the first time, and I’ve gone and tweaked it again from an unpleasant starting point. Get the Voltaren! Rub down on aisle three! I need a hot tub and a masseuse. Gag! Thanks – I hate it.