Progressive

PROGRESSIVE
pro-gres-sive (pruh-gres-iv)

(Adjective)

1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement,or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things are they are, especially in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2. making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
3. characterized by such progress, or by continuous improvement.
4. of or pertaining to any of the Progressive parties in politics.
5. going forward or onward; passing successively from one member of a series to the next; proceeding step by step.

Here's what a "PROGRESSIVE" gun club is like:

Albany Rifle and Pistol Club (looking East across the I5 Freeway from Shedd, Oregon) reports in its latest newsletter that it has enrolled over 135 NEW members in the past month.
That's "Progressive" in the sense of improvement


ARPC also reports that, due to unavailability of supplies from their wholesalers, their pro shop must reluctantly restrict sales of ammunition and reloading components to members only. The reason? The same reason as the last time Barack Obama was elected President of the United States of America.
Many people think POTUS is going to pass legislation which will either restrict or deny their access to what some consider to be "essential commodities".(In the meantime, are people hording for the "End Of Days" scenario?)

That's "Progressive" in the sense of Politics.

One form enhances our lives and supports our personal choices.
The other form brings paucity to our lives and limits our personal resources.

Just saying, I know which form I considerable more desirable.

ARPC SIngle Stack Championship, May 9, 2009

I was unable to attend this years annual Single Stack Championship at the Albany Rifle and Pistol club, but fortunately the inimitable Trevor ("TrevorMaster") did and he filmed this video of the entire match.

I think it's the entire match. I haven't counted the number of stages on the 3:25 minute video.

And he didn't actually film it himself; it only includes his own performance on each stage.

Still, it's nice to have a chance to see what it looked like. From this point of view it looked very challenging to me ... even though Trevor made it look easy.

Kids, don't try this at home. When compared to the performance shown here, your results may be disappointing.

ARPC Newsletter December 2008

Albany Rifle and Pistol Club has been putting out a monthly newsletter for several years now, and in the past year they have been making it available on-line as a large PDF. (You can see it here.)

The newsletter includes messages from the various disciplines, some commentary, a few advertisements, a "for sale" area for club members, contact information and a calendar of events.


In this issue, there was even a URL for a Microsoft "Live Search" Earth satellite picture of the range. (Click on this image for a larger image. Click on THAT for a full-size still image.) I thought that was particularly interesting, but it was a very long URL

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=44.460827~-123.055238&style=h&lvl=18&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&cam=44.442938~-122.590279&scene=-1&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

so I loaded it into a TINYURL.COM form and shortened it to http://tinyurl.com/5wumku

Much easier to type.

One of the more interesting features this month was a series of photographs depicting recent range improvements. For example, they now have handicap-accessible bathrooms on the North Range. Also, they have improved the parking situation along the North Range access road by placing concrete parking curbs new the clubhouse. This allows the club to keep vehicles out of the equipment storage area.

There's also a free 'drawing' for "a gift certificate from Sierra Bullets for 5 boxes of bullets of your choice and a Techwell USA.com Magwell / Grip system for the 1911."

Hint for readers of this blog only: the two winning gate-card numbers are 1927* and 2609*. I won't give you the full numbers, I wouldn't want to deprive you of the fun of searching for them.

"Fire!" is not a Range Command

Fire burns grass on Saddle Butte - Albany Democrat Herald

Mike McCarter reports that a bullet fired on the Albany Rifle &Pistol Club (ARPC) Main Range started a grass fire.

"... [W]e had a lot of excitement on Wednesday with the north end of Saddle Butte behind the 200 yard line going up in flames. Yes Martha, steel jacket - steel core can start fires. We had talked to the Brownsville Fire Department about a practice burn on the hill and they could not because of the proximity to I-5, well this took care of the issue. The fire departments did a heck of a job putting the fire out on steep ground and poison oak then got called back out after 5pm to put out a flare up.

It's July, the grass is dry, the bullets fly, the grass will fry!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. It seemed so obvious.)

This is a situation which can happen at any shooting range. A steel-core bullet hit a rock downrange at a bench-rest area of the Club, and the resulting spark started a grass fire.

From what I read, the ARPC leadership had foreseen the problem and attempted to take preventative steps, but County government was unwilling to accommodate the entirely practical fire-prevention plan.

