Fable of the Porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever - many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, understanding the situation, decided to group together. They covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other. They began to distance themselves from each other and began to die, alone and frozen. So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

They decided to go back to being together.

This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companions, and appreciate the warmth. This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

One Of My Geocaches

I'm a geocacher. Short version...geocaching is a game where you hide a container (the geocache), mark it's coordinates with a GPS, post the coordinates online at geocaching.com and other people get the coordinates, use their GPS and find the geocache. Once they find it, they sign the little log inside the geocache and then log their find online. It's like a high tech treasure hunt.

When logging the cache online, it is proper etiquette to tell something about your hunt for the geocache. This is a log from a geocache I have hidden in the little park behind the shopping center where Hobby Lobby.

This one almost got me arrested. As I was walking back to my car, I hear "Mam,, Hault,,, Police" I froze as they were all running towards me and cars were coming at me. They wanted to know what was in my hand and I handed them my gps, wanted to know where I was pointed to my car, what was I doing there, told thm geocaching, and got the ususal What? Told them I would show them the cache, they surrounded me while we walked back to the cache. The minute I showed them they took it from me and I explained that you were supposed to sign the log but I forgot my pen so I made a green smudge on th paper to prove that I was there. He explained that they were in the middle of an investigation and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I apologized and he had the cache in his hand and said he would take care of it. Kind of doubt that he put it back, sorry.

Texas Combat Shooters 10-07-10

I went shooting tonight. A friend of mine, along with his brother and cousin, started a group called Texas Combat Shooters. We meet at Elm Fork range in Dallas. The thing I LOVE about shooting with these guys is that we get to practice practical, tactical skills. At most shooting ranges, you stand and shoot while standing still at stationary paper targets. You cannot rapid fire in most places and you can never draw from your holster. At Texas Combat Shooters, we practice one handed shooting, off handed shooting, shooting while moving, shooting from behind cover, rapid (accurate) fire, shooting prone, reloading and other practical skills. We usually shoot four stages with a shot count of 18-21 rounds.

At our first stage tonight we were "hand cuffed" around the large post shown here. Our gun and magazines were laid on the table in front of us. At the buzzer we had to load our gun and fire one head shot and one center mass shot at each of 9 targets. I think the targets were about 15 yards out. I did TERRIBLE on this stage! You are timed on each stage and then given a penalty for every shot outside the zero ring on the target. Missing center mass is not a big deal...usually just a one point deduction unless you miss by a lot. The head shot is much more difficult. You either make the head shot or lose 5 points. I lost something like 43 points on this stage. HORRIBLE!

The second stage I shot tonight was on the "reactionary steel" where you hit the steel target and it falls. The first time I shot steel I did not knock over even one target. I have improved on this stage every week. For this stage tonight we loaded 20 rounds (that's 3 magazines for me with my low capacity, single stack 1911). We had 10 shots to hit each of the six bowling pins and then while they were swinging, we had 10 shots to hit the six steel targets behind them. I certainly was not the fastest shot, but I left no targets standing. With 12 targets and 20 shots you are allowed a few misses. I missed one bowling pin and (hit it with my second shot) and none of steel targets. So I hit 12 targets in 13 shots. Very happy with that.

At our next stage we had to run from cover and kneel beside a barrel. We shot at 3 targets 15 yards away, two torso shots and one head shot. Then we moved to a closer barrel and shot another 3 targets, two torso and one head shot. Lastly, we moved closer and shot through a hole in a wall, 3 targets again, two torso and one head shot. I lost 34 points on this stage. I was probably in the lower third of shooters in this stage.

The last stage we shot was the most creative. We had to shove over a BOB dummy, shoot two torso and one head shot at three close targets. We then ran to the next phase where we shot one small steel target which activated a waving "innocent" target. We then shot a second steel target and had to wait for the swinging "innocent" target to swing out of the way so we could hit the third steel target. From there we ran to the last phase where we ran out from behind cover and shot a target two torso and one head shot while charging the target and shooting at point blank range, past that target to another target, two torso and one head shot again at point blank range while charging it. The last two torso, one head shot was taken at another target from behind cover. Again, I was not the fastest one through this stage, but I lost only one point on this whole stage!

Book Burning