Fear the shoes.

This is the eldest daughter at her sword fighting lesson. It was bout night, and she is sparring with one of the instructors. We spend the whole day in Tulsa on sword fighting nights, and before we leave town we remind her to wear appropriate clothing for fencing. I guess that means girlie red shoes and velvet pants. (Thanks to Marc Carlson for picture.)

Libraries

The sword fighting lessons Sophia and I go to on Tuesdays are held at the Tulsa Library. We went down early today so that I could turn in an application to the library. I'm looking for a part time gig shelving or any thing like that. The pay sucks, but I am seriously considering going back to school to get an MLS (Master of Library Science), and would like some experiencing working in a library before I jump off the deep end, even if it is just scut work. Anyway, the lesson got bumped by a library event, but they forgot to notify us. Oh well, half a day wasted. On the birding front, Sophia pointed out that my lists didn't have House Sparrows on them. Of course we've seen them, and heard them, and cursed them. Make that 28 year birds for the family. I'm too tired to do a manuscript tonight. Maybe two tomorrow.

Swords and stuff

After several years, I finally convinced my family that the Tulsa library is superior to the Bartlesville library. For the last year or so, we have been making a weekly trip to the downtown library. Late last summer, as we were leaving, we noticed some people swinging swords about in the Aaronson Auditorium. It seems we had found the Tulsa School of Defense, a group of people dedicated to the study of western martial arts. They do German longsword, German side sword, and rapier. Now it happens that Sophia has wanted to learn fencing since before she was five. We were signed up on the spot. I am attending also. Now, many years ago, I did a little heavy weapons fighting in the SCA. I sucked. Actually I didn't do it long enough to know if I would suck or not, but I did get beat on a lot. Never won a fight. Not sure that I ever landed a good blow. I have been treating these lessons as a kind of Tai Chi with a stick. Actually getting hit or hitting someone wasn't really something I thought about. Last night was bout night, when the students go out and put theory into practice, and, as usual, I watched. During some of the time between bouts one of the instructors took Sophia and I the side and started to work with us. Started asking questions like "If you are in left Pflug and your opponent comes at you with right Zornhau, what do you do?" They are expecting me to let someone try and hit me! I'm afraid my responses usually would have had me dead. Sophia, on the other hand did much better. She got the right guard every time. She is also getting to be faster than me. Is it wise to teach your children to use weapons, when they might be better at it than you?