Picto Diary - 21, 22, 23, 24 November 2019 - Clay Pigeon (bis)

Above: La Onda Carabina band. Caleb Chapman Soundhouse. Rehearsal. American Fork, UT. 21 November 2019.

Drums at congas.

Highschool band. These guys are really good.

Genius Caleb Chapman at right, directing.

Above: Trailer. Ford Versus Ferrari. 22 November 2019.

I go to theater once a year for something special. This movie, seen in a sold out local theater this evening, fit my definition of "special." Went with Espresso.

"Ford versus Ferrari" is likely to extend the life of gas burning engine notes for a long time, notwithstanding enviro predictions of the demise of internal combustion motors. Engines need to be (will be!) heard, cummon!

No PC baloney in this film... as in women physically beating up men. Apologies to real life aberration Danika Patrick. Avoidance of absurd PC propaganda is the reason I only go to theater once a year...best movies were produced more than thirty years ago and can only be seen at home.

This film centers on Ford's beating Ferrari at LeMans in 1966. Car racing stuff and corporate intrigue are well balanced. The non car nut can enjoy this film.

I, then a twenty year old LDS missionary taking the day off, attended the 1966 LeMans 24 Hour. Security wasn't so strict in those days. My companion and I walked around the pits only a couple of hours before the race started. We stayed into the mid-evening, nine or so hours into the race, and then left.

I was glad to have seen this movie, even if 53 years after the event, to add texture and background to my own experience at LeMans.

I'm not a car nut per se....but, I have known a lot of people who are...and I have a deep respect for their passion...especially when a little bit of it runs off on me, as it does from time to time.

Recommended.

Note: The motorcycles helped quite a lot in building a semblance of understanding of horse power and torque. I did five or six track days on motorcycles in the early 'naughts which gave me a taste for the thrills of speed, cornering, acceleration yada. Like anything, you've got to know your limits when you do this stuff.... and even then....

Above: Red Tailed Hawk. Iron Canyon. 23 November 2019.
Image captured by Bishop out of car window. 10x. Samsung smart phone.

Above: Clay Pigeon shooting. Echo Canyon, UT. 24 August 2019.

Spurred by the impetus of a "little bird," who wanted to know why I never shot my Remington, six shot, pump shotgun, I made an Amazon, impulse purchase of a clay pigeon thrower. That was only a week ago.

I charged B1b with assembling the unit. The plan for today was to put the assembled clay pigeon thrower in the F350, stop by Walmart, buy some birdshot, clay pigeons, and a twelve volt battery to power the thrower, and head to Echo were there were several short range shooting areas. .

Serendipity working its magic, as it has often done in my life, at LSDM/Wasatch Bagel that AM, was PGA. When I told him my plan to shoot clay pigeons, he said, "Hey, my son, Sargent York, is in town to join us for Thanksgiving. He's a consummate bird hunter... hunts all over the country. He knows clay pigeon shooting like the back of his hand."

Subject to B1b successfully completing the clay pigeon thrower assembly I asked PGA if he thought he and Sargent York would like to join us? The answer was yes!

So, I placed the Remington in the F350. Then, Mwah, B1B, Drums, PGA, and Sargent York made the Walmart run, got all the stuff, and drove the twenty five or so miles to Echo Canyon.

The apparatus assembled by B1B worked really well.... but, not, at first, the way we wanted. It was set for a continuous throw of a clay pigeon once every two seconds. We couldn't figure out how to put it in manual mode, where a clay could be launched, singly, on demand: "PULL!!!"

Until... twenty-one year old college Junior, Sargent York, did what every other smart kid his age would do: find a video on the internet that would explain what to do. This he accomplished successfully, to the amazement of Mwah (sic), the apparatus was set to go.... and, it worked!

Drums is not a novice in the tech applications territory. He knew easily how to connect his I-phone to the blue tooth connection on our Cayenne... something I might have been able to do with a good user manual and two or three hours of time. Kids seem to get this tech stuff in ways I don't. I use tech a lot in communcations and writing, internet surfing, social media, yada... but, I'm keyboard good only. For a lot of the set-up I need help... or at least time (which I don't always have the patience to use). I don't want to sell myself short, as I think about it, I think I'm in the top quartile of my cohort when it comes to using/understanding tech.

The five of us went through some two hundred shots, directed towards a hillside, of the Remington. We were all impressed with Drums. Though he had shot skeet a couple of times before in scouts, he seemed to hit more than a thirteen-year-old's share of the red colored, flying discs.

But, really amazing was Sargent York's performance. His Dad, PGA, using a manual clay pigeon throwing stick, would launch a clay pigeon to the left of the machine launched clay pigeon only a half second after the machine launch. Three times in a row, Sargent York knocked out both clays. Some shooting!

PGA, playing the rest of us for suckers, said he was no good at the activity. But, when he started shooting, he knocked them all down. It might have something to do with his practiced eye hitting golf balls. B1b shot pretty well, too. Bishop was the worst, though I had a couple of hits before giving up. I had more fun watching the other guys do it.

There wasn't a bad kick shooting the low load birdshot. Nothing like when I tested the Remington last week at the Park City Gun Club with slug loads... which, had a shoulder pain recoil I didn't want to endure more than two or three shots.

This was a good day for me. We all had fun. It's not a bad thing to gain proficiency with a gun you own that otherwise gather's dust through lack of use. This type of shotgun is used by many for home protection.

Life is full of wonderful, new surprises if only you can get over the inertia hurdle.

Addendum:

Most memorable image from Kolbert's book was botanist in Columbia? Ecuador? tracking tree species migration up a secured 8000 ft slope resulting from warming climate. And, the disappearing Panamanian frogs. I liked her balanced conclusion...man may be causing extinctions but man has successfully negotiated many past challenges. No time to give up on progress...solutions may beyond our current understanding...eg. she didn't assume the posture of a sky is falling alarmist.