Tomorrow is the first day of the last six days I have left to work at my current branch. It is also the last day that I will be working with my current manager.
I've only spent nine months at the airport, but it has been a very eventful nine months. I have learned new computer systems, seen new and old employees come and go, dealt with awesome customers as well as some of the most difficult ones I've ever heard of. I've made new friends, lost old ones, learned a lot, forgot even more, and find myself wondering if I could go back to January when I made the decision to move if I would do it all again.
I do wonder what it would have been like if I was only out there for the three months that were originally planned, or if I would have stuck to my guns and said no, I'm not going out there. The summer would have been completely different and I would have had to potentially sacrifice more of shooting had I stayed at the downtown branch, but at the same time I would have had more opportunities to spend time on the lake during the weekends that I didn't have all the time. Of course those arguments are rather trivial when compared to the experiences I gained while working during peak tourism at the busiest airport in the region. Ultimately, I believe that it was the right decision to "take one for the team" and move out to the airport.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
My triumphant return to the blogging world, well a return at least...
Yes, I know that I have been absent for a good couple of months now. I'm guessing that hardly anyone noticed, but for the one or two of you that did, I'm sorry. Now for the updates and excuses of my disappearance.
Excuse #1
Since the shooting season had gotten into full swing about the middle of June I saw all of my free daylight hours - which wasn't many dwindle down to literally none. The free ones had been taken up by practicing and preparing for the shooting competitions that were to come.
Excuse #2
Due to all the management changes in the surrounding branches, and the peak tourism season hitting the area, my work load had increased to an almost intolerable amount. While most of the time I would be happy about having an increase in my responsibilities, during the summer they increased to a level that most would consider above my pay grade.
Excuse #3 (final one)
I found myself spending all my free time either chatting or hanging out with Plentywood. That turned out to be a complete waste of my time and money - love when I make those choices....
Now for the Updates...
Update #1
all of the non-salaried, full time employees of the group got a raise! While it's not a huge raise, it's still a raise and that makes me happy. I also hit my one-year anniversary with the company, thus accumulating 20.5 paid vacation days - woohoo!
Update #2
In just 16 days I will be transferring back to the place of my birth to work at the local branch there. I can't wait to move back and take on yet another different type of work experience, this one being at an off-site airport location that also serves as the "home/city" location.
Update #3 (final one of these)
Guess I really don't know what to use as the 3rd update other than to say, other than, even though Football season and Hunting season have commenced, I will try to get back on the blogging wagon and share all my wonderful experiences with those of you that do actually read this.
That is all for now.
Excuse #1
Since the shooting season had gotten into full swing about the middle of June I saw all of my free daylight hours - which wasn't many dwindle down to literally none. The free ones had been taken up by practicing and preparing for the shooting competitions that were to come.
Excuse #2
Due to all the management changes in the surrounding branches, and the peak tourism season hitting the area, my work load had increased to an almost intolerable amount. While most of the time I would be happy about having an increase in my responsibilities, during the summer they increased to a level that most would consider above my pay grade.
Excuse #3 (final one)
I found myself spending all my free time either chatting or hanging out with Plentywood. That turned out to be a complete waste of my time and money - love when I make those choices....
Now for the Updates...
Update #1
all of the non-salaried, full time employees of the group got a raise! While it's not a huge raise, it's still a raise and that makes me happy. I also hit my one-year anniversary with the company, thus accumulating 20.5 paid vacation days - woohoo!
Update #2
In just 16 days I will be transferring back to the place of my birth to work at the local branch there. I can't wait to move back and take on yet another different type of work experience, this one being at an off-site airport location that also serves as the "home/city" location.
Update #3 (final one of these)
Guess I really don't know what to use as the 3rd update other than to say, other than, even though Football season and Hunting season have commenced, I will try to get back on the blogging wagon and share all my wonderful experiences with those of you that do actually read this.
