When the Homily is about Immunology

Boom

The Fallin family joined us for a wet and windy weekend. Yes the weather remains ugly, but as of now (monday morning) as I bounce and rock my way across the Sound, we have not lost power. Anyway, the kids (all six) were cooped up almost as much as the chickens, but they managed better than I feared they wouldn't.

The Dads snuck out on Saturday morning and headed up to the Poulsbo Sportsman's Club. Despite the pouring rain, the old timers there were good sports (no pun intended) and set up the trap range for us. One of them named Al, volunteered to go and and be 1st shooter for us, Steve and I both suspected that he was doing so more to prevent us from killing ourselves than anything else.

Now Al was the precise opposite of an amateur: special trap shooting jacket, strange glasses, astonishingly expensive looking gun, a pad worn on his shoe to rest his gun barrel on, and a belt pouch for ammo. Steve and I certainly looked outclassed and indeed he cleaned our collective clocks. We shot two rounds and he shot better than 90% (in fact I only recall seeing him miss 2 out of 50 clays) while Steve and I maybe got around or slightly better than 50%.

It was too wet and too much fun to worry much about precise score...we'd both noted afterwards that we'd forgotten how much fun it is to pulverize flying clay saucers. I'm guessing that the lower testosterone levels in American men might also be attributable to a lack of participation in local Sportman's clubs too. One cannot help but feel exceptionally manly when you knock something out of the sky with a loud boomstick. I expect to spend more time there in the future.

Another example of rural living: Upon returning home, Steve offered to clean my gun for me and after doing so decided he needed to test fire the gun since he was not familiar with it and wanted to make sure he'd done everything right. So, in bare feet, he stepped outside my front door, walked perhaps three steps, and sent three loads of shot across my front yard and into the woods. Yep, it works.

Despite the weather's inhibitory effect, we had a great time.