It's awfully cold here. Last night windchills were down to almost 20 below zero, and this morning I trotted Kaylee off to school when it was a whopping 4 degrees. Tis not fit for man nor beast in temps like that.
I went to Glenndale this morning, and did a lot of sorting and organizational work from my pile of snail mail that has accumulated. I got stuff ready to enter and do, and then we went to lunch as a group at our usual Monday haunt. "Where everybody knows your name..." :)
From there it was Airplane Shuffle Time. Our Saratoga has been over at Glenndale for maintenance, but it has a trip coming up and needed to get back to Kokomo before bad weather socked it in prior to this trip. I opened up one hangar that had Bob's RV in it, and Steve was supposed to open up the hangar with the Toga in it, but we ran into a snag. The temperatures were so cold that the metal bars that go into the ground to keep the door shut were frozen solid into the concrete. I don't know how long it took us to get all four doors opened so we could get the plane out, but it was awhile. One metal door-handle thing in particular Chuck had to spray with some oil, and Steve pounded on it with a big hammer. It was so cold I was a little worried about the plane starting even though it was in a hangar with heat on it, but it ended up not being a problem at all. I flew it out of Glenndale (which would be a sloppy mess of a runway if it wasn't frozen solid) and around just a little bit to test and make sure the instruments/equipment were working like they were supposed to for this guy's trip, and it all looked good, so I came in to land, got it filled up with fuel for the trip, and pulled the 172 out of the hangar with Chuck so we could put the Toga away. Fortunately for us, a guy came along with a motorized tug and he pushed the plane in for us, which really saved some labor on our part. :)
Round one was done, and one more round to go. KS had barely started for me last time in temps like these, when it had been on heat non-stop. Today it only had heat on it for less than two hours, so I wasn't feeling overly optimistic, and we even had a back-up plan in case it wouldn't start. Nope, she started beautifully. I guess the last time when it hadn't started for the first guy, the spark plugs had probably frosted over, making it really tough to start afterwards. This time getting it going was much easier-first try. I let it warm up for several minutes, then shut it down to help Chuck with the Toga. We got back in the 172, she fired right back up, and we headed out to go to Glenndale-but the end result was that we really needed another 172 (SC) back at Glenndale instead. (Are you confused or asleep yet??) So we swapped airplanes with the student and instructor in that other 172. Finally we got planes swapped, and I headed back to Glenndale to put the 172 away, but we couldn't do that just yet, because Bob's RV was in the hangar. So we push his airplane across the grass and put it away, get the hangar closed up, etc., push the 172 into that hangar, and...the door won't shut. The ground was frozen solid in such a way that the door won't close properly. Chuck scraped at it, dug at it, and finally we all threw our hands up and left it just like it was, with the hangar door several feet open in raw temps, and we were done.
This is a typical day-aren't you glad I don't always spell it out like that? ;) I could feel the cold radiating from my legs and rear end for almost an hour afterwards.
A few minutes later it was time for me to get Kaylee and take her to ballet, then cheer. While we were at cheer, it started snowing. We're supposed to be getting 3-5" of snow, but they've never been right this whole season, so we'll see. Either way, it was Cold and it was Snowing. I stopped at a gas station store instead of the grocery store, because last time they were packed out and I wasn't in the mood for a crowd. The gas station store was empty, and I could get my milk and Diet Coke for the next few days without hassle.
Home, dinner, homework, and now that it's 9 pm I'm ready for a nap...
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