Balmy Monday

It was in the 30s today, which after the last week of temps hovering around zero, felt downright balmy. I actually wore a t-shirt today, and figured I'd be the odd one out. I wasn't. In fact, Steve, Chuck and myself all had the exact same style t-shirt on today. ;) It's pretty sad when I'm happy that it's actually above freezing.

Last night Kaylee did not sleep well. Therefore, neither did any of the rest of us. Her poor nose was stuffed up, and her ear hurt, and her throat. Now that could have been allergies or illness, it's hard to tell with her, so I gave her some medicine, but it never really seemed to help as best I could tell. She ended up coming into our room, and at one point she was laying on TOP of me, literally on top of me, which made it a little hard for me to breathe considering she weighs 50 pounds now! She was tossing, nose whistling, couldn't sleep a lot of the night. When I finally went to wake her up, she looked tired, but she didn't have that "sick" glaze on her eyes that she gets. But she said to me "I don't think I should go to school today." That's a first-usually she's always wanted to go to school no matter how bad she felt. So I just got her oatmeal for breakfast (don't panic, it was the instant kind), and kind of waited it out a bit. I just got the feeling she was wanting to stay home and watch tv, not that she was sick, so I ended up telling her that if she stayed home from school, she'd need to stay in her bed and rest most of the day, because if she's too sick to go to school, she's too sick to run around and play. She said "But last time you let me lay on the couch and watch tv." (That was when she had a fever of 104.something, too! I wanted to keep an eye on her and she was obviously sick.) I said no, she'd have to stay in her bed and rest, and that missing school was important, because you'd get behind in work, etc. Steve told her the same thing. When it's time to leave for school, I asked her if she felt well enough to go, or not, and she said 'no', so I sent her to her room. She was in her bed for all of about 4 seconds before I hear her say "You know, I think you're right Mom. I don't want to get behind in my work." and she comes out of her room and we head out the door to school. She didn't want to sit in her room all day, aka she wasn't really sick. ;) I put in a note for the teacher, but I never heard from anyone all day, so apparently Kaylee made it fine. However, when I picked her up, she just looked wiped out, so I cancelled her ballet lesson, and told her to have a snack and relax and we'd go to cheer at 6. I went to get her at 5:30, and found her in her bed, fast asleep and snoring. So...I cancelled cheer too. I think it's allergies but if it's not, I don't want to weaken her or expose her friends. We'll see how she looks tomorrow. So far her temperature has been normal, and there's no vomiting or anything of the sort.

As for me, after I dropped her off at school, I went out to the airport and took up the Baron for the first time in a Long time. It had been in Kalamazoo for its annual, and I didn't fly it there or home from there. Prior to that it was gone for a long time (months) getting the fuel system worked on, and I flew it once in between, so I'd kind of missed it. It was in California all last week, and just got back Saturday night late. The weather is/was supposed to go to pot this afternoon and for the next several days, so I figured this was my one chance in awhile to get current again, so I grabbed it. I had my music going and just did three take offs and landings and one partial ILS. I was low on fuel and it was a cold winter day and there was just me in the plane, so I did what's called a "maximum performance takeoff", which gets you off the ground in the shortest distance possible, made for runways where you need to get off the ground and clear an obstacle quickly. It's a hoot in the Baron, particularly under these conditions, and when I took off, it climbed like a banshee, giving me a grin and a nice start to the day.

Since I was already out there, I fueled up the Baron and put its approach plates back in order from the trip, tugged out the RG, put the Baron away and back the way it needs to be, then taxied the RG over to its real hangar and put it away in there, walked back to Nathan's hangar and got my car, and went over to the main office to talk to the airport manager for a minute or two. By this time it's already 11 am, and my morning is almost gone! My poor car looked awful, I'd been wanting to wash it forever, but with temps in the single digits, that wasn't happening, but I figured today being a balmy 34 or so, maybe I could get by with it. I stop at the Shell station to get gas and a wash, and after the gas, a message pops up that says "Car Wash Unavailable". Well, thank you very much, that's why I went there in the first place! So I drove down the road until I came to a car wash place, and I was amazed-there were cars lined up and backed out to the road at this place. Obviously I was not the only one wanting a wash. They were pushing cars through at an amazing pace; I couldn't have been but a couple of feet behind the car in front of me going through the wash, and there were probably 4 of us in the wash at one time. It felt really weird being that close to the car in front and behind, and not able to see a Thing out the windows. Finally I came out sparkly clean, and headed off to Applebees to meet the crew for lunch. When I got there, I mentioned the line at the car wash, and Nathan says "I know, I just went through that line." Great minds and all that. ;)

When we left there, I went back to the office for awhile, and naturally the rain came in all over my nicely, newly, and somewhat expensively washed car. Oh well, at least it's not covered in white powder/dust/silt/salt. ;)

Let's see, some things to think about. Some friends of ours who have a son with several brain aneurysms is having surgery for his third aneurysm on Feb. 3rd. He had a stroke recently, and it did cause some brain damage, but he's doing okay. He's a teenager. His mother was also just diagnosed with ovarian cancer, so she's in the hospital today having a full hysterectomy. The family could certainly use a break. Also, this season has been The Worst as far as RSV, pneumonia and bronchitis in the SMA community. I mean, every year there are a *lot* of them, but either this year is even worse, or the community is larger so we know about more of them. Either way there are a LOT of very very very sick children (and adults with SMA too for that matter) right now. I've literally lost count of how many are in the hospital right now, many on ventilators, trying to ride out a disease that is deadly in young children *without* weak respiratory systems. I've also lost count of how many of the kids are so far being able to be managed at home during their illness. It's really rough out there right now for them, and there are a lot of very worried parents. This stuff is no joke, it kills children every year, so any prayers for their families will be appreciated...