Back in town, daughter Karen and I went to the range today. She's
visiting from NYC for a few days, staying with her brother here in
town. His house is way bigger than ours.

She didn't care much for the rifle (.22-250) but she does enjoy
shooting handguns. So it was mostly just a fun gunsmoke outing on a
lovely summer day, a fine outing indeed. She did enjoy the
exploding water bottle show, everyone does. She shot one so she
could say she did. Sniper Karen, one shot one bottle. Hey, I once
saw two guys with a rather expensive rifle with some very nice optics
fire more than 12 rounds at a water-filled plastic bottle at 100 yards
without ever hitting it.

I shot the other two so she could see them explode thru the spotting
scope. She broke out laughing both times.

We used the 100 -yd general-purpose range because there was a match
in progress on the benchrest range. That suited us because we could
shoot at water bottles on the GP range and also shoot handguns by
simply walking downrange closer to the target and berm. The 100-yd
GP range does have a couple of sheltered benches for benchrest
riflery. The other GP ranges have nothing but berms.

After we were done we mosied down to the BR range to see what was
going on. It was a 100-yd match with light and heavy varmint
classes. Tomorrow they'll shoot at 200 yd. I asked one guy what sort
of groups they see in these matches. He said anywhere from high 1's
to low 4's, which means group sizes of from 0.1" to 0.4" max
center-to-center distance between bullet holes in a group. I didn't
see any of their rifles because they were packing up by then, but
I'll bet they're not shooting off-the-shelf rifles. They'd all be
custom-built for at least a coupla grand and most of that again for
the optics.

I smiled, said my best rifle shoots in the 3's on a good day. He
looked at me like I was a turd in the punchbowl.

Earlier I'd asked another guy if I could inspect a target frame he
was using on an adjacent GP range since he was downrange putting up
targets anyway. He said sure, so I looked it over. Easy welding
project. I said it was neat, was going on my ta-do list for winter.
He said heck, there's a bunch of them in the IDPA corral. (ed note:
International Defensive Pistol Association) I said the guy who heads
IDPA at the club doesn't want to let anyone have the combo to the
corral who isn't active in IDPA competition. He said yeah, that's
right. He then went on to say that IDPA is nothing like target
shooting, requires far superior skills. Being a mere vet, I wasn't
sure whether to salute, genuflect or curtsey so I merely thanked him
for the look at the frame. Easy peasy welding project, but I can
complicate it by improving the design for better portability. My
target frame stakes work OK, but those GP ranges are almost like
class V dirt road -- clay, gravel and sand -- so pounding stakes
does work but not well.

Both of these competitors reminded me why I dislike competitive events
and tournaments. They seem to draw or inspire competitive assholes.
I don't need that crap. I'm sure most are not like that, but it only
takes one to tilt me toward skipping being exposed and irritated. I
readily acknowledge that I have a very low tolerance threshold for
such things.

I kinda miss the range at Cambridge for its simplicity and the
friendliness of the folks I met there. But I don't miss the drive,
nor the haphazard scheduling with no communications. Driving for an
hour and then being unable to shoot does not make my day. That
happened twice at Cambridge.

After shooting, we came home and eventually did an art project.
Eventually because we arrived simultaneously with the London
contingent so Karen got to say hi to Ann 'n Hassan and meet Bella. She
and Bella (5) got on famously right away. Bella was a princess today
because they'd been to the renaissance faire and Bella got a face
paint job with lots of glitter (extra because the vendor noted her
patience in line) and a princess dress. Oh my, she was something!
Bella is having a swell time in America.

On her list for this visit was a ride in PoppyDon's green boat. She
got the ride last week, and she even got to drive the boat a little,
going slowly. Not many kids in her class in London will have driven a
Ranger bassboat.

Thence to the shop.

There's a form of Japanese art called tatebanko which involves making
3D dioramas with paper. Karen wanted to do a tatebanko but in sheet
steel rather than paper. She brought this kit with her:
http://www.architectgiftsplus.com/tapadikithom.html

She cut out the various parts of the kit and then traced their
outlines onto 24-gage steel with chalk. The steel was what was left
from a water heater skin I salvaged years ago. Most of that metal got
welded into various cars as rust repairs, but there was a little of it
left. She then cut them out with the plasma cutter. She loves using
that tool, and she's getting really good at it. It goes thru 24-gage
steel like a red hot wire thru styrofoam. She could go as fast as
she could follow the line, no problem.

Her instincts were bingo. Plasma was definitely the way to do that.
The "as cut" edges, cut freehand in steel with a needle-diameter jet
of sun-hot 10,000 degree plasma, seem much more suitable for this art
project than the cut edges scissors or sharp blade produce on paper.
She then bent mounting tabs on the various pieces. We did that by
clamping the workpieces between two pieces of heavier steel in a vise
and then folding the tabs with a hammer. This jigging technique
requires four hands to get things jigged up in the vise, but we had
four hands so no problem. Then the trick is many light taps to
persuade the metal rather than try to hurry it. She got pretty good
at that after a couple of tries.

No photos because the project isn't done. She'll bring the bits back
home and paint or chemically color them one way or another and then
find or make a box into which she'll install them with epoxy or
silicone on the tabs. Then we'll explore some ideas for illumination.
The idea of lightning came up, as in embedded white LED's being
flashed by a little electronic gizmo some old fart might conjure up.
Storm on Mt Fuji. We decided that use of butane or propane, while
undoubtedly dramatic and capable of thunder as well as heat lightning,
might not be a swell idea in a rented apartment in Brooklyn NY.