CharlesP
Well-known member
I really shouldn't have gone out this morning. This was the first week I have felt like even poking my nose outdoors for ages. I've been down with a coldy chesty coughy fevery bug that had me on antibiotics and feeling quite poorly.
And to top it all Current Primary Womn and myself caught up with the last episode of "Widower" last night, a series that's had me rivetted. Her too. Both of us have been married before, to people who we discovered we couldn't trust, and after the TV was finished we startred discussing the misdeeds and mysteries of our respective ex-spouses. That in turn meant I finished off the bottle of wine, which I shouldn't have done. We went to bed late, of course.
So I started off in less than fighting fitness, as well a tired from a late night on top of the clocks changing, and I have to admit to feeling the effects of last night's wine.
There was fog outside, but I put it down to the proximity of the harbour, confident that a few hundred miles inland it would disperse. But it didn't. What's more there was evidence that every loon-behind-a steering-wheel had decided to target me, I was tailgated, overtaken, and generally harrassed. So I arrived at the shooting ground irritated as well as all that other stuff.
I had a cooked breakfast which probably did me no good from a cholesterol point of view but as it's something I always anticipate keenly I just had to have it.
Off we went, the three of us. It was still foggy, and some of those targets that start "over yonder" were very difficult to pick up; I'm slow anyway but I made a right hash of actually clapping eyes on them at first.
I shot really quite badly today, and I know why.
None of the reasons above are excuses, they are reasons that I really must think things through. The shooting doesn't start as you call "Pull!" for the first time that day, it starts yesterday, or even the day before. I just hadn't been sensible. Not for days. I shouldn't have gone shooting until I was fully recovered. I shouldn't have had that extra glass and a half of wine. I shouldn't have stayed up way past my bedtime.
Those things started me off badly, and made my tolerance of idiots on the road much lower than it should be.
I was shooting in completely the wrong frame of mind today. Never mind footwork or hold point or gun fit or choke or choice of cartridge. Today went wrong two days ago. At my age I should really by now have learned to respect the fact that I'm not eighteen any more!
And to top it all Current Primary Womn and myself caught up with the last episode of "Widower" last night, a series that's had me rivetted. Her too. Both of us have been married before, to people who we discovered we couldn't trust, and after the TV was finished we startred discussing the misdeeds and mysteries of our respective ex-spouses. That in turn meant I finished off the bottle of wine, which I shouldn't have done. We went to bed late, of course.
So I started off in less than fighting fitness, as well a tired from a late night on top of the clocks changing, and I have to admit to feeling the effects of last night's wine.
There was fog outside, but I put it down to the proximity of the harbour, confident that a few hundred miles inland it would disperse. But it didn't. What's more there was evidence that every loon-behind-a steering-wheel had decided to target me, I was tailgated, overtaken, and generally harrassed. So I arrived at the shooting ground irritated as well as all that other stuff.
I had a cooked breakfast which probably did me no good from a cholesterol point of view but as it's something I always anticipate keenly I just had to have it.
Off we went, the three of us. It was still foggy, and some of those targets that start "over yonder" were very difficult to pick up; I'm slow anyway but I made a right hash of actually clapping eyes on them at first.
I shot really quite badly today, and I know why.
None of the reasons above are excuses, they are reasons that I really must think things through. The shooting doesn't start as you call "Pull!" for the first time that day, it starts yesterday, or even the day before. I just hadn't been sensible. Not for days. I shouldn't have gone shooting until I was fully recovered. I shouldn't have had that extra glass and a half of wine. I shouldn't have stayed up way past my bedtime.
Those things started me off badly, and made my tolerance of idiots on the road much lower than it should be.
I was shooting in completely the wrong frame of mind today. Never mind footwork or hold point or gun fit or choke or choice of cartridge. Today went wrong two days ago. At my age I should really by now have learned to respect the fact that I'm not eighteen any more!