That is all for now.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Awesome Montana Weather
If you haven't heard we have had some very awesome weather here in Montana. First there was the Tornado in Billings Details can be seen here - Thanks to Sauce, and now in Bozeman there was hail ranging in size from the typical pea size to Baseball sized hail. which caused damage to everything from cars to houses.
These were collected from my front yard.
This is one of my bedroom windows that was a casualty of the storm.
I can't wait for work tomorrow when I get to deal with all the customers that had our cars out in the storm without our protections that will have to pay for any of the hail damage that was caused. Should be a Great Day!
This is one of my bedroom windows that was a casualty of the storm.I can't wait for work tomorrow when I get to deal with all the customers that had our cars out in the storm without our protections that will have to pay for any of the hail damage that was caused. Should be a Great Day!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Escobar and his Toothless Beauty
While working at the rental counter you get the opportunity to "meet" some very special people. Some good, and some not so good. For instance today, one of our customers had a pizza delivered to us a mere hour or two after picking up his rental car, for no other reason than to say thanks, he didn't receive any special treatment (although we treat every renter special), he didn't receive a free upgrade, he was just so impressed with how well we did our job that he thought it was necessary to say thank you. We love customers like that. The ones we don't love are the ones that trash our cars and use them for questionably legal reasons.
Before I get ahead of myself I should mention that in my area, with enterprise there is really no such thing as unlimited mileage other than in special circumstances or for corporate accounts that have that option in their agreements. The downtown office has a set mileage limit of 200 miles per day for free with a $0.25 per mile charge after that, out at the airport it is set at 150 miles per day, and a $0.19 per over mile charge. Occasionally (like during the holiday season) we will offer special packages where unlimited miles are included in our full coverage protection, so that we can provide what we call a "worry free" package. That being said, there are some limitations to the "worry free" package, the main one being you cannot leave Montana with our vehicle.
Okay, now that I have established some of the back-story, I'll get on with the real story - Escobar and his Toothless Beauty of a Girlfriend.
I was working away doing my thing at the Downtown office when the phone rang, I grabbed it and was presented with a very pleasant raspy and demanding voice telling me they needed a car, with unlimited mileage to go visit family in the eastern part of the state. I explained our mileage limitations to them and she said they absolutely had to have unlimited mileage because where they were going is 2000miles away (the furthest you can go without leaving the state is 800 miles away in a town called Westby). I told her that if they didn't leave the state they could have unlimited mileage with our "worry free" package. She said they might have to go into North Dakota cause that's where the nearest stores were. Fine - it's the holiday season, we'll make an exception. I guess they had rented once before with us, before I started working there, and brought back the car absolutely trashed. This time, the only car we had to give them happened to have expired plates, we weren't aware of this until they brought the vehicle back -trashed as per the last time. In order to not ramble on too much I'll sum up the whole rental. They apparently got pulled over twice or three times because of this fact, the police searched the entire car twice, impounded it once and apparently broke the windshield while it was impounded, yet they were never issued a ticket or even a warning. The apparent reason for the searches of the vehicle were because, according to the cop, they were on a known drug trafficking route-shocking. Even with the vehicle being impounded for a day, they still managed to drive over 3500 miles in 4 days time (without leaving Montana or North Dakota of course). While normally damage to the windshield would have been covered under our protection package this time it was not because any intentional damage to the vehicle voids our policy. Oh, I almost forgot, Escobar, doesn't have a valid driver's license and his toothless beauty doesn't have a credit card in her name (again we made and exception to our policy for this). We did get him to pay for the windshield without much of a fight and after that was settled, I figured I would never have the pleasure of seeing them again. I was wrong.
