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5-19-01 ->

   A Fantastic Outing, all in all. We're beginning to start earlier, and chose Saturday this time so more people
could play. I woke up at 5am for some stupid reason. Been doin' that lately, but I'm not tired. Weird. Anyway....

  Ended up with 13 people, and I wasn't the only old guy there this time - Enter Father Mike ! Yep, just like it
sounds. He managed to sneak some time away from the church to join in the festivities for a few hours. Great time !

   And, knowin' God's right hand man, or close to that, was there, even the rain* didn't hamper us. Well, I sat out for a round
during the hardest of it. My Fun Meter doesn't go that high. Now I know what people are complaining about when their masks
fog up. Ain't much of that kind of problem around here usually. Or the cold. We were shooting 'snow' for awhile - maybe
because we're at 6000+ feet, but it only got down to around 50 or so while it was raining. The CO2 actually shot out snow
flakes so bad you couldn't see your paintball. Not to mention the mask fogging up. I stuffed a rag around my mouthguard
and that helped some.

  The *rain, now that was cool, really. Got really cool for a couple of hours, and then the sun took over. Awesome
weather. Soft ground, too, and the leaves didn't crunch as much, so it was easier to sneak around, and get snuck up on.
 (Always remember, tracers work both ways in more ways than one)

  I'm trying hard to get the others to write a line on what their favorite part was. I think most of us got off on the last round -
a total free for all until you ran out of paint or air, or just gave up for the pain of it. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

  Planning ahead is sometimes a good thing. Like, this time we brought Gatorade, chips and granola bars. Only, nowhere
enough for all of us. Need more sustenance, Stephanie. 7 hours is too long without it. Maybe they'd all be interested in
some M.R.E.'s. Only takes a couple of those babies, and a Big Mac starts sounding like a Filet Mignon. Although, this
El Charito Frozen Mexican Looking Kinda Thing I'm eating now is pretty good after all day, too. Cheaper than M.R.E.'s, too.
Nice thing about these Frozen Jobs is the cleanup.... as in, none. Unless you count swishing the spoon in my coffee.

  My Pop loaned us his big Olympus MegaBuck DigiRama Microwave Popcorn Maker ~ Digital Camera - to take some
action shots. Great idea. Only two shortcomings about that. 1: When we're all psyched up and out playing, reloading,
playing, it's really hard to say, oh, hey, let's get some action shots. Everybody just pose over there, blah. Well, that didn't
happen. Camera? What camera? and, 2: none of us really knew how to operate that thing. Whatever happened to where
you just looked through the lens finder thing, clicked a button, and that was it? Anyway, you'll see what I mean below -
there are a couple of pix. Thanks goes to Photoshop for the editing. Guess over time I can get some more, and just put
up the good ones. There's a couple of injury shots, just to show you how they look fresh....for all of you Red Cross types,
genuinely interested people, and all you just plain sickos.

  I started off just really swell - went about business the first two games. Damn I was good. Took out many foes. The
first two games. Then, if you'll click HERE, you'll see what happened the 3rd round. The one with the forehead bump. Ah,
well, Rambo maybe, but not immortal. That knocked me goofy briefly. Some would argue about the briefly part. Guess I
act this way all the time. Put the fear of Sherwin-Williams right back in me. Wha....I'm up for auction, and you want ME?

   Yep, standard games - it's nice having a lot of players - we had 13, so we could split up into all sorts of combos.
Grab the Flags, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, etc. I'd like to apologize to the Father, here, cuz I got caught in a crossfire
once, see, and I was getting nailed from 2 sides, only I thought the one side was MY guys, so I walked over and ... ahem,
well, I think I said something like, Hey, you assholes are on MY team!!  Except, they weren't. My guys were still off in the
distance. And it was the good Father. ahem. Sorry. Dang, but you guys were blended in real good there.
Arm Bands are becoming an attractive option. Some of the teams developed their own codes that worked out well,
except for if it wasn't your team mate, you just gave yourself away..bang. Easy to do when we're all dressed the same.

Fast Forward 7 hours.....

