A couple days ago I wrote about what my Saturday morning was going to entail...Y'all know how excited I get about my weekends and to start thinking about it on a Thursday is completely normal for me. The plan was to take a friend to the range then have breakfast, chat and people-watch.
This plan deployed earlier today and we achieved mission-success!
Progressive confidence
I was chatting with @hidave just now, on Discord, and he asked how my friend went at the range.
I'd set up some cool stages for her to shoot, room-clearing, like a military operator or law enforcement operator might do in an urban situation. It's very good fun and whilst a great deal of care needs to be taken I stepped my friend April through it starting right at the beginning with gun and range safety and and how to move about and shoot throwing in some tactics and strategy stuff as well.
This is the second time she's shot handguns with me but the first time I was permitting her to move from a stationary position with gun in hand, shooting in between. She loved it.
I was saying to Dave that it is truly amazing to see the progression from zero confidence through to a solid confidence in only a short time, the period of about two hours.
He mentioned that teaching women to shoot was sometimes so much easier than men; Not always, but often. I agree. It has to do with a general lack of ego and greater focus I think. Women also seem to listen more readily, like they respect the firearm more, and so patiently wait for the information, question and absorb it, then proceed to deploy.
Men...Here gimme the gun, you know fuck all mate, can be the attitude...OK, I'm generalising here, but I'm not too far from the truth of it. It's usually an ego thing - Men tend to get their feeling of value and worth from having a feeling of competence, and an intact ego that often goes a long with it, rather then actually proficiency. A generalisation of course, but again, reasonably accurate.
I've halted instructional sessions with men for this reason - It's dangerous not to do so because a mistake with a firearm could mean someone's life ends - Certainly not something I want on my record. I'm not saying men are bad at shooting, far from it, but those who tend to jump in, uninitiated and with an ego-driven nature, are a danger to themselves and others...And often poor shooters.
So, April moved from nervousness to conscious competence in the two hours and I was really impressed. She also had a fucking good time! Nope, I'd not trust her to be unsupervised, that takes unconscious competence and a lot of time and practice, but I felt she was safe enough to move through rooms, double tapping targets including moving ones and, over the session, she developed a good flow and her speed at moving and shooting improved greatly. Her plan was to releases some pent up stress and she certainly did that - Sending 350+ rounds down range and the enjoyment of running and gunning can do that.
Then there was breakfast...And a unicorn
Sharp-eyed hivers will recognise this yellow plate from a post I did yesterday...Yep, we went to the same café in whic I had lunch yesterday. In fact, I had the same breakfast too! Friday's was better though as the toasted rye bread was more toasted than today. Meh, it's ok I can deal with that small issue.
It was pretty busy when we arrived but we managed to loom over someone and force them to move...I'm just kidding, we waited patiently for a table to clear up then ordered coffee and breakfast, basically what you see here in these images. So where does the unicorn part fit in? Look down below.
I don't know why I ended up with the unicorn coffee, I would have thought it was more fitting for April to get it, a girly-girl sort of person. But nope, the waitress, a Canadian as it turns out, figured that I was a unicorn sort of dude and she gave it to me. April got the old-favourite, a maple leaf pattern.
I have to say though, it looks pretty cool and how the barista managed such coffee-artistry shall remain a mystery to me...Coffee magic I call it. I took a photo of it because I want to show my niece, the cute as hell @smallsteps, in Finland - She loves unicorns, as most girls her age do...I think she'll get a laugh out of it, or a smile at the very least.
It was good to catch up with April over breakfast; I haven't seen her for a while. Unfortunately Faith wasn't feeling up to joining us though. She's been in a bit of pain this week which is not good considering she was supposed to be getting better after the operation a couple weeks ago, not worse.
April and I chatted about her weeding next year, the plans and stuff, and then sat around making up stories about those around us, the subjects of our people-watching. It was a good way to spend the morning and into the early afternoon.
