Days like this...

Gorgeous day. Not sure if we made another record or not, I'll take 80's in October any day.

Took Chael out for a 95 mile ride today. Went to my martial arts class, then headed out to look at the fall colors. Spent a good 2.5 hours out on the bike just wandering around. Been threatening to do that all summer and finally did it.

I'll admit that part of it I needed to get mileage and drive time to a potential new martial arts school. It's not that my current martial arts teacher is a bad teacher - far from it. There are some key differences in our opinions about chi - the body's energy field - and it's use in martial arts.

My current instructor does not believe in chi, or that the body's energy fields exist. I, on the other hand, do believe in the bio-electric field that I know for sure exists around and within the body. Hello, Quantum Touch instructor and Reiki Master Teacher, plus level three Spring Forest Qigong here? So, yeah, a bit disconcerting to find out he doesn't get it. What caused me to not pick up on this before, not sure, and at this point it doesn't matter.

What it does mean is that I've got until December to find a new instructor. I've paid through the end of the year and will keep going until then. Maybe I'll even continue after that. I do know I need to find someone that understands the energy flow and is open to me tweaking it once I understand the hows and whys of what they do.

One of the first people I want to talk to is the Boy's dad. He's been teaching since 1988 and has been doing martial arts for almost 40 years. I'm not fond of the idea of tae kwon do, but if doing that gets me what I am seeking, so be it.

If I do decide to go with the Boy's dad, it's a 70 mile round trip out to where he teaches twice a week. On top of class fees there's an additional 40 gallons of gas and 560 miles on my truck a month. At night. So another consideration would be weather, especially in January and February when it hits sub-zero for extended periods of time. Is he flexible if I miss class due to weather?

I shot an email off to the boy this morning asking him to forward my contact info to his dad. See if he does, or if I need to get after him - with only one brain cell functioning (so he says) his memory is a little short.

Then there's the furry boy, AB. He doesn't have hyperthyroid, but there are liver and kidney issues. I'm giving him canned food with extra water twice a day and adding milk thistle extract to his food to help with the liver functioning. He's mowing the food down, so he may not be noticing the milk thistle.

He's still a bit depressed without Tabby around. He's taken to sleeping on the bottom tier of a two tier cat hammock I bought for Raini and Shadow a couple years ago. He used to sleep in the living room recliner and be a bit of a pest when I was eating. Now he barely comes out of my room, except to use the litter box and eat.

I've got an appointment with our animal communicator next week. See what she can tell me about how Tabby is doing and what AB needs.