I like to think that I am fairly competent as a defensive shooter. At least I am when I am on a range tossing lead at a bad guy made of paper. Seriously, not once has that dude shot back at me or left that place in anything other than a black trash bag. I say that preety much prove I am one heck of a warrior.

Not convinced? Strange.

Ok, so perhaps that proves nothing. There probably isn’t a real definitive way to prove such a thing unless one has been in an actual gun fight or had some more realistic scenario based training. Air soft or some other kind of force on force set up. As of yet I have not had the opportunity to do anything like that, so I have to work with what I can do, what I do have access to. For me right now that is paper targets. So, how can I make my limited training work for me?

One thing John constantly says in training is to visualiz being anywhere but the range. See yourself in the parking lot or the dark ally or anywhere but “here”, here being the range in Culpeper. Over the past year I have tried to up that idea. I try to actually picture a place I am, what the bad guy looks like and what his body does after the first shot.

For example, if I am at the range I close my eyes for a minute and think if he aka bad guy is coming from behind me or from the side at full speed or perhaps he is casually walking by me and then quickly comes at me. Then I think of my response to that and I shoot. Most of the time with me eyes open. Just kidding. I always open my eyes, take a breath and make sure I am paying attention to where I am and what I am doing.

The thing about shooting a piece of paper is that there is no reaction from it. If I do the classic two to the heart, one to the head thing it’s always a hit. However in real life when I shoot the guy in the chest 2 times his head might flop forward or to the side and it just might not be conveniently stable in one place as I try to blow through his ocular window. When I shoot the target at the range I try in that split second or ideally much less between shots to see in my mind how the body could react to the hit and how I can best respond.

If I see his head flop to the left side, my shot goes to the left side and lower because that is where his head actual is, at least in my mind. Of course, that means the shot will hit the dreaded white part of the target and everyone at the range thinks you suck, but it has been a useful way for me to build skills or so I think. I am 100% perfect in my mind.

Our roof suffered some damage in the storm that blew through Virginia last week. Our neighbor, who notices everything about two seconds after anything happens, knocked on our door the second after the last rain drop fell and told us our roof was mangled. He gave us the name of a guy he used to fix his roof. Our neighbor is an older gentleman with quiet the attention to detail. He had The Handyman’s business card with a hand written note stuck on top letting us know who gave us the business card and both were sealed in a small snack size baggie to protect them from weather. He is a very nice man and he is a hoot.

His referral turned out to be a very good one for us.

First, The Handyman came the very next morning after my husband called him, he and his crew, which is really just one retired Navy Corspman, were clean even for guys that work outside in 100 degree heat. They were polite, worked quickly and did an excellent job. Of course, we were quoted $50 and we ended up paying $350, but the damage was more significant than it first appeared.

My husband was so impressed he decided to ask the man if he would be interested in doing some other minor work for us. He said absolutely. The crew had a full day of work scheduled and didn’t have time to go over the details, so he said he would call to set up a time to chat.

He called, he came, we chatted.

When all the business matters were hammered out we began talking about the weather, kids, life and the like. Somehow we got onto the subject of guns. I am pretty sure I started the conversation, but I can’t remember excatly how. About an hour later he said, I would really love to go shooting with you. You know how I love to accommadate others, so I said, lets do it. Then he asked if we like the lake. As lucky would have it, we do have a fondness for the lake. Let’s go he said.

Got my roof fixed for a fair price in a timely manner, made a very good deal to get the rest of my house sprouced up, had a fun conversation about guns and politics and made two play dates.

I don’t know why people complain when they have to call a handyman.

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My daughter is trying out for the high school volleyball team and this week is conditioning.

A couple of the girls, of all races, were standing around talking what the girls called ghetto.

The coach, “I don’t care how you talk at home or school, here we talk like the intelligent young ladies we are.”

I love a coach who expects more from his players than simply the ability to spike a ball.

Erin over at Lurking Rhythmically is looking to help a friend in need. Please head to her place to see if you can help or if you know of someone who could.  Thanks!

Also, last week I saw that I was getting several hits from the same place and it was a place I did not recognize, so naturally I popped on over.  There was a post about knife fighting.  Very informative. If that sort of thing interests you, you might want to head there as well.  He has a great blog over all actually.

Lastly, I thought I had posted this but for some reason it didn’t show up.  Our other Give-A-Way winner also sent me her story to share.  I love this because she is young and is smart enough to step up and take responsibility for her own life and learning.  How cool is that?!

Meet Michelle…

I do not have a very big background with guns, but I would say that I know more about them then most girls my age (I am 23). My significant other has had many guns and collects them mainly as a hobby but also for self defense. I would like to know (and remember) how to use guns. We have them in our house, but unless he switches off the safety and has them ready for me, then I’m pretty much useless with them. And this of course isn’t a good thing.

I would like to be more prepared and become more knowledgeable with guns.

I do go to the shooting range quite often. We used to go more but the cost of ammunition has definitely limited our ability to go as often.

I would like to take some sort of beginners or intermediate class and also earn my CCW with what I won. This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, but it was hard to justify the cost in my head.

I am having them.  Hopefully all will be better in the morning.

I can’t remember if I have told you all this already or not. If I have just grit your teeth and bare with me. 

I am not a fickle person.  I am very committed and I see thing through. I think I have said this before, the one about the treadmill, I bought one and ran it into the ground and then bought another and did the same, Yes? No?  Ok, doesn’t matter.  The point is I might say I am thinking about this or that and not do them, but once I decide I am doing something, I do it.

