Climbing Back Up for the Holidays

Spent a long day at the range on Saturday. With the snow coming down, I set off a little late for Dedham. A detour through a couple of shops got me out to the range well after the class had ended, but the range was still empty. Weather had kept a lot of the shooting public away, since no one wanted to be on the roads. I can't really blame them. It was bad enough walking out there, especially considering Dedham dumps all of the snow on their roads onto the sidewalk, making them all but impassable. Have to walk in the streets, staying as close to the sidewalk as I can, keeping a watchful eye on the closest lane of traffic, and getting out of the way as soon as humanly possible.

So I walked into the range, and spent a little while talking with one of the range employees. Because of the Archery USA holiday party, the range was closing at 4:30, instead of at the usual 6, so I finally set up my bow and started shooting. I had no intention of keeping score, but my opening warm up ends were so good, I decided to grab a pen and start counting. As usual, I opened with a 23, and capped my first half round at 124, just a single point behind pace for 250. My sixth end was a solid 25, but I slipped on seven through 10. Ended up at 236, a 13 point improvement over last week, and this time with only myself for motivation (instead of competing with my friends). If I can pick up just 1 extra point every other arrow, I will be right back where I left off in July, at 250.

After I put my bow away, I helped set up for the party. People started trickling in over the next few hours, and then we all sat down in the middle of the archery range to eat a pretty good pot luck. This is an annual tradition at Archery USA, a chance for Anthony to thank everyone for supporting the range, and this year a chance for everyone to welcome Anthony back. This was my first holiday party, and probably my last, as I do not plan to be in Boston next winter. Glad I got a chance to attend this one.