Shooting, small tasks

I did get home early yesterday. In fact, I had enough time to take a short nap before taking Chase and Victoria to the shooting range. We had been talking about it for a couple of days but my schedule does not coordinate with theirs very well. Yesterday it did.


Chase got off at 3 p.m. so I woke Victoria up and headed out to get Chase at the mall. We had to take the long way around town since some cleanup work is being done on I-40 East and two lanes were blocked off. Chase and Victoria took the test that the owner gives to all first time shooters. It is pretty easy, mostly common sense questions but a couple are specific enough that I had to help Victoria. I guess I helped too much since she scored higher than Chase; a fact she was quick to point out.

We rented a 9mm Rueger so they could fire it along with the .22 revolver I have. I watched Chase try to load the magazine for the 9mm and was not surprised at the difficulty he has in doing so. I had had a horrible time with it during my qualification shoot earlier this month. Between him and Victoria we finally got it.

We shot the .22 first and both were surprised at how loud it was. Of course, we were in an enclosed shooting range, so the sound was amplified. Both were surprised by the kick the small caliber pistol had. Then we moved on to the 9mm. Chase shot first and did amazingly well – as he had with the .22. He was shocked by both the sound and the kick. Victoria almost screamed. Even with that, he hit two shots directly on top of each other – almost on the bulls-eye. Then Victoria shot. She almost dropped the pistol after the first shot. Only after she admitted that did Chase tell me he had almost dropped it also. That would not have been good.

We ended up shooting about ten rounds each with the 9mm and about twenty rounds each with the .22. Both Chase and Victoria decided that they liked the 9mm better than the .22. They’ll have to buy their own. We took the target home to Mama to show off. She was duly impressed. Victoria cannot wait until I take Mama. She will scream.

Victoria got drafted by the pastor to decorate her Sunday School room – where he teaches the young adults. It will be a stretch for her, but a good one. He also drafted Mrs. Patrick, a retired missionary to Korea to be her partner in the effort. She was bouncing themes off of us as we were driving home from church last night. Ideas are not her problem, expression of those ideas is. It will be fun to see how it turns out.

Cori told Mama that Grant was frustrating himself trying to get the crayons back in the box. Children at that age tend to bunch things rather than putting them in orderly rows or stacks – much like Mama. He was trying without help to put things back the way he knew they were supposed to fit but the struggle proved too much for him. He finally cried out to his mommy in desperation. “Mommy, I can’t get the door closed!”

Temperatures in Bowie, TX have been between 108 and 112. It is amazing that anything will grow. In Amarillo, we have managed to stay under 105 for the most part. Mornings are in the low 70’s and evenings feel great at about 85 degrees. You know you have been hot when 85 degrees feels pleasant.