However lately, I have not been able to get to all of the things I am “committed” to doing. I have these brilliant, I say brilliant photo ideas for conceal carry, but I can not find the time to get with my friend to finish that project. I have been planing on pillaging my neighbors trash in a kind of adventure-learning-to-survive-on-my-own-homage thing to kymber’s husband, but that hasn’t happened. I have a few new ideas for the blog that I think are original, about guns, and might be helpful to someone, but no way can I carve out a millisecond to plan it out let alone set the wheels in motion. Not doing to well on the follow through.

I just finished reading Surviving a School Shooting:A Plan Of Attack For Parents,Teachers and Students. Before that I was reading The Admirals and a book Called Fearless, neither of which I have finished, so what on earth possessed me to buy another, I will never know, but I did.

Based on the recommendation left in the comment section of my blog by Phil Wong I purchased Emergency by Neil Strauss. My kids are preoccupied, so I dove right in.

Right from the beginning I knew this was a book for me. From the prologue…

The author of the book is with his friend, Mad Dog.

Fuck, I am suppose to kill a goat today. And I couldn’t even kill a fly in my room last night. Really. Sadly, I just put a drinking glass over it, covered the opening with a saucer and then set it free outside. I am a victim of my own empathy.

From chapter one…


Preparing myself for hard times has been incredibly challenging, because some people were born tough. I wasn’t. My parents live on the forty-second floor of a seventy-two-story building in Chicago.  they didn’t camp, hunt, farm, cook, or even fix things themselves.

As for learning skills after leaving home…nothing about growing food or building fires or defending yourself.  In fact, I had never even been in a fight in my life though I had been mugged twice.

From chapter two…

The author is trying to find a group of people who think the world is going to end. Not just average folks, but extremist.  He calls them “death cults.”  He finds a group he would like to spend New Year’s Eve 1999(you know the whole Y2K year 2000 thing) with, House Of Yahweh.  He calls them up.

The public relations leader says, “It’s going to happen soon, and it’s going to be over the seven-year-agreement that took place on the White House lawn between Rabin and Arafat.” He went on. “In the news, Russia…”

He paused for effect and then concluded: “There isn’t going to be any warning.”


“That makes sense.” I replied. Those words actually came out of my mouth. I am a very empathic person. I tend to see a person’s point of view easily, even if that person is criminally insane. 


Yeah, this book is for me.

This weekend out on the range was a scorcher.  Saturday was near 102 with a heat index of 109 I think.  This made the day go much slower than normal as frequent breaks were mandatory.  FPF has awnings with a not so fancy misting system.  What the system lacks in high tech-ness, it makes up for in function.  The water felt good.  I am kind of a heat seeker and loved the temps, but for most people it was not a pleasant experience.  My only real issue was that I am also a sweat-er, so my pants were not all that comfortable to wear.  The fabric kept me from having all those nasty sweat marks though and since I put up targets and people see my backside often, I was especially thankful for that.

John was concerned for the student being out in the heat for 2 days, so the class showed up to the range on Sunday earlier. That way the training would be completed before the full heat of the day was upon us.  Sunday was also slightly cooler. All worked out well.

This class was full of men.  No ladies this time.  Interesting to note that regardless of if the class is all women, all men or a combo, the ratio of skilled to not quiet as skilled remains the same. 

As with every other group of folks that has come through the people were great.  A little more laid back than other classes, but fabulous nonetheless.  The men do not seem to have any issue at all taking correction or suggestions from me. I have been somewhat conditioned by things I have read to think that the guys will have an problem with me, but not one has.  No matter what I say, they listen, thank me, and then do it and fortunately 100% of the time it has improved their accuracy.  People are looking to shoot better and I have found that most don’t care who is telling them, if it works, they are happy.

Charles the guest instructor was there again teaching his loading/reloading/malfunction drill segment.  Such a nice guy. I ran a drill on the line which was pretty cool.  I was taken by surprise as I was not aware that I was going to run the drill, so for a minute I had a deer in the headlights look on my face, but jumped in soon after. 

All and all a rather uneventful weekend, but still a great time.  Loved being there with the gentlemen, did a little shooting, and got see all the happy faces as they drove off on Sunday.  Another win.

For many years I taught college.  I taught in the Deaf Studies program at 2 colleges in California. I did some consulting for a University there as well. I designed an entire curriculum for one college and was a Department Chair for a short time before I resigned to do the mommy gig. I taught Deaf Culture, Linguistics of American Sign Language, Dactylology, Interpreter courses and all levels of American Sign language.  I loved teaching.

It seemed like a perfect fit for me to match my love of teaching with my love of guns as well as my personal experience with a bad guy, but it appears I misinterpreted how that was going to work.  I could  teach the NRA classes, but I don’t think that is what I want to do, so I have decide to go back to school and become a paramedic.

For months now I have been talking to my husband about taking some EMT courses and maybe volunteer at the local fire department, but our fire department is pretty messed up, so that was ruled out   We have a really good program here that is condensed for certification, but as we did research into different programs, I thought why not just get a degree and take a longer program.

When I started down the path of gun ownership it never occurred to me to teach or have any career at all, but as things have developed I think I would like to have a skill related to my interest.  Now, I know being a paramedic isn’t really a gun career, but it’s a skill that I think will be helpful to my family, my community and those I spend time around.  I have always been interested in medicine and one can never have too many skills.  I do not know how it will all work out or even if it will, but I am just going to jump in and give it a shot.  Wish me luck.

Call for a little summer school work around the table

and fresh biscuits.

E got a little distracted…

I like the way she thinks though.