For those who didn't understand the "I-5" reference:
ARPC is located at "Saddle Butte", a small two-peaked butte or hill in the near vicinity of Shedd, Oregon, and just East of the Interstate 5 Freeway ("I-5"). The Freeway is perhaps 200 yards west of the range boundaries, and the are in question is on the West side of Saddle Butte. There is a nut-tree (Hazelnuts?) orchard between the freeway and the range. The Bench-Rest range is 50 yards East of the western range boundary, and as stated the fire started in grass another 200 yards away from the benches.

Add the dimensions and the dry-grass area was 450-500 yards East of the freeway. The prevailing wind in this area is West-to-East (explaining why I am so determined to emphasize the East vs West location of landmarks relative to the freeway), so the fire would have tended to spread East and up-hill on Saddle Butte, not West and down-hill, toward the freeway.

I seems to me that ARPC did just about everything 'right', and there was never any chance that a fire on the range would have threatened the freeway traffic.

Just to put things in perspective:
The area along the freeway (10 miles south of Albany, Oregon) has been one of the biggest producers of Grass Seed in the nation. For years, "Grass-seed Farmers" have grown their crops, reaped the seeds, mown the hay, and then burned the stubble to kill any weeks which may have been blown in from West. This produced tremendous volumes of billowing smoke during the post-harvest season (July through August).

Typically, every few years the smoke was so dense and low to the ground that driver visibility along that stretch of the I-5 Corridor was so obscured that horrendous traffic accidents occurred every few years. In my memory, it was not unusual for twenty to fifty cars would be involved in multiple compound pile-ups.

First one car would slow down because of the decreased visibility, then a car behind would run into the slower car. More cars would run into the wrecks ahead, and inevitably a few 18-wheelers would crush the wrecked cars ahead of them. Vehicles which were mercifully able to see the carnage ahead would veer wildly off the road ... often only to tip and roll because of the occasional steep banks off the shoulder of the freeway. At 70 miles an hour, it doesn't take much to roll a car ... much less a tractor-trailer rig.

Oregon State University "Crop Scientists" developed a machine which could be pulled behind a tractor and would dig the stubble and weeds from the soil and compact the plant material to pellets. This would then be sold as fuel for fireplaces and wood stoves. This became a preferred fuel, as Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) regulations restricted using wood products for fuel.


Thus field burning is rigidly restricted near the I-5 corridor, and is become increasingly restricted in other areas of the state. Which makes it only reasonable that the local fire departments are reluctant to authorize "Controlled Burns", even on the downwind side of the I-5 Corridor.

It was a crap shoot, and this time the DEQ came up snake-eyes. Accidents happen, and what they tried to prevent (field burning near I-5) by refusing to authorize a 'controlled burn' turned into an 'uncontrolled burn'.

Maybe they should have permitted the request from ARPC, who clearly had a much better understanding of the potential danger.

To paraphrase my own Geek Aphorism:
"It's better to do it, and not need it, than to need it, and not do it."

Maybe next year ....

Up You Go!

Last weekend's ARPC Club Match was a delightful 'Retro' experience.

MD Mike McCarter dragged out some tried-and-true stages from earlier days, and leavened the mixture with new stage designs which were both challenging and fun. (Match results here.)

Unfortunately, I was entered in the wrong division during sign-up; as this was the first match that I had shot in a long time when I shot 'clean' (no misses, no penalties), I would have preferred that I had been classified correctly. I had a lot of fun, I was squadded with all good people, so I don't really care. It's just that my posted results made me look better than I really was, considering that I was posted in "Limited 10" division rather than "Open". It has been a long time since I shot that well in L10.

One of the "Retro" stages was Stage 5: "Up You Go".

This basic stage design requires the competitor to engage some close cardboard ("Metric") targets, and some far. You must move a short distance on the level part of the stage, then move up a ramp to a platform which allows you to engage 6 steel targets (5 Pepper Poppers, on US Popper) around a barricade constructed of plastic barrels stacked three high. It's a test of balance, and figuring out your personal best way of choosing when and where to engage the paper targets.

This design has been included in at least two Single Stack matches, and a couple of club matches. It's not new to us, but the minor variations are sufficient to make each iteration a new challenge.

The following video shows a half-dozen or so competitors who each choose their own way to shoot the stage. The greatest variable is whether they find a 'sweet spot' in which to engage six targets (four close, two far downrange) or to take the downrange targets from the ramp or the platform. It provides each shooter the option to shoot 'on the move' or from a static position.

