Anogete's Journal

( grumblings ahead )

In other news, do Women's One-a-Day vitamins make anyone else sick to their stomach if taken in the morning with breakfast? I swallowed the vitamin sixty seconds before I ate my peanut butter sandwich with yogurt and a peach this morning. It immediatly jacked up my stomach, and I barely managed to eat my breakfast. My gag reflex kicked in each time I swallowed a spoonful of yogurt. I used to take Centrum and never had this problem. What's up with that?

Guess who qualified to carry concealed!

I was expecting a long day at the shooting range, but it went surprisingly fast. The instructors were amazing and so helpful, never condescending or rude. I don't think we could have picked better people to teach us. Anyway, we had a private "classroom" at the range. Basically, we were surrounded on three sides by burms. The bottom of the U-shaped classroom was were we were shooting. To warm up, we just shot a few rounds together, each of us with our own target. We used nine-inch paper plates for this exercise since they are are smaller than the target we'd have to qualify on.

After the initial exercises, we moved on to shooting with only our dominant hand on the gun, and then shooting with only our weak hand. I thought I'd flop if I tried to shoot with just my left hand, but I actually hit the target both times, even if it was the very edge of the paper plate. Anyway, moving and shooting exercises came next. It was so very cool. They set up a triangle of criminals and hostages. We had to run into the area, shoot a criminal holding a hostage, turn and shoot another criminal with a hostage, then do a one-eighty and shoot the last hostage-taker. Then we had to back up (keeping our weapon pointed at the bad guys)and take cover behind a wall so we could peek out and shoot two additional bad guys. I only killed two of the bad guys because I suck at shooting and moving, but I'll deal. I did better on the speed shooting of the bad guys because they were lined up in a row. I ran down the line and shot the bad guys without shooting the friendly folks' pictures. There were five bad guys and I got all but one of them in the twelve seconds given to us, even if I did shoot one of the bad guys in the ear.

Qualification came last, and it was a breeze compared to some of the moving and shooting exercises. Because most violent confrontations happen within three to seven yards, we had to demonstrate that we could hit a target at those distances. In New Mexico, if you want to carry (concealed) a pistol and a revolver, you need to demonstrate competency with both firearms. So, my first qualification test was with a 9mm Ruger. I passed with just missing two shots at seven yards. You can miss up to seven and still pass. I also qualified with a .38 Special. I know I said I wasn't feeling the one I rented at the indoor shooting range on Friday, but the one I shot today was nice. It was actually a .357, but we used .38 Special ammunition. I hit every single shot at both distances with it, and I had never shot the gun before qualification. Jason, Payroll Girl, and Super Foreman (the other fellow I work with that attended) all qualified as well. Jason qualified with the same handguns as I did.

( this proves I can shoot )

We have to jump through a million hoops now to actually get the license itself. The hoops include, but are not limited to:

( Read more... )

The Chronicles of Riddick is on television. I'm sad that it wasn't better since I really wanted to love it.

This day is going to last forever. It isn't even time for lunch yet. Speaking of which, I'm ordering takeout from Hello Deli. Their Greek dressing with the veggie sandwich is begging to be eaten.

I finished Lean Mean Thirteen, and it was most excellent. I would give details, but I know that many people on my flist plan on reading it, and I don't want to spoil them.

Alcoholic Boss is back. He swept into the office this morning after a few weeks at the Betty Ford Clinic. I hid behind my desk so I didn't have to give him a hug. He's a long hugger. I pull away after three seconds; he latches onto me for nearly ten. So not cool. He told me that his wife bought me a present for all of my help while he was away in rehab, and he says I'm going to love it. We'll see. Having a conversation with him while he's sober is very odd. I've never seen him this coherent. There's an office pool on his sobriety occurring on the down-low, so I think most of my co-workers are pretty cynical on whether this will last. Personally, I don't think he'll avoid the vodka for more than two months, but he could prove me wrong. I certainly hope he does for his sake.

It's shaping up to be a busy week. Jason and I have a radio show to do tonight, and we won't get home until well into the wee hours of the morning. The office is celebrating the other boss's birthday tomorrow by having lunch at Trombinos. On Thursday, I have to attend the concealed carry class after work for three hours. Ditto on Friday evening. And Saturday I'll be at the gun range all day with Jason and a couple people from work, hopefully qualifying for my concealed handgun license. I'm looking forward to most, if not all of these things, but it sure is a pain to modify my comfortable routine.