After parting ways I headed to the market to grab supplies for tonight...I'm making home made pizza, garlic bread and apple crumble with vanilla custard for dessert...The Apple crumble and custard won't be from scratch though, the pizza will be.
I've returned to Faith's mum's place which is where we'll be having dinner and after posting this will start to get things organised for our mostly-home-made dinner.
I hope you guys have been having a good weekend, or if it's only just starting, that you have something cool planned. Drop a comment here and let me know what's up if y'all want; Share what you're doing or have planned.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.
Be well
Discord: galenkp#9209
WOW, the better half made pizza tonight as well, Small world isn't it. Hope Faith is feeling better.
Pizza is such a common thing I guess, and is sometimes our weekend food. I love making pizza, shopping at the market for different ingredients and all. Last night I made the whole thing from scratch including the dough. It's pretty easy but time consuming and to be honest isn't worth the hassle as we have quite a few choices as far as locally made pizza bases available at the market.
Faith isn't too bad today. We're at her mum's place, actually stayed the night last night, and today have been doing a little tidying up outside, weeding, sweeping and all. It's a very neat place, but my mother in law struggles to get it all done so we help. Faith did a little today so it was good for her to feel a little normal.
I hope your weekend is going well.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Hey @galenkp. I'm envious of the fun you guys were having at the range. Especially the house clearing course! I agree that its easier to train women to competent levels in shooting and for the sae reasons. Ack of ego is a better teacher. Or is it the empty cup proverb.
It was loads of fun and we had a few laughs, but not at moments when a safety-focus was required of course.
When I was teaching Faith to shoot at long range I was most impressed with the way everything was calculated, meaning from a decision perspective. Nothing was done without a reason and before she had considered all factors. Blokes...They lay down behind the gun and start banging away...At $2/round it gets costly which is why I make them pay for ammo. Obviously it's much cheaper for handgun rounds, but the same principle applies...Most guys just want start pulling triggers rather than learn first...I guess that's just one of the differences between men and women; People all have different ways to learn, and male and female differ also.
Man im wanting that bacon in the pic so bad. I ever mention the superiority of aussie bacon before. Thick cut, delicious practically a meal on its own and not a condiment like herein the states. I miss you aussie bacon
Nothing like some bacony goodness to start one's day with right? I'm a crispy bacon guy and whilst I'm not fussy and pretension, often give explicit instructions for bacon-preparation...I also like my poached eggs almost cooked through not totally runny. I'll eat just about anything, but one has to maintain ones standards too. :)
This is Barossa Valley bacon, organic and all that stuff. The Barossa Valley was my back yard growing up so I tend to defer to their produce when it presents itself - Shop local and all that.
Aussie bacon is the best...But I'm preaching to the converted I guess. :)
Sounds like the weekend when as your planned it is always nice to breeze through a weekend and been able to talk about the fun and what you achieved ...nice one 👍
Yeah, it worked out really well. I hope you also had a god weekend.
Good to hear my weekend included a lot of nature walking in and out of jungles and onto beaches just along the coast line looking for rock formations , i do love different rock formations 😁
Sounds like a good weekend to me!
I enjoyed been in harmony with mother nature it powers me up 😊
I find the outdoors energising too. :)
I say we are alike on that point not only energizing but relaxing and calming is what we all need at times 👍
Most often gun related injuries or deaths here in Finland are just because people were careless, not having the safety on or assuming a gun is empty when you start cleaning it and then you accidentally shoot your mate. I haven't been around guns that much but I don't think it's rocket science to treat a gun with respect and a healthy dose of fear.
Yeah, that happens a lot - Stupidity and guns rarely end well.
Firearm safety isn't a difficult concept to grasp but there's always those few who think those rules don't apply to them and that often ends in death or injury.
I don't fear guns, never have...But I respect them and don't compromise on safety; This is why I am so strategic when instructing new shooters; I never cut corners.