And when you get to the top of the platform, all huffing and puffing out of breath, it's a test to see if you can get all six steel targets without having to make up misses. I required eight shots to knock down the six steel targets; the highest round-count shown here was 12 shots to knock down six, but that shooter missed faster than I could hit them. Only one shooter in my squad shot the steel 'clean', and Kevin R. has been getting better and better with his new Open gun.

Here's how it looks. You can see the shooters with limited magazine capacity, because they shot the stage much different from those who only have 10 rounds in their magazines.

June USPSA Training

I arrived at the ARPC range an hour early Saturday, to set up the bay for the "Introduction to USPSA" class. I discussed the exercises to be presented during the class with Mike McCarter ("Mac"), who was responsible for the instruction, and almost as an afterthought I asked him how many students had pre-registered for the class.

"One", Mac said, "and he hasn't shown up yet."

This wasn't as disappointing as you may expect.

While preparing to set up the bay, I had met and introduced myself to an older gentleman, Pete, who explained that he had brought his grandson for Mac's Junior Team Training and Practice.

During our conversation, I mentioned that the sport is addictive, and added "You realize, of course, that if you're going to be bringing your grandson to USPSA matches, you'll soon want to start competing yourself."

Pete said that he had already planned on that. He explained that he had competed in 1996, and although he hadn't participated in over a decade he expected to shoot the matches along with his grandson.

When I told him that certification & training classes were available, he wondered aloud whether he should repeat the training that he had already received in 1996.

I told him that (as an example) I had dropped out of competition for a while in the late 1980's, and when I re-entered the sport I made it a point to re-take the training. I had realized that my shooting skills had atrophied along with my understanding of the rules, so I benefited from the refresher course.

Pete thought it over quickly, and asked if he should register for the July training.

"No need for that," I replied. "I'm teaching the course today. If you have a pistol, holster, magazine carriers and some ammunition with you, why don't you just take the class today? Since you're a returning competitor, I'm sure there will be no problem. And the class is free."

Pete agreed, and after I had double-checked with Mac I had one confirmed student for the class.

In the meantime, Brian B. showed up with his son, Nathan, who was also there for the Junior Practice. Brian had brought along his friend Adam, who was ex-Coast Guard, specifically for the Introduction to USPSA course.

Brian had loaned Adam a Glock, along with an equipment belt (belt, race holster, magazine carriers, and three magazines.) Adam had a brick (250 rounds ... far more than was needed) of ammunition for the Glock, and a healthy attitude toward training.

That's two, which is one more than is necessary to justify a class.

I should mention that the class is essentially a "Field Exercises" class. The students are expected to have completed an online-workbook (requires MS Word) to demonstrate that they have read the current USPSA Competition Rules. They should have completed an open-book test, and they can expect to be questioned about their answers before the range portion of the class begins.

The entire class, both the 'classroom' component and the 'field training' component, is scheduled for two to three hours, total.

Pete hadn't seen a rule book since (assumedly) 1996. Adam had received the workbook, but hadn't completed the test. He had not brought his test, which is a guide for the instructor to re-affirm the basic principles and rules of USPSA competition.

Since I didn't know what my class participants knew ... and worse, what they didn't know ... we had to wing it.

Just to add flavor to the experience, Adam was using a borrowed gun, which he had never fired.
Pete was using a new gun, which he had never fired.

However, both had experience with shooting pistols, so all we had to do was (in nor particular order) :

1. Gun-handling skills, how to use your pistol, learn the controls (both trigger-safety);
2. Basic rules of USPSA competition;
3. Safety rules;
4. How targets were scored, and how scores are ranked compared to other competitors;
5. Penalties (Miss, FTE, etc): how , when and why they are applied;
6. Match Disqualification (DQ) for violation of Safety Rules, and why and when they could be expected to be imposed;
7. Range etiquette: be ready when it's your turn to shoot; everybody works ... taping targets, resetting steel, painting steel between shooters, etc.
8. When and how to reload;
9. Movement, reload, clear jams ... finger obviously OFF the trigger!
10. Range commands, what the competitor does in response to each command;
11. Definition of 'in the shooting box', what is 'not in the box', what is 'out of the box';
12. How to interpret stage procedures, with emphasis on starting position ("Hands naturally at sides", "wrists above shoulders", "facing uprange" [turn, then draw], "pistol laying flat on table" (how to pick up a 'grounded' pistol');
13. Barricades and ports (stay well back of barricades and ports, don't point the pistol in the air or at your feet when moving to the other side of the barricade, etc.);
14. "Other" technical considerations [How to avoid tension in shoulders & back when engaging targets, keep hips & shoulders square with the targets, pivot with the legs, not the shoulders, etc.]

