Luck

I'm not crazy superstitious but I do have some beliefs. I don't believe that walking under a ladder is bad luck. I don't believe that breaking mirrors is bad luck (although that might explain a lot now since I used to install mirrors and have broken enough to last my family for several generations). I do believe black cats crossing my path is bad luck because something has happened every time one has crossed my path.

When I deployed to Iraq in 2003, my best friend had some dog tags made for me for good luck and I put one on my chain with my issue tags and kept it on my person at all times. My then 7 year old daughter had sent me a small purple ribbon and a Pokemon card for good luck and they went right in my wallet and stayed on my person the entire year I was deployed.

I believe these "charms" got me home safe as well as my men.

Moving forward to the present day now, my daughter (now 17) and I were enjoying a 2nd amendment appreciation day yesterday at my parent's house and shooting my XDs .45. My backdrop is an old wood pile and I was 10-15 feet away. My daughter had fired about 3 magazines and I had just fired the last round of my 4th mag when right after I squeezed the trigger I caught a quick glimps of something coming right at my head just before it made impact. It knocked my hat off and almost knocked me on my ass. I caught my hat and immediately felt my forehead checking for blood and there wasn't any. I looked at my hat to see if there was a hole and there wasn't
one. We had been recording each other with my flipcam so after making sure I wasn't dead or in danger of dying, I looked at her and asked if she was taping. Unfortunately the answer was no. She still hasn't realized what happened yet until I told her and she got a little freaked out.

We started looking around for the bullet that almost took me out but couldn't find it and I told her that it had to be somewhere behind where we were standing and would likely never find it. We began policing up the brass and she points at something on the ground and asks "what's that?" I looked and said "that my dear is what could have made things a lot different now."

The ricochet grazed the top of my forehead above my right eye, had it been an inch lower and made a direct hit on my head, I may not be here to write this. I don't think it had enough velocity left in it to penetrate but it could have cracked my skull for sure and I'd probably been in the hospital.

After going and inspecting the wood pile, I realized that some of those oak logs were hard as rock. I wasn't ready to stop shooting yet but I knew it was no longer safe to use the wood pile as a target trap and I didn't want to push my luck. I need to talk to my stepdad and see if I can get a load of dirt to use as a trap, if he doesn't want a mound of dirt back there, I don't know what other options I have other than going to a range and have to start paying fees.