Apparently I needed to catch up on some beauty sleep badly. I tried to nap during the day yesterday, but Kaylee kept jumping on top of me every 15 minutes (commercial time for her show) and finally I gave up. I was sleepy the rest of the day, and sometime terribly early-9:30 or so I think-I passed out on the couch, and I was down for the count. Steve woke me up at 12:30 to go to bed, and after about 30 minutes of being awake I was back out until 7 something this morning. When I got up this morning around 8 I felt the widest awake I may ever remember feeling-seriously.
Today I read "Harvesting the Heart" by Jodi Picoult, who once again sure knows how to turn a phrase and make you think. This one was somewhat about marriage and motherhood and generations and redemption and healing.
Steve made babyback ribs for lunch, and we had chicken bites and his parents made delicious vegetable plates, and it was quite a meal! Steve fixed steaks on the grill for dinner, and then had a fire in the back yard. For awhile he and Kaylee hung out there with Kenny, then with Grandpa, and then me.
She got out the bongo drum that her Aunt Cathy and Uncle Lon had brought back for Steve from Africa, and she sat out by the fire, banging that drum, and making up songs. She made up one about me, then Steve got the drum and he made up one about her being stinky. The drum was passed to me and I made up one about the fire and toasty toes. Kaylee's next turn she decided she would make up a song about "Pee". I shot her a look and she started giggling and said "You can yell at me about the song after I sing it." Her songs are actually pretty funny. Next Steve got the drum while Kaylee danced, then Kaylee drummed while Steve danced, then Steve drummed while Kaylee and I danced together. I'm sure we looked slightly insane, but luckily our back yard is fenced in. ;)
At the end of the evening, Kaylee got a blanket and lay on my lap and we watched the fire die down and talked. Out of the blue she asked me if I remembered when I got her up one 4th of July wrapped in a blanket and brought her outside to the back yard so she could see the fireworks. I do remember that, and honestly, I'm really glad she does too. At the time I'd hesitated to wake her up, because she was so tired, and it was so late for her age (she was four or something like that). But the show only comes once a year, so I went to her room and got her up and carried her outside. She didn't wake up until one went off, and she just lay on me curled in a ball in a blanket, fitting on my lap like she no longer does. She was quietly awed by the fireworks, and after the show was over I carried her back to bed where she fell right back asleep. It was a good evening, and a good memory, and I'm glad it's one she still has too. How much better is that memory than one more "solid" night's sleep? :)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Quietly
We all got up fairly early this morning and went our separate directions. Steve had flights at Glenndale, Kaylee went to visit her grandparents, and I had a long flight down at Sheridan. Mine is a new person just starting up, and they are going to be flying almost every morning once Kaylee is dropped off at school, until lunch time, looking to finish their license as quickly as possible. I wish it were up here instead of at the airport 40 minutes away every day, but that's the way it goes. :)
I just saw an article where Sean "P Diddy" Combs is crying because he is flying commercial instead of private jet thanks to the price of fuel. He said, and I quote,
"Diddy made a plea for some free oil. 'Give a shout out to all my Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters and all the brothers and sisters in all the countries that have oil — if you could please send me some oil for my jet, I would truly appreciate it,' Diddy says, showing his commercial jet boarding pass to the camera.
Taking a stab at the upcoming political election, Diddy wants to make sure politicians understand his frustration.
'Can you believe this? I'm actually flying commercial — that's how high gas prices are. I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening — proof gas prices are too high. Tell whoever the next president is, we need to bring gas prices down. ... I can't believe I'm flying commercial. ... Even your boy is affected by gas prices'."
In keeping with my efforts to reign in my sarcasm for the day, I will decline to comment further, and if you feel his shout-out to his brothers and sisters with oil is deserving, then I'll bet I can get his address and post it for donations. After all, he is only bringing in $35 million a year right now...
Kaylee and Steve had a good evening together. They had a fire outside, roasted marshmallows, made S'mores for all of us, sang silly songs about snot, and had a good time. Steve cooked us brats on the grill for dinner, and it was a nice, quiet evening.
I just saw an article where Sean "P Diddy" Combs is crying because he is flying commercial instead of private jet thanks to the price of fuel. He said, and I quote,
"Diddy made a plea for some free oil. 'Give a shout out to all my Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters and all the brothers and sisters in all the countries that have oil — if you could please send me some oil for my jet, I would truly appreciate it,' Diddy says, showing his commercial jet boarding pass to the camera.