Obviously, some of these (especially the last couple of points) are beyond the normal course syllabus. However, although we had to start with basic essentials which are assumed to be already understood before the session begins, we managed to discuss a lot of 'helpful hints' during the allotted time: we started a couple of minutes before 1pm, and completed ... including answering questions ... at 3:08 pm.

Better, we managed to discuss 'New Shooter Self-Consciousness', which in my mind is one of the primary concerns for the person who is looking forward to shooting his first match.

Both Pete and Adam completed the class with the sense that this was not too complicated, that they were welcome by more experienced shooters, and they could expect as much supported as they needed (and probably more help than they really wanted) at future matches.
________________________________

It's a fact that most USPSA competitors truly enjoy having New Shooters join them. It's a complement to a squad to have a New Shooter assigned to their squad; it is demonstrable affirmation that the squad is sufficiently mature and responsible that they are willing and able to support a nervous "NuGuy", and make him or her feel entirely welcome.

Mike McCarter is the USPSA Junior Program Coordinator, and as such he is dedicated to welcoming and training Junior competitors ... who are the future of The Sport.

At a local level, Mac is committed to ensuring that ALL new competitors enjoy the support and encouragement which they may justifiably expect from a sport which actively recruits. USPSA not only wants to retain as many members as possible, we want to "Grow The Sport". This implies that we are willing and eager to make the shooting experience a positive experience, and that we will take whatever steps are necessary to insure that every competitor is safe, knowledgeable, and welcome.

USPSA competition is a volunteer sport. Only a few people are paid for their contributions; most of the community works for expenses; usually, not even for that.

We enjoy the sport, and there will come a time when every participant is given the opportunity to "Give Back To The Sport".

This is how we pay our dues. If we didn't really enjoy it, we wouldn't do it.
________________________________

When we completed our training session, Adam and Pete asked if they should help put away the props and targets on the bay.

I explained to them that they don't need to worry about that. The Juniors brought everything to the shooting bay before they started their own practice session; when that is finished, they'll clean it all up and put everything away. Their equipment and ammunition is supplied for them, and this is how they "Give Back To The Sport".

Pete and Adam need to find their own way to contribute. I have no doubt they will find a way.

ARPC: - A Safe Place to Shoot

A recent (June 5, 2008) article in the Albany Democrat-Herald gives the Albany Rifle Pistol Club credit for providing Oregon residents with a Safe Place to Shoot.


(Image courtesy Albany Democrat Herald)
The reporter, Les Gehrett, notes:

Finding a place for target practice didn’t use to be that difficult in Oregon.

That’s no longer the case as an increasing number of public and private property owners no longer welcome the practice, leaving many marksmen nowhere to go.

The shortage of options is driving more and more people to join organizations such as the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club

The club added about 250 members over the past year, bringing its total membership to almost 1,300.

“With the difficulty of going up in the woods and finding a place to shoot, and the high price of gas, our membership is growing,” said club president Steve Shippey. “A lot of people are just wanting a nice, close place to shoot, and we offer that.”

To meet this increasing demand for safe, legal shooting venues, the Albany, Oregon club has asked for a change in its conditional use permit to allow for expansion of range facilities, to include improvements on existing bays on the East side of the range and development of an archery-only area.

USPSA Training Continued

Last month I talked about a USPSA New Shooter Certification Class at ARPC where I was privileged to help teach people who wanted to start shooting in USPSA matches, and needed an introductory course to show them what they could expect and (not incidentally) introduce them to the skills needed to safely participate in USPSA competition.


As reported, I found this to be an immensely rewarding activity, and I hope to be allowed to continue to contribute to this worthy endeavor.

I note that the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club will offer another such FREE course next Saturday, the first Saturday of the month.

Today I sent an email to Mike McCarter, locally the USPSA Discipline Director at ARPC, offering to help with the class if there are any students who have requested this training. I haven't received a response yet, so I don't know if I can work the class.

And I probably won't know until the last minute. Last month, you may recall, the schedule said there were six students signed up as of 2 days before the class. On class day, we had 13 students.

Actually, we had 14, but one backed out (although he showed up and 'audited' the class) because his son was taking the Junior training, and they had only one pistol between them.

This is what makes working this class so rewarding.

