Horse Hockey

Don't you just love Colonel Potter from the old M*A*S*H series? He could come up with some of the most colorful colloquialisms. I think horse hockey and monkey muffins were my favorites. And horse hockey describes perfectly well how I feel about what is going on at the dojo.

We'd planned all along for our black belt test to be in May or June. After much negotiation, we'd set the date at June 17th. I was there when sensei called Mr Worbington at the Greenville dojo and requested that date. Mr Worbington said that date was good. So we planned on June 17th. Carole went out and bought her plane ticket for the 15th. She was planning on flying in Thursday and staying through Sunday.

Mr. Bill Pogue had a seminar scheduled for June 3rd. Sensei had originally requested that date, but Mr Worbington said no. He said it would have to be one of the last two Saturdays in June, so we settled on the 17th.

Last week, Mr. Pogue rescheduled his seminar for the 17th. When sensei called Mr Worbington to make sure enough of the board would still be there to test us, he replied, "What are you talking about? I told you the test would be July 15th!"

Horse hockey!

Nobody ever said anything about July. We requested May or June. They said June, so we made plans for June. July never entered into the conversation. Nobody mentioned July...

Last week, sensei had said that if they try to change the date of our test because of the seminar being rescheduled, he would test us himself at our own dojo--which both James and I would prefer anyway, since that's the dojo we worked, sweated, and even bled in to get this far.

Tonight, sensei backed down from that. He said he wouldn't test us himself in our own dojo because it wouldn't be as recognized.

Horse hockey!

So now, I don't know what is going on. I don't know when our test will be, or even if we have one. James said he's not going to test if they keep changing their minds. I'm so fed up with the whole mess that frankly, I don't care if I test or not.

And that's not horse hockey.