Myakka River

I confess to being an adrenaline junkie. I try to be good but had a serious relapse during our stay in Florida last winter. Canoeing the Myakka river turned out to be the thrill of a lifetime.
The boat launch on the river was busy so we decided to find a different spot to put in. Since we wanted to avoid other canoeists we drove a couple miles downriver then dragged the canoe down an embankment. We had the river to ourselves here and it wasn't long before we floated into an area rife with alligators. Some were skittish, some were bold, most were huge and intimidating.

The Myakka River State Park brochure warns canoists to stay away from the banks when coming around bends in the river. Alligators basking on the shore may attack in self-defense if you surprise them. And they've been known to attack small boats, particularly canoes. It's believed that alligators looking up from underwater may see a canoe and think it's another alligator. So they may attack the boat as a territorial defense.

The Myakka doesn't have much current so we drifted lazily while I photographed gators sunning on the banks. At one point while rounding a bend our canoe drifted within 10 feet of a giant basking pair. We were concerned about the proximity and didn't want to alarm them with any sudden paddling movements. So I did what any adrenaline addicted photographer would do; switched the camera to "video" and recorded this close encounter. Because of the potential danger, my hands were shaking and I couldn't hold the camera still. Nonetheless, I uploaded one of the clips to show the encounter.
See it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tedQCdWyuog

An alligator that is surprised or alarmed by your approach may think that it's in danger. They become aggressive when they feel threatened.  And those that don't show fear of humans are the ones you really have to watch out for since they are the most likely to attack. They can produce short bursts of speed on land that can take you by surprise if you're too close. And we were.

Larger alligators can be the greatest threats because they're big enough to size you up as a potential meal. A full-grown alligator that is between 8 and 11 feet can weigh up to 1,000 pounds. But even though these behemoths can be threats to humans, they're still wary of us. They'd prefer to avoid interactions with people altogether.

They may attack because they're hungry, but that's not the usual reason. The main reason an alligator attacks a human is to protect its territory. An adult male is especially territorial during mating season. And a female with her young may attack if she feels there's a threat to her offspring.

There were 13 fatal alligator attacks in Florida between 2001 and 2007 as well as 88 serious injuries. (Wikipedia)

Chris was a real trooper during this episode and may even have enjoyed the thrill as much as I did. Well, maybe not.
We came home drained but happy. Dang, what an adventure!

Shooting Steel

IHMSA stands for International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association. We shoot steel targets at long distances with handguns. In this game you're allowed one shot on each target and you must knock it off its pedestal to score the point. If you merely ring the target or turn it you get no point, it must fall. The biggest targets (Rams) weigh 55 pounds so it takes a wallop of terminal energy to topple them. And that means the shooter must contend with rather harsh recoil. Training oneself to ignore the recoil is unnatural and that's one of the reasons a perfect score is so difficult to achieve. But it sure is fun!

Shooters are allowed to have a spotter with them who watches where the shots land and advises the shooter on corrections to make. Chris spots for me and I for her.

In the big bore event, targets are set at 50 meters (or yards, depending on the range), 100M, 150M, and 200M. The chickens are at 50, pigs at 100, turkeys at 150 and rams at 200 meters. There are ten targets (silhouettes) of each animal for a total of forty.

At the fire command you have two minutes to shoot the first five targets. Then there's a 30 second break before stage 2 where you shoot the second bank of five targets. You shoot from left to right, one shot per target. Before you move to the next group of "animals" you must adjust your sights to account for bullet drop at the increased distance.

I started shooting silhouette in 1995 and my first score was a dismal 8X40 while shooting from a prone position, placing me in C class. That was demoralizing!  I've long since changed my free-style position to one called Creedmore where you lie on your back with your knees locked together, feet spread, and the gun rested along the side of your leg. The gun must not touch the ground or have any artificial support.

Over the years I've advanced from C to B to A to AA and about five years ago I broke into AAA class. To be in AAA class you have to hit at least a 37X40 twice within a season. I've managed to hit a few 39s in the last few years but the perfect 40 had eluded me until this past Sunday in Alma, Michigan.

On the chickens my trigger was breaking well with nothing scary or too close to the edge. On pigs I did have one shot go wild, the bullet hit a pig along the back-line and bounced into the berm about 3 feet back but the target fell. All the other shots were solid hits.

On to the turkeys. These are the hardest to hit!  And this is where I start to get nervous and usually screw things up! My wiggle was larger than the target so I shifted my brain into autopilot, holding light trigger pressure until the gun went off, seemingly on its own. One shot broke with the crosshairs 2 inches over the back but the hit was on target. I think my subconscious moved the gun while the bullet was still traveling down the bore to correct the shot. We got through the turkeys clean. Whew! A fellow shooter asked how I was doing. I told him this was the first time I was ever clean through the turkeys. Wow, if ever there was a statement that could jinx me, that would be it.

