Mid-life crisis?

I may be encountering my mid-life crisis. At least that’s what I hear a guy is supposed to do around this age–go out and buy something to help him feel young again. Something to help fight the feeling that he’s becoming old and irrelevant. So perhaps that’s what was driving my spending this weekend.

I bought a Nerf gun.

Except I suspect it has nothing to do with that. It’s probably more to do with never growing up in the first place. I had rubber band gun fights with my family and friends growing up. I had squirt gun fights with my companion on my mission (and got told to grow up by the “older, mature” neighbor that beat his wife). I had disc-gun and squirt gun fights with my sister after our missions (sorry if I wasn’t supposed to reveal that, Sis!).

And so I suppose it only stands to reason that when my boys started buying fancy Nerf guns lately I’d have to get into the act, too. My older boy bought an automatic rifle that can empty its eighteen-round magazine in about six seconds. My younger son bought a single-shot rifle that comes in four configurable pieces, and has a twelve round magazine.

Oh, I can try to justify my purchase by pointing out that I’m helping avoid nasty sibling conflicts. If my two boys battle each other the older one is going to win most every time, and the younger won’t be happy about it. I’m able to keep the peace by getting my own rifle like the younger’s and inviting them to gang up on me. It works, too. I win maybe one battle in three (okay, four or five), but I’m fine with that, and they get to work together instead of trying to kill each other.

But the reality is probably that the little kid in me just loves how the thing feels in my hand. I love the satisfying, pump-shotgun-like “shunk-shunk” action for cocking it. I love watching the foam darts go streaking out of the barrel. I kinda enjoy loading darts into the magazine and slapping it home into the gun. I like making crazed, Han-Solo-esque charges into heavy fire and seeing darts zinging all around me. It’s totally nuts. And it was on sale.

No, I suppose this is more likely Peter Pan Syndrome than mid-life crisis. It just took me until mid-life to find new kids to play with. I’m not sure my wife is very pleased with me. But it’s cheaper than a Ferrari.

Just in case you’re curious, here’s my gun:

The stock and barrel extension both can be removed to change the look and feel (and perhaps accuracy–jury’s still out on that). I’ve opted to leave the stock for balance, but remove the barrel extension (everything from about an inch forward of the magazine) for more of a “snub nose” look. Did I mention it feels good in my hand?