Jill's Journal: Get your gun, ‘Bad Eyes Jilly’

There were two moments in my life last week that are completely as opposite as opposite can be, yet they intertwined.

The first came on Tuesday when I ventured out to the Garretson Gun Club to do some reporting on the Brandon Boss Gobblers’ Women in the Outdoors event.

Lo and behold, Gobbler Matt Swenson insisted that I put a pistol in hand and fire away at a paper target strung up before me. I kind of wanted to try, but never having shot anything before but a BB gun and squirt guns as a kid, I’ll be honest, it made me a little nervous.

With a bit of coaching on how to hold the gun, where to aim using the gun sight and how to fire the trigger, I took my first shot. And then I took four more. When they reeled the paper target in, I couldn’t believe my eyes: I hit inside the target circle four out of five shots, and one that was nearly right smack dab in the middle.

Speaking of eyes, I learned last week that my 61-year-old eyes are now in need of some attention. Yes, the cataracts in my eyes that I know have been brewing for several years, are finally at the point where they need to get lost. The procedures – yet to be scheduled – are surely going to help put life in a little better focus, and I’m surely looking forward to seeing more clearly.

As a gal who takes hundreds and hundreds of photographs, I’m sure thankful for the automatic focus setting on my trusty ol’ Nikon.

Now that I’ve got your attention, I’m going to put a plug in for Ed Polzine Wild Game Feed’s “30 Guns in 30 Minutes Raffle.” We still have some tickets left – only 300 total a hundred bucks piece. We have tickets at the Journal office, the Brandon VFW,

We’ll be drawing for the 30 guns at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 7, at the Brandon VFW. And if you happen to have a hankering, we’re having a fish fry before the raffle drawings.

While I won’t have “new eyes” just yet on Oct. 5, you can bet I’ll be “focused” in on the walleye we’ll be frying up.