Friday night, last week, I'm working the closing shift at the airport so that I could take the weekend off to go see a high school buddy of mine get married - yes I went more to witness this feat more than anything. It was a slow night so I was sitting at the counter staring off into the distance when someone caught my eye. I was none other than Escobar and his girl. Thankfully they weren't here to see me, they went to the counter right next to me. While yes, all car rental companies are competitors, we still do a little looking out for each other. Fortunately in this case I didn't have to alert my competitor to the issues as Escobar and his girl conveniently disqualified themselves for a rental. Of course they move over to my counter and demand a car, with all the previously mentioned requirements. Two things were great about this interaction, one, they didn't recognize me from the downtown office, and two the mileage limitations out at the airport are stricter than the ones at the downtown location. So I got to politely say no, and send them on their way down the row in search of their next drug running vehicle
Before I get ahead of myself I should mention that in my area, with enterprise there is really no such thing as unlimited mileage other than in special circumstances or for corporate accounts that have that option in their agreements. The downtown office has a set mileage limit of 200 miles per day for free with a $0.25 per mile charge after that, out at the airport it is set at 150 miles per day, and a $0.19 per over mile charge. Occasionally (like during the holiday season) we will offer special packages where unlimited miles are included in our full coverage protection, so that we can provide what we call a "worry free" package. That being said, there are some limitations to the "worry free" package, the main one being you cannot leave Montana with our vehicle.
Okay, now that I have established some of the back-story, I'll get on with the real story - Escobar and his Toothless Beauty of a Girlfriend.
I was working away doing my thing at the Downtown office when the phone rang, I grabbed it and was presented with a very pleasant raspy and demanding voice telling me they needed a car, with unlimited mileage to go visit family in the eastern part of the state. I explained our mileage limitations to them and she said they absolutely had to have unlimited mileage because where they were going is 2000miles away (the furthest you can go without leaving the state is 800 miles away in a town called Westby). I told her that if they didn't leave the state they could have unlimited mileage with our "worry free" package. She said they might have to go into North Dakota cause that's where the nearest stores were. Fine - it's the holiday season, we'll make an exception. I guess they had rented once before with us, before I started working there, and brought back the car absolutely trashed. This time, the only car we had to give them happened to have expired plates, we weren't aware of this until they brought the vehicle back -trashed as per the last time. In order to not ramble on too much I'll sum up the whole rental. They apparently got pulled over twice or three times because of this fact, the police searched the entire car twice, impounded it once and apparently broke the windshield while it was impounded, yet they were never issued a ticket or even a warning. The apparent reason for the searches of the vehicle were because, according to the cop, they were on a known drug trafficking route-shocking. Even with the vehicle being impounded for a day, they still managed to drive over 3500 miles in 4 days time (without leaving Montana or North Dakota of course). While normally damage to the windshield would have been covered under our protection package this time it was not because any intentional damage to the vehicle voids our policy. Oh, I almost forgot, Escobar, doesn't have a valid driver's license and his toothless beauty doesn't have a credit card in her name (again we made and exception to our policy for this). We did get him to pay for the windshield without much of a fight and after that was settled, I figured I would never have the pleasure of seeing them again. I was wrong.
Friday night, last week, I'm working the closing shift at the airport so that I could take the weekend off to go see a high school buddy of mine get married - yes I went more to witness this feat more than anything. It was a slow night so I was sitting at the counter staring off into the distance when someone caught my eye. I was none other than Escobar and his girl. Thankfully they weren't here to see me, they went to the counter right next to me. While yes, all car rental companies are competitors, we still do a little looking out for each other. Fortunately in this case I didn't have to alert my competitor to the issues as Escobar and his girl conveniently disqualified themselves for a rental. Of course they move over to my counter and demand a car, with all the previously mentioned requirements. Two things were great about this interaction, one, they didn't recognize me from the downtown office, and two the mileage limitations out at the airport are stricter than the ones at the downtown location. So I got to politely say no, and send them on their way down the row in search of their next drug running vehicle
Monday, June 14, 2010
Blog Blog Blog
I know I haven't been blogging lately, I'm sorry. Especially to the one person I know that actually reads this (Sauce). Once I catch up on my sleep and have some time away from work, I'll blog away like a fool - I promise.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
State Championships and Cheap Shots
After shooting very respectfully the first two rainy days of the competition, I was only a couple targets down from the lead. As is tradition at these competitions, groups of shooters usually get together and go to dinner then out for a couple drinks, this weekend was no exception. Plentywood and I joined up with a group of shooters that had come from Washington and Idaho to compete in the out of state category. We had a good dinner at a relatively new restaurant and then after the group thinned a bit decided to hit the local watering hole for a couple after dinner drinks. We naturally went to the closest place which happened to be where Plentywood and I ended up the night before. We had one drink there and decided it was time to move on to a bar where we fit in a little better - Off to the old Horseshoe. When we arrived there we were sadly disappointed, the band that was scheduled to play that night had cancelled, well more like they decided not to show up. Oh well. Drinking and bullshitting it was then.
