Another rainy day. Paving wet and slippery. Tried to leave the safety of the wall but it just wasn’t happening tonight. I am picking up a bit of speed and doing more locomotion by pedalling rather than pulling myself along the wall, which is a good thing. My thumbs should soon be back to normal. I did have a pass or two across the paving, supported by my brother, but I settled for riding between brother and wall, my hand on his shoulder, my other hand brushing the wall. I don’t know who’s more worried about falling - him or me. I had to keep on telling him to stop putting his arm around my waist as it was distracting me from the task at hand.
Tomorrow I am going to shut the dogs in the garage when I practice. They seem to think that it is their job to stand in front of me and have a lie down, fight with each other, stand and stare at me, or generally get in the way. THEN the 4YO decided to get in on the act and “help” me by first yelling supportive phrases through the security gate, then screaming to be let out to get a better view, then running round yelling at the dogs to get out of the way. It is not easy to keep your mind on balancing when you’re trying to avoid running down your daughter. Perhaps I should shut her in the garage tomorrow too? (only joking - no need to call Child Welfare or anything)
All in all not that successful a day. Tomorrow will be better.
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 11:47:46 -0600, Jayne ZA wrote:
>I had to keep on telling
>him to stop putting his arm around my waist as it was distracting me
>from the task at hand.
Indeed he should OFFER support such as a hand or shoulder rather than
IMPOSING support on you. You have to do the balancing yourself or
you’re not learning.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Heck, even my toes were aching from trying to grip the soles of my shoes! - Tommy Thompson”
Re: Re: Learning to ride on a Coker (Day 3-24 Feb)
Exactly! I’m at the point where I’m about an arm’s length from the wall, and just touching it with my fingers. I’m not quite confident enough to have him holding his arm out to me, but I’m sort of resting my hand on his shoulder and releasing my grip when I feel able. At times I feel like I’m pushing him away from me as he’s crowding me a bit.
Tonight I think I’ll ask him to bend his arm and hold his elbow out to me, kind of the way you see ladies being escorted in to dinner in the old movies. That will give me a firmer support than a hand, but will help stop him getting so close. The problem is that he is quite big (just over 6 foot with a build to match) and needs a spot to put his arm when I am resting my hand on his shoulder.
I’ll give that a go tonight and let you know how it works.
Re: Re: Re: Learning to ride on a Coker (Day 3-24 Feb)
if he has his arm in this position and u take his hand and rest your elbow on his elbow (forearm really, but u know what i mean), u’ll have some added leverage available when u want it
the next step would then be for him to hold his hand flat, palm up, and for u to rest your flat palm on his to futher reduce the amount of support u use without removing the potential stabillity of having him there
Re: Re: Re: Re: Learning to ride on a Coker (Day 3-24 Feb)
Not unless the kids come too! He babysits while I have my night out. Michael would be fine, he’d sit on the stage and play his gameboy, but Jackie would just get in everybody’s way, especially mine. Whenever I think of taking her through I remember the poi-swinging moms and the accompanying kids who wound up bashing somebody’s clubs into a metal table because they were bored and mom wasn’t paying attention.
We really need to have a “family” night at the club, preferably during school holidays. Then we can all bring our offspring and significant others (where appropriate), have a pot luck dinner, make TONS of noise, maybe do some juggling but maybe not, and REALLY ANNOY the ballroom dancers for a change.
Your description was basically what I was planning to do. On Thursday I might just go with the wall, but then again I might be OK on my own by then. I can but hope.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Learning to ride on a Coker (Day 3-24 Feb)
if all else fails, i’d like to use the opportunity to prove that i’m not narked and offer a supporting arm
in the past, we’ve had ‘quiz evenings’ and ‘bingo evenings’ as fund raisers
then came the ciscus school and the need for fundraising diminished rapidly
now, the bar is doing so well, we may never have to do another circus school
the social evening does sound like a good fun idea
u know where to post that idea
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Learning to ride on a Coker (Day 3-24 Feb)
I knew you would, and I promise to try to treat your arm a little gentler than Pat did. I’m not sure if you’re tall enough, though. You might have to borrow Mark’s platform shoes.
Jayne
P S Will post the social evening idea to the juggling list later.
I’m not sure if you’re tall enough, though. You might have to borrow Mark’s platform shoes.