Taking a stab at the upcoming political election, Diddy wants to make sure politicians understand his frustration.
'Can you believe this? I'm actually flying commercial — that's how high gas prices are. I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening — proof gas prices are too high. Tell whoever the next president is, we need to bring gas prices down. ... I can't believe I'm flying commercial. ... Even your boy is affected by gas prices'."
In keeping with my efforts to reign in my sarcasm for the day, I will decline to comment further, and if you feel his shout-out to his brothers and sisters with oil is deserving, then I'll bet I can get his address and post it for donations. After all, he is only bringing in $35 million a year right now...
Kaylee and Steve had a good evening together. They had a fire outside, roasted marshmallows, made S'mores for all of us, sang silly songs about snot, and had a good time. Steve cooked us brats on the grill for dinner, and it was a nice, quiet evening.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Well, That's Interesting
So on one side you have an inexperienced but interesting and charismatic black man running on a platform of "change" bringing in an old white guy who has been part of the same-old/same-old Senate routine for as long as I've been alive; and on the other side you have a same-old/same-old old white guy bringing in an inexperienced but interesting and charismatic woman. Well, I guess you can't say this isn't suddenly a somewhat interesting election.
It was a typical Friday. I got the house ready to be cleaned, then went out to Glenndale. Steve left out of Glenndale with another guy in a plane, and I chased them in the Citabria. We finally caught up with each other right about when we got to Sheridan, but we at least had a couple minutes of loose formation to say 'hello'. :) By the time I landed back at Glenndale, the lunch crew was there in full force. I was just walking in, when suddenly the T-6 goes blowing by. Always a nice view. A nice wheel landing later, Nathan and Steve C. were there and ready to have burgers too.
I stayed until it was time to get Kaylee, who had a good day at school. She won a beach ball because she didn't get her name on the board ANY times, which means she got a sticker every day, which meant at the end of the week she got to pick out a prize. I like the positive reinforcement rather than the negative of taking away recess time that the "other" place did, by a huge factor. I think you can teach without punishing, and I enjoy seeing examples of that. We went out to dinner with some friends, then Steve is relaxing outside by the fire with a couple of friends while I sit in here and watch the news and see everybody's reactions to the presidential candidates and their veep picks. It's a nice, quiet evening at home, cut short by knowing we both have to work tomorrow starting too early...
It was a typical Friday. I got the house ready to be cleaned, then went out to Glenndale. Steve left out of Glenndale with another guy in a plane, and I chased them in the Citabria. We finally caught up with each other right about when we got to Sheridan, but we at least had a couple minutes of loose formation to say 'hello'. :) By the time I landed back at Glenndale, the lunch crew was there in full force. I was just walking in, when suddenly the T-6 goes blowing by. Always a nice view. A nice wheel landing later, Nathan and Steve C. were there and ready to have burgers too.
I stayed until it was time to get Kaylee, who had a good day at school. She won a beach ball because she didn't get her name on the board ANY times, which means she got a sticker every day, which meant at the end of the week she got to pick out a prize. I like the positive reinforcement rather than the negative of taking away recess time that the "other" place did, by a huge factor. I think you can teach without punishing, and I enjoy seeing examples of that. We went out to dinner with some friends, then Steve is relaxing outside by the fire with a couple of friends while I sit in here and watch the news and see everybody's reactions to the presidential candidates and their veep picks. It's a nice, quiet evening at home, cut short by knowing we both have to work tomorrow starting too early...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Hazy Days of Birthdays
I woke up this morning to fog, and Kaylee was just fascinated by it. It had been awhile since she had seen fog, so to her, watching the world disappear and all her usual markers vanish on the way to school was quite intriguing. Of course this involved a full-blown discussion of what exactly fog was, how it worked, etc. Shortly after that, we passed a semi truck, and Kaylee said "Do you know why they have more than the four wheels the rest of us have?" I asked her why, and she said "Because they weigh too much and they are too big and if they only had four wheels, the wheels wouldn't be strong enough." I told her she was right, and then she said that they took longer to stop because they were so heavy. So we had a little talk about acceleration and momentum as well. All in a normal days' work at 8 a.m. while taking the girl to school. ;)
This afternoon I flew the Citabria for about an hour. After the fog burned off, naturally. My original plan was to work on a couple of specific things, but everywhere I went it was really busy with other pilots/planes and spectators sitting outside the buildings, and what I was going to do would be best done on a runway alone without everybody thinking you're crazy or about to crash. I tried one thing, but did it half-heartedly because Nathan was taxiing by in the T-6 right then and I looked, so it just ended up looking like a slightly flubbed landing/takeoff anyway. lol At that I just decided to do a few wheel landings, a few 3-point landings, and do 3 takeoffs and landings back at Glenndale just to keep current in that airplane. It's funny-I've always (well, almost always ;)) done perfectly good landings in the Citabria, but I notice a difference anyway since the T-6 (and Decathlon) flights on how it feels. It was a good exercise none-the-less, and other than that one half-landing half-exercise, I was pleased.