The people who attend really want to learn. They want to shoot, they want to know the right way to act at matches, and they want to know what they have to know to avoid looking like a bozo at their first match.

More important, they want to be safe.

If you have the experience, and minimal skills as a teacher, this is the easiest class in the world to teach. That's because the students are more highly motivated than one would expect in, for example a Basic Gun-Handling or a Defensive Pistol class.

In those classes, the motivation is usually to achieve some kind of certification in the form of a certificate of completion. (In Oregon, this is needed to qualify for a Concealed Handgun License.)

After they finish their class, the students in these courses can either get their CHL or delude themselves into believing that they know enough about guns to handle them safely and competently under, perhaps, the most stressful circumstances imaginable. Humans are prone to self-delusion, and teaching a man how to handle a gun is like teaching him how to drive a car; he believes that he knows everything there is to know about the subject before he starts the training, and nothing you can do or say will undermine his confidence.

(Women are not this way. They enter the class with the ingrained understanding that they know little or nothing about the subject, and they will not leave until they believe that they have learned something ... and they are more inclined to practice, if it is recommended to them.)

But in the USPSA training, the students are told that their certification is not awarded until they complete one USPSA match safely. They don't have to be fast, they don't have to be accurate, they only have to be safe. And the definition of "safe" is rigidly defined in the most practical terms, so they are aware that a moment's inattention during the class may cause them shame and embarrassment the next weekend, when they are expected to shoot in competition.

The students are trained, by example and explanation, in all the ways to avoid failure. They listen and, if they are not completely brain-dead, they ask for explanations of the points on which the instruction has not been made crystal clear.

They want to know this stuff.

They are intrinsically motivated.

They're not there to go through the motions, they are there to learn and they will learn or they will accuse the instructing staff of not giving them value for the cost of the instruction ... which is free.

Example: last month, at the match which followed the USPSA training class, one student approached me (we were squadded together) and suggested sternly that it would have been very helpful if we had taught them how the scores were entered on the score-sheets. He had me there; we had glossed over the subject during the class. My only defense was to point out that we had 13 students when we had only expected six, we had only one instructor, and we had gone an hour over the alloted 2 hours of instruction attempting to cover all of the most important safety and gun-handling points for every student.

He understood immediately, of course, but that didn't convince him that he had received the best training available. In truth, he was right: it would have been better if we had taught him how the scoring worked. There wasn't sufficient time or staff available to give him all of the information that would have been useful, but still we should have met this (admittedly tertiary) need.

I'm learning on the job about how to teach people about USPSA competition. I consider myself a good teacher, and I think I know everything there is to know about the subject.

I'm wrong on both counts.

No matter how motivated I am to 'produce' highly trained competitors after two hours of range training, I will always fall short of adequacy.

That's why I want to continue to participate in the training of new USPSA competitors. Nobody can be a perfect trainer, but I want to do everything possible to insure that the people who I have trained will inevitably meet the highest standards possible of gun-handling and competitive skills.

This isn't possible, of course. But it's still a worth-while goal.

In the effort, my reach should will always exceed my grasp.

If I can impart that dedication to the people I teach, I've achieved a worthy something.

Last month, I taught 13 students. Of those, 2 have violated a basic safety rule in their first two matches.

I can do better, and I will.

After all, I will be shooting with these folks, and I want them to be safe shooters.
___________________________________________
UPDATE: 05-JUN-2008
I received an email from "Mac" today. Yes, some folks have signed up for the USPSA class this weekend, and I will be teaching the class, or assisting.

There's no word on how many people have signed up. It doesn't matter: some won't show up and some other people who have not pre-registered will be there instead. The training is free, regardless of ARPC club membership status.

And that's the way it should be. Nobody is making any money from this. The intent is to provide the training, so new shooters will know what to expect when they show up to compete in their first match. If money is an issue, it may discourage some prospects, and that does not support the primary goal of making New Shooters feel comfortable ... and insuring that they are familiar with range commands, safety rules, and the basics of Gun Handling Skills.

The students will be doing all the shooting. Although I need to practice, I probably won't bother taking my competition pistol with me.

I only hope that nobody points a pistol at me. That happened last month, and it was an un-nerving experience. It's a strange phenomena, but no matter how much you preach "Muzzle Control", folks just don't find it natural to be always aware of the deadly nature of the gun, and how important it is to keep it pointed in a safe direction.[

I suspect it's the consequence of watching to much Television.