We moved to the 200 meter rams. 'Slow, steady, breathe, make every shot count, take your time, wait for it to happen, you can do this.' Each target in the first bank fell one at a time with solid hits. Not all were near the center but each had at least a couple of inches of meat around them. This is the point in an entry when things get very intense and I'm most likely to screw up. My heart rate went up and I started to shake. I settled in for the second bank of rams. The first 3 animals fell with seemingly little effort. There was a lot of deliberate breathing and self-assurance. When #3 went down I did that terrible thing where I remembered I was about to beat my best score ever. 'Not now! Concentrate, you can do this.' The crosshairs came up on #4, wiggled around a bit then BANG and down goes #4. Chris calmly said, "Last one, Bud, plenty of time, make it count." The crosshairs wandered around the ram and BANG, the gun went off. I had my doubts until I saw the target change from black to gray as it started to fall backward. Whoo-hoo! Got it! Now all I had to do was keep breathing long enough to set the gun down. Chris was already jumping up and down by the time I put the gun in the cradle. I stood and gave her a huge "Thank you!" hug. She did an awesome job keeping me straight, focused, and calm (enough). Wow, did that just really happen?

Maybe my planets were correctly aligned and the gods were smiling on me. But...in order to get an international rating I'll have to shoot ANOTHER 40 within a year so I have until this time next year to qualify for international class. The pressure's on!

Up until now my biggest shooting accomplishment was taking second place in a five state district championship. I got a nice trophy for that. See picture.

Sometimes the bear eats you, sometimes you eat the bear.
To be honest...I think I just got lucky.

Cha!

We were babysitting our grandson, Ian, on a rainy day. Since we were stuck indoors, we spent the day playing on his bedroom floor. While building a castle with blocks we heard a sharp crack of thunder overhead. Ian looked up with concern on his face and said, "Cha!"

I said, "That's thunder! You'll sometimes hear it when it's raining." He nodded his head and placed another block on the castle. A few minutes later there was another rumble. He pointed up and again said, "Cha!" You see, he was just learning to talk and sometimes had a hard time expressing himself with words.

I told him the noise is called thunder and added that it's created by lightning in the sky. The lightning is caused by an electric discharge between water drops in the clouds. The electrical buildup on each drop is very small but the huge number of water drops creates a large electrical difference between different portions of the cloud. Then a reaction happens to balance the electrical build-up, either within the cloud or between the cloud and the ground. When lightning moves through the air it increases the temperature of the air. The air then cools rapidly. This rapid expansion and contraction of the air gives off the sound wave that we hear as thunder. Think of a balloon popping. There is a sudden release of noise due to the rapid expansion of air.

He gave me a dismissive look as though I was crazy and placed another block on the castle. Chris rolled her eyes at my explanation before adding another block to the structure.

When the third rumble of thunder came. Ian looked squarely at me and with determined emphasis declared, "Cha!" Chris and I shrugged as we put the last block on top of our castle. Ian summarily knocked the whole thing down and said, "Again!"

Driving home that night we saw a bright streak of lightning in the sky up ahead. We glanced at each other and with resignation said, "Cha!"

Poked a Hole

  It happened so quickly that I'm not really sure what went wrong. My radio controlled plane went squirrely all of a sudden while over my neighbor's house. I try not to fly over peoples houses but there I was. When the plane disappeared behind their barn I heard a loud THUNK and knew that couldn't be good. My heart sank when I found my Mini Funtana embedded in the side of their house like an arrow.
   In panic, I dragged an extension ladder from their barn, climbed onto the first-level roof and clamored up to pull the remains out of their second-level siding. I peered into the hole and saw furniture. My god, I had penetrated their house.
  They heard the clatter up there and stuck their heads out the door to see if it was Santa Claus. "No, it's me! I can explain!"
  You see, the sheathing under their vinyl siding is foam board and the drywall in their upstairs bedroom had been cut away because of a project he was working on.
  Lucky for me, my neighbors are good-natured folks and took this quite well. In utter mortification, I spent a couple hours patching things up, then promised to re-side that area in the spring.
  The humiliation nearly killed me. I'll never fly over someones house again and it's unlikely I'll ever live this down.
  We brought brownies over the next night as a token of my contrition and they kept saying "It's no big deal". Well, it was a big deal to me so I grounded myself for a few days until I could figure out what had happened.
  After playing it over in my mind, I decided it was plain old pilot error. I was using a 300 watt motor on a pound and a half plane flying full throttle with the control surfaces maxed out. That's a two-to-one power to weight ratio and yes, I was hot-dogging when things went funny. I instinctively pulled up to get away from the house. But the thing is, the plane was inverted at that moment so up meant down and you know the rest.

  They are great neighbors. My acreage is wooded but theirs is open so in the summer they let me mow a landing strip in their big field. They say they enjoy watching me fly from their back windows or porch. Sometimes in winter I shovel a landing strip on my frozen pond but they complained they can't see the planes from there. I'll bet they're rethinking that now.