Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez faced a recall vote and got sent home. Not only he lost but he got such a beating (average of 9 votes for recall vs 1 for stay) that you cold almost call Social Services and lodge a complaint for abuse.

Mayor Alvarez got elected under a platform of reform and austerity. Instead he forced a baseball stadium nobody wanted on taxpayers and then raised property taxes to pay for it. He added insult to injury by raising the paychecks of his staff and getting a BMW out of the public monies.

Withe so many other MAIGs already down the drain one way or the other, the rest might be wonder if the whole Bloomberg Club for Local Politicians is jinxed. I really do not care, the less the merrier we are.

Really, is it that hard to place a notation on a product page that says “Item in Backorder” or “Out, Back Order OK” or something similar? I hate having my money held hostage because you do not carry the product in your ample storage space in you mommy’s garage next to the Formica furniture from Uncle Robbie’s late 70’s swinging bachelor pad.

Two stores have pulled this crap on me: CopQuest and CopPlus. I placed an order with CopQuest for a duty belt on Feb 4 and I get this cute message saying that the “item now allocated to an incoming order from the
manufacturer. Turnaround is expected to be within 15 to 20 days.” Whiskey Tango Fox-Trot? why didn’t you warned me you didn’t have the damn thing to begin with? But wait, it gets better; It is now March 15 and the belt is nowhere near my mail mailbox.

Next was a holster from CopPlus and after I shed my monies, the Order Status page tells me that my holster is “BACKORDERED – Estimated ship date: Wednesday, March 23 2011.” Is this a standard procedure for stores that begin with the word ‘Cop’?

Now lets glance over the folks at Tombstone Tactical. I wanted 3 magazines for the Missus’ Kahr CW9. They had a great price and a warning that they were out of stock, but you could leave a 10% deposit to place the order and once they had the mags in, you could pay the rest. I went ahead, took the chance and was greatly surprised when in about a week I got an email telling me that the mags were in. As I was leaving for a match when I got the email, I responded with some funny email asking Candice to secure the mags under lock and key because they were for the wife and if lost, I’d be losing life or assorted anatomical parts. When i returned Candice had replied and also jesting assured me they were secure.

I went ahead and called Tombstone Tactical to pay for the mags and was taken care of by a nice gentleman (whose name I am sorry to say I forgot) who immediately knew who I was and was prompt and polite accepting my credit card and assuring me shipping would be expedient. Even though I told him to take it easy and that I was happy the mags were available, I got the magazines about 3 days later. And that is how you treat a customer. I am planning to send as much business as possible their way because they took that extra time and work to keep me happy or at least informed.

In the meantime I will continue to harass the other two cute looking web waesel stores till my items arrive. The stuff is also for the wife and when she is not happy, I switch to Attila The Hun mode and I am already in Semi-Mongol status.

-I can shoot fast and I can shoot accurately. Apparently I am not gifted with the combination of both. The principle is that should make the shots at the speed you can because tat the end accuracy counts. Most of the bad shots I had were directly related at trying to go too damn fast for my own good including a hit to a No-Shoot. Hits to No Shoot is the penalty that pisses me off the most and I admit I got pretty angry at myself for a while.  This is a good segue to…

-… I do not shoot IDPA as a game. My “problem” is that I go with the mindset that those paper targets can shoot back and I take as much cover as possible moving vewwy vewwy carefully. I cannot recall the last time I got a cover call at any match in years. Being that careful will slow you down at a match.

-Equipment does make a difference, specially if you consider sight radius. A mid-size carry gun will always be more difficult to shoot than a full length “competition” gun. Duplicate results if the shooter sucks to begin with. Same goes for ancillary gear: Kydex is faster than leather holster wise. But I am happy with to know that my everyday stuff will function since I compete with what I carry every day. I still do not understand those who spend hours at the range shooting a Clock 34 with all the latest tactical & approved for IDPA gear and at the end of the match, unburden all that stuff and drop a lint-covered small gun in their pockets. I just switch my competition ammo with the defensive ammo and go home.