  OK, well, on to the last round - My favorite. Guess we all got tired of having to go all the way back to the van when
we only got shot once. Soooooo.... let's have an All Out. 1 on 1 on 1 on 1, and you're not out unless you run out
of paint, or air, or call yourself out. Oh, yeah. That's where we all got shot to pieces. What a gas! We had guys who
looked like the bank robbers in that L.A. shootout a couple of years ago, just walking around blasting everything that
moved, things that didn't, and, Roman: Roman thought he was the Terminator the way he kept coming at anyone who
was shooting him. He must have taken 30 or more hits. He'd find a paintball on the ground that didn't break, dive down,
load it, and come back up. hahahaha... what a goof ! I went through about 4 hundred or more balls just that last round.
I think I got shot at least 5 times - paint was flying everywhere ! I finally ran out of paint and air [insert Soundtrack from Twilight Zone
Here] at the same time - and went back to the van to start packing. Lots of yelling and shooting that game. hahaha.. We
were talking about having a time when we just do that from the beginning - we could go through all our stuff in 2 hours
instead of 7 that way, too. It's something to consider. Like, PowerBall. Then, I envision a few who'd buy more air bottles,
extra ball carriers, and a couple of cases of balls, and stay out for 7 hours anyway. Personally, the pain factor starts to
come into prominence after just one round of this, so that may not happen. Did I mention I got a head and leg hit? oh, yeh.

  And, it's a messy  sport, of that there is no doubt. Taking all the barrels off, gunky masks, breaking down the guns.....
that poor Caravan is filthy. Won't need painting for awhile, let's say. [at least on the inside.] Sometimes I think about
the clowns in a VolksWagen, only we're all in camo. All you see are floating heads and hands when we unload.

  Enough for one day. I'm pooped. For an old dude. And my head and back of my knee hurts. sorta.

  I may add some more to this when I ain't so brain dead. Maybe. Probably not. Since everyone's a bit short on finances
after today, we may have to wait longer than 2 weeks to go out again en masse, bummer. But what a day.... ;-)


                            L 8 R - Crow

Live, On Site Latest Event Coverage by GD:

  "You've heard the story of the whole day, so I am just going to skip to the last game. Oh yeah, it was my favorite. The day
was running out, along with the paintballs and air, so the last of the bunch still standing, decided to have an all out war. The
only rule was, no crying. It started off pretty quiet at first. Then I spotted my first target, Roman. Roman is now a psycho in
my mind. When I shot at him for the first few times, I hit him twice through the bush. I told him to run for 5 seconds, so he
did. I then ran right after him and instead of running away, he walked slowly towards me. I managed to lead him out into an
open area, while I backed into some brush.

   Then I saw my chance, I shot at fast as I could, and he had nowhere to go but on the ground. He was trying to hide behind
some dead sticks about 1/3 the size of him (you do the math). I started shooting every ball I had right for him. He just didn't
want to give up. About every 20 shots, I asked him if he wanted to quit, and he would give the same answer, "I still have air!"
So I shot every single paintball I had at him. The few guys that were sitting this one out, were at the van laughing their heads
off, watching me blow this guy away. The Dad said he must have been hit about 30 times...more like 50 or 60...literally.

   Finally I ran out of ammo on this guy and walked back to the van. But instead of quitting, I found about 20 more paintballs
and ran back onto the playing field. Right away I spotted Roman, and he didn't see me. I shot about 3 to get his attention
(and also to hit him), and he once again started walking right at me. I blew all the rest of my paintballs straight at him, hitting
him almost every time. I was out of ammo again, but someone at the van gave me about 10 more. So I snuck up behing JJ,
and before I shot him in the back, I turned and laughed with the people at the van. BANG BANG BANG BANG! Hit him
almost every shot in the back.

   Finally I was completely out of paint. But instead of quitting, me and Roman wanted to go scare some guys with just air.
I quickly found my brother, and shot really fast at him. It made him run for a few steps, but he noticed the different sounds
coming from my gun, and he knew I was out of ammo. He started charging me and I was just laughing, shooting my Co2
at him. That was definately the best game I've ever seen. I must have been hit 10 to 15 times. I'm a little short on money
(yes this is a factor) so I'm going to sit out a few weeks. But until then, This is Bugeye...out. (By the way, I finally got my
new Piranha, and yes, it helps A LOT) *Blowing people away almost got old.*"

*Editor's Note: Yeah, right, heh.

~ FInally dug the camera out after it was all too late, but managed to get a couple, like I said.