As the night progressed we were having a grand old time and Plentywood seemed to be getting along great with all my shooting buddies - usually a rare feat when it comes to them interacting with women. Then it happened.
All of a sudden one of the guys that was out with us went crashing to the floor behind me. As I turned around to see what happened there was a local guy with his chest all puffed out saying "there's plenty to go around for everyone." Next thing I know I'm surrounded by cops and people asking me if I'm okay. When I turned my head back to my table of comrades, the local decided it was a good time to sucker punch me - well in this case it was an elbow, knocking me out cold. I was out for somewhere around a minute and half to two minutes.I've been knocked out before, and on some of those occasions it was by my own doing. I have, however, never been knocked out from one blow that I didn't even see coming. While I don't really mind the fact that I got knocked out, the thing I do mind is that there were no words exchanged between this guy and anyone from my group, other some of us asking what was going on. I filled out all the necessary paper work saying I was fine, gave my account of the experience to the cops and sat down at our table to regain my composure and sense of what was happening around me. After about an hour longer we decided it was time to call it a night.
When I woke up in the morning a short 6 hours later for the last round of the competition I was greeted with a headache and a somewhat uneasy feeling of not knowing whether or not I was going to be able to even finish out the competition. I gathered up my belongings from the hotel room, left Plentywood to sleep in for a while longer and headed off to the range. When I got there I saw everyone from last night and we exchanged the obligatory "how are you feeling today?" questions. I decided it was probably a good idea to try and shoot some warm up to see how it was going to feel and see if I could even think about shooting the final 100 targets. After the first warm up pair I shot, I knew that I was in for a long day and decided to save the punishment for the targets that mattered.
We all headed out to our respective starting stations and began what is hopefully going to be the most painful and un-enjoyable round I ever shoot. All throughout the round I kept having to tell all the passing squads my account of what had happened the night before. It might be because I'm fairly well known in the shooting circle, or it might have been for some other reason, the the story seemed to have spread like wildfire amongst the shooters. I did get a couple comforting remarks from some of the shooters that seemed to be very impressed that I was even attempting to shoot after the night I had. I managed to struggle through the final round of the competition, shooting mediocre at best. I no longer needed to stick around in the hopes that I was going to end up in a shoot off after the afternoon rotation had finished. Once off the course, I loaded up my gear, said goodbye to a couple of shooters I won't see again until late summer and started the drive back home. Guess I'll just have to wait until next year, and stay out of the bars, so I don't ruin my chances of taking home another State Championship Buckle.
New Characters and New Aventures
This post is going to serve two purposes, one to introduce my first character, and two, to start the story of what a random and interesting Memorial Day Weekend I had.
First order of business, the new character.
I'm not really sure how I should introduce her, but I'll give it a shot, I'll use her home town, Plentywood, as her name. Her nickname seems to fit her, not only because the town is very unique, but also because if you ask almost any guy, they would say it would be fitting because of the reaction that she causes when they see her. Now, don't get me wrong it's not all about looks, she's a fun person to be around and she seems to understand my humor - which isn't the easiest thing. Plentywood is an elementary school teacher in my hometown, we first met close to 3 years ago, when I kept seeming to run into her and her boyfriend at the time wherever I went, be it out of town or when I was back home visiting. Up until last summer, we never really spent anytime together other than those chance meetings. Last summer, we spent some time together out on a buddy's boat, and at some other social gatherings while I was home for the summer. She's an interesting girl stuck between wanting to be a city girl, and being true to her small Montana town upbringing.
