Hell in a Handbasket

2) I have driven through at least a portion of every state except Alaska, Hawaii and New Jersey. I was inspired to mention this because of yet another post by Dan, where you can create a map of the US with the red states being the ones you visited.

create your own visited states map

Hmmm. The way the map is configured, New Jersey is cut off so you can't see the brave patch of gray as it stands alone in a sea of red. Oh, well.

I haven't been to Hawaii because I never had the money, never drove to Alaska because I didn't want to spend that much time in the car. Why didn't I visit New Jersey when I was in the area? I don't know, it just never came up for some reason.

3) I didn't have a gun the first and only time someone started to shoot at me. Everything turned out just fine, with no one injured. (I peed my pants, though.) It was simply a case of mistaken identity, with some teens who assumed the noise in the bushes was a deer so they let fly with everything they had. When they ran dry and had to reload they heard my shouts and decided, oh yeah, I suppose that isn't a deer after all.

They were poaching, though, since it wasn't hunting season. That is a felony here in Ohio. Since I was unarmed and they weren't, I was completely at their mercy if they decided to get rid of the only witness to their crime.

I won't make that mistake again!

4) Someone tries to kill me every few years.

This isn't as dramatic or as interesting as you might think. There isn't a vast, secret society left over from ancient times that have sworn to my destruction as their first step to taking over the world. I don't have an evil twin obsessed with assuming my identity. There isn't a jilted husband who is looking for revenge since I stole his lady love away and ruined his life. And, even though I would be the first to admit being abrasive at times, you will be hard pressed to find anyone I offended so deeply that they want to do me harm.

It is much more prosaic than that. It would seem that I just have such lousy luck that potentially fatal accidents happen around me more often than others. Animals have attacked me, underage poachers have taken pot shots, and there was one time when I was hiking on a mountain when an ice storm followed by a blizzard made me think that my time was up. But the last time was the most scary.

The last time this happened was back in May of 2003. (In fact, it was one day before this very blog was first launched.) A guy in a pickup truck paced my little Geo Metro until we were about to pass under a bridge. Then he swerved and tried to push my car into one of the concrete support columns.

He missed. Instead, my car rolled up a steep 20 foot berm and came to rest upside down. The roof collapsed everywhere except for the little patch right above my head.

(Click on the pic for a much larger image.)

Lucky thing I didn't have a passenger.

5) The most I ever spent on my charity self defense course in a year was about 20% of my take home pay. That was a busy year.

It is usually closer to 10%, and it rarely edges up into 15%. But it varies depending on how many people seek me out for help, and how many people with some sort of physical disability I accept as students in a year. Anyone with limited mobility, reduced range of motion, and lessened hand and upper body strength will require more lessons and practice to gain basic gun handling skills. That means more trips to the range, as well as more ammo so they can get the basics down.

6) I take in starving dogs off the street and give them a home. I don't count this as being particularly noteworthy since I know that a fair percentage of my readers do the same thing. I'm just running out of stuff to talk about.

7) I have never resold a car in working condition. I have actually only been in one car crash (see above), but I tend to drive a car until it pretty much falls apart and is only worth towing to the junk yard. I have been driving for 25 years and I'm on my fifth car. Not bad considering how much driving I do.

8) I only own 7 guns. You reacted to that lest sentence in one of two ways. You either thought "Seven guns! What does he need that many for?", or you thought "How can he possibly call himself a gun owner if he only owns a measly Seven firearms?"

All of my guns are used in the self defense course, and they tend to wear out. I can either spend the cash to increase my collection, or use it to help people. Not exactly a fair choice.

I own...

1 shotgun, 12 gauge pump
1 rifle, .30-40 Krag bolt action
1 revolver, .357 Magnum
4 autoloaders, a .22 Long Rifle and 3 that are chambered for the 9mm Parabellum cartridge

Yeah, I like autoloaders. I've never been in a fight where I wasn't outnumbered, so I'm naturally motivated to be prepared to engage as many attackers as possible.

I have a Curio and Relic firearm license, which is one way to cut costs when I have to replace a firearm. If you are interested in getting your own, I strongly suggest you start here.

Well, that is about it. I hope no one will object too strongly if I don't tag others for the meme, but please go ahead and play if you are so inclined.