Reving it Down: ARPC April 2008 club match

The match which I've been anticipating with so much excitement has completed, and I'm still excited.

Weather:
The unseasonable seventy-four degree weather showed up on time, and we actually found that it was too warm to be comfortable. We were clumping in the shade of the covered bays to keep from overheating. The unspoken agreement was the nobody would complain about the heat, but at least one person eventually complained about being 'too hot' and we laughed him down.

This is April in Oregon, right? Early April, in the Pacific North Wet. But there was more sweat than wet, even though I found at least one mud puddle in the margins of the access roadway. (No, I didn't take a picture of it; I figured you would take my word for it.)

SWMBO and I were both suffering from the debilitations of recovering from bad colds, so we couldn't RO very much. By the end of the match we had had enough, and we left before the awards ceremony. We would have liked to congratulated the winners, even though we knew we wouldn't have been among them. (Match Results available here. you can always find ARPC match results on Brian Berkley's excellent ARPC-INFO website here.) It didn't much matter, though, because we had a great time. We had great weather, challenging stages, and we got to see a lot of old friends and perhaps make some new friends.

The Gun:
Rob Shepherd of Major Nyne Guns and his charming (and very competitive) wife Caryn were there to deliver my repaired and thoroughly cleaned STI Race Gun in plenty of time for me to install my own backup Guide Rod Assembly before the match.

I'll never know how Rob got all the crud out of the compensator, but it looked good and shot great!
Except ... the backup Guide Rod Assembly (which I supplied ... no reflection on Rob's workmanship) wasn't right for the gun. I had two malfunctions, where the slide locked back on the next cartridge in the magazine requiring tap/rack/bang emergency recovery techniques. You can see them in the video (below). Fortunately, Rob had a spare Guide Rod which I'll use to replace the one I used today, along with a new ISMI ten-pound recoil spring which I got from Chuck Bradley at Shooters' Connection. I'll install the new Guide Rod and Spring before the match next weekend at Tri-County Gun Club.

Other than that, the gun (which Rob had sighted in for me at 12 yards ... I'll resight it again at 50 yards using my own ammunition) worked great. The only problem was that the gun hit at point-of-aim, and my personal point-of-aim was too frequently wandering across the no-shoot targets which were so frequently featured on these Mike McCarter designed stages.

There are times when I think that a pistol which is not sighted in has a better chance of giving me a high score. I excuse myself because I haven't done much competitive shooting for the past six months, but I realize that this is not an acceptable excuse. Fortunately, I already have enough ammunition reloaded for the next match, but I'll be doing more reloading. (Unfortunately ... remember the problems I mentioned a few months ago about bending decapping pins? I bent another one Thursday night; now I have to find the two-dozen pins I bought from Brownells and stored "in a safe place", which means I'll probably never see them again. But that's my problem.

People:
Guy Neill (author of the RELOADING column in USPSA's Front Sight magazine recently relocated to Oregon, and although he had mentioned months earlier that he was thinking about moving West to shoot with us, this was the first we knew that it was a fait accompli. Better, he had squadded with us so we had some time to make him feel welcome. Also, he kicked Geek Butt, if you'll excuse the expression. (Not that it was much of an accomplishment this week, but he proved once again that he is not only a charming friend but also very competitive.)

The Hobo Brasser just got back from umpteen months Snow-Birding in Texas, and he was full of stories of his excursions to Mexico ... maybe I should call them "incursions" if half of what he says is accurate. He and Whitefish spent a lot of time swapping stories with Guy, and at one time I wandered into a discussion of college mathametic tests for Engineering Students with Guy, The Hobo Brasser, and Vern. I wandered out as quickly as I can. Computer Geeks I can deal with, but I'm way over my head when confronted by an unholy trinity of Engineering Geeks. This is way too Dilbert for me.

Pictures and Videos:
I promised Brian Berkley (did I spell that right) that I would post a couple of videos I took of him. I suspect I won't have time to do that tonight, which is disappointing because he some good stages. Brian, I'll probably get to that Monday night (but see below).

I haven't even reviewed the 1GB+ photos and videos that I took at the match. I may never get them all posted, I went a little crazy. Fortunately, Mitch M. was on our squad and he not only took a lot of videos, he wasn't distracted by much more than a 100 mile commute from Bend to Albany; he sent me the link to a YouTube video of the match. I'll post it here, now, with the only comment that Mitch is doing a great job of filming and editing Action Videos of USPSA matches.