There, first character has been established - now for the story.
Pseudo High Roller Status
While working at Enterprise, we do get to enjoy certain perks that not everyone does. One of these perks is getting really cheap rental cars. I decided that instead of driving my truck - which is far from a beater - I was going to rent a fun car for the weekend travels up to the Flathead Valley. I was going up to compete in the State Sporting Clays Championship, and didn't want to put 500-600 miles on my truck, let alone pay for the gas required to drive my thirsty truck that far. I arranged for me to have the car in the picture from Thursday night until Sunday when I returned from my trip.
After talking to Plentywood about her plans for the long weekend, and finding out that she had never been up in the Flathead, I suggested that she come along. Being a teacher, she couldn't come up until Friday night, she somewhat surprisingly agreed to drive herself up and spend the weekend with me. I got done with my three events for the day about a half hour before she got into town, it was almost perfect timing. After getting her settled in the room, and cleaning up for the night, we headed out on the town in search of food and something exciting to do for the night.
We ended up heading to one of the two bars in town that still served food late. After a couple drinks and dinner, we decided that we would head to the other bar as we had enough of the loud live music for the time being. When we walked into the Wolf's Den, I knew we were in for a very "special" experience. Being from Montana, I very rarely walk into a small town bar where I feel out of place, but this one was very different. I should probably note that the town we were in is right in the middle of the Salish Kootenai Tribal Reservation. In the words of an old waterfowl hunting buddy of mine, and to put it simply - we stuck out like a turd in a bowl of milk. After ordering drinks and finding a table we began the very interesting and entertaining process of people watching and character analysis of the patrons. It took about half a second from the time I got up from the table to go order more drinks for three of the local young bucks to swarm our table and start talking/hitting on Plentywood. I returned with beers in hand and only the bravest one, or maybe he was the drunkest one, stuck around to meet me. What I didn't know was the story that Plentywood had started as to explain why we were in town.
As we chatted with our new friend, I was enlightened to the fact that apparently I had just bought the Camaro I was driving and that one of the conditions was that Plentywood and I take a trip across country from our New York residence. Good information to know. One thing lead to another and our story developed into one of the greatest back-stories ever thought up without prior planning, at least to my knowledge. It got so outlandish that I though there was no way that anyone could believe it, but our new friend lapped it up and kept wanting more.
In order to summarize here's a list of the highlights from our "history"
We live in NYC, but just bought a house in Montana because we liked it so much out here - and for the tax breaks
I'm 33 and she's 27
I work as a developer and she is now a stay at home mom, but used to write for a fashion magazine
We've been married for 6 years
We have 4 kids, 2 boys 2 girls
She wants me to sell the Camaro and buy a jet
I have spent $55K on "upgrades" to her appearance (she's all natural in real life)
And random other lies she told him that I didn't hear while I was too busy trying not to fall off my stool from laughing.
Not only did our new friend believe the whole thing, he even introduced us to his brother, cousin, sister and her boyfriend - who all believed it as well. Once, we decided we should call it a night before our lie got uncovered, the sister said to us "I love your little New York life, and it was great meeting you. You might want to head out because it can get a little rowdy when all the locals start showing up for last call."
What none of us knew at the time was what would happen to me at the other bar the following night.
First order of business, the new character.
