Shot in the Stomach

I had the wildest thing happen to me today. I was shot but I have no wound.

After writing so much last week on the colony of Iosepa, I went out this afternoon to get another impression of Skull Valley. This Sunday afternoon there were hunters and people target practicing all over the valley. Lots of gun fire, which certainly made me nervous. I should have left the area then and there but I'm afraid I didn’t.

I went up to the top of Lone Mountain (pictured above from a photo I took on the way up), away from the gun fire and began talking with a driver of another car. He was on the inside of his car and I was on the outside talking in. Faster than I could react, I heard a zip followed by a "kersplat" on my stomach. There wasn't much pain. Even better, I didn't see a hole through my yellow jacket and there was no red blood oozing out. No mushrooming holes or even straight little holes, only a small scratch on the side of my stomach. Frankly, how my skin was scratched with no hole or scratch on my clothes remains a mystery to me.

I glanced for Dick Cheney, thinking he must be in the area, . He wasn't, which was a good thing. It meant I would not have to apologize on national television for the inconvenience of putting the VP through so much anguish over shooting me. My luck was improving with every tick of the clock.

I drove down to the direction that the projectile came from -- a cove at the base of the mountain, where I found a Dad and his young kids innocently target practicing.

"Are you shooting pellets?", I asked.

"Nope", replied the Dad. "I have a .357 and my kids have been shooting with .22s."

That was definitely not the answer I wanted. It meant that I had been hit by an actual bullet -- not a pellet or a BB that I had conveniently convinced myself of on the short drive down the hillside.

Since there was no direct line from the bottom cove to the top of the mountain, the best I can figure is that the bullet must have ricocheted off the cliff of the mountain or a rock before it hit me. That's why the bullet didn't go through me -- that and my lucky angel looking over my shoulder.

LDS lessons learned today in an LSD World?

1. Don't play with guns, and never fire them in a direction where there might be people. They might fire back.
   
2. Skull Valley, Utah is a hostile place in more ways than its harsh climate. Its filled with crazy Quick Draw Utah McGraws on Sunday afternoons; oh, and their little Baba Looeys have guns too.
   
3. One can't even get lost in the middle of nowhere without fear of being shot.
   
4. And remember. Guns don't kill people. Bullets do.