Date #31 - Date Interrupted, ends with a bang!

If I have any readers left out there....my apologies for not sustaining this blog. We finished our thirty five dates, and then the holidays came rushing in with all the hustle and bustle that accompanies them. We spent a week in California with our west coast family, and then my laptop crashed and had to be replaced. Luckily all my data was recovered (thanks to my wonderful baby brother). I probably have a hundred other excuses, but that's all they are, just excuses.

I had really hoped to finish blogging about the 35 dates in time to have it published for TH's birthday, but that's not going to happen as his birthday is this week. Maybe I'll try for Valentine's day which is our pseudo wedding anniversary (everyone should have at least two). So buckle up and remain seated for the rest of the ride.

Date #31 actually started back in September. We decided we wanted to go to a shooting range where we could learn to fire pistols. I found a great Buy With Me deal at a place in Framingham that offered a course that would qualify us to apply for a Mass. Firearms License. So off we went.

Now I am not going to give this outfit any free publicity because they don't deserve it. Here's a photo from their website:

Sure looks like a shooting range, doesn't it? With headphones, safety goggles, and real pistol. Well I call that false advertising. Instead, we ended up in a classroom for 4 hours, learning everything we need to know should we ever want to be licensed (we don't). But did we ever get to shoot guns? NO!!!

This is what we got to do....

..............................we fired simulated arcade style weapons at a projection screen. Really?!

This was the longest, most boring, 4 hour date we'd ever been on. Needless to say, I contacted Buy With Me to voice my concerns and they promptly refunded our money as soon as we returned our certificates.

So two months later, we tried it again. This time we found a real indoor shooting range in Andover. Here's TH out front.

They offer a great learn-to-shoot opportunity, and we learned more about gun handling and safety in 20 minutes, than we did in the four hour course back in September. And then we got to put on the ear and eye protection and actually load and fire REAL .22 pistols, with REAL bullets.  No photos were allowed to be taken inside, but when the instructor wasn't watching I used my phone to snap this picture of TH.

We each received two targets and 100 rounds but, truthfully, after the first magazine was emptied I was ready to quit. My shoulderblades ached (talk about being out of shape) and I realized that I was actually holding a weapon of mass destruction that could end another human being's life.

I'd never in my life fired a gun with bullets, just bbs; but once was more than enough, thank you. And even though I used the special soap to wash my hands when we were through, I couldn't shake the smell of the lead residue all weekend.

Who's idea for a date was this?!