No. 28: Learn to shoot a gun

No. 28: Learn to shoot a gun!

I did it!

Friend loves online auctions and one morning he asked "Didn't you say you wanted to learn to shoot?"  Yep, I sure did.  Soooooo..... he bid on a gun for me.  And I totally forgot about it.

Until the next morning when he announced I was now the proud owner of a Smith & Wesson 38 Special.  Uh, how did that happen again?

Isn't it cute? 

Anyway, the gun arrived, a membership to the gun club materialized and Voila! all I had to do was schedule myself for a class.

With all the traveling and the pandemic and, you know, life....I had not gotten around to it. Until I did. 

I signed myself up for the Women's Only Introduction to Pistols at Bristlecone Shooting range in Lakewood, Co.  This was the week. Four hours of instruction: two in the classroom and two on the range.

Now, I wanted to learn to shoot a gun because it just seems like a good thing to know.  I have no delusions that I will be packing heat on a regular basis but I did want to feel comfortable around them. And I do have a house in the woods surrounded by bears and mountain lions and ...ahem...a few crazy people.  Besides, aren't Texas girls supposed to know how to shoot? 

So I paid close attention during class and then nervously entered the range. There had been much discussion about "recoil" which was not something I realized I needed to worry about.

We dry fired our guns...practicing without bullets... before I got the lesson on loading and a review of safety rules and then...show time.

Geez, I was nervous. I pulled the trigger and screamed "F**K". (Thankfully only 3 of us on the range and no one seemed offended.)   It was at that moment that I realized I basically just set off some gun powder in my hand, barely encased in the stainless steel. And here is my first shot. 

If you're looking all over, 

let me just point out that one perfect hole in the center of the A.

Which was exactly where it was supposed to be.

Not bad, huh?   But that was because I was unaware of how LOUD it would be. And there would be a bright flash. And the gun would actually smoke at times. 

The first 45 minutes I jumped at every shot, mine or the other student's. And sometimes at the shots from the range next door. It seemed that box of 50 bullets was going to last forever... and there was still another hour of range time left....and maybe this wasn't such a good idea. 

Cock that gun...

But I persevered. And it got to be fun. 

Aim.

And no, I wasn't that great although I can proudly say that there were fifty bullets in the box and I ended up with fifty holes in the target. 

We weren't supposed to aim for the head. 

I did feel bad about getting the target in the nuts, though.

Can't wait to go back. No. 28 is done.

(And no, I was not sore the next morning. That little revolver really didn't have much recoil.
BUT... My right shoulder blade was sore the second morning. Probably just from holding my arms at an angle I was unused to....)

The Benefits of Friends

No. Eight: Make baby quilts again

No. 51: Learn to knit or crochet

No. 22:Surprise a friend in another city for lunch

I have never been very goal oriented. An aptitude test done in college had the counselor declaring me a hedonist. If it was fun, I would do it. Otherwise, maybe not.  Possibly he wasn’t the greatest career counselor but also possibly he was onto something.  I like fun.

I’ve always said my oldest brother got all the ambition ( that would be the lawyer brother, Steve) and the other two of us were just happy to "go along to get along".

 Paul, Me, Steve. 

See? Steve is wearing the Chief's hat.  (O wait. So am I.)

And Paul - always the renegade.

So it is odd that I am writing a blog on setting some goals and accomplishing them. Maybe I am just getting my ambition late in life.

But in a chat with my dear friend Cherrilla, my roommate from school in Mexico, we were discussing  kids, goals and the concept of writing down your list.

 Cherrilla on our San Miguel trip last May.

The glass is half full? Or half empty?

Or just really good fresh squeezed OJ?

We both decided our young adult children could really benefit from a list.

She also had the fabulous idea of having some friends over for wine and snackies and having everyone write their own list of  Sixty by Sixty things they want to do. Or Fifteen by Fifty or Nine by Ninety or you get the idea. And then sharing lists.

The other thing she said was “I can help you with Numbers 8 and 51.” 

She’s a quilter, she makes and sells magical baby quilts. (She also makes and sells this magical stuff.) I used to be a quilter; she could get me motivated again.  

Some of our quilts- her two on the left, my three on the right and foreground.

We do like ourselves a little color.

I have knitting needles and crochet hooks and have in my past at least learned the very basic rules of knitting. You cast on, knit two, purl one or something along those lines. She crochets. She said she would teach me. Number 51 could be history.

 Aren't these beauties? Definitely a story behind this set.

(The minor detail that she lives on the East Coast and I live in Texas will not be a problem. Maybe I will have to surprise her for lunch. Number 22.)

Then she mentioned a friend that speaks to the elderly where she lives and how it might be something for those in the Senior Center. Which got me to thinking: In your eighties or nineties, do you quit making goals or plans? Once getting around seems insurmountable, do you just stop trying?  

But what if you make your list and share it? 

And someone says “I can help you with that.”

So the surprise bonus to putting myself out here and declaring that there are things I want to do and learn is that people have responded.  People want to help or share their list or at least get in on the fun. 

“I can help you with that.” 

"This is what is on my list."

“Do you want to come with me to this?”  

“Put that on your list! I want to learn that, too. Let’s do it together.”

 I had no idea that this list would be a way to connect.

And that is so much fun. And I love fun.

What is on your list?