• Relay For Life 2015

After months of preparation, and many captain's meetings, the 2015 Relay for Life event was held. The location was in the picturesque setting of Canyon Hills Middle School, just off Lost Road in Lake Elsinore's back country, and the day was to be a hot one. According to the Press Enterprise it hit 97 degrees.

It started early on Saturday morning with an opening ceremony, which included a couple of inspirational speeches, including one where a long time survivor revealed that she had recently been re-diagnosed with cancer, a very sobering moment.

Next was a Survivors Breakfast hosted by Annie's Cafe.

Wildomar Mayor Ben Benoit, getting a nice suntan as he dishes up meals alongside Jan Vyse (Annie).

Once the survivors had eaten their fill, they opened it up to the rest of the participants for five dollars a plate. It's hard to beat that price for an Annie's Breakfast, and all the proceeds were donated to the event.

Then there was an opening lap that was led by the cancer survivors in attendance. They were easily distinguishable by the purple shirts they wore. The group was being videotaped by a low flying drone as it made its first circuit around the track.

The first lap is walked by cancer survivors. They were easily distinguishable by the purple shirts they wore.

The event went all through the day and into the evening which featured the Luminaria slideshow followed by a lap around the track in the dark. Lit only by white lunch sacks, that had been decorated with the names of loved ones that have battled cancer, and illuminated by glow sticks.

An example of a Luminaria.

Very moving to see images of people that have passed on during the slide show. Including those that passed this year, like honorary poster person Tom Thomas, and local long time teacher (with a past in the NBA) Dave Meyers (who'd just passed away the day before of cancer.)

Also in the slide show were those that have survived bouts of cancer, which gave the assembled crowd reason to cheer.

The event ended with a closing ceremony around 9:00am Sunday.

Closing ceremonies with the various event leaders on stage.

The participant that put the most miles on his/her tennies was Ryan Kelman of Lake Elsinore. He walked a total of 32.2 miles over the 24 hour event. Not counting sleep time and other breaks, that's an average of about 5.3 laps per hour... EVERY HOUR for 24 hours. Well done!

I got some stats from event chair Chrissy Rohlmeier, resident of The Farm.

There were a total of 15 teams that participated this year out of the 22 that signed up (down from the 30 that participated last year).

The top team was Taxing for a Cure and they raised $4120.

The total for the event was $20,355, though that number will rise as the last of the tallies are tabulated. Wildomar Walkers raised $1208. Troop 2011 (sorry, I don't know their nickname) raised $963, Donald Graham Elementary raised $200 and I couldn't decipher how much the VFW raised. Note to self, make better notes.

Kathy Bundy, Bridgette Moore, Dan York and Ben Benoit at the Wildomar Walkers booth on Saturday Morning.

This event has a heavy Wildomar footprint (Wildomar Walkers, Troop 2011, DGE and the VFW) and some of the teams were mentioning it would be a nice move to have the event relocated to Elsinore High School. Not so much for the sake of the participants, but to get more foot traffic to enhance the fund raising opportunities. Canyon Hills Middle School is in a very nice setting, but it's well off the beaten path and there simply is very little opportunity for drive by visitors.

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An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
― Henry David Thoreau

Wildomar Rap is now available in three attractive varieties, including paisley, tartan and bold.

• Killing Paper

What happens when two guys get into an internet argument about guns?

"The Ex"

They settle it like men.

(sorry for being sexist here... well, not really)

 They hang out for a couple of hours at a shooting range. 

>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

It started on a FaceBook thread with these two memes juxtaposed together.



My point was that both "remedies" will lead to a visit from the Po' Po'.

Fellow Wildomarian, Doug Ames, was getting fed up with my cackling about guns on a thread of mine. Then posted:
Lmk if you want to go kill paper sometime.

I told him I wasn't a "Let's do lunch" kinda guy, so let's plan it fo' reals. 

Two days later, paper was beggin' fer mercy!

Joseph, meet AR15.                                   Can you find the spent shell?

Gotta love that muzzle flash on this Extar EXP Extreme Lightweight AR15 Pistol.
My video camera was set to 60 fps and it only showed up on one frame.

☼   We shot a total of five different guns  ☼

Smith and Wesson Military and Police .22LR, 9mm. AR15, an AK47, and the Extar EXP Extreme Lightweight AR15 Pistol with an eotech 517 Tactical Weapons Sight.

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All the guns had their selling points. The .22 Smith and Wesson was the first one I shot. It was such a nice little gun. Then I shot the 9mm. Ummm!!!! Wow, what a difference, and I know they only get more powerful. 

After that we went over to the rifles. I preferred the AK47. In part because it had iron sites, which is like my badass ten pump BB gun. Last on the list to shoot was the Extar EXP Extreme Lightweight AR15. It wasn't easy for me to hit the target with it, but it had the throatiest boom of the lot.

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It was a great time out. All the way from the weather, to the shooting to the company. 

I'm glad I got into a silly FaceBook tête-à-tête with Mr. Doug Ames. Without it, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet such a good member of the community, or go out shooting. 

Thanks Doug, it was a great day.

  

Doug is also very involved with the scouts, and based on the time he took with me, a n00b to be sure when it comes to firearms training, I can see that his scouts are in good hands when they are under his care/supervision.

When we were done, we picked up our spent shells, and a couple of bags of trash, we also cleaned up a table, two boxes of trash, two computers, and what looked like an old radio. 

It's ok if you want to live like a pig, just don't make us clean up after you

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The only way to end such an outing was at 

Annie's Cafe in Lake Elsinore.

Where I finally got a chance to try their Fish and Chips.

The full size panorama shot of the area.

A little PhotoShop art of some shotgun shells.