A Golfing We Will Go

Thursday Greetings!  This week is zooming by as summer weeks are wont to do.  The stores are filled with frenzied Mom's buying carts full of school supplies for their hyperactive kiddies.  This is probably the time of year when the annual sales of #2 pencils peaks.  We are Major Big Fans of #2 pencils.  Life just wouldn't be the same without them.  So, we go out and stock up on them this time of year.  The stores consider #2 pencils a kind of loss leader and you can often find them for pocket change.  We enjoy shopping for school supplies, too, even though we're not going into the classroom any day soon.  The sad and forelorn looks on the children's' faces tells quite a story.  They know their days of freedom are numbered and it shows in their eyes and posture.  It's actually quite hilarious in a non-LOL way mostly because we remember what it was like for our self in those distant days of yesteryear.  We always felt a sense of impending doom as the first day of school loomed ahead.  Surely summer couldn't be coming to an end!

Susun really had a fun time at Habitat yesterday.  She usually comes home from her weekly volunteer stint feeling good but yesterday she was floating on air.  Not only did she get to exercise her "retail sales" gene but she was also allowed to do some actually display merchandising.  That meant she was given reign to mess with the merchandise and arrange it on display in a way to tempt shoppers into buying it.  She loves doing that kind of stuff.  Viva Habitat for helping Susun enjoy that part of her personality.  Late in the evening, our friend and neighbor Karen L. came by for a visit in the courtyard and we stayed up 'til almost 11 pm talking all things Habitat.  Karen is Habitat director and she is doing great things with the organization here.  Talk about a breath of fresh air!

We were consumed with shooting sports stuff all day.  It takes a fair amount of preparation to assemble everything necessary for a good quality practice session.  Counting the rig, round trip travel, range time and de-rig, a practice session consumes about 3-4 hours.  The 'tween time was spent trying to solve some issues that have arisen regarding operation of our newly minted 1911.  By the time 4 pm rolls around, we have to be in full on prep mode to get to the range for the weekly IDPA match.  We leave home no later than 5 pm and typically don't get back until 9 pm or even later.  Last night was a rare exception when we arrived home at 8:30 pm.  So what do we get from for all of this effort on Wednesdays?  Lot of fun and enjoyment.  However, if you look at the actual shooting time involved, you'd have to wonder if it's worth all of the energy and expense.  Below, you can see the total actual time it took me to shoot the five stages of this week's match.

Stage 1    9.10    11.10
Stage 2   15.71    15.71
Stage 3   18.84    20.34
Stage 4   31.28    31.78
Stage 5   14.60    16.60

Soooo....we're talking a grand total shooting time of a minute and a half!  (The numbers on the left are actual shooting times.  The numbers on the right are the "adjusted times" which include penalties for not being precisely on the center of the targets.)  Some would question how 90 seconds of shooting time would be worth the hassle.  The only way to explain this arcane sport is that it's quite a bit different experienced on the participant level than from the spectator and/or pedestrian levels.  Embedded in those few brief seconds is a wide range of technical, behavioral, social, physical and mental skill sets.  To the participant, those few seconds are much longer and larger in life than they appear to be as mere numbers on a blog page. Time seems to stand still during your turn on the stage of each stage.  The fruits of all of those skill sets have to converge at precisely the proper time and in the proper format as a peculiar form of disciplined and carefully choreographed movements take place in front of your peers and judges.  It sure might not look like much but we can say without doubt that we are quite pleased with those seemingly insignificant numbers recorded last night. 

Now it's time for a change of pace and venue.  A golfing we will go this morning as a foursome.  Carrie G-S and Terry M. will join Susun and me on the Sand Creek short course at 10 am this morning.  We have all agreed to banish score cards for this outing.  No one's going to be paying attention to our total strokes.  We're basically going out for a walk in the park while carrying bags full of esoteric long-handled instruments whose sole purpose on earth it to smack a small white sphere in the general direction of a gopher hole marked by a flag stuck in the middle of a small island of impossibly smooth grass. Generally, we haven't been taking photos of our golf outings.  Today will be an exception and you can expect a full report later today.

The weather turned quite nice yesterday.  A strong wind blew in cooler temperatures.  There comes a day each summer when one's nose can get the teeniest, tiny whiff of a nano-whiff of fall.  So it was late yesterday as we hurried here and there prepping for our match.  Our rational brain said, "Don't be ridiculous, that can't be a whiff of fall."  Our other irrational brain laughed and said, "Anything's possible in Eastern Idaho!"  Sure, we will have several more hot spells here and temperatures will once again reach the 90's but it's a short summer season in these parts so the clock is ticking on summer.  Better squirrel away more #2 pencils while we can.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp