What A Time

to get a groin pull! A month before my black belt test, I have to go and pull a groin muscle. It actually happened Thursday night in class, though I didn't notice it until Friday. I was doing much better until yesterday when I ran through my kata. When I got to the jump kick in Chinto, I thought I'd ripped my leg off. It ended up worse than it was when I first did it. So now I have to take it really easy when I should be preparing for a shodan grading!

I still don't know when the test is going to be. Sensei is going to try to call Mr Worbington tomorrow and let us know something Thursday. James says if they try to have it June 10, he isn't going because he wants to go to the MKA tournament. He's the one who's been fussing about having to stay a brown belt for so long, and now he's going to skip his shodan grading for a relatively minor karate tournament. DUHHH!!!! I doubt his dad would let him do that anyway. I just need to know so I can get the day off of work, and so Carole can make her flight reservations.

A couple more honeysuckle pictures. This stuff is everywhere!

When I was growing up, our back yard fence was absolutely covered in honeysuckle vines. The flowers must have numbered in the millions. During the summer, we would be out there every day sucking the sweet nectar from the flowers. Unfortunately, we didn't leave enough flowers on the vines for them to get properly pollinated. Each year, the vine dwindled in size and the number of flowers, until it finally died altogether.

You might say, we sucked the life out of it.