When I took off out of Glenndale, Dale and Jim were mowing. Dale was still mowing off to my right when I flew by, so I made sure to stay down at his eye level and wave at him as I went by. Pesky airplanes. ;)
Today is also the birthday for two special people. First is Miss Rania Cherry, our niece, who turned 11 years old today! I can't believe the youngest is eleven already. :O Secondly is our son Sidney, who would be 9 years old. Thank you to those of you who sent little notes to us today. As always, we really appreciate you remembering...
This afternoon I flew the Citabria for about an hour. After the fog burned off, naturally. My original plan was to work on a couple of specific things, but everywhere I went it was really busy with other pilots/planes and spectators sitting outside the buildings, and what I was going to do would be best done on a runway alone without everybody thinking you're crazy or about to crash. I tried one thing, but did it half-heartedly because Nathan was taxiing by in the T-6 right then and I looked, so it just ended up looking like a slightly flubbed landing/takeoff anyway. lol At that I just decided to do a few wheel landings, a few 3-point landings, and do 3 takeoffs and landings back at Glenndale just to keep current in that airplane. It's funny-I've always (well, almost always ;)) done perfectly good landings in the Citabria, but I notice a difference anyway since the T-6 (and Decathlon) flights on how it feels. It was a good exercise none-the-less, and other than that one half-landing half-exercise, I was pleased.
When I took off out of Glenndale, Dale and Jim were mowing. Dale was still mowing off to my right when I flew by, so I made sure to stay down at his eye level and wave at him as I went by. Pesky airplanes. ;)
Today is also the birthday for two special people. First is Miss Rania Cherry, our niece, who turned 11 years old today! I can't believe the youngest is eleven already. :O Secondly is our son Sidney, who would be 9 years old. Thank you to those of you who sent little notes to us today. As always, we really appreciate you remembering...
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Whee!
I woke up a little too early this morning and didn't feel very well, probably an accumulation of lack of sleep, so Steve took Kaylee to school and I laid on the couch until 9, after which time the dizzy and stomach got better. I kind of took it easy this morning, doing just a few small things from the house, and then I met everybody at lunch.
The last two days I'd kind of pushed myself-or been pushed depending on how you look at it-to work on a couple of things that had the capacity to make me a little tense. So, I decided to continue the pattern today, and after lunch I took out my motorcycle for the first time in at least a year, maybe two. It did not feel like "riding a bike" at first. I was having to think about it way too hard, and as I left my driveway and made that first wobbly turn, I thought to myself "Self, I think it may be time to sell this thing." ................ (I'm waiting for Steve to get back off the floor.) I was jerky shifting gears, I was jerky starting and stopping, and my turns were wide and wobbly. So I stayed around my block with minimal traffic until I got into the flow of it a little more, then wandered a little wider. Of course I decided to go down the park, and on my way down the turning hill, I made the classic motorcycle mistake, and as I turned my head to make sure there was no traffic coming from behind me, my bike started going where I was looking, which was at a rather steep drop-off. I said "Whoa!" out loud to myself, and got it back where I wanted it, and thought to myself "Self, I think I may be getting too old for this thing." I wandered around town for a few minutes, and then I headed out towards Kokomo Airport. By this time things were flowing much more smoothly, I was mostly relaxed and back 'on the bike', and as I hit the back roads and got up to 60 mph, with my iPod in, nothing but corn and bean fields, I thought to myself "Self, this is why you like this thing." :) I only had one small problem-as I was riding along, I wondered about my shirt, and I reached back with one hand, and sure enough, I could tell that my shirt was up a little in the back and that my undergarments were sticking up a bit out of the back of my pants. I looked down in hopes that perhaps I would see black, which would match my pants and be invisible, but no, I instead got a nice vivid hot pink. I tried to tuck my shirt in, but my waistband is too loose, and it wouldn't stay. So after about 5 minutes of fussing with that, I decided I'd better just watch where I was going, that next time I'd have to take care of that issue one way or another, and that this time I was just going to have to pretend like I didn't care that I was wearing a Mustang shirt, which would readily identify me to anyone in town who knows me, and that a small part of my underwear was showing. *sigh* Oh well! I ran out of time to go out to Kokomo, so I wandered my way back home, put it away, then got in my car and ran to pick up Kaylee from school. What a difference. You don't have to concentrate at stop lights, time anything, and people don't cut you off (as often). And no, I didn't even consider picking her up on the motorcycle, being at least a somewhat decent mother. ;)
