Greetings From Southern California

Greetings from Southern California.  Melissa and I have now been away from NY and the Dojo for just over a year.  Although we miss our Dojo friends and I miss working out with everyone at the Dojo, we are very happy in SoCal thus far.  We are near our kids and will be near the grandkids when they start arriving….perhaps as early as next year.  Although I have not joined a new Dojo, I have stayed active by regularly running, biking, swimming, lifting, and stretching most days of the week.  And yes, occasional sessions of practicing Katas have been thrown in as well.

We have been lucky to have kept in contact with a few of you by email, FaceTime, telephone, and even have seen some Dojo people in person.  When we first were moving out to SoCal, Melissa told Sewell we were temporarily going to rent in Temecula and Sewell replied that was where Julaine Benedict (a past Mt. Kisco Dojo Captain) lived.  So after we drove across the country and landed in Temecula we contacted Julaine and met her and her husband Ken several times before moving to our current house in Laguna Niguel.  In late May we took a road trip visiting seven US National Parks, four MLB baseball parks, and a few museums, with the returning leg bringing us through Tuscon, AZ.  This happens to be where Dave Bantel (coincidently the Co-Captain with Julaine) lives, so we visited with Dave and his wife Alexis.  Finally, before we moved across the country, we had known that Nancy Beckerman (one of the distinguished newsletter editors) visited a relative in SoCal regularly.  As it turns out, her aunt lives in the next town from where we ended up.  So recently we got to visit with Nancy on one of her western trips and hope to get together with her in future trips.

So we may not be at the Dojo in NY, but we haven’t lost connections and hope to stay in touch going forward.  Finally, we plan to travel to the East Coast in May and certainly will look to visit the Dojo.  Until then, perhaps we will see more Dojo members who are traveling out west.

Osss.

Jon Light and Melissa Waters