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Barbarosa and Me at the CFDA Nationals

Nancy and I just got back from the Cowboy Fast Draw Association (CFDA) Nationals in Idaho. We had a great time! Something just under a hundred shooters–60 some of them male–with a good representation of age, interest, and abilities. Given that I’d fired less than a hundred wax bullets from my gun, my goal was not coming in last.

I made it! Here’s where I ranked, 52nd out of 60 shooters, a little better if you count the women. But the good news is, I don’t see why I can’t place next year!

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Barbarosa and me (the Reverend W. W. Ronin) looking over the competition. While I beat Barbarosa, he had fewer Xs and went on to shoot in the finals.
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Posted 3 years, 2 months ago at 1:20 pm.

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A Ministry Within the UCC?

Meeting with the Central Pacific Conference’s Covenants Ministry Team on Saturday left me feeling a bit up in the air. A good conversation all the way around. Excellent questions from a dozen or so people who make up the “gate-keeping” committee of the United Church of Christ here in Oregon. And it was an opportunity for me to be real–in a fuzzy Velveteen Rabbit sort of way–about my previous marriage, my reasons for leaving the Presbyterian Church USA and my recent cleaving, so to speak, to the United Church of Christ.
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Posted 3 years, 2 months ago at 5:52 pm.

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Fast Hands, Kenpo Hands

While I’ve tired of the fast hand stuff in American Kenpo–my martial art for the last thirty years or more–admitting (finally) that real combat isn’t the stuff we typically practice in class or see on an instructional video, I continue to admire it when I see it done well.

Our Black Belt instructors–Eric Kristiansen, Michelle Moore, and Greg Walker–do the Kenpo dance pretty well. And then you ought to see my aging frame, right?

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Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 6:41 pm.

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Practicing for the CFDA Nationals

I’m practicing for the Cowboy Fast Draw Nationals at this point. Great fun, and for the most part without benefit of timer or target.

The Cowboy Fast Draw Association (CFDA) –something less than 1,000 “cowboys” strong at this point–has a number of target tools and timers. But a quick conversation with Marshall at the CFDA office last week confirmed that I can do a lot to prepare in my own garage. “I use a metal trash can lid,” he said, reminding me of the days I first practiced karate in my parent’s back yard by side kicking trash cans off of the hill. The better I got the higher I stacked the trash cans. Course I was fourteen at the time.

“Do you have someone hold it?” I asked. “Uh, no…” was his quick response. So much for cowboy humor.

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Posted 3 years, 3 months ago at 2:05 pm.

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