The plan for today was as follows: Paul and the three girls would go down to the gun club at the appointed hour, to participate in their scheduled shooting match. Sometime mid-morning, Gma & Gpa Heidmann would meet them there to watch the rest of the match. Meanwhile, I would take Jacob to his karate class, then drive down and hook up with them for lunch, before sending the kids off to Sun Lakes for a sleepover.
This fairly simple plan was, if not turned completely on its head, at least tilted slightly to one side, when, in the midst of much last-minute before-bed packing of bags and organizing of equipment, my youngest daughter approached me, clearly in serious distress. I could tell she was both agonizing over something, and yet reluctant to verbalize it. Finally I was able to coax it out of her. It seems that, strangely enough, this lovely, graceful, tenderhearted twelve-year-old girl, does not have the nerves of steel necessary to cope with the stress of the whole atmosphere at both shooting practices and matches. She enjoys target shooting well enough, but up at the ranch, where she can take her time, where it’s quiet, peaceful, remote, and where there is no competition except with herself. In fact, I could easily see her sitting serenely in a deer stand, enjoying the quiet, pondering the universe, perhaps writing poetry in her journal… waiting for a deer to arrive, yet quite possibly refusing to shoot it if it did, contenting herself with some great photos.
So, she’ll never be a Ranger… I can live with that! (And besides being a girl, at 4’10” and 90 lbs, that really was never in doubt!) :-) I’m only sorry she has been so frustrated and felt like she had to bottle it up.
She was enormously relieved when I told her she could absolutely stay home in the morning, and keep me company on the karate drive. And so it was that Mother, Jacob, Geneva and I, set off for the karate/Wal-mart shopping trip mid-morning, and then headed down to the range at noon to catch the last round of the match.
Here are the pics I took today:
My three shooters.
Meg getting lined up.
Paul brought his .22 along and competed with the seniors today.
Laurent had just fired a microsecond before I snapped this.
Gma & Gpa, sitting off to the side with the scope,
where they could get a good look at how Team Heidmann was doing.
Jacob was very into his sister’s Star Wars book.
Gpa commenting on the action.
Team Heidmann’s targets.
See that white puff on the left side against the hill?
That was a bullet striking the barrier.
Geneva scoping it out.
Geneva took this picture of a nearby bush.
At the suggestion of one of the mentors,
who come to help the younger shooters,
Paul taped over one side of his shooting glasses.
Looks rather rakish, I think.
This target made Laurent very happy…
…because of this!
Meg walking back with her target stand at the end, with Jack, a mentor.
Paul comin’ on back.
Jacob did not move from this spot until everything was winding down, and then he went and climbed in Gpa’s van to continue reading in peace,
while the scores were being read off.
Paul scoring his and Meg’s final round.
Cool gun.
Meg’s lefty gun.
My three shooters.
Megan was seriously displeased with her final tally.
Oh well, there’s another chance in 2 weeks!
After the match we packed up and went to Church’s Chicken for lunch.
Where a tasty time was had by all.
And now we are home again and the house is verrrrrry quiet. I have a pork shoulder thawing (Fry’s had them on sale, buy one/get one free, so we have a ton of pork now!), and I bought lots of greens to go in a stew later.
Paul is trying to hook up a new printer that we had to buy to replace our very old laser printer. I am staying out of his way. (It doesn’t seem to be going well…)
I think I will go clean the kitchen. It is a disaster, so that should give me plenty of time to pray for him!
