The Shot Heard 'Round the Room

You’d think we would have known better. I’m not sure how old we were, but we were a couple of bright, but curious, boys. We really should have seen, er, heard what was coming.

My best friend, Chris Farrar, and I must have been in eighth grade, maybe ninth, when we found the 12-gauge shotgun shell. Maybe it was in the gutter along a street on our way home from Churchill Junior High — I don’t recall. But, unlike the spent shell I found on my run two weeks ago, this one was live ammo.

Lacking a shotgun to put the round to proper misuse, we decided to dismantle the shell to see just how it was made. We knew the basics, though I’m not sure if we’d already been through the hunter safety course taught by Vern Coates, one of our venerable Boy Scout leaders. But we wanted to see all the elements — powder, shot, wad, primer.

In the back room of my dad’s garage we used a sharp knife to slice through the plastic casing near the brass base of the shell. We dumped the shot — I don’t recall what size it was — extracted the wad and dumped the powder. I can’t imagine we didn’t burn the powder, but I have no recollection of doing so. Maybe we were chicken, fearful it would flash or flare and burn us or something. I don’t recall. But the primer seemed innocent enough…

Somehow we extracted the primer from the base of the shell and clamped it firmly in a pair of vice grips. One of us then held the vice grips and the other grabbed a punch and a hammer. Well, we had no idea that tiny primer would be so loud. I’m sure it was compounded by the confined space, and poor Chris managed to take the brunt in his left ear. I’m pretty sure his hearing was permanently, though not seriously, damaged.

Let that be a lesson to you, kids. Wear hearing protection when you do stupid stuff.

Today’s Stats (April 24, 2014)

Temp: 52 degrees F

Distance: 4.01 miles

Weekly Total: 8.92 miles

Treasure: 2 pennies, 1976 and 1981, both heads up (double good luck?)

iPhone Playlist (Matchbox Twenty Mix)

All Your Reasons

Black & White People

Angry

If You’re Gone

Someday

Snowblind

Bright Lights

Hand Me Down

Bent

Disease

Problem Girl

Streetcorner Symphony

Today’s Stats (April 22, 2014)

Temp: 55 degrees F

Distance: 4.82 miles

Weekly Total: 4.82 miles

Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle)

Come Sail Away - Styx

Bed of Lies - Matchbox Twenty

Everybody Plays the Fool - The Main Ingredient

Bad Woman Blues - Trampled Under Foot

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing - Leo Sayer

I Was In The House When The House Burned Down - Warren Zevon

Bron-Yr-Aur - Led Zeppelin

Too Many Tears - The Call

When I Get Home  - The Beatles

Hung Up On You - Cake

Glad Tidings - Van Morrison

Radio - Matchbox Twenty

More Than A Feeling - Boston

Something 'Bout A Woman - Lady Antebellum

American Honey - Lady Antebellum

Today's Stats (April 9, 2014)

Temp: 39 degrees F (41 at end)

Distance: 4.2 miles

Weekly Total: 8.9 miles

Treasure: Nada. Didn’t look.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Bigger Than My Body - John Mayer

Drop Dead Legs - Van Halen

The Bird & The Worm - Owl City

Brick (Live) - Ben Folds

Catch My Disease - Ben Lee

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

Best of Times - Styx

Dig A Pony - The Beatles

She’s A Beauty - The Tubes

I Should Have Known Better - The Beatles

I’m Only Sleeping - The Beatles

Today's Stats (April 7, 2014)

Temp: 46 degrees F (55 at end)

Distance: 4.7 miles

Weekly Total: 4.7 miles

Treasure: 51 cans; 1 spent 12-gauge shotgun shell

iPod Playlist (Yourself Or Someone Like You):

Real World

Long Day

3 AM

Push

Girl Like That

Back 2 Good

Damn

Argue

Kody

Busted

Shame

Hang

(Mad Season)

Angry

Black and White People

Crutch

Running for a Reason

It’s time to start training. Of course, I never should have fallen out of training. But the sad fact is I got lazy this winter — and sometimes distracted. I haven’t been running regularly and now I’m paying for it. 

The founders of Asha for Life Community,
Tommy and Tom Colclasure and Harsha and
Shrikant Mehta, all of Galesburg.

Not only have I not run regularly, I have not run competitively (like I’m really a “competitor”) since the Bix last July. And now I’ve gone and committed to running the Run Galesburg Run Half Marathon Express again — yes, the whole half! I made the mistake of taking a poll on Facebook and none of my friends was kind enough to tell me the 5K was plenty. In their defense, they were all encouraging and supportive of my ability to complete the half.

Last year I ran my first half marathon and I survived. I was part of Team Acapulco, sponsored by Galesburg’s Acapulco Mexican restaurant. While I’d love to be a part of the team again, I’ve committed to a cause this year. I’m running for Team Asha. As the flyer says, “Join Team Asha and make a difference!”

Here’s the rest:

Help raise funds to aid in the battle against human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Sign up to participate June 1^st 2014, in “Run Galesburg,” at rungalesburgrun.com

Join TEAM ASHA and ask your friends to family to sponsor you for the half marathon, 5 “K”, or mile dash.  Proceeds will support direct assistance to survivors of sexual slavery as well as fund human trafficking prevention effort.  Slavery in the world today is real!

Be a champion for freedom from human trafficking and sexual slavery!

An alley in the Mumbai, India red light
district. Brothelsl are accessed from
alleyways such as these. It is estimated
that in Mumbai alone 20,000 minor girls
are held captive in the sex trade.

I first heard about Asha for Life Community two years ago when my friend Tom “Tommy” Colclasure — along with his father and two other Galesburg residents — founded the organization after a trip to Mumbai, India. Tom and his dad, Tom Sr., were moved by the living conditions — “the crushing poverty” — they witnessed in Mumbai. Friends of theirs, Drs. Harsha and Shrikant Mehta, natives of Mumbai, informed them the real horror of life in Mumbai is human trafficking.

“We found that 1.25 million people are trafficked each year … hundreds of those a trapped in the sex slave trade,” Tom told The Register-Mail in a March 2012 story.

You can read more about Asha for Life Community here.

Anyway, when Tom posted on Facebook some months back that he was putting together Team Asha to run for a cause, I chimed in my support. So here’s the deal: I need your support, too. I am seeking pledges — by the mile (13.1, round it to 13) or a flat sum — as a member of Team Asha. The money you give will go toward the fight against human trafficking. That’ll help assuage my inevitably aching knee and heaving lungs — who isn’t rejuvenated and inspired by a warm-fuzzy feeling?

To pledge, email me at rob.buck7@gmail.com or send me a private message on Facebook and I’ll add you to the list. I’ll update this with information on when pledges are due as soon as I know.

To paraphrase Bartles and Jaymes: I thank you for your support.

Today's Stats (April 2, 2014)

Temp: 39 degrees F

Distance: 3.54 miles

Weekly Total: 3.54 miles

Treasure: 26 cans.

iPod Playlist (Shuffle):

Piano Man - Billy Joel

The Long Run - The Eagles

I Will - Matchbox Twenty

Alone Again (Naturally) - Gilbert O’Sullivan

Get It Straight - Trampled Under Foot

Hold My Hand - Hootie & the Blowfish

Bitch - Meredith Brooks

Reconsider Me - Warren Zevon

One Week - Barenaked Ladies

King Tut - Steve Martin

When Will You Come Back Home (live) - Ryan Adams