Bucket List

I don’t have a list of things I want to do during my lifetime – a bucket list.  I have places I’d love to see but in reality realize that I most likely may never be able to travel there. But almost anything in life will have a point of fascination for me – especially something new, something different and out of the norm for me.
Each year when the time gets near to my planned visit to Indiana Denise will ask me if there are places I’d like to go and things I’d like to see.  There are two places that are always a must – the Hobby Lobby and a 3 story, old, structure that houses antiques called The Treasure Mart.  Other then that I don’t have a list.  I always tell her I merely want to see her world and experience things that are a part of her life.  She has amazing friends and they always make me feel so welcome.
Last year I discovered that Pastor, Denise’s husband, enjoys guns and owns a few. This was my first introduction to Denise and guns in the same sentence.  =)



So this year I told her that if it was possible I would love to tag along on one of Pastor’s shooting trips with his buddy, Jim.  Picking on Jim is a highlight of my Indy trips cuz he’s constantly making comments about pitying Denise that she has friends like me.  I tell him I’m the best you get with Rent-A-Friends. 
I assumed they go shooting at a range but Jim built this neat little platform at his place and I got to experience shooting a gun for the first time.



He attaches the target to a gizmo on an ‘amish wash line’ and strings it out across the creek below.


I tried my hand with a 22.  Not very good at it.  Couldn’t even hit the paper.   sigh….

Then Jim drew a little diagram at what I was to be looking through – I am very much a visual learner.  Plus he pulled the target closer to about 20 feet and THEN I could finally hit the paper.

I hit the bulls eye.  Don’t be fooled – it was pure and simple luck.  Couldn’t repeat it if my life depended on it. The ‘4:30’ and ‘6:30’ shots are mine as well.  At least I hit the paper.



Then they brought out the 45’s.

Pastor gave Denise instructions and I was taking mental notes.



She said it made her ears ring and didn’t want to finish the clip.



But she left her mark on the target holder.  =)



I finished out the clip – hit the paper and then Pastor finished it off and blew it all to smithereens.  He’s quite the good marksman – both with a gun and a double-edged sword, God’s Word, ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’.
Then they brought out a rifle and Jim aimed – and hit – a target way out across the field.  He didn’t offer me a chance to shoot the rifle and I didn’t ask.  Would have said no to that one.  Later he hung this round, thick piece of something out across the creek and the rifle made a nice clean hole in it.  I was amazed at the power these guns have. 



I think it was Pastor’s idea for us girls to do a ‘fun’ picture.



Then I told Denise we need to look mean.  This is as mean as she could get – she kept cracking up.  Just looks like she needs her sunglasses back. Silly goose.



I made a comment about remembering as a child how I liked the smell of the bullet shells after Dad was done shooting to practice for deer season. Jim scooped up some of the shells and handed them to me.  I mindlessly stuck them in my coat pocket.



I realized when I got home that my going through the airport check-in could have been rather interesting.  On my trip out I rolled up my jacket and stuck it in my carry on.  But on the return trip my carry on was full so I stuck it in my checked suitcase at the last moment.  I discovered when I got home that THIS was in my pocket.



Getting held up in the TSA office and trying to explain why I have a 22 shell in my pocket is NOT on my bucket list.  But then neither is the full body scans they currently use but what’s a girl to do?

It is what it is.