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Nov. 12th, 2001
(no subject)
Nov. 12th, 2001 09:41 amWe went shooting Saturday. I had an unfortunate day regarding hot brass. I was a hot brass magnet!
Vlad bought a new rifle last weekend and bought some high velocity .22 long rifle bullets. We were sharing the ammo between the target pistol and the rifle. Well, the high velocity ammo comes out MUCH hotter. Usually, if the hot brass hits you after a shot, it bounces off. No big deal. Well, one casing came out of the pistol so hot, that it hit my forearm and STUCK. I yelled bloody murder (and had the good sense to put the loaded gun down first), jumped up and down, and brushed the hot casing off, but not before it seared off the top layer of skin. Can you say, "second-degree burn?"
You'd think I'd have spent all my bad luck on that one shot, but no such luck. I got hit by my own brass again in the face, and once by one of Tedy's. ::sigh::
It just wasn't my day to be out on the firing range--unless I planned on being a target.
Vlad bought a new rifle last weekend and bought some high velocity .22 long rifle bullets. We were sharing the ammo between the target pistol and the rifle. Well, the high velocity ammo comes out MUCH hotter. Usually, if the hot brass hits you after a shot, it bounces off. No big deal. Well, one casing came out of the pistol so hot, that it hit my forearm and STUCK. I yelled bloody murder (and had the good sense to put the loaded gun down first), jumped up and down, and brushed the hot casing off, but not before it seared off the top layer of skin. Can you say, "second-degree burn?"
You'd think I'd have spent all my bad luck on that one shot, but no such luck. I got hit by my own brass again in the face, and once by one of Tedy's. ::sigh::
It just wasn't my day to be out on the firing range--unless I planned on being a target.
(no subject)
Nov. 12th, 2001 11:05 amIt's a sad time we live in. A plane crashes, our hearts skip a beat, and our first thought is "Terrorists?"
I think of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
Free-associating. Twice I've been in the immediate vicinity of airplane crashes. Of course, I used to work across the street from the airport, but neither crash was actually at the airport. A light plane went down and hit an apartment building a few blocks from my office and a fighter pilot had to punch out and ended up ditching his jet into a residential neighborhood up the street, a mile or two away, taking out a house, a woman, and her baby.
Flight-wise, I was once on a plane that lost an engine mid-flight; luckily the second one didn't fail until we landed safely in Guam. My last flight coming home from Detroit, we took off from Atlanta, I was reading a book, and suddenly I was on my back and the plane was almost vertical. I've always wondered what that was about, whether we had a near miss or not--but maybe it is best not to know.
And yet, flying doesn't bother me.
My friend, R-r-rick, he's flying to Pensacola late this month and he says he is somewhat disquieted after the events of 9/11. He finds it comforting to see the National Guards armed with M-16s...
Me, I find it the opposite. I find it infinitely disturbing that we as a nation have been so thrown off our marks that it is necessary to have armed militia at our airports. But our days of innocence are gone. We can never take back that carefree attitude towards flying.
I think of the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."
Free-associating. Twice I've been in the immediate vicinity of airplane crashes. Of course, I used to work across the street from the airport, but neither crash was actually at the airport. A light plane went down and hit an apartment building a few blocks from my office and a fighter pilot had to punch out and ended up ditching his jet into a residential neighborhood up the street, a mile or two away, taking out a house, a woman, and her baby.
Flight-wise, I was once on a plane that lost an engine mid-flight; luckily the second one didn't fail until we landed safely in Guam. My last flight coming home from Detroit, we took off from Atlanta, I was reading a book, and suddenly I was on my back and the plane was almost vertical. I've always wondered what that was about, whether we had a near miss or not--but maybe it is best not to know.
And yet, flying doesn't bother me.
My friend, R-r-rick, he's flying to Pensacola late this month and he says he is somewhat disquieted after the events of 9/11. He finds it comforting to see the National Guards armed with M-16s...
Me, I find it the opposite. I find it infinitely disturbing that we as a nation have been so thrown off our marks that it is necessary to have armed militia at our airports. But our days of innocence are gone. We can never take back that carefree attitude towards flying.