I'm not really sure how I should introduce her, but I'll give it a shot, I'll use her home town, Plentywood, as her name. Her nickname seems to fit her, not only because the town is very unique, but also because if you ask almost any guy, they would say it would be fitting because of the reaction that she causes when they see her. Now, don't get me wrong it's not all about looks, she's a fun person to be around and she seems to understand my humor - which isn't the easiest thing. Plentywood is an elementary school teacher in my hometown, we first met close to 3 years ago, when I kept seeming to run into her and her boyfriend at the time wherever I went, be it out of town or when I was back home visiting. Up until last summer, we never really spent anytime together other than those chance meetings. Last summer, we spent some time together out on a buddy's boat, and at some other social gatherings while I was home for the summer. She's an interesting girl stuck between wanting to be a city girl, and being true to her small Montana town upbringing.
There, first character has been established - now for the story.
Pseudo High Roller Status
While working at Enterprise, we do get to enjoy certain perks that not everyone does. One of these perks is getting really cheap rental cars. I decided that instead of driving my truck - which is far from a beater - I was going to rent a fun car for the weekend travels up to the Flathead Valley. I was going up to compete in the State Sporting Clays Championship, and didn't want to put 500-600 miles on my truck, let alone pay for the gas required to drive my thirsty truck that far. I arranged for me to have the car in the picture from Thursday night until Sunday when I returned from my trip.After talking to Plentywood about her plans for the long weekend, and finding out that she had never been up in the Flathead, I suggested that she come along. Being a teacher, she couldn't come up until Friday night, she somewhat surprisingly agreed to drive herself up and spend the weekend with me. I got done with my three events for the day about a half hour before she got into town, it was almost perfect timing. After getting her settled in the room, and cleaning up for the night, we headed out on the town in search of food and something exciting to do for the night.
We ended up heading to one of the two bars in town that still served food late. After a couple drinks and dinner, we decided that we would head to the other bar as we had enough of the loud live music for the time being. When we walked into the Wolf's Den, I knew we were in for a very "special" experience. Being from Montana, I very rarely walk into a small town bar where I feel out of place, but this one was very different. I should probably note that the town we were in is right in the middle of the Salish Kootenai Tribal Reservation. In the words of an old waterfowl hunting buddy of mine, and to put it simply - we stuck out like a turd in a bowl of milk. After ordering drinks and finding a table we began the very interesting and entertaining process of people watching and character analysis of the patrons. It took about half a second from the time I got up from the table to go order more drinks for three of the local young bucks to swarm our table and start talking/hitting on Plentywood. I returned with beers in hand and only the bravest one, or maybe he was the drunkest one, stuck around to meet me. What I didn't know was the story that Plentywood had started as to explain why we were in town.
As we chatted with our new friend, I was enlightened to the fact that apparently I had just bought the Camaro I was driving and that one of the conditions was that Plentywood and I take a trip across country from our New York residence. Good information to know. One thing lead to another and our story developed into one of the greatest back-stories ever thought up without prior planning, at least to my knowledge. It got so outlandish that I though there was no way that anyone could believe it, but our new friend lapped it up and kept wanting more.
In order to summarize here's a list of the highlights from our "history"
We live in NYC, but just bought a house in Montana because we liked it so much out here - and for the tax breaks
I'm 33 and she's 27
I work as a developer and she is now a stay at home mom, but used to write for a fashion magazine
We've been married for 6 years
We have 4 kids, 2 boys 2 girls
She wants me to sell the Camaro and buy a jet
I have spent $55K on "upgrades" to her appearance (she's all natural in real life)
And random other lies she told him that I didn't hear while I was too busy trying not to fall off my stool from laughing.
Not only did our new friend believe the whole thing, he even introduced us to his brother, cousin, sister and her boyfriend - who all believed it as well. Once, we decided we should call it a night before our lie got uncovered, the sister said to us "I love your little New York life, and it was great meeting you. You might want to head out because it can get a little rowdy when all the locals start showing up for last call."
What none of us knew at the time was what would happen to me at the other bar the following night.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Cody Club Challenge
This past Saturday I finally started my competitive shooting season. I typically start in late January to mid February depending on how the weather here in Montana decides to cooperate. This season it had nothing to do with the weather, it was due to the awesome scheduling skills of my manager (read: sarcasm).
