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May 16, 2003
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| Certified firearms instructor and champion
shooter Jeannie Dillard. |
After six hours of instruction on a
picture-perfect day at the South River Gun Club in Newton County, Georgia,
I now believe that shooting a handgun successfully at a target is
something that I can do. Prior to Jeannie Dillard’s easy-going
instruction session, I was not so sure about that point.
Jeannie and her husband, Jan Dillard, operate Venture
Outdoors in Conyers, Georgia, and offer a long list of outdoor activities
for beginners, from backpacking; beginning fishing; casting for spinning
and fly fishing; handgun, rifle and shotgun shooting instruction; firearm
general knowledge and safety, care and cleaning; hiking; outdoor
photography; and wildlife conservation. You can visit them on the Internet
at www.ventureoutdoorswithus.com.
This adventure all began when my husband, who is an expert
marksman himself, encouraged me to learn about firearms. He could
certainly teach me, but we both remembered that stick shift driving lesson
episode rather early in our marriage, which we laugh about now, but nearly
caused a divorce then, and decided another teacher might be the wiser
choice. The folks at David’s Gun Room, on Buford Highway in Norcross,
Ga., are the ones who recommended Venture Outdoors when we asked them for
an instructor. It was a fabulous referral!
Jeannie had about 15 handguns for me to try, but the choice
was narrowed as each was looked at and described.
About seven of them were ultimately used for live fire. I learned
about ballistics, safety, and maintenance. I learned the difference
between revolvers and semi-automatics and what single action and double
action means. Thanks to Jeannie’s careful instruction, I managed to put
a shot right in the middle of the crosshairs in the bull’s eye of the
target at 20 paces. Astonished everybody. Jeannie Dillard really is a
superb handgun instructor!
The rest of the targets were astonishing as well. I
plan to return soon to the outdoor range to see if my first time out
success was just a fluke. It sure was great fun!
* * *
The politicians, local and statewide,
are already posturing and positioning for the upcoming elections, which
are still pretty far into the future. We are witnessing our life-giving
and free democracy at work, my friends. Politicians still must raise
obscene amounts of money in order to mount their campaigns for election. Johnny
Isakson figures he’ll need $9 million to win Zell Miller’s
U.S. Senate seat. I wish it wasn’t a truism that the candidate with the
most money wins, but history seems to favor that thought.
Let’s see who stays on the “high road” and who
doesn’t. Political consultants, some of which have the mentality of
junkyard dogs, like to see candidates shred each other. They say the worse
it gets, the more money people send in. Character smearing also seems to
attract the news media, whose coverage for a candidate is, of course,
priceless.
I’m not sure what these observations say about us as a
society, but I suspect it has something to do with why some folks stop to
rubberneck a fatal automobile wreck.
* * *
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| Celebrating the success of the third annual
“Volley for a Cure” tennis tournament are (from left), John
Riddle, vice president of the Gwinnett Hospital System and
executive director of the Gwinnett Hospital System Foundation;
Lynn Roberts, Denise Brewster, Duluth Mayor Shirley Lasseter,
Sheila Stevens, and Kathryn Willis, member of the Board of
Directors of the Gwinnett Health System. |
May 16, 2003 was declared, “Volley for
a Cure” Day in Duluth, Georgia. The official declaration paid tribute to
the 96 women who played in the tennis tournament and raised $83,000 for
the “TIME MATTERS in the Fight Against Breast Cancer” campaign.
Organized by the women of Sugarloaf County Club and chaired by Sheila
Stevens and co-chair Lynn Roberts, the proceeds from “Volley
for a Cure” will go to help purchase a new mobile mammography van,
popularly referred to as the Care-A-Van.
Since early detection of breast cancer is vital to being able
to cure the disease, the mobile mammography van is very valuable because
it is able to reach women who would not otherwise seek a mammogram.
***
My
deer friends paid a visit to our garden recently and ate every one of the
stargazer lily buds, every one! and severely cropped the asters, which
were doing so nicely. All of this rain has evidently shortened the life of
the Deer Off that is supposed to last a month or so. Well, the garden is
drenched in that smelly stuff now, which is a bit like locking the barn
door after the horse has already been stolen. In my experience, the deer
around here are selective eaters. After their favorite lily buds and
asters, they’ll come back for the hostas. Then, the impatiens. They seem
to like the hawthorns, but not the azaleas. It seems like a dirty trick to
put pepper sauce on the foliage, but one summer nothing bloomed because
the deer ate all the flowers…that was a long summer indeed!
The hawks are nesting again in the tallest tree; their
screeches are part of our daily life. They have lived in the woods for
several years now and may account for the fact that we have not seen any
snakes so far this spring. Thank goodness! I am not a snake fan.
* * *
That’s it for this edition. Hope
all is well and thanks for reading.
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