New Diggs

I have had so many issues with Blogger and since I have zero computer skills, dealing with the issues has been a drain on my time and energy.  When Barron from The Minuteman generously offered to make me a new site at WordPress, I took him up on it.

It was actually a hard move to make. This morning when I got the email from Barron telling me the new blog was ready, I got a few little butterflies in my tummy. I grow emotionally attached to things and I am attached to this blog. I still miss the picture of my Glock, but the Blogger format isn't really serving me well anymore, so it's time to move on. The look, the blogroll, the creative use of the English language will pretty much be the same over there as it is here, but it might take some time to get everything ironed out. Barron is walking me through each step which has been easier than I thought it was going to be.

Ok, new blog is located at http://www.agirlandhergun.org  The new RSS feed is at http://www.agirlandhergun.org/feed

Hope to see you all over there.

A Night Out With The Boys

Last night the guys from my husband's office were meeting for a little rendezvous at a local spot and they invited me along. My husband assured me there would be other people of the female persuasion in attendance, but as per the usual, that turned out not to be the case. In fact other than the waitress I was the only gal in the entire place most of the night.

I have met these men my husband works with, but other than a brief conversation at the gun show or the polite chit chat that is required at the company Christmas party, I haven't socialized with them. I am the closest with Arete, of course, but even he and I have not really spent much time together outside of training, so it was fun to hang with them.

Here was the group make up...my hubby, me, Arete, and 2 other guys, let's call them Esquire and Tiger.  There are an eclectic group. One is a very casual shorts, muscle shirt, covered in tats dude, one is a t-shirt, shorts, tennis shoe guy and one is a youngster, under 25 that looks like he is right off the cover of Esquire, thus the name. He wore a bright yellow shirt and tie. I think he came straight from the office, but the point is, he was pretty spiffy looking. Then there was me and the hubs. All very different from each other, but even so, every single one of them is a gun person. Some shoot more than others, but  all Second Amendment people. I even noticed Esquire had a knife and I think a flashlight in his right front pocket. I thought, "Nice guys." "They like guns and knives, all have jobs, even though I am the only woman in attendance, how bad can this be?"

Hold that thought.

Everything was going along swimmingly until I inadvertently made a comment about Tiger and something like, Hey, roll tide boy. Tiger is from Alabama, so that seemed logical. Logical yes, smart, no. He is from Alabama, but and this a big but, he attended Auburn University. If you know anything at all about college football then you see my problem. That. Was. Not. A. Good. Thing. To. Say.

It was so bad that not a single person at the table had my back. Not Arete and not my husband. I had hung myself and I was going to have to untie the noose all by my lonesome. I apologized profusely, I begged, I cried, I pleaded, to no avail. I was desperate and in the fight of my life. I composed myself, did some tactical breathing. I remembered that I had trained for this very moment. The words of Sir Winston Churchill echoed in my mind...

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Eventually I did prevail and victory was indeed mine. Drinks were spilled, chairs were knocked over. It was a long battle. So long that it's little vague in my mind as to exactly how I accomplished victory, but I am pretty sure at some point I offered to purchase one of these.

Once back in the good graces of Tiger and the rest of the crew, things went fairly smooth the remainder of the evening. We talked about Tim Tebow, murder, politics, politicians, broke ribs, Belgium, guns, plumbers, gun laws, and I listened to the boys talk a lot of shop. All and all not a bad way to spend a Wednesday evening.

Defensive Shooting

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.

The Handyman

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.

Quote of the Day

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.

A Friend In Need, A Knife and Another Winner

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.

Blog Issues

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