05-15-2026, 09:32 AM
After 35+ years, the property was sold. It's choice real estate, right across from the hospital. The lot next door was raised for a mini-strip mall including a Starbucks and a Tortilla shop (which is quite good).
The school is owned by my KF brother Ted. His sigO Debbie used to be part of Logos, one of the truly great used bookstores here in the Cruz, but it closed years ago. But Debbie retained the skills as a bookseller and parlayed that into Plum Publications, a vendor of hard-to-find martial arts books, DVDs and VCDs (yes, that format is still in play in China). That's funded his school, so he didn't need students. He suffered a stroke a few years ago and has been on the decline. Honestly, it's very triggering for me because he is a good friend, but after what I went through with my dad, it hurts me to try to talk with him sometimes. He has a small group of maybe 2-3 dozen students. There are 3 other instructors, Linda, who is also a KF sibling (she and I trained under Wing Lam in the morning class together in the early 80s - that was a very special time), Karl, a Tai Chi teacher, and Nick, the Dean of 5 Branches University (a TCM school) who I'm having lunch with today. He's the youngest instructor and Ted's legacy really lies with him.
We moved Plum across the parking lot to another building that holds a tattoo shop and a women's center last Saturday. Finding a new home for the school is the next mission. We''l be working in a park for a while.
I had a special agreement with Ted. I just went and worked out. I don't participate in any classes. I've got so much stuff and I don't need to collect any new forms. I need to maintain and recover what I've learned. I've got a dozen+ forms that I work every week. But I'm lazy and need those other students to motivate me. It's a bit like a qi vampire, I confess, but I do what I can to motivate the others.
Now I'm in limbo with my Kung Fu practice. I'll go tomorrow, then I have two weekends off (Cali Roots and hot tub moving). Then we shall see where we land.
The school is owned by my KF brother Ted. His sigO Debbie used to be part of Logos, one of the truly great used bookstores here in the Cruz, but it closed years ago. But Debbie retained the skills as a bookseller and parlayed that into Plum Publications, a vendor of hard-to-find martial arts books, DVDs and VCDs (yes, that format is still in play in China). That's funded his school, so he didn't need students. He suffered a stroke a few years ago and has been on the decline. Honestly, it's very triggering for me because he is a good friend, but after what I went through with my dad, it hurts me to try to talk with him sometimes. He has a small group of maybe 2-3 dozen students. There are 3 other instructors, Linda, who is also a KF sibling (she and I trained under Wing Lam in the morning class together in the early 80s - that was a very special time), Karl, a Tai Chi teacher, and Nick, the Dean of 5 Branches University (a TCM school) who I'm having lunch with today. He's the youngest instructor and Ted's legacy really lies with him.
We moved Plum across the parking lot to another building that holds a tattoo shop and a women's center last Saturday. Finding a new home for the school is the next mission. We''l be working in a park for a while.
I had a special agreement with Ted. I just went and worked out. I don't participate in any classes. I've got so much stuff and I don't need to collect any new forms. I need to maintain and recover what I've learned. I've got a dozen+ forms that I work every week. But I'm lazy and need those other students to motivate me. It's a bit like a qi vampire, I confess, but I do what I can to motivate the others.
Now I'm in limbo with my Kung Fu practice. I'll go tomorrow, then I have two weekends off (Cali Roots and hot tub moving). Then we shall see where we land.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse