Month: November 2022

I’m beginning to love the winters of my adopted homeland…

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The cold winds keep a person honest.

They remind me that our stock, like that of most species, is 75% discretion and 25% valor.

Or thereabouts.

(perfection is a foolhardy pursuit)

Indeed, the noble beasts of the harshest environs are the ones I wish to emulate.

For it’s when the elements are at their gravest that I realize…

Us.

We need all of us.

So egos be damned.

Shame be destroyed.

We fight for ashes AND dust.

I went to the gun range with my neighbor today…

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The shadow work is just a quirk of lighting as I took the photo on my crappy phone…I don’t have a pistol (though I am thinking of getting a bolt action hunting rifle).

Took me back 25 years.

Karnataka Home Guards basic training, 1997 summer batch. (I got the gold medal for standing first in my cohort, thank you very much). Mostly civil defense and emergency disaster relief training, but we got half a day or thereabouts with a rifle. Enfield 303. Bolt action.

I had 10 shots then. (Third world training for a part-time auxiliary force is…very basic).

This time around, with my new bestie and lucky-to-have-as-my-neighbor Bob, at our local range, among the many offerings, I was treated to 20 rounds with a Ruger 223. Bolt action. Was like riding a bike, but only after some genuine humbling anxiety.

Once I got my bearings with Bob’s pistol, I got the right with my 20 rounds. I had 18 shots on centre-mass target or thereabouts and, the last two aimed at the top, just cos. I’m thinking an important martial philosophy for humble soldiering is to start with the most humble, organic weapons. And seek to master them first before moving on to anything fancier. I don’t think I want to fire a semi-automatic, an automatic, or even a pump action until I’ve mastered the humble bolt action.

(So I also won’t embarrass myself with how close the fucking target was…)

Thanks Bob. Always good to keep our skills sharp.

Now on to PT, cooking, and doing the dishes.

(Soldiering is 99% homestead, fatherhood, and being grateful some other sorry soul loves my stupid ass…hurrah!)