Targets out, I’m told, 125 feet, from the new balcony at the house of some parishioners. I was there to bless the house, but stayed for the Jewish-Catholic Dialogue. Really good. What a great family. Lots of exquisite food and drink. No alcohol for me!
The old man is one of the most studied up, practiced, scenario-ed constant trainer of decades, having all that the IDF etc have to offer down cold. As soon as he saw that I was carrying, like in a nanosecond, he said: “I like you already.”
Of course, we had to do up some target practice. He gave me Federal to use, which you simply cannot get these days.
The rubbish you see at the tree line above is the group of targets. A close up:
My favorite was the second from the left up top, just a few inches across. It got set to swinging, again and again and again.
I was happy to be accurate at that distance, which I’ve never practiced, ever. The most I’ve done is 25 yards out, just 75 feet, and only quite rarely, concentrating on 21 and 25 feet out. This was another 50 feet beyond the 75 feet, close to another 17 yards farther, with a mere pistol.
Since I haven’t practiced in forever, this was a confidence builder. Of course, without an abundance of ammo, the aim, so to speak, was accuracy, not speed. But I think that will also come back easily enough in future, unless these USA go total communist.
We talked quite about that, communism, and Russia. I said that the old USSR didn’t much like the Jews. No, he agreed. I said it was because they didn’t like moral principles, the Natural Law, such as is expressed in the Ten Commandments. That set off quite the commentary by many, all in agreement.
The conversation and the bullets were all on target. A great time. Surprising what carrying can open up.
In stepping up to shoot I apologized for not having practiced in a long time. Then I pulled the trigger a few times. Then they gave me a new nickname: Shot-Shark. :-)
Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for the Pontifical Family to go through the personal archives of the Holy Father – having the originals of all correspondence with any Pope – and provide me a copy of the letter of Emmanuel Célestin Cardinal Suhard to Pius XII. But they are afraid. Sooooo afraaaaid! They shouldn’t be. I got the response down cold. I just need to contextualize this with what actually instigated the response. I thought we were going to open up the archives, right? to help out with Jewish-Catholic dialogue, right? RIGHT?
If I got that and made commentary on it and somehow actually got published I would get another nickname from the anti-Semites, and it wouldn’t be so kind to me as Shot-Shark. It might be something like: Jew-Boy! Of course, I would take that as reality and a compliment. In fact, they could be combined: Shot-Shark-Jew-Boy. I like it, a lot. But seriously, that commentary would be done with accuracy such as I still retain with my firearm. ;-)
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
You are armed with the fire of the holy Spirit, Father.
Father, If you ever get the opportunity to write your commentary, I would appreciate the opportunity to read it. Part of my heritage is Jewish, and I remember Pius XII. He was the only Pope I knew until I was twelve years old.