Day 11 - Guns and IKEA

(4:00 AM - woke up early again)

Yesterday a friend came over and we took his heirloom Colt .32 revolver to a shooting range to try it out. Grammy was the last one to shoot it when she let go a round in the closet to see if the little pistol still worked. He said that she hit a can of green beans.

I got there early and waited in the gun store/shooting range parking lot. My friend drove up a few minutes later in his Prius. It was probably the first time that such a vehicle had ever visited this place.

My friend had never fired a pistol and I had not fired in 45 years, having lost my taste for it in the Army.

The kid in charge grinned but did not seem to think we were crazier than anybody else. He cursorily examined my friend's pistol and after checking with his manager declared that it was probably safe to shoot. However it turned out that they had no .32 short ammo. Saying what the hell I rented one of the store's 9mm Baretta pistols bought a paper target and box of the cheapest bullets and went to lane six. The kid must have thought I knew what I was doing because he offered no directions or warnings, didn't even verify that I knew how to eject the clip and stuff it with the short ugly rounds. He just gave us some forms to sign indicating that we declined instructions.

As it turns out some skills persist. My only problem was with the noise. I had never fired before in an indoor range and after being nearly deafened went back out to get the ear and eye protection that the kid had originally offered.

My friend fired a few times then went to the waiting area. The noise was too much. Looking back once at the sound proof safety glass partition I saw him gesturing toward me with a huge stainless steel revolver. He seemed excited. I burned through the remaining rounds, shooting some with two hands, some with one, moving the target in and out, most of the time hitting what I was aiming at.

When I went out to return the pistol and pay, the waiting area was thronged with holiday shooters - men, women, children - serious and excited. The sign said that children under eight had to be accompanied on the range by an adult. Every hand seemed to hold a weapon. It would have driven an Army range officer crazy.

After that my friend and I grabbed some lunch and then went for a walk, talking about poetry and books.

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Last night I went out to eat with my daughter and her brood. After that we went to the new IKEA. Brenda had always wanted to go but never made it. The idea of being rolled around in a wheelchair was just too undignified. Under my breath I told her that she wasn't missing anything. The pots and pans and angular furniture were like absurd sculptures - monuments to nothing I could connect with.