Need

My brother is getting married.  Three months from today.  I’m the best man.  I’ve been a best man twice before and I am a firm believer that when planning the bachelor party surprises are not good.  This is my kid brother’s day.  He should be surrounded by his best and favorite friends and we should do something that he’ll truely enjoy and will remember for the rest of his natural life.

Seems fair, right?

My brother did a lot of work helping me set up the two previous bachelor parties I was responsible for.  For Larry’s party it was a bus ride to a strip joint in Providence, RI.  A fantastic time was had by all.  For Mike’s party it was a van ride to the same strip joint in Providence and again a fantastic time was had by all.

So now my brother, the guy who helped me set the other two parties up.  What does he want to do?  One would assume a trip to a certain dive in RI would be in order, right?

Nope.

John wants to go skeet shooting.

That’s right, a day full of blasting away with shot guns trying to vaporize little round chunks of clay.  Then an evening at Foxwoods or Mohegan gambling our life savings away.

It’s going to be like playing “Duck Hunt” on the old Nintendo, only for real… except that the ducks will still be fake.  So I guess it won’t be quite the same after all.

It won’t be my first time shooting a gun, but it will be my first time as an adult.  When I was a kid I did a little target shooting with a .22 caliber rifle.  Nothing big.  I only did it a few times but I was a decent shot.  I actually prefered archery.  Even at the wise old age of 12 I could sense that there was something more satisfying about firing a projectile with my hands as opposed to a gun where the gun itself does most of the work.

I never have nor never will own a gun, and I never have nor never will shoot anything living.  I’m all for sports, and I’m all for survival too, but if you’re shooting something that’s alive just for the fun of it you’re not in it for survival, ya know?

Anyway, enough moralizing.  The point is, what my little brother wants, my little brother gets.  I’m going to be a shotgun toting lunatic for one day and if it makes him happy then it’s time that could not be better spent.

Okay, so maybe this post is more of the usual blathering drivel, but it’s where my head is at today.

And in closing, the Lowell Lock Monsters beat the Providence Bruins tonight in a shoot out… and all was right with the world.