Yes, my birthday was a week ago, but I've been writing this blog in bits as I have time, so be thankful you're getting it at all. LOL That is also the official excuse for typos, grammatical errors and anything that just plain doesn't make sense.
Stuart and I both took the day off work and amazingly, I actually slept during my allotted sleeping in time. Stuart woke me up with breakfast in bed - yummy! I had a shower and then we took Ursa for a walk in the off leash park. The weather was gorgeous for once; sunny, warm and with just a light breeze. Good omens for the day.
Our next outing was to The Shooting Edge. Why? Well, it seemed like fun. I haven't shot any kind of gun since using air rifles with BBs in the back yard with Dad when I was about 8. Guns come up in discussion occasionally between me and Stuart, whenever we are talking about the declining state of the world or impending zombie apocalypse. Knowing a least a bit about guns, bullets and how to use them just feels like it can't be a bad thing.
The club offers year long memberships, but you can also go in on a pass and get the run down from one of their range experts. So off we went! I hadn't really thought about it in advance, but not surprisingly it was an awfully testosterone laden environment. I expected more in the way of education regarding the different types of guns, their strengths and weaknesses (when to use what type), how to pick a good one for you, etc. But no, it was pretty much point at the one you want, 5 minutes of best practice to not shoot yourself or others accidentally and away we go. Our range expert didn't even introduce himself, we learned his name from reading his id tag!
We started out with .9mm - I had a Beretta. Despite my fears vis a vis being completely hopeless at it, all my bullets actually hit the target at anywhere from 5-11 feet. We were shooting at human outlines and all but one of my 25 shots hit the "person" with most being grouped pretty well around the center of mass. It was weird but even when I was trying to aim higher, I couldn't get up to a neck or head shot. Practice definitely required! Then we tried out a shotgun - it was very short (about as short as legal) and had basically no sights - definitely designed for "home protection" and they only had slugs. There were a lot of things to try to remember, but even keeping it tucked as tight as I could into my shoulder, I definitely got bruised. Those things have a LOT of recoil. For the first shot, I was basically using the hand under the barrel as a rest and it kicked right out of my hand. I figured out that you really have to hold on!
We only did 5 shots each with the shotgun before switching back to the .9mm. Between the adrenaline and the fatigue, I was starting to shake. We did 25 more shots each and I tried to work on firing a little quicker. The range was full by then and I was getting rained on by .22mm brass - fortunately I didn't get any in my clothes but I was a bit concerned about scorched hair.
After that, it was time for lunch, so we headed over to our local pizza joint so I could use my free birthday pizza coupon. It turned out that Tuesday is their "as many toppings as you like" lunch special, so I got one with ham, shrimp, onion, green pepper, black olive, mushroom and pineapple - yummy! We took our leftovers back to the house and let Ursa out for her lunch. Then we puttered in the sunny back yard for a bit and I got our hammock set up finally. I LOVE having the stand, so you can move it wherever you like and it's super comfy.
Then we headed out again to use another birthday coupon, this one for a free Marble Slab ice cream cone - peppermint ice cream with Oreos. From there we headed to the theater to see Thor. The theater was under renovation so it looked a bit weird, but they'd already installed the comfy new reclining seats in the theater we were in, so that was ok. I really enjoyed the movie while we were watching it - it was over 2 hours long and it didn't feel like it at all. In retrospect, there were some aspects of it that I found annoying, but generally it was good. I'm looking forward to seeing the character turn up later Marvel movies.
After the movie, we headed home. I climbed into the hammock with a book while Stuart put dinner together and it was nice enough that we ate outside on the picnic table. We finished the day off by jumping in the car and taking Ursa to the Southland off leash park for her evening walk. The wind was really picking up by then, but we still had a good time.
It was one of the best birthdays that I can remember in ages and I can't thank Stuart enough for working so hard to make it happen!
2 comments:
Sounds like a very good day!
The only time Sweetie and I have done any shooting was at "ladies night" at a nearby gun range. They did take us through some basics about the weapons and which we might like to use. We ended up with a .38 Special and a 9mm, Glock I think. Sweetie preferred the 38 -- smaller and less recoil. I liked the feel of the 9. We did pretty well aiming at targets. Keep in mind that there is a reason cops aim for the body. They do not try for a head shot -- more likely to miss than hit.
There were men there too, including some young lads who were using something quite large and loud. But with a lot of women there, the atmosphere wasn't too terribly manly.
It's awfully easy to shoot a gun, eh?
It is pretty easy. I can absolutely see how someone could get caught up in the adrenaline and shoot someone else without really thinking it through.
And yes, if I actually wanted to shoot someone I would aim for center of mass for sure! But in the target shooting regard, I wasn't doing so well. LOL
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