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Students learn art of self defenseBy EILEEN SCHULTE © St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 1999 State Street had gone to sleep for the night. With no moon to keep an eye on it, it was a dark and still Tuesday evening. Not a sound came out of the fire station, and everyone at City Hall had packed up their cell phones and briefcases and gone home. There was no sign of life on the street except for a lone dark-haired man, Steven Weber Jr., who could be clearly seen through the windows of the Recreation Center, wearing a white martial arts uniform cinched with a black belt. He was sitting calmly at an empty table waiting for his students to arrive. Every Tuesday and Friday evening at the center, Weber, 27, teaches a group of about eight students Nihon Goshin Aikido, a Japanese martial art for self-defense consisting of throws, joint locks, nerve pressure points, blocks, strikes and weaponry. Weber, who lives in New Port Richey, has been teaching at the recreation center for about a year. He started learning martial arts skills at age 8 and is now a second-degree black belt. He also teaches at Aikido Academy of Self Defense, a facility operated by his father, Steven Weber Sr., the southeast director of the Nihon Goshin Aikido Association. Although Weber says five to eight students usually come to each class, only two showed up Tuesday night. "It's a small town and a slow area," Weber said. First Mike Hoehn, 41, walked in in his white uniform sans belt and asked Weber if he could borrow one. Weber shook his head, and told him there was not a spare belt in the building. So, to pass the time, Hoehn grabbed a broom and started pushing it around the floor. Hoehn is a maintenance worker for Lake Seminole Estates in Seminole. He lives in Indian Rocks Beach and says he has made the long drive to attend Weber's class for eight or nine months because "this is the strongest Aikido (course), so I come here." With three years of martial arts training, Hoehn is currently training to get his blue belt, and hopes to take the test in two months. Has he ever used his skills? "Ask my brother," Hoehn laughed. "No, no, no, I don't go many places to put myself in a position like that." Then Loren Markle, 13, came in wearing his white uniform held tight by a blue belt. Markle is an eighth-grader at Carwise Middle School in Palm Harbor. He says he has never had to use his skills to fend off an attacker in school, although he thinks he can now easily defend himself and is taking Weber's class to "try something (new) out." He and his mother took tae kwon do classes at another facility before enrolling at the recreation center, but Markle says he likes Aikido better because the discipline offers more holds and locks and more options when defending an attack. Markle's mother no longer participates in martial arts. "I'm hoping to go to black belt, but you have to be 16 to get a black belt," Markle said. Blending, which is coming in close to an attacker and redirecting his own momentum against him, is the most important technique Weber teaches in his courses. "The calmest part of the hurricane is the eye," he said. "You want to get out of striking distance." That is the Aikido way; the name means the way in harmony with the spirit. Weber said his students learn to carry themselves with confidence in a non-threatening manner, so "you don't seem like a magnet for conflict." "We teach you to defend against the bully, not be the bully," Weber said. "This particular art is a self-defense art, not a sport." If you would like to participate in Weber's class, you can call the Aikido Academy of Defense at (727) 849-8800. City council candidates to speak at forumThe Greater Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce-sponsored candidate's forum will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Oldsmar City Council chambers, 106 State St. W All five candidates vying for two City Council seats -- Tony Ringelspaugh, Ed Richards, Jerry Provenzano, Jerry Walters and Mike Rockwell -- will be present, and each will make a speech. The forum is free and open to the public. Chamber volunteers find luck playing LotteryIt pays to be a Greater Oldsmar Chamber of Commerce volunteer, executive director Kevin Gartland said after two of his member volunteers picked five of six winning numbers in the $67-million Florida Lottery drawing Feb. 6 Dave Ormiston and Dana Dooley were two of 965 people who picked five correct numbers. Ormiston, the chamber treasurer, almost never buys a lottery ticket. The last time the self-described non-gambler bought one was about six months ago. But when the Feb. 6 lottery jackpot hit $67-million, he couldn't resist the urge to purchase 100 tickets. "I said, "What the heck?' " Ormiston recalled. Then Ormiston, a certified public accountant with the John A. Dougherty accounting, taxes and consulting firm, did what any accountant would do: Instead of stacking his tickets on a table and checking each one individually by hand, he calmly waited for the Sunday paper to arrive. When it did, he copied the winning numbers down. Then he opened up his computer and made a spread sheet, entering the winning numbers and the numbers on each ticket he bought. He put little x's under each number that matched a winning number. "I deleted the columns that weren't winners," Ormiston said. "I saw a three and a four and said, "Well, I got my money back.' " Then, luckily, he looked again and saw that five numbers matched, and now he is $1,383 richer -- before taxes. What is he going to do with the money? "I just bought a house in September," Ormiston said. "I'm going to build another deck, and (put in) some French doors." The house is on Edgewater Drive in Dunedin. Ormiston can see the water from his front yard, and there is a fruit tree in the back. Dooley is the sister of Rita Diehl, who is in charge of marketing and sales at the Oldsmar Chamber. Dooley moved to Tarpon Woods in East Lake from the tiny burg of Paris, Texas, in March 1998, after her husband, Charles, died suddenly of a heart attack. She endured the town, where there is "nothing to do but watch the cows and horses and the grass grow and the paint dry" for 