Self-Offense

Video of Krav Maga in the boxing ring


Summer vacation from teaching allowed time to play with my teacher friends at the beach. On route, my girlfriends and I met at a mutually distant shopping center. Planning to use my car since I have the year-long beach sticker, they had snorkel gear and towels to load. Channel 12 News entered the shopping center's parking lot ahead of me. There had been gun-point hold ups at that K-Mart/Publix hub so the News team was an understandable visit.

Preparing for the summer, I bought a bright red bathingsuit. It was the first bathingsuit I bought in 4 years due to the impact the financial disaster 2007 had on me. No pool or beach time for me for 4 years. But I saved up for the beach sticker and shopped carefully for the bathingsuit. Looking for a company that caters to large women and creates feminine designs for them, I found one! 
"Just My Size" http://www.justmysize.com/ uses excellent materials and inventive engineering in their brassieres and bathing suits.
Since the red bathing suit I bought had a pretty flaired shirt, I don't wear other beachwear when going from my house to the sea.

Lynn Gordon, Channel 12 News, West Palm Beach,  saw me and Renee in the K-Mart shopping center and asked us to interview with her regarding the hold-ups at that center. Renee opted out because she was not a resident of the city but I agreed. Realizing I was standing in my red bathingsuit, I did my best to not get embarrassed. Getting close to the age of 60 and yet being willing to wear a red flare bathingsuit meant I had finally outgrown cultural taboos against women.

It was much more important to me to answer Lynn Gordon's good questions than shy away. Her questions were about how to protect ourselves.  I, Teacher ,was back from vacation.

Think about it: one woman Lynn Gordon interview bought pepper spray. Another woman bought a concealed hand-gun kept in her purse. Both tools are ok but not useable in a time frame of having a gun pointed at you. I enrolled in Krav Maga because my first defense if self - offense.

http://www.cbs12.com/news/features/palm-beach-county/stories/vid_348.shtml

The famous comedian, Carol Burnett, was interviewed many years ago. She said the best start to dealing with a perpetrator is to become "the crazy woman". She said this puts the robber off game. I used this technique in New York City when I was accosted at gunpoint. It was the edge I used to stay alive.

Krav Maga's philosophy is that you have the right to your life. This means you have the right to be offensive.

After my 3 introductory lessons, I signed up for membership. I wear the b&w Krav Maga t-shirt now. 

Horse Sense for Human Aches

In the early Spring of 1994, my horse veterinarian put me on equine glucosamine and chondroitan sulfate. I was developing  an early form of arthritis. Standing up from a squat position was unsuccessful without pain, if at all.  The chondroitan sulfates and glucosamines were not on the shelves for humans  yet. No one in the health food stores knew about them.  Horses had them because horses are very special people. Their performance on the track produced a research industry in medical supplements that is often ahead of the race against human products. 

After my veterinarian's suggestion, doctors and pharmacists that treat humans checked the products I bought. The medical team declared them safe for humans.  About two years later, health food stores began to stock them. And about a  year after that,  local supermarkets followed the trend. Now they are plentiful on the shelves. But I like my Equine stores the best for price and reliable quality.

I buy 3 jars of 1 lb each to avoid shipping charges. This lasts me  about a year and a half.

As far as doses, since a big scoop is for horses, I put about a flat teaspoon of the powder in my cereal 1x day. It is not flavored and it dissolves readily.

Supplements are not medicine. Usually it takes about 6 weeks for the body to begin to notice a difference. Since I have been treating myself with these supplements from 1994, I have reasonable range of movement when I haven't pulled a muscle. 

 

Check out this Drug.com link for precautions due to allergies of the product. 

 http://www.drugs.com/vet/aniflex-complete.html

Various equine suppliers sell AniFlex Complete. Compare prices and shipping. Stateline is one of my favorites. As a Florida resident, I have to pay tax.

http://www.statelinetack.com/item/animed-aniflex-complete/SLT700310/

Snake-Ums

  Snake-um

This young snake was in the road at the barn. Both managers were unsure what it was. It was not venonmous ("poisonous" was the word the she-manager used....incorrect when not eating snakes...snakes can be venomous. "Poisonous" refers to ingestion only). 

The head was not a triangle or diamond shape and there was no hint of tail rattle. 

Determining that it was non-venonmos, I assured the managers it was a variety of ratting snakes which is good for our environment of the barn. Familiar with Rat Snakes and Corn Snakes, I wasn't certain of this one. It was more aggressive in protecting itself from cowboy boots than the more placid Corn Snake, which I can usually pick up when confronted.  This was a rapid mover. 

So I bagged it. Punched holes in the baggy, I photographed it for DaggerWing Nature Center to get back to me on the variety.

Taking it down the road where humans were not horsing around, I set it free.  It surprised me. It did not take off at the run (fast slither). It turned to me, flickering it's red forked tongue and started to move towards me tongue-smelling the underneath of my boots. 

It did this to both boots and then it turned away and went into the grass ditch.

DaggerWing reported back to me that Donald, former director of DaggerWing Nature Center and snake specialist said it was a young Black Racer. Ah...that explains the aggressiveness. 

Black Racers are great snakes but not domestic. Corn and Rat snakes can be pets. Black Racers dislike human interaction. They are not aggressive unless cornered. Then a bag, a pillow case, a towel thrown over it will do the job of removing it from the site without needing to kill it. 

They are common to South Florida. I have them around my residence and they are welcome here. They eat mice and rats. Usually they are seclusive. 

 http://www.snakesandfrogs.com/scra/snakes/racer.htm