Halls of the Dark Muse

As is often the case with life things always seem so much simpler in your head than they often turn out to be in real life. I made my way up to the park quite proud of my little makeshift target only to discover that the tree of which I originally had intended to tie it too was too fat and the string length I had estimated the day before was not quite long enough. So then I had to find a new tree to mount my target too which ought to be simple enough but there are a few factors to consider. 1. Of course the tree cannot be too thick around 2. It has to be a relatively straight tree for the target to hang correctly. 3. It needs to be in a nice open area with a straight shot to the target and nothing that could obscure the aim or the throw.

After a bit of accessing I find what seems to be the perfect tree. I tie up my target, and it looks good, I like the height of it, ok I am ready to go, so I set up and begin throwing my knives, which bounce off the target and fall into the grass and low and behold I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to find my knives in the overgrown grass.

I walk up to retrieve them, and well they seem to be no where in sight. Of course I know they have to be around there somewhere, they didn't just vanish, and they didn't go that far. I find the first one, and I keep looking and cannot find the second one. I tell myself that I know it has to be here somewhere, and I tell myself not to panic, I try to come up with a systematic way to search and then ahah! I find the second one. Ok, one more, I am looking, and looking, I know it has to be there and yet, I cannot find it. Ok, I am starting to freak out. I am determined I am not going to leave until I have all three of them, no matter how long it takes. I refocus, I figure out a plan for searching so I don't end up just aimlessly wandering around, and finally I find the last of them.

After that I decide I need a new spot for my target. I have to go somewhere with more dirt and less tall grass. So I go to untie my target and I cannot get the knot out. I try a few times, and get frustrated, and think well if I have to I can just cut it. Problem with that, throwing knives do not have sharp edges, they are not meant for cutting and slashing, they are meant for piercing, they have dull edges and a sharp point. So trying to cut a piece of string with a throwing knife is rather counter productive, but none the less I manage.

Ok, I get my target down, find a nice good tree to use close to where my original spot I wanted was, remount my target, and I am good to go, I begin to throw, and my knives keep bouncing off the target, I can see them hitting the target with the flat of the blade. I am baffled by this. I know I cannot be throwing that bad. I don't like throwing at trees, but I needed to access what was going on and figure out if the problem was in my form, or if the target itself was somehow faulty.

I find a good tree and begin to throw and BAM! BAM! the first two knives stick with ease, no problem, good throws, better than I did the day before. OK, I go back to my target, use the same form, and throw, and.....nothing......the blade goes zonky again. I am thinking the problem must be with the target. It is just a cardboard box tied with string to a tree. I don't think it was firm or stable enough for the blades to stick. What I think was happening, because I know they where hitting the target is, that when the points touched, instead of sticking in, the blades just flopped over and than fell to the ground.

Monday I will have to go back up and see if I can rig up a better target to use. I did just have pizza for dinner and I have read that pizza boxes make good targets, maybe I will take that up there and see what I can do with it.

So after that I begin to head off back on my way home. Along the path that I walk there is this Styrofoam cup that is turned upside down on this metal post in the field. I have made it a personal goal of mine to be able to nail the cup with one shot. So everyday I walk by I will throw one of my knives at it, until I hit it. Needless to say today I missed.

Now when I headed off on my walk early in the morning it was foggy and chilly out, so I have this pair of black fingerless gloves of which I was wearing that I took off for my knife throwing, and in the course of searching for my lost knives completely forget about. I am more than halfway home when suddenly I stop I remember I left my gloves in the park. So I have to walk all the way back to the park to retrieve them.