The day before competitions I usually spend most of my time getting all my equipment in order, making sure my beautiful Kreighoff K-80 is in pristine condition, shooting glasses are clean and in their case, shells are lined out in the perfect mix of loads and shot sizes, and that my vest along with my gun sleeve are neatly folded and tucked away safely in my shooting bag waiting patiently for me to use them. However, this is not how I spent last Friday. I spent my "prep" day working the god-awful closing shift at the airport. While normally the closing shift isn't terribly hard or all that bad, this one was particularly not fun because it started an hour earlier than the usual closing shift.
I know you're probably thinking "why didn't you just do all your prep work before work?" I would have done that but I was spending that time visiting my mom since she is leaving tomorrow for her European vacation. That also meant that I had to spend 90 minutes driving to get back for work. Well, it usually only takes 90 minutes. On the way back I was fortunate enough to have to wait somewhere around 25 minutes in a construction zone so that the workers could paint a mark every foot on a 300 foot bridge, all the while restricting traffic to one lane servicing traffic in both directions. I luckily left 2 hours before I needed to be at work. It's a good thing that I managed to plan ahead somewhat and planned on just going directly to work instead of having to go home and change.
The day at work was nothing special, few reservations here and there and one or two cars left to return after the day shift was over. I sat patiently waiting for the next flight and my next customer to arrive when the dreaded phone call came through. The flight from Minneapolis was delayed and wasn't scheduled to depart until 10:40pm which meant it wasn't going to arrive until close to 1am, and I would have to stay for it. When that flight did arrive the passengers were very grateful, which was a nice change from the usual late night arrivals. All said and done, I ended up getting out of the airport somewhere around 1:15am. Perfect.
Once I got home I half-assed my way through getting everything set for the next morning. I didn't want to risk having to get everything ready in the haze that would come a mere 4 hours later and forget a crucial piece of equipment, or even more importantly my checkbook to pay for the shoot. Thankfully, I was not the one that was driving, which meant I would be able to get a little more sleep on the way down.
--The Shoot--
We arrived just in time for registration, and after signing up and writing the check for $95 - yes shooting is extremely expensive - we headed back to the Tahoe to get our equipment lined out for the first round of 100 targets. The first round was less than impressive on my part, and it was quite evident that I had only shot one practice round for the year. I won't even tell you what I shot because it was that poor. However, once the scores were all in for the first round I was sitting in second place a mere 3 targets behind the leader. We had a quick lunch of beef brisket that was provided to all the shooters while they reset the course for the afternoon round.
We all headed out to our respective starting stations, and began to try our luck at hitting the new targets. The courses, both morning and afternoon, weren't particularly hard other than the fact that the weather could really affect the presentation making the shots either very difficult or very easy. Cody had provided us with its usual windy conditions, but also decided to throw in a rain shower here and there, just to keep things interesting. I shot the second round much better than the first, I was on pace to most likely take over the lead and even make it nearly impossible for the shooter ahead of me to do anything but tie me and hope he comes out on top in the tie breaker. Then I got to my last station. I have become used to being presented with more difficult shots due simply to the fact that I am left handed. It's not usually top of mind to accommodate or even consider the left handed shooters for the target setters. While my last station wouldn't have been bad, by the time it was my turn, the wind had picked up to the point where it made the first shot all but impossible for me to shoot. I'm not usually one to make excuses about my shooting, nor complain about targets, but this station, was not a fair target. I'm sure you can sense the bitterness, it was because of this station that I blew my very respectable, even great score for the second round. I don't know how I ranked after all the scores were tallied and the final results came out, and to be honest after that last station, I don't really care.
The State Championship starts Thursday, I won't be shooting until Friday morning. I don't know how I'll do this year, based on the limited amount of practice I've had leading up to it. I can tell you that I will be up there not hoping, but expecting to win myself one more belt buckle to add to my collection. Wish me luck.
