thedonproject
this guitar is also a gun
Adventure
Published 07-27-2008 on my old wordpress blog.

so, in the search for adventure that i have recently discovered… or rather in the search to not avoid adventures that i should have been not avoiding all this time instead of living an old person’s life, i accepted an invitation from my friend to go out in the woods and shoot guns. now, i’m no stranger to guns, as they’ve been around in my family forever and the traditional hunting trips that the extended family used to go on (and fail spectacularly at), but i’m not a big fan. i don’t really think that we need them in the city at all. but hey, it’s an adventure.

after procuring ammunition, we made our way up into the mountains and got down to business. we set up some targets: two people silhouettes, two phone books, some cans that were on the ground there and a bunch of shotgun shells and random pieces of wood. we went through about 500 rounds in a borrowed 0.22 rifle in an hour and a half or so. turns out, i’m not a very good shot. i mean, this is only the second time i’ve ever shot a gun and the last time was 20 years ago, but still, i should be better than this with all the traditional hunting trips i’ve been on. ah well. after finishing a box of 0.22 bullets, we tried out the 20 gauge shotgun that was lent to us. now, i’m a relatively little dude without a lot of padding. and despite knowing the basics of how to hold the thing, the shotgun still beat me up pretty good. to add insult to injury, I’m definitely not a good shot with something more powerful.

so, with the fake dudes all dead and the phone books torn up and the cans hol(e)y, we gathered up the trash and took it with us as any good steward of the forest should do. made our way back into civilization, ate some fast food (dear taco time, celery does not belong in burritos), returned some stuff and went our separate ways to contemplate our actions.

i’m glad i went to shoot guns. not so much because i sort of like it, but because i mostly don’t. it’s good to know that i’m not a total redneck after all. but i’m mostly glad i went to shoot guns because i love the forests around here. sometimes i forget when i haven’t been for a couple years. i wish i had gone camping many more times in the past two years than i did. the pine needles and the moss and the ferns and the trees and the gravel roads and the rocks and the rivers and the mountains and the hollow sound the ground makes as you tromp along the trails and the slugs and the dead and dying things and the alive and living things and even the mosquitos and the gnats. these are the things that we truly miss when we’re in the city. the things that trigger our instinctual longing or our generational memories. and for me, these are the things that make me rue the day i bought this house even more. and the days i chose to spend working on it instead of focusing on those important things like camping and making myself a better person by not avoiding adventures. and now that i’m stuck here and the housing market is in the carkeek park sewage treatment plant with my dinner from last night, i’m constantly reminded of my lack of foresight and my lack of balance. i guess, as tim fite would say, everyone gets to make one big mistake. i can’t imagine one bigger.

now, how do i get out of it in the least detrimental way possible?

** Old Wordpress comments **

your sister says:
July 27, 2008 at 11:36 pm
i guess i don’t have all the answers… but the one that came to my head first:
close your eyes
hold on…

If you like this page, you can buy me a coffee.

Keywords: guns, mistakes, slugs

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