{"id":8596,"date":"2011-12-30T17:44:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T00:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=8596"},"modified":"2011-12-30T22:00:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T05:00:36","slug":"out-with-a-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=8596","title":{"rendered":"Out with a Bang"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year, that would be.\u00a0 Out with a bang.\u00a0 Shot right through the brain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Polly scores a hit ... on the bracket holding the target<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This Christmas we added a compact 9mm pistol to our arsenal, so Polly and I took it and its big brother (a .357 revolver) to an indoor range this morning.\u00a0 I wanted to get the feel of the new pistol, and thought Polly would enjoy some rootin’ tootin’ shootin’ too.<\/p>\n

One of the things I truly miss about the military is small arms training.\u00a0 Pilots in my day were required to carry pistols on combat missions (post-9\/11, I suppose USAF aircrews carry pistols every time they fly).\u00a0 Because we carried pistols we were required to take small arms training every couple of years.\u00a0 The training was always a welcome and fun break: an hour’s worth of academics followed by another hour on the range, firing 50-100 rounds at paper targets.\u00a0 I loved that, and nearly always scored expert.<\/p>\n

Polly and I had a ball this morning.\u00a0 We fired both pistols, taking turns on each, and I taught Polly how to load and unload both weapons.\u00a0 She squeezed off only one errant round, hitting the red metal bracket holding up the target.\u00a0 She’d loaded three rounds into the revolver and had clicked the cylinder in place with an empty chamber at the top … she expected to get just a click on the first pull, and she did, but when she dropped the hammer on a live round right after, she hadn’t really aimed the thing yet.\u00a0 All her other shots hit the target on the body and head.\u00a0 I’m happy to say I put all my shots into the target’s head.<\/p>\n

We carried our guns and ammo to the range in an old Trader Joe’s shopping bag.\u00a0 Polly was embarrassed, but I reminded her that you don’t want to look rich at these venues, lest someone follow you home.\u00a0 When we did get home I taught myself how to disassemble and reassemble the 9mm, and the two of us sat at the dining room table and cleaned both guns.\u00a0 Armed & dangerous, that’s us.\u00a0 And clean.<\/p>\n

——————–<\/p>\n

Monday I worked on my motorcycle at my friend Ed’s garage, and we decided to ride our bikes to Patagonia for lunch on Thursday.\u00a0 It couldn’t have been a nicer day for a ride.\u00a0 We headed down Highway 83 to Sonoita, then took 82 west to Patagonia.\u00a0 After a couple of slices of pizza at the Velvet Elvis, we continued west to Nogales, then back to Tucson on I-19, nearly 200 miles in all.<\/p>\n

The Border Patrol has set up a permanent immigration checkpoint on I-19 between Nogales and Tubac.\u00a0 It’s not supposed to be permanent, so they maintain the illusion of temporality by using trailers instead of buildings, traffic cones instead of barriers, lights running off portable generators rather than shore power, and a canvas-covered awning for shade.\u00a0 The agents were mucho serioso Thursday, walking drug dogs around every car and truck, opening doors and trunk lids.\u00a0 They normally wave motorcyclists through, but not this day: not only did they play 20 questions with Ed, the dog alerted on the back of his motorcycle.\u00a0 Much opening and sniffing of saddlebags ensued.\u00a0 I was dying to take a photo but knew better … had I tried to go for my camera they’d have shot us both dead.<\/p>\n

About 20 miles north of the checkpoint I stopped at an emergency pull-off to take a photo of a hill covered in saguaro cactus.\u00a0 We’d driven past that hill a few weeks ago with a friend from Australia who wanted to take a photo of it but couldn’t get his camera out in time (I was doing 80).\u00a0 Here was my chance to make it up to him.\u00a0 Just as I picked up my camera a hawk alighted on a fence post.\u00a0 I wish I could say it photobombed<\/a> my shot, but the fact is I saw the hawk as I picked up the camera and made sure it was in the frame when I clicked the shutter.\u00a0 Here she is:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The almost-photobombing hawk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

——————–<\/p>\n

So what’s cookin’ these days?\u00a0 Yesterday I made another double batch of Dad’s clam chowder<\/a> for Donna to share with her co-workers at the gun shop.\u00a0 Earlier in the afternoon we went to the fancy yuppie grocery store to get the ingredients, and while we were there I stocked up what I’ll need for boeuf bourguignon, which I plan to prepare on New Year’s Day.\u00a0 I’ll be using the 7 1\/2 quart Le Creuset Dutch oven I gave Donna for Christmas, and finally, for the first time ever, cracking open the copy of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking<\/em> I gave Donna three Christmases back.<\/p>\n

Keep your fingers crossed for me, dear friends.\u00a0 If I don’t fall asleep and burn it up in the oven like the girl in the movie<\/a>, I’ll blog about it at Crouton’s Kitchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year, that would be.\u00a0 Out with a bang.\u00a0 Shot right through the brain. This Christmas we added a compact 9mm pistol to our arsenal, so Polly and I took it and its big brother (a .357 revolver) to an indoor range this morning.\u00a0 I wanted to get the feel of the new pistol, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15,14,5,2],"tags":[482,483,484,480,481],"class_list":["post-8596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consumerism","category-cooking","category-military","category-motorcycling","category-personal","tag-border-patrol","tag-hawk","tag-julia-child","tag-pistol","tag-revolver"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8596"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8607,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions\/8607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}