30 years and said it is so boring, she's never going back, even for a visit. When asked about her near win, she just sighs and says "so close yet so far." She said she played the lottery in Texas for years and never got closer to a big win than a couple of tickets with three matching numbers. When the lottery in Florida reached an irresistibly high mark, she called her cousin and close childhood friend Ron Meredith in Wichita Falls, Texas, and asked him if he wanted to go in on a few tickets. He said yes, and they bought 50. When Dooley learned she had picked five matching numbers, she was so excited that she did something completely out of the ordinary. "I'm not a sweets eater, but I bought a big chocolate eclair," Dooley laughed. "It took me all day to eat it." She said she plans to pay her house, car and flood insurance with her winnings. The bills happened to arrive at the same time last week. Luck, it seems, can be short-lived. Magician to perform at Optimist Club luncheonDo you believe in magic? William Kahn, a local master magician, will perform tricks of his trade Feb. 18 for members and guests of the Noon Optimist Club of Oldsmar's luncheon Kahn, now retired, has led an interesting life, working at different times as a businessman, college instructor and chief photographer for TV Guide. He retired and moved to Florida in 1980. Since then, he has devoted much of his time to helping charitable organizations raise thousands of dollars by performing magic shows. He has raised more than $200,000 for his favorite charity, St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen. Kahn, who learned the mysteries of magic at age 16, will thrill audience members with a demonstration. It promises to be much more than the old rabbit in the top hat trick. The luncheon begins at noon in the private dining room of the Hillstown II diner in Countyline Plaza at Racetrack Road and Hillsborough Avenue. The cost is $5.50. For information or to make a reservation, call Katie Kalieta at (727) 944-2674. Library to have new carpeting put in Feb. 20On Feb. 20, the only reading patrons of the Oldsmar Public Library will be doing will be the sign on the door saying, "Sorry, we're closed. Only a select few will be allowed into the library that day. They won't be there for a book fix or to browse through an encyclopedia or cruise the Internet. Instead of looking at the shelves for favorite titles, they will be looking rather intently at the floor. On that day, the library will be closed to anyone who is not a professional carpet installer. "We don't want to do it, but it's more cost-effective," said Nancy Mellican, library director, about closing for the day. "We know everybody will understand." A few people have voiced their displeasure, but Mellican bets they won't stay upset for long, especially when they marvel at the floor. The new carpet will be laid on the first floor, and it will have an armadillo design. Most of the areas will be done in an intricate dark green and brown leaf pattern. But in the children's department, the pattern will be tweed-like, and the colors blue, gray and turquoise. The carpet has already been laid in the meeting room and behind the circulation desk. Gardener to demonstrate earthbox gardeningThe earthbox, a gardening system limited to containers, will be the subject of the Top of the Bay Garden Club's meeting at 6:45 p.m. Monday at the TECO meeting hall, 106 State St. E, Oldsmar Blake Whisenant of Ellenton will share his knowledge about growing vegetables and flowers in the compact 15-by-30-inch box. The meeting is free of charge and open to the public. Greeting gardeners at the door will be hostesses Florence Reynolds and Elsie Coy. For more information, call Elizabeth Smith at (813) 855-4070. Diehls loan 'Star Wars' collection to libraryWhen Rita Diehl sat transfixed in a darkened theater watching the film Star Wars for the first time, she had no idea she would have a son, Travis, 13 years later and the two would share a continuing love of the story Travis Diehl, an Oldsmar Little League player, was not even a glimmer in his mother's eye in 1977 when Darth Vader challenged Luke Skywalker for control of a fictional galaxy in the movie Star Wars. Rita Diehl was captivated by the movie, and has seen it more than 100 times. But she didn't just sit back and watch the characters cavort on the big screen, she started collecting the replicas, calling herself "the fanatical one." Travis, 9, an honor roll student at Oldsmar Elementary School in Sylvia Purvis' class, didn't quite understand his mother's Star Wars passion until he saw the classic movie himself, then he became hooked. He also started collecting figurines and now, between the two of them, they have two boxes of collectibles. It took three years to assemble the toys. "It's a little old and a little new," said Rita Diehl. Instead of keeping the collection to themselves, the Diehls decided to loan it to the Oldsmar Public Library. On Feb. 10, mother and son placed the figures gingerly in a display case in the lobby near the door. For a month, patrons will be able to study the toy assortment on their way into and out of the library. But the collection, sadly, is not complete. Missing is a certain braided beauty of the royal persuasion. "The one we don't have is Princess Leah," said Diehl. Orchestra to perform at Oldsmar ElementaryThe City of Oldsmar will present the Suncoast Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at Oldsmar Elementary School, 302 W. Dartmouth Ave., Oldsmar Conducted by Charles Harvey, the orchestra will perform a variety of well-known music with some drama mixed in, including Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev, narrated by radio personality Arthur Hansuld; Overture to Samson by Handel; Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchaikovsky; Moldau by Smetana; Remembering the Beatles, arranged by Louden; Over the Rainbow by Harburg-Arlen; and the William Tell Overture by Rossini. Tickets cost $3 in advance at the Oldsmar Public Library, 101 State St. W. You can buy them at the door for $5 on the night of the performance. For more information, call Laure Day at (813) 855-5940.
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