Thursday, January 26, 2012

Why wives shouldn't nag their husbands about their hobbies

Austin has always been obsessed with guns and shooting. I knew this dating him, I knew this when I married him.
He worked at a gun store for 4 1/2 years.
Our entire basement was dedicated to gun cleaning, repairing, ammo reloading, etc.
When we moved 40% of our possessions were guns and ammo related.
We can't use the coat closet downstairs in our townhouse because it has to house the gun safe.
We receive a regular subscription to Guns & Ammo magazine.
And monthly Austin has me do the "drill" where I show him that I know how to use the home defense shotgun in under five seconds.
Many times I have been tempted to be annoyed by this true love of his. I would hold my breath when anyone brought up the issue of gun control, knowing we were all in for a good rant.
He has always said that his absolute dream would be if he could teach history or turn his love of shooting into a career. I would usually give a nice sarcastic eye roll at that.

But I have been humbled.

I can't believe he was actually able to do the latter.

And he is amazing at this new job.

I've always assumed he knew quite a bit in this area, but I had no idea just how much he really knows. In four weeks at his new job he has become their source of all gun information. The people working there know ammunition since that's what they do. But no one knows as much about the actual guns as Austin does. He has answered questions for the board of directors during meetings, and his boss is having him fix one of his collector M1 Garands.

And earlier this week he discovered a manufacturing error in one of their lines of ammunition that will save the company millions of dollars. His boss's boss's boss came down to personally thank him.

The best part is that he is also learning a ton, which he loves to do. He comes home every day (at 4:30 which is awesome) and just seems over the moon about whatever it is he got to do that day. They actually pay him to go and shoot guns on their gun range. And talk to people all day about guns. And his boss was a history major and they talk history all day long. Austin has always gotten along best with anyone above the age of 60, and that describes about 90% of the people he works with. He is really just in heaven.

I am so proud of him and so happy for him.

And that was worth moving to Lewiston for.

7 comments:

MeganandClaudy said...

that is soo neat. Funny how things work out, huh? Hmmm...I wonder if Claudy's shoe obsession could end up making us some money/career...???

mamagale said...

Go Austin! He certainly has made a bunch of gun fans out of the Gale family--and Austin fans too :)

Anna said...

That's so awesome! What a blessing! How did he hear about this job? It sounds tailor made for him.

I think it's funny (but smart) that he drills you monthly. :)

Peter wants a gun/guns SO BAD. I think it's a Southern thing. I'm not quite okay with it yet, but maybe in a few years.

PeterK said...

Yes. Yes I do. Southern thing, boy thing. Who knows. Probably the combination thereof.

I got my dream job, too! :D

Kara Anderson said...

This made me so happy! I'm so glad that you are all doing well :)

Terry and Ann Keaton said...

That's my boy!! It all started with Nerf guns, then B-B guns then advanced to paintball guns and NOW, the real deal! We love you Austin!

Jessa said...

I almost cried reading this. I love that he gets to work with his hobbie all the time. I'm still looking for someone to pay me to travel around the world, photograph stuff and eat food.

miss you