Mr. Saturday night Special..

Lots going on this weekend.
Let's start with friday.
the workout:
5 reps of man-makers @ 35 lb dum-bells each minute until you can't complete 5 in under a minute.
This one was brutal. It starts out ok. Most folks can do 5 reps in 30-40 seconds when you're fresh.. but once that "not so fresh feeling" kicks in..
Paul: 14 sets
Me: 10 sets
Joe: less.

Then we went out to dinner, and then I went to the store and made a couple dishes for the wife to bring to a memorial service for a friend's son that was the next day.

Saturday I went to class, and sparred of and on for about 2 hours.
My knowledge of jiu-jitsu far exceeds my abilities at this point. It's kind of annoying to see things, but be unable to be able to execute but it's part of the journey.

Later that afternoon one of my friends asked me to go with him to a gun range. His brother is into sport shooting, and has gotten my friend interested in buying a handgun. My friend wanted to go rent a couple handguns and try them out. Makes sense, if I were spending a few hundred bucks on something, I'd want to test drive a few myself, and apparently they'll only rent you a gun if you can prove you already own one, or if you bring a friend (apparently this cuts down on the people who want to rent a gun and buy only one bullet). What the hell says I. I've been around guns.. about as long as I've been around. In the hills of southeast Missouri, everyone owns at least a shotgun, but this was my first time around a handgun. I was surprised at how easy it was to operate. I wasn't and still am not a fan of the handgun, and I don't really see why anyone outside of law enforcement would want one (note: I did not say they should be illegal, that is a whole different issue I just don't see the appeal)Personally, I think they are not the best tool for the "home defense" job:

They have a low muzzle velocity and high caliber, which means that their shells penetrate things quite readily. Things like walls, ceilings, or the bad guy. This is not a good thing if you are trying to shoot the bad guy in your house and little Johnny/Aunt Esther/Fido happen to be sleeping in the other room on the other side of said bad guy.

It can be difficult (especially for the untrained) to determine if they're loaded. Most people know that you have to make sure that there is no round in the pipe AND remove the magazine to ensure that a handgun isn't loaded, but not everyone knows exactly how to do that particularly untrained kids.

which leads me to number three: handguns are cool and easy to operate. Which means that if the owner of the weapon does make a mistake and leaves it unlocked and ammo in a location where a kid knows where it is, bad things could happen.

In my opinion an old school double barrel shotgun and shells filled with bird shot are a better choice: powerful enough to incapacitate but the shot dissipates quickly, it's easy to tell if it's loaded and most have to be cocked before firing, and finally it's heavy, cumbersome and not very cool. In my opinion it's a better weapon, and far safer to have around.

Saturday night was dinner with some friends at a local brew pub.
The food was good, but a bit spendy.

Sunday was weird.. mixed emotions.
The wife and I decided to hop on our bikes and go for a spin. I got down the hill and realized that my back tire was a little soggy. No worries, there is a bike shop near by and I went over to get a fill up (still in trial and tweak mode I didn't have any of my usual "oh shit" gear with me: pump, flat kit.. bupkis) We're not going too far, so it should be fine. The guy at the shop fills my tire, and I feel like a total poser. I have a nice bike, and I am clearly not doing it justice.
Oh well, so I'm a poser.
We head up the trail. I am in the lead and having an aweful time finding the right cadance. The wife is behind me. I realize that I have no idea how far we are going she said "Lets go to ." and I said "sure" without thinking much about it. I am alternating between thinking I am going too fast for her, too fast for myself to make it the whole long way, realizing I have no idea how far that is, and thinking that I will be struck down for hubris for thinking that the wife who is in the middle of training for the biggest if not one of themost prestegious regattas in the world can't keep up with my sorry butt. Needless to say, I am rolling like a headcase. I pull over and ramble for a while trying to explain all of this.. I fail. I simplify: "I have no idea where we are going and I'm being a headcase, will you take the lead for a while?" Sure says the wife, and off we go. We tool along for a while, I finally turn my brain off and just spin. Actual fun is actually being had.. when Psssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht. I flat. I stop the wife. We discuss for a while, and I walk the trail for about a half mile till I get to a grocery. I sit and drink some coffee while the wife goes home and comes with the car to pick me up. Epic fail on my part.
The wife shows up with a change of clothes and I load up the bike and we head to a huge local asian market down town.
We have lunch.
We pick up some oysters, coffee beverages, fish sauce, and some other random stuff.
Then head home. What very well could have been a crappy day, if I'd let it, was pretty great.
Hope you had a good sunday too.
Mahalo.