Rain and Travel

No run or bike ride today so far. The rain has been pounding down hard.

The next thing on the schedule is Jiu-Jitsu, but that will finish early. Might just be able to ride after I get home if the current break in the rain holds. We'll see.

Speaking of Jiu-Jitsu; my plan to finish my current level early is on track.

To pull it off, I will have to complete 19 technique units with private lessons and self training. After today, I will have 3 left to go. In a week, it should be down to 1. It will take a while to get the final unit done. We have some summer visiting interrupting my system for a bit, but I should be able to finish the last sometime in July. No prediction as to when.

By then I should have competed almost the entire level, except for the material on Back Mount. This will be covered at normal class in August and September.

Things would then shift into review and testing mode. I assume it will be done in the fall, and that I'll be successful.

Fall here can be very nice, and the weather often holds until well into November. Beyond that things can get cold, wet and dreary. For the last five years I've ridden my bike to work through the rainy, shortening days. No more.

The days will still grow painfully dark, and the cold will sink in. Christmas is equally cold and dark. Normally, we'd return to work after the holidays and again I'd ride to work unable to see beyond my bike's headlight, and return home with visibility almost as bad.

This won't happen, and not just because I've retired. Helen and I will return home, re-pack different stuff and head out again. No fears for our place while we're gone, as house sitters are already arranged.

We are heading south, like the stereotypical Canadian snowbirds. Down the coast we'll role, not noticing any weather change anywhere in Washington, Oregon, or northern California. Someplace south of San Francisco, however, it will stop seeming like winter.

I will be training twice daily at the main Gracie Jiu-Jitsu school in Los Angeles. Arriving with my level newly attained, and with no higher rank goals, I will immerse myself in the training. It should be glorious.

The training schedule has one class my level around noon, and another in the evenings. This will give Helen and I lots of fun time. There is so much to do in a place like LA I doubt we'll get bored.

By the time we head back, the worst of the dark and rain of winter around here will be over.