10 March, 2019                A crybaby liberal has a macho weekend   

I’m kidding, of course – I’m not a crybaby liberal. Just whiny. And the weekend hasn’t been macho. Just more guy time than I normally spend. I sent some pictures to Evelyn and she texted back “macho weekend.”  

When I post pictures of snakes on here, I warn in advance for people who dislike pictures of snakes. No snake pictures on this one, but there will be at least one picture of a person (me) shooting a gun. So this is your warning – if you don’t like to look at guns, there will be pictures you dislike here.

So anyway – first picture. That’s me in the cockpit. The plane is a McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk. The person teaching me about that aircraft is my friend Pat’s son Daniel, who got me started flying in July of 2017:

Daniel got me started flying propeller planes. It’s unlikely I’ll ever fly a jet. But this was so cool:

There will be a picture of me holding a gun pretty soon. So you’ve been warned.

Daniel and his sister Calli were born about a month after my niece Aileen. I’d been swimming with Pat (though much slower) for a few months when we did a two mile lake swim in Reston, VA. That was the first time I met Daniel and Calli. I think they were three years old. Daniel at that time was considerably taller than my knee, but not nearly as tall as my waist. Now he’s a couple of inches taller than I am and he is flying jets and he is really great at it. Crazy. I thought I was a grown up when I first met him. In like 1991.

This is all at Daniel’s current station, Meridian Naval Air Station in Meridian, MS. Meridian also has a lot of great outdoor activities available, including several lakes for fishing. Pat and I went fishing while Daniel did stuff with his wife and his son and his mother and his dog. Here’s a picture from fishing. We were fishing on Lake Martha. I took this from the boat:

Lake Martha, Meridian MS, this morning. I took this picture from the boat. It didn’t suck.

I took the picture of the lake. Pat took the picture of Daniel and me. Daniel took this picture of me shooting skeet today at Binachi Shooting Sports. In his essay A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, the late, great David Foster Wallace wrote about his experience  shooting skeet. He is in a small group of my favorite all time authors. So I’ll quote him word for word about skeet; he and I had similar experiences: “Actually it was more like I shot at skeet.” But I cannot recall when I’ve had this much fun doing something that did not involve hiking with dogs:

Daniel (or Pat) took this picture of me shooting at skeet today

I don’t know what you think about guns, but that was pure, 100%, never-wanted-it-to-end fun. And it is a lot safer than driving. Even if you’re a committed anti-gun person, I recommend you try shooting a round of skeet some time. I still cannot stop smiling.

Most of my clays broke when they hit the ground. But it’s a cool t-shirt.

Front of the t-shirt:

I also spent time in Richmond this week. After seeing a Great Horned Owl at Bryan Park a week or so ago, I went back to see if I could find it again. I was unsuccessful, but a gorgeous Red-shouldered hawk posed accommodatingly on a branch before I left. I called this image “Consolation Prize,” but I’m happy with it no matter what:

Red-shouldered hawk at Bryan Park this week

I am still a guest and being rude by blogging (although they’re probably grateful to not have to entertain me for a while). Plus I’m getting ready to have yet another awesome home cooked meal so let me sign off. I’ll be back next week! I hope you will too!

All best,

Jay

PS We’re staying on base at the Ensign Jesse L Brown Memorial Navy Gateway Inns & Suites. I got curious about Ensign Brown so I googled him. I read up and became even more curious. So I looked on Amazon and found this book. Which I am approximately a quarter of the way through and hate to even put it down; it’s fascinating and excellent. Check it out at Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice by Adam Makos:

Devotion book cover