Range work...[Entry #24: July 16, 2011]

[Above: The three weapons I used at the range in Mae Rim]

Entry #24: July 16, 2011

        So I will go on record right now that I am officially a bad Anthropologist. Why would you say such a thing you may wonder? The simple reason Friday was a significant religious holiday and instead of going out to the temples to open myself up to that experience instead I took the day to go to a shooting range north of Chiang Mai up in Mae Rim. I have had this overwhelming desire to go to a range for a while, and when I found out there was one only about 20km out I decided I must go. Certainly I could have waited until later in the week but it seemed like a really fun thing to do. Which is the basis of my statement, I decided to chose to do something fun and familiar instead of new and challenging and possibly enlightening. I feel a bit guilty about not doing anything for the holiday actually but I really truly enjoy shooting. It may sound shallow, but going to a range always reminds me of my father who was the one who taught me how to shoot when I was very young. I have extremely fond memories of going to scalding hot ranges in California and shooting all types of pistols. In fact when I was in the military it happened to be one of my favorite parts of the experience was going to a range and firing a weapon I had never fired before. On Friday I fired a shotgun for the first time, which was fantastic. I also let loose a few dozen rounds with a 9mm and a .22 rifle with a scope. Overall the experience was liberating, when I go to a range I actually relax, because I am only focused in on the weapon and the target, all other thoughts and concerns melt away. It is a uniquely intense experience each and every time. I cannot say I am nearly the best shot but I am pretty good, and firing the semi-auto shotgun was lots of fun. I did learn something new from this experience however. DO NOT wear a white shirt to any range! I was wearing a button down white shirt that day, and when firing the shotgun a bunch of CLP (oil) and carbon from the shotgun peppered my shirt, with any luck I will be able to get the stains out, otherwise the trip just became a little bit more expensive.

        Other then the range experience it was just a lot of fun driving around in the countryside, on the way back from the range the rain came in and I ended up driving on the highway through a light rainstorm on a motorbike. Let me tell you, doing 60-80 KM on a highway in Thailand whilst it is raining is an intense experience of its own as well. I know it was a bit dangerous and I shouldn't have been so happy but I was smiling most of the way home. Today was fairly uneventful, I ended up doing some very menial tasks about the house like getting some supplies that I needed from the shop, haircut and spending some time with the dogs. I am currently dog sitting 3 dogs for an American teacher here in Thailand. She went on vacation, and I told her I would watch the house and dog-sit for her, which is a fun experience but keeps me more or less tethered to one place for the next couple weeks. As I have the responsibility of watching after the dogs and making sure they are taken care of. It's a great way for me to save a bit of money on the trip as I don't have to rent a hotel room or anything of the sort. The house is lovely to stay in and the dogs are pretty well mannered, so taking care of them is easy. This brings me to an interesting point that those of you back in the US, especially IL may not be too common with seeing. Here within Thailand as well as many places in the world there are a LOT of stray dogs. In nearly every street you will see dogs roaming the alleyways and this is true in every city I have thus far been to in Thailand. For the most part the strays are not particularly aggressive or anything, and people go to some lengths to avoid them in traffic, but these dogs know very well how to fend for themselves. This differs from the prototypical dogs that one might see in the US which are often pets, and more so are often house pets. I cannot say for sure how these animals all survive, if it is merely off of the kindness of strangers or if there is ample enough food for them to support themselves on the streets, but it is certainly a disparate difference.  I also think the influence of Buddhism has a great deal to do with the ethical treatment of even stray animals, in fact it is fairly common for people to take in 'soi' (alley) dogs.