Another Day at the Range & More Than Expected
183.8 on the scale! I'm mostly swinging between 183 and 185 the last several days- or maybe weeks, I'm not minutely tracking it- but I intend to make a big push...or, just a consistent one, as I hope to be at or below 178 for my birthday in late November. This SHOULD be easily achievable for me, AS LONG AS I DON'T OVERINDULGE THE KIDS' GENEROSITY WITH THEIR CANDY AT THE END OF *NEXT* MONTH!
Early in the week there wasn't a lot to talk about- relatively short (ie, not 10-hour) workdays, cooler-but-not-cold temperatures, a few problems at the lab to work out (mostly logistics-related, and external), and spending more evening time at home with Amy and the kids. Unfortunately Amy got some kind of mild cold that left her congested to varying degrees throughout the week, but seems mostly on the way out by the time this post goes public.
Anyway, the latter part of this week was really busy: we were participating in a "free" city-wide garage sale, Amy has AHG stuff with Carissa, and Barrett was going to go to Falls Creek with the youth group but that fell through because of church bus allocations going only to adults, or something...) so it occurred to me that I should hit the range earlier in the week and do a little bit more sighting-in...and, that outing was intended to be short but turned into a much longer stretch of time than I expected.
I brought the CVA .50 cal and my two Sub2000s with me to work so that I could head straight to the range afterward and satisfy my need to have confidence in my shot groups- especially for the .50, since black powder season is nearing quickly- without necessarily making a "whole range day" out of it.
While setting up at the black powder range I ran into Matt P, an old friend/associate/whatever and fellow E-3 crew (he is a Pilot, I was a Navigator; we only flew together once or twice though). He's still flying E-3s in the Air Guard and said he intends to retire soon. He's also flying for FedEx- and he confirmed that FedEx is no longer using Navigators on their planes...even for trans-Pacific flights! GPS is just too reliable and accessible these days. =P
Anyway, he had just come by to do some quick & dirty sighting-in for a couple guns: one was a nice CZ Scorpion pistol with a pistol brace and Holosun dot sight on it.
The second was a pistol(-braced) AR chambered in 300 Blackout with a SilencerCo suppressor. The best part is that he let me shoot a few rounds out of both! The 300 BO with subsonic rounds really, truly doesn't necessitate hearing protection; it would if the rounds were hotter than subsonic but I personally experienced that with the "slower" ammo, it wasn't necessary. Regular ol' 9mm out of that short-barreled Scorpion by contrast was impressively loud, though; it seemed even louder than a regular 9mm handgun but it might've just been me comparing it to the 300 BO that we shot first. After that I let him try out my 3rd gen Sub 2000; he only fired 5 rounds but said it felt nice and he liked the light overall construction the model had evolved into, and how handy the "new" swiveling railed forend was.
Since Matt had come to the range just for the purpose of a quick sighting-in, like me, he didn't really intend to spend a lot of time there. But, we did end up chatting/catching up for a while apart from the shooting: he's going to retire from the Air Guard soon (I didn't ask if he was still an O-5 or if he got promoted...but really- if he put in enough time to reach pensioned retirement, who really cares?), and I gave him a brief rundown of Amy and the kids and my last several years as an electrician.
Anyway, with that all said, he packed up and left shortly thereafter.
I confirmed that the .50 cal *does* shoot high at 100 yards, and I decided not to adjust the scope because it still groups at minute-of-deer. If I run into a deer at under 100 yards I will just remember to hold low.
Both Sub2000s grouped nicely at 25 yards, and the 3rd gen can achieve at least minute-of-badguy accuracy at 100 yards. However, since the Trudot sight even at the lowest setting will completely cover an 8 inch circle at that distance, its true potential accuracy can only be discovered with a better sighting system. I'm content with what I know for now, though.
The garage sale was slow overall but not terrible: we sold some things we really wanted to be rid of and even slid on our already-generous prices (more than I really would have liked, but oh well...) a few times to make it happen. We had a couple things marked for free- a rolling chair with a missing armrest, and our old dishwasher with the burnt-out motor- that we're going to put at the end of the street if nobody goes for them. During the dead time I got caught up on some reading, and Dillon came out to accompany me for a few long stretches of time, which was really nice. We also sold a few discount coupon cards for Sonic, they were $5 each and a fundraiser for the Trailblazer homeschooling co-op; in the morning I started with 10 and managed to sell 7 before the end of the day. Amy later commented in amazement at my "skill" in selling them, as she only sold 2 in the same amount of time Friday. All I could do was shrug and say "leave it to an MBA grad." We all laughed, perhaps ironically. =P
My company sent me my certified hours form- as expected, it's nearly 14,000 hours which is well over what is necessary to apply for the Journeyman exam. The plan is to send in the complete application this week, and pick a test date of sometime, ANY time, after November 1st. I will have at least a month in which I can study in earnest, and I believe in combination with my recent field experiences that it'll be enough.
Speaking of other things I've never done before: I joined a gym for the first time ever. It's the 10GYM that is just a few minutes away from the house- which will *hopefully* ensure that I regularly attend. The days of the $10 monthly rate are long gone, but with a 12-month commitment it does only cost $10 the first month and $16 each subsequent month. They have a much more expensive month-to-month rate, and "premium" enrollment tiers, so I made the most economical decision given what was available. My membership was processed by a polite, friendly, young kid who was very soft-spoken and took a long time to get everything completed- I presume he was new, or perhaps he doesn't do this very much because he was a nightshifter (I didn't go over there till after our garage sale cleanup was complete, and we'd had dinner). The gym can handle a load of probably about 200 people simultaneously, but that time of night there were less than a dozen present. I satisfied my first session lightly, with 30 minutes on the elliptical, maximum resistance and a high cross-track level; after that a quick jump in the shower and back home, where everyone else was already asleep.
Sunday's been fine with church and lunch, and some restful stretches. Mom called and talked about our potential family activities this fall- our conclusion is that we're only going for one or two get-togethers, and I still have all my paid time off available to me so I can be flexible if we want to hold off on making a final decision on anything...which is of course where we're at right now.
My other goal for the week is to make another major wire turn-in. Copper prices are still high but I'm not expecting the state of things to stay that way for much longer.
I have at least a handful of other thoughts, inspired by friends who've posted their own musings lately, but those'll be a separate entry.
Edit: I continue to despise this entry format and renew my pledge to figure out how to rid myself of it
God is good. That is all.