I have resumed my new routine of pull ups at the playground across from Tufts Medical Center T stop. The playground is for bigger kids, but Jonah can navigate it unassisted pretty well. In between my pathetically low number of pull ups I do Kung Fu, slow first, well actually pretty slow the whole way through. I do it as a stretch, a warm up, a bit of light cardio. But a warm up to what? Certainly not a more rigorous work out. By the time I have "warmed up" it is time to move on to other playground's or just another activity. Jonah does not stay interested in this playground by himself for long.
As I threw pows cups and a stiff bodied jump kick this older black man, maybe 40 or 50... heck maybe 60. A lot of black people look much younger than they are.. was like, "Okay." as he passed by, looking at me from behind the playground structure, as I did stuff with Jonah still in my vision. I more or less freestyled it, taking combinations out of the forms. But doing it in a way that can't be called shadow boxing. Not really. I don't do it that explosively. Like I said it was more of a stretch and warm up, but faster than an internal way of doing it. I didn't have the focus for that. My focus was on Jonah, who was occupied by the Tic Tac Toe wheels, that was near a ledge.
"Okay" he said.
I either said "what" or "okay" or something of the sort back.
"I do that too." he said smiling
and I smiled back an " okay" as I continued my moves.
I don't know if he was saying, I was okay or only okay, or my idea of working out at a playground was okay.
I just know that what I was doing probably wasn't that impressive. Actually another time I did a jump kick and this old Chinese guy started clapping and gave me the thumbs up. But I know that with my kicks, especially recently, I look like a beginner student. Mainly because my legs are just stiffer than they were. i can feel that the muscles aren't smoothly doing the motion that I want them to do. But what am I going to do. Not kick in public? The only way to get more flexible and get the motion smoother is more kicking. Which means throwing my awkward kicks when I have the chance. Which at the playground when my child is distracted and where Anyone passing by is free to judge and issue comment.
just take them positively no matter what they mean.
The man watched me for a while, but soon I had to stop. Not because he was watching, but because Jonah had started coming over to the ledge and saying, "X's!... O'ses! I see you!!!" when he wasn't right at the ledge I just repeated what he said or taled with him while still doing my moves, but when he came right to the edge I had to put my hands up. He wasn't going to jump, but he was leaning forward while depending on the metal bars he was gripping to keep him from falling. If for some reason his grip slipped or his feet slip because he leaned over too far... well anyway, my hands were up just in case.
Jonah moved on to slides and other things and by that time my audience had moved on to, bored or done with me.
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