The Next Day

This morning I took Kaylee to her 2nd day of school, and she was ready to go. She know the way to her classroom right off the bat, and made sure I brought her tennis shoes so she could play on the school playground. Apparently tomorrow she has to wear shorts, as it is PE day. Hey, a school that still has PE twice a week! And serves fruit, milk and veggies for lunch along with a main dish. Not bad. :)

Something funny to me is that she likes to wear dresses-and the school told her she has to wear shorts under her dresses or just shorts by themselves. That's the total opposite of when I was growing up, and you had to wear dresses and no shorts were allowed on girls in school or church functions.

Speaking of that, the other day in the car, Kaylee asked me "Mommy, what does 'H' 'O' spell?" I said "H O? Um, like Santa's ho ho? Where did you see that?" She responds with "It's written in the grass in front of that house." So the next time I drive by the house, sure enough, I see what looks like "ho" painted on the grass with an arrow pointing to someone's house. I'm mildly amused and curious about the back story, but I forget about it, until the next day, when I now see a sign up in the front yard exclaiming that "ISSY IS 40!" Whomever painted the "40" on their yard did it in such a way it looks like "ho" from the street. Mental note to self...watch which way you paint the "40" on the grass.

Anyway, this morning Doug and I had one last flight, and after a quick break, we flew over to Marion, Ohio, where he took his Commercial Multi-Engine Instrument checkride. We arrived about 30 minutes early. This was quite the experience. If I wasn't so wiped out I might try to explain it. Let's see. The woman behind the desk was also a flight instructor, which was interesting...and then I found out she also flew a Gulfstream. (This is a jet, and a nice one at that). The room didn't have a bathroom, any drinks or snacks, and no courtesy car. So I basically hung out in a chair for several hours. But I did have the company of a huge black dog and a little black cat, each of which took up their own seat. Had anyone else come in, they would have been seatless. The room was tiny and old and worn, but when you open the hangar door, it was packed full of big, expensive airplanes. The lady typed up the certificate on an old typewriter for the examiner, but she flew a Gulfstream. It was a little bit of world-meshing. Everyone was very nice to a couple of strangers. Except for one thing-an FAA Inspector was on field, and he was 'observing' the checkride. Now that's just a rotten thing to do to a pilot...have him show up and say "Hi, here is your examiner, and by the way, the FAA is going to be observing this checkride." Eek. But they picked the right guy-Doug couldn't care less about it, and he blazed through the oral exam. I was personally concerned that the FAA guy was going to ride in the plane with them. It's a hot day, lots of gas in the plane, no wind to help, and the plane performs just okay with two people in it on one engine today. Throw a third one in the back in those conditions, and it would get trickier, and you don't need trickier on a checkride. But thankfully the inspector wasn't interested in flying around in the back of the plane while they shut an engine off, and got out at the end of the runway after listening to the pre-take off briefing. Doug passed with flying colors, and has added a member to the crew of multi-engine pilots. :)

We flew home from Marion, and he flew from the right to practice for his Multi-Engine Instructor Certificate, which is next. I ran home and picked up Kaylee and Steve, and we headed to Outback Steakhouse to celebrate the successful checkride with Nathan, Chuck and Doug. A good way to end the day!

Now it's 10:30 pm and I'm going to go to bed. One more busy day-get up early, go out and fly a bit before Doug's second checkride of the week, which starts at 9 am in Muncie. He's a glutton for punishment! :)

One down, one to go!