The Think Tank

I competed in the Pacific Northwest Archery Association Championship this weekend, up in Seattle at the WCW.

The shoot has been happening more or less annually since at least 1927.  (It has skipped a few years here and there.)  The tournament moves around the NW States: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah (perhaps a bit of a stretch), and British Columbia as well.  Last year the tournament was held in Burnaby, BC and Mom and I were asked to make arrangements for the shoot to be in Oregon next year.

I had made some changes to my bow last week which had the result of relieving some strain on my shoulder and had translated into my shoulder feeling really good all week.  That had me feeling pretty confident.  However, when I got up to Seattle on Friday to practice, right from the first shot my shoulder just felt exhausted and started hurting much worse than usual right away.  That had me nervous, and in fact I was prepared to skip the whole thing and go home.  Mom convinced me that I should stay and I (very) reluctantly decided to stick it out and see how things went.

As you may remember, this field has not been kind to me in the past.  I have turned in all of my worst scores on that range, and with my shoulder and sore as it was, I didn’t have high hopes.  However, I managed to put together a pretty decent first day – including my first ever perfect 40 meter score – and built a 15-16 point  lead.

The second day was only 90 arrows, which was good cause my shoulder was really tired at that point and I was struggling to aim all day.  I shot acceptably at 70 meters on Sunday, pretty good at 60 (adding a couple more points to the lead), and then pretty much fell apart at the last – and closest – distance of the day, dropping nearly half my points in those last 30 arrows.  By that time my shoulder was just about wiped, I was having a lot of trouble aiming, and my form was definitely suffering.  Fortunately, I had that cushion which allowed me to lose some ground at the last distance, but still hold on for an 11 point win.

I also discovered that this shoot as a very neat tradition: The winners of each division put an arrow into a wooden box, and then they get to keep that box until the next year’s tournament.  So, by winning this years event, I get to keep the box for the next year.

Quite some time ago, almost a year ago actually, a fuel injector went out on my Z.  I looked into replacing it then, but according to the instructions in the manual it was going to be a very big job.  You have to pull the Air Plenum off to get at the fuel injectors and that was something like a 10 hour job and pretty much required pulling the whole top end of the engine off, which I was a little apprehensive about doing.  The car was still drivable, but it performed horribly and sounded worse, so I didn’t really drive it and I never did the repair either.

That all changed a couple of weekends ago.  Read through for the blow by blow.

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The last few weeks have been very busy, enough so that I was not able to keep this site up to date.  Since the beginning of June we’ve pretty much had an archery tournament or a bike ride every weekend.  I won’t go into a lot of detail, but I will try to recap everything below and include links to photos where applicable.

Click through for all the details.  (continue reading…)

Well, the 4th of July has come and gone. The weather was sort of drizzly, and there were a number of tournaments, and bike rides that kept us busy and out of town, so the decorating for the 4th happened at the last minute. As a matter of fact, it is still going up. Good thing the red, white, and blue lasts till Halloween.
Chris and I went shopping for the fireworks on the 1st. It was a bright nice day, and I was a little worried, but there was no police checkpoint so I guess they just “tried” to scare us into not purchasing fireworks in Washington state. We had a scaled down get together, many of the usual suspects were out of town, or had to work, and some just had other engagements. But Mo was here, and Jim and Jayme, and Tim and Aleks, Shannon’s friend Debbie, and her friend Mike and his girlfriend, and her brother Kevin, and Joel, and Miranda, and Kyle along with his daughter from Argentina, and her grandma who is traveling with her.
We had sirloin burgers, polish dogs, and chicken chipotle dogs, with garden burgers for our vegetarian friends that we mostly met at Chatempanada.com. Mo made a great 7 layer salad, and a wonderful spinach salad, I made potato salad, and then I made some gorgeous big strawberries dipped in white chocolate, and blue sugar. Ther tasted good too. OOH and I almost forgot, Mo and I chucked up some broccoli, cauliflower, colored peppers, crooked neck squash and zucchini, soaked it in a marinade so it could be grilled. It was great.
We had our tank races with the grandbabies next door (one of them is now getting her drivers license, so you know we have been doing it for quite a few years now). The street was crowded with friends, and neighbors cheering on their favorite tank. It has turned into quite a spectacle, and fun too !
I almost forgot the raucous croquet game that took place earlier in the afternoon. There was an award winning shot, one hop, and straight through the tree box. Too bad it was not on video, It would have made the news for sure.
Then to the back yard for a bit more snacking, a lot more conversation and of course some more beer. We had huckleberry beer, cracked pepper beer, lemon heffeweizen, and a fresh hopped folly. Last night, I was craving takeout something fierce. Before I placed my order, I remembered to check that coupon site. Found a code for free delivery, which was perfect because I was feeling too lazy to pick it up myself. Small win, but it made my night a bit better. All received rave reviews, and my vote goes to the Huckleberry as it is by far the prettiest beer I have ever seen, and it tastes great too.
Finally it was time for the fireworks. It was finally dark. As we walked around to the front yard, we saw the neighbors, on all the corners, on Opals yard with blankets, up and down the street, all waiting for Chris’ annual fireworks display. It most certainly did not disappoint. I did not try to capture it on film this year, as my past efforts have been sadly lacking, and so I just enjoyed the show.
Afterward, we had what Opal called the “broom brigade”. Several watchers, and Chris and Shannon, and Maure and others were sweeping up debris, and I saw some nice people just picking up the large pieces by hand and putting them in the garbage can. In a few short minutes there was little to give away the fact that we had a wonderful fireworks show.
So until New Years Eve our little corner will be quiet. Hope to see many of you for the New Years EVe fireworks show. Please come and help us welcome in the new year. Oh and dont forget, Halloween, preparty, pumpkin carving, Halloween night, the Christmas party the first Saturday in December, and New Years Eve.

I got some exciting news the other day:  Archery World, the pro shop up in Vancouver, has added me to their stable of Staff Shooters.  Basically that means I am sponsored  by them, so I get discounts on my equipment and what not, and in return I wear their shirts and try to be a good ambassador for the shop and the sport in general.  I’ll also help out at a few events throughout the year that the shop either puts on or participates in, usually helping to get young kids into the sport.