The day before competitions I usually spend most of my time getting all my equipment in order, making sure my beautiful Kreighoff K-80 is in pristine condition, shooting glasses are clean and in their case, shells are lined out in the perfect mix of loads and shot sizes, and that my vest along with my gun sleeve are neatly folded and tucked away safely in my shooting bag waiting patiently for me to use them. However, this is not how I spent last Friday. I spent my "prep" day working the god-awful closing shift at the airport. While normally the closing shift isn't terribly hard or all that bad, this one was particularly not fun because it started an hour earlier than the usual closing shift.
I know you're probably thinking "why didn't you just do all your prep work before work?" I would have done that but I was spending that time visiting my mom since she is leaving tomorrow for her European vacation. That also meant that I had to spend 90 minutes driving to get back for work. Well, it usually only takes 90 minutes. On the way back I was fortunate enough to have to wait somewhere around 25 minutes in a construction zone so that the workers could paint a mark every foot on a 300 foot bridge, all the while restricting traffic to one lane servicing traffic in both directions. I luckily left 2 hours before I needed to be at work. It's a good thing that I managed to plan ahead somewhat and planned on just going directly to work instead of having to go home and change.
The day at work was nothing special, few reservations here and there and one or two cars left to return after the day shift was over. I sat patiently waiting for the next flight and my next customer to arrive when the dreaded phone call came through. The flight from Minneapolis was delayed and wasn't scheduled to depart until 10:40pm which meant it wasn't going to arrive until close to 1am, and I would have to stay for it. When that flight did arrive the passengers were very grateful, which was a nice change from the usual late night arrivals. All said and done, I ended up getting out of the airport somewhere around 1:15am. Perfect.
Once I got home I half-assed my way through getting everything set for the next morning. I didn't want to risk having to get everything ready in the haze that would come a mere 4 hours later and forget a crucial piece of equipment, or even more importantly my checkbook to pay for the shoot. Thankfully, I was not the one that was driving, which meant I would be able to get a little more sleep on the way down.
--The Shoot--
We arrived just in time for registration, and after signing up and writing the check for $95 - yes shooting is extremely expensive - we headed back to the Tahoe to get our equipment lined out for the first round of 100 targets. The first round was less than impressive on my part, and it was quite evident that I had only shot one practice round for the year. I won't even tell you what I shot because it was that poor. However, once the scores were all in for the first round I was sitting in second place a mere 3 targets behind the leader. We had a quick lunch of beef brisket that was provided to all the shooters while they reset the course for the afternoon round.
We all headed out to our respective starting stations, and began to try our luck at hitting the new targets. The courses, both morning and afternoon, weren't particularly hard other than the fact that the weather could really affect the presentation making the shots either very difficult or very easy. Cody had provided us with its usual windy conditions, but also decided to throw in a rain shower here and there, just to keep things interesting. I shot the second round much better than the first, I was on pace to most likely take over the lead and even make it nearly impossible for the shooter ahead of me to do anything but tie me and hope he comes out on top in the tie breaker. Then I got to my last station. I have become used to being presented with more difficult shots due simply to the fact that I am left handed. It's not usually top of mind to accommodate or even consider the left handed shooters for the target setters. While my last station wouldn't have been bad, by the time it was my turn, the wind had picked up to the point where it made the first shot all but impossible for me to shoot. I'm not usually one to make excuses about my shooting, nor complain about targets, but this station, was not a fair target. I'm sure you can sense the bitterness, it was because of this station that I blew my very respectable, even great score for the second round. I don't know how I ranked after all the scores were tallied and the final results came out, and to be honest after that last station, I don't really care.
The State Championship starts Thursday, I won't be shooting until Friday morning. I don't know how I'll do this year, based on the limited amount of practice I've had leading up to it. I can tell you that I will be up there not hoping, but expecting to win myself one more belt buckle to add to my collection. Wish me luck.
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