– I’ll never work another sanctioned match if I can help it. I did plenty of that before and I will let the youngings do that from now on. I loved just shooting & waiting for the next stage alongside my beloved wife. God Bless and congratulations to the Wyoming Antelope Club for setting and executing a superb match. I know they must be dead tired but really satisfied today. Good Job guys & gals!

-IDPA should eliminate those long range shots from the rule book once and for all. 35 yards in a defensive situation is dumb tactics and the chance of a bullet hitting something that shouldn’t in Real Life is just too great. Plus you will have a tough time convincing a jury your IDPA scores in that particular stage were enough excuse for you to take that shot instead of getting the hell out of the way.

-OK, I give up. I will buy a Glock 34 for hits and giggles. It will be the first gun I will buy for “competition only.” But maybe other than the sights, I am not “tuning” it up or performing magic dremmel work with it. Out of the box and to the range.

That is all, carry on.

Instead of regaling you with tales of my catastrophic performance accompanied by equally disgusting videos, I’ll take the chance to post about an intriguing development. Right after the raffle and before the awards ceremony, two gentlmen whose names I could not hear (The PA went Tango Uniform) introduced themselves as from IDPA HQ and announced that contrary to internet “rumors, there were nothing to the wildly reported statements that no SOs from Florida were being accepted. Other than the fact that every SO I know and contacted HQ to volunteer was given the runaround and one was flatly told by an official to butt out, apparently it is only a “rumor” and that the Florida SOs will have as many spots as they want because they are expecting 500 shooters to attend the WC. I think I heard that 140 SOs will be needed which is a significant number.

The other thing they mentioned was the point system and that people were upset about not having enough points to attend the world championship. It must have been that I was way back from the gentlemen because I could not tell if there will be a point system or not or WTH. Apparently HQ is sorely pissed that USPSA will be holding the Nationals on the same weekend as IDPA’s World Cup and with 500 slots to fill, they will be needing every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to pay the fee for the match. Also the big shooters are going to the USPSA Match and thus go the Sponsors and so goes the money/raffle/prized & assorted goodies. A half empty World cup would be a nasty black eye for the sport.

It is very funny that USPSA turned out to be the best ally for IDPA shooters.

And for my shooting at the Florida Match? Let’s say that the last event that had so many points down was the Market Crash that led to The Depression, OK? But I did have a bucketful of fun!

One of the most liberating things at a match is to screw up so bad in your first stage that you really stop caring for the scores and start having fun. That goes double when you royally screw up in a stage so simple you are told you should take sewing or macrame as hobby.

With that out of the way, the first day of the match was as much fun as I expected. The Wyoming Antelope Club is hosting a great match as they have us used to it and the stages run between the fun and the “OMG who was the twisted SOB who came up with this crap.”

I’ve been bumping into people I haven’t seen in ages. Formerly Gun Doc Dave Pruitt somehow was condemned to my squad and it is a blast to see him again and also to see he has not slowed down one bit. I met David when I was just starting in IDPA and he shot in the local Miami Matches. I bet he was amused to see I still have not learned a damn thing about shooting.

And now, go ahead and make fun of me. Stage 7 “Shotgun!”

Arrived yesterday to Wyoming Antelope Club to the usual group of people that know how to organize a match and could not be any friendlier. It is nice to see familiar faces from past matches and meet new friends collected over the interwebs. The wife and I bumped into John Strayer at the hotel and he was convinced she not only can speak but is as frightening as I’ve been telling everybody. I finally met Dale G. and somebody must stop feeding MiracleGro to him, he is frigging tall enough.

And one for the “Only in Florida” files: Seen somewhere around Sarasota Lakes.

One more thing, Alligator Alley is not just a cute name for the tourist trade. The sight of gators sunbathing on that 100 mile stretch of I-75 was something not even Animal Planet can fathom. The wife stopped counting at 70. I guess it explains the reinforced fence between the road and the Everglades.