SWMBO: Back Home On The Range

This weekend there was a match at the Albany Club (ARPC).

I had planned to shoot the match, but I couldn't reload ammunition because my reloading press was then, and remains, 'broken'. So I decided to just show up and monitor the progress of the Certifying Students from last week's Introduction to USPSA class.

To my surprise, the night before the match SWMBO suggested that she might want to go to the match with me.

I say "to my surprise", because I had been expressing the same idea for several months. Since the chemotherapy was discontinued, she began regaining her energy and her strength (not to mention her hair). And she has missed the people we meet at the USPSA matches.

Saturday morning SWMBO and I returned to our past weekend routine: up at a reasonable hour (7:30), breakfast from Burger King to eat on the way to the range, after we had geared up in waterproof clothing because not surprisingly the weatherman forecast rain.

We arrived at the range perhaps 20 minutes before the 9am beginning of the match, and it was a treat to see the surprise on the faces of our friends as they realized that when I attempted to introduce them to "My New Girlfriend", it was SWMBO.

Neither of us signed up to shoot the match, but we followed the crowd through the Walk-Through. On the first stage, Match Director Mike McCarter re-introduced SWMBO as " ... a competitor who has been missing, and missed for several months". Dozens of our friends stopped by to say hello to her, and to get her traditional greeting hug.

That afternoon, SWMBO and I had a big meal in celebration. She did not rest well that evening. She was unaccustomed to the exertion of walking, to eating foods which were not on her 'normal' diet, and perhaps to the excitement of going to the range.

But we both slept well, having experienced one more surprising event.

The postman brought her retirement check. She is unable to work, but when Social Security Disability kicks in (and later Social Security retirement funding), she will be able to pay the bills necessary to ensure a full, if frugal, standard of living.

Sandie and I would like to thank our friends for their fulsome welcome and constant support.