Match Prep

I have it from a reliable source that there are significant 'needs' which must be met before attending a match:

• Have a gun
• Have equipment (belt, holsters, mag carriers, magazines)
• Have ammunition

I've been just a little bit short of the third equipment requirement during recent match-days, so at the encouragement of The Hobo Brasser (who just wants SWMBO news, and to squad with someone he can beat) I set myself down to load ammunition for next weekend's Dundee match.

I figured 200 rounds should do me. I ran short of primers at the end ... not because I can't buy any, but because I rationed myself to 200 primers and I dropped two on the floor and one into the gaping "discarded primers" well in the cast-aluminum base of my Lee Turret Press. (I wasn't about to unbolt the press from the bench just to dig out one primer. By this time next month, I may rethink my position. It will still be there.)

I had loaded the first 100, was ready to powder-charge and bullet-seat the next 50, and was saving the last 50 (*47, counting the 3 lost primers) for Part II of my reloading session.

Figuring it was time for a break, I built myself a cold-cuts, crackers & dip lunch and sat down with a cold Weinhard's Ale while I watched the last half of the Donnie Brasco DVD I had bought at the Used Books store on Friday, after work.

I had never seen the movie, but I always admired the work of both Johnny Depp and Al Pacino, and the first half (perhaps two-thirds) of the movie was riveting as I watched these actors develop their characters with skill, precision and poignancy.

Just as I was slicing into the Bavarian Ham, I found myself watching Johnny Depp (Joe/Donnie) industriously using a bone-saw the hack the left foot of a fresh-slaughtered WiseGuy Corpse.

I paused, the video, carefully wrapped up the meat and cheese and put the lid on top of the cream-chease and garlic dep. Then I went up stairs and started working on my computer. Put on Henry Mancini's "Greatest Hits" album.

Maybe later tonight I'll finish my reloading; maybe tomorrow.

Whenever it happens, it will be a bit longer before I finish watching the movie. And I won't watch it while I'm eating lunch.

I've never been a friend of gore .. or Al Gore, or Gore Vidal.

They all make me lose my appetite, and make me want to wrap my head in duct tape.