March 8 2008
Well gang, after weeks of accident free gatherings and just the everyday lives of our members, an unfortunate happenstance has occurred this week.
Ted Ryder, who has red hair and everybody calls "Red", was asked by a friend of his if he could spare a rifle for the weekend. Seems his friend was going up to a piece of hill country that he owned, and had seen sign of feral hog the last time he was there, and if he spotted one he just might pop it. There being no season on hog and all like that.
"Red" forgot all about it, and Thursday a couple nights ago, his friend showed up at "Red’s" front door and asked him for the rifle.
"Sure," said "Red", "C’mon in."  His buddy came inside, and "Red" walked over to a 30-30 Winchester lever action leaning against a door jam.
Now "Red" was wise in the ways of gun safety, and knew that there was no such thing as an unloaded gun. Accordingly, he picked up the Winchester and levered out three shells onto the floor.
In the field he always carried three rounds in the magazine "If you needed more than three, you shouldn’t be hunting." He always said.
But the Winchester was a house gun, and he had loaded it with four rounds. "Better safe than sorry." He always said.
After pumping out the three rounds, to be absolutely sure that he was handing over an empty, completely safe gun, he pointed it at the ceiling and pulled the trigger.
There was a loud bang! Immediately followed by a scream from the upstairs bedroom.
"Red" turned white, handed the rifle to his buddy, and took the stairs two at a time to check out his wife.
When he came back down stairs, the color was back in his face, and he was carrying a black plastic bag. His wife was still wailing.
"Is she hurt bad?" his buddy asked.
"Yeah, pretty bad, " said "Red". "But you know that little Chihuahua of ours?"
"Uh yeah." said the buddy.
"Well," said "Red" with a grin, as he hefted the black bag, "He’s hurt a lot worse."
"Red" reached into a drawer and pulled out a box of 30-30 cartridges. "Here," he said with a peaceful kind of a smile. "Take these with you too."
Apparently not everybody sees an accident the same way.

Till next week
Helga Biermeister
Secretary