Perpetual Ruminations

Sunday

I barely made it in again. I don't like this last minute bull, but what can I do about it? Not much right now, but I am working on it. The biggest problem is just being sick. Other than feeling like day old road-kill, it was a pretty good day. Things were slower at work, and it was pretty nice out, too. I didn't have to get up before time, and I was done by noon.

After work, I called my younger brother and talked to him for a little while. He called yesterday, but I missed the call because I was sleeping. He left a message and said he would get back to me this morning, but I was at work and he wasn't sure of my schedule. So, after work I called him and then we met up at Running's Fleet Supply and did a little shopping. He has been interested in buying a hand gun, and they had some on sale.

Being limited on funds, it was nice to see some great prices, but there were also some real crazy prices, too. For instance, one pistol we looked at had a tag on that we thought read $119.99. We didn't take it out of the case or anything, but thought it was a super low price. We looked at the make and couldn't understand it being this cheap, then it dawned on us, it wasn't $119.99, we had misread it. The price was actually $1199.99.

It was just a bit out of our range, but only by a grand. I just can't imagine spending that much for a handgun. For that price it better hit the bulls-eye each and every time, load itself and be self cleaning. Oh, and it also needs to clean the house and mow the grass. And, that wasn't the top of the line price, there were others even higher.

Meanwhile, here we are asking about the pistol advertised in the paper for a hundred and fifty bucks. I think they had BB guns in that price range. They had been out of them all week, but got a few in yesterday. The sale was good until today, so we stopped, we looked, and I was surprised to see the handgun was actually pretty nice. My brother had looked online for some information, and they had good reviews, and I was impressed with the lifetime warranty on it.

For my purpose, I don't need much, just something simple and en expensive to buy ammo for. This fit the bill perfectly, one hundred and fifty bucks for the pistol, and twelve bucks for fifty rounds of ammo. It's a nice compact little gun, well built, semi-auto, and has an eight shot clip.

Just perfect for practice shooting, which is what it will be mostly used for. Also, it's compact size makes it ideal to pack along on bike rides and hiking trips. Not that there is much need for it, but it's nice to be on the safe side. It was a couple of years ago that we had a skunk attack us on a bike ride. We were pedaling along a minimum use road, and this skunk came out of the tall grass right at us. Luckily, we had just crested the top of the hill, and there was about a quarter mile of downhill trail in front of us.

We seen it come out of the grass just after we passed by, and with the hill we easily outran it. But, had we been coming the other direction and had it confront us, we would have been out of breath, and unable to speed away. We figured it probably was rabid to come at us like that, and began thinking of purchasing a handgun just in case we had another situation like this, but one we couldn't just ride downhill and get clear.

We also had a raccoon attack us one, the year before this. We were in the car this time, so there was no threat. We were driving along a road that was seldom used, and this raccoon came out of the grass and charged right into the front of the car. We were going about forty miles per hour when it charged us, and just before it impacted, it stood up and bared it's teeth, kind of like a bear. Then the bumper impacted with it and it was all over for the crazed coon, and we had an imprint for the rest of the time we had that car, on the front bumper where it's face had hit. Again, we figured the animal was sick to attack the vehicle like that.

A couple of rare cases, but enough to indicate that it's better to be safe than to be sorry. Besides, if I have the gun I doubt any situation would arise to need it. That seems to be the law of averages, when you don't have it, you need it, then when you get it, you wont. But, it will still be enjoyable to go out and do some practice shooting, just for sport, and if we aver do need it, we have the assurance that it's there.