Sunday, June 26, 2005

Feel The Rush

Fervently I scan the dense foliage around me, though I know it’s in vain. Trying to be as quiet as possible I will myself to take another step. This is crazy. They are hidden and hidden well. Yet I continue to scan, hoping that perhaps I’ll catch a slight movement, a darker than usual shadow, or the sun reflecting off of equipment. Nothing. Another agonizing, twig-snapping step forward. My heart’s racing in anticipation. I know they are in these woods somewhere, just waiting, most likely drawing aim on my chest. I take a quick inventory of my teammates. The line is staying together as we comb through the woods. I finger the safety on my Tippmann A-5, yep, still good to go. Combing the woods in a skirmish line guarantees two things. One: eventually you will find your opponents. Two: You’ll know you’ve found them when they open fire on you, or a teammate, depending on who stumbled across them. Everyone in the line knows that someone is going to get it, you know that whoever it is has no ability to do anything about it either. I crouch under a branch, then step over a log. Every foot step echoes like a rock concert. Surely they can hear all of us crashing along. I draw quick aim on a shadow. . . No just a tree stump.

Suddenly, the waiting and the silence are shattered by a burst of automatic fire about one hundred yards off to my left. Someone returns fire. As I run towards the sound, I can hear paint balls impacting on trees by the dozens. SMACK SMACK SMACK. Before I arrive I hear my teammate call out “hit!” He’s out. Worse than out. He’s now on the other team! We lose one, while they gain a player! As I run up, I see my team mate, Clay pinned behind a tree, doing his best to return fire. Little splatters of paint are flecked across his goggles from a near hit. By this time it’s a full on fire fight. Dozens of rounds are exchanged by the second.

I can’t detect any fire coming directly at me, so I continue in my flanking maneuver. Suddenly I hear another of my team yell out “hit”! And run over to join the opponent. This is not going well for us. The odds have now been turned. Instead of five humans hunting down two aliens, it is now three humans vs. four aliens. Clay and Josh are both pinned down, but the good news is that I’ve just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico! And, they haven’t seen me, and have no idea where I’m at. . .yet. I hand-signal Clay to keep them busy. He does his best to draw their fire. Every time they have an exchange I take advantage of the noise and move in closer. I still haven’t even seen an alien. Just moving towards the sound of their guns.

Then, just like a ghost one of them steps from behind a bush to try to get an angle on Clay, completely oblivious to me standing twenty feet behind him. My response is automatic as I raise my Tippmann place my red-dot sight on his back and squeeze off a quick 3 round burst. Three perfect splats appear on his back, and his hands go up. One down. I move in closer, see another one crouched behind a tree and open fire on his exposed back. Two down. They know about me now. As another one tries to adjust to my presence, he gets eliminated by Clay. The remaining Alien bolts in a dead run. He’s kinda far away by the time I get a clear shot, but not too far for my new Flat Line barrel. I let off a stream of rounds in his direction. He trips and falls, inadvertently saving himself. . .for a moment. I aim into the grass where I saw him go down, and send off another burst. His hands come up. He’s out. He sits up, my blue paint coating his forehead.

As friends we all walk back to the staging area. Pair up new teams. and spend the next three hours doing it over and over again. This is paint ball. This was Saturday night for me. Can’t wait until next time. Hope my welts are gone by then.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

The weather is driving me mad

I can't believe the weather around here this spring. We are technically in a drought here in south eastern Idaho for the past seven years or so, but this spring you wouldn't know it. Last month we got four times our average precipitation! Although I am happy to see everything so nice and green, and it's been nice to not have to water the lawn, the rain sure is interfering with my paintballing. The cycle of stormy weather has been perfectly coinciding with my days off! While I'm working we have pretty decent weather- low eighties to mid seventies - but, by the time I get off for a few days, the temperatures drop into the mid fifties and it starts raining and blowing. Back in my youth, we still played no matter what. Maybe I just need to toughen up.

Ok, so this week is the week to hopefully kick off and restart a workout habbit, even though I am leaving town for a couple of days. We shall see how that goes. Just for kicks I started back on the Atkins diet a month ago to hopefully jump-start some wieght loss. I haven't been overly strict, and have cheated quite a bit. To my dismay my wieght loss hasn't been as dramatic as I experienced the first time on Atkins. Two reasons I can think of. #1 I am twenty pounds lighter now than I was the first time I started it. I think that the more you need to lose the faster it comes off at first. And #2 the first time I did it I was extremely strict, and this time I haven't been near as strict. I am on the verge of tossing in the towel and just going on a calorie watch, and increase my physical activity. I guess I have about two weeks worth of grilled hamburger patties still in the fridge I need to eat. So, we'll see where I'm at then.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Blogging myself out of the blogosphere

I have to laugh. When I began writing this blog, my original intent was to get on here daily, or at least weekly and jot down the daily wanderings of my mind. I never expected my blog to recieve any comments from others. Once others began commenting on my blog, I suddently felt a burden of responsibility to come up with profound, and thought-provoking topics to write about. I puzzled all day long, "what to write?...what to write?" Sometimes I was albe to scrape up something from the daily headlines. Other times, I would dig into my brain and just toss out a personal belief I hold, that might be slightly controversial. Unitl I just realized why I haven't written anything for over a week now, and the thought was like a chore in my brain. " need to blog about something....but what?" Somewhat similar to " I really need to start getting back into the gym."

Well today's blog is to remind myself why I started this in the first place. #1 I enjoy writing, and welcome the opportunity to have others be able to comment on my rantings. #2 I like the opportunity to meet all kinds of different people with different lives through this blog. What an adventure.

Well, back to it. For now on I will write in my blog without being so dang conscience of what others are going to think when they read my post. I still love the comments and hope they continue, but my blog won't be dominated by trying to attract comments, or satisfy those who may be reading anymore. Back to doing it for myself.

Whew! I feel better already. Can't wait until my next post.