I enjoyed the ride, but it's amazing how a 40 minute or so time period of concentrating on something can be physically and mentally draining. I realized that the reason I didn't ride more often was because the prep work to going takes some of the fun out of doing it, and the concentration required for doing something you're not proficient at makes you have to choose to either deal with the mess-ups and tension and increased risk factors and get proficient again, or just let it go altogether. That's why a lot of pilots quit flying IFR, or taildragger, or at night, or at all, in fact. I considered getting rid of the motorcycle, because I just don't ride it enough, but I know that if I do that, the odds are that I will never ride a motorcycle again, and that's something I balk at. While the bike is in my garage, even if a year goes by before I ride it, at least I know at any given time I could go take it out for a spin or get proficient at it again. Once it's gone, so are my opportunities, and I don't like that. Anyway, it was a little tiring, a little exciting, and a little relaxing, but I'm glad I went. I'll feel much more comfortable next time I go, as long as I don't make it another year, that is. ;)
Oh, I had to laugh-you wouldn't believe how many heads still turn and stare when a girl goes by on a motorcycle! You'd think I'd be used to that from other areas, but occasionally it still takes me by surprise. :)
On the way to school yesterday, as Kaylee waved at her grandpa on the way out, she said to me "Mommy, Grandpa always waves at me when I leave. He always comes out for me. That's sweet. I appreciate that."
I had to make fun of my own imagination today. It actually started off on a serious thought process, but it ended with me having to reach into a place I can't see, with only my fingertips, and grabbing something there, in an area that has a lot of cobwebs nearby and such. As I was walking towards this place, I got the most vivid flash of a vision of me reaching there and feeling a big thick fat wiggly black spider body instead of what I was going for. It was such a realistic thought that I stopped in my tracks, and I had to bully myself into actually putting my fingers back there after that. I have had to bully myself into doing a lot of things over the years after my imagination sent the rest of me a quite vivid "snapshot" of something...One of these days I wonder if my imagination will win!
The rest of the day did not quite go as planned. Kaylee was supposed to start Awanas tonight, so I got her dressed, got her book, and got here there, only to find out it was postponed until Sept. 10th. Okay, no problem. I stopped at Arby's for a bribery jamocha shake for her, then just took her out to Glenndale with me where I was supposed to give a flight lesson. I got there, and the aileron on the airplane was sticking/rubbing, making the airplane officially down for maintenance and cancelling the flight. Ah well, I stayed and answered some questions for awhile, then took Kaylee home for the day.
Wednesday, Complete. ;)
The last two days I'd kind of pushed myself-or been pushed depending on how you look at it-to work on a couple of things that had the capacity to make me a little tense. So, I decided to continue the pattern today, and after lunch I took out my motorcycle for the first time in at least a year, maybe two. It did not feel like "riding a bike" at first. I was having to think about it way too hard, and as I left my driveway and made that first wobbly turn, I thought to myself "Self, I think it may be time to sell this thing." ................ (I'm waiting for Steve to get back off the floor.) I was jerky shifting gears, I was jerky starting and stopping, and my turns were wide and wobbly. So I stayed around my block with minimal traffic until I got into the flow of it a little more, then wandered a little wider. Of course I decided to go down the park, and on my way down the turning hill, I made the classic motorcycle mistake, and as I turned my head to make sure there was no traffic coming from behind me, my bike started going where I was looking, which was at a rather steep drop-off. I said "Whoa!" out loud to myself, and got it back where I wanted it, and thought to myself "Self, I think I may be getting too old for this thing." I wandered around town for a few minutes, and then I headed out towards Kokomo Airport. By this time things were flowing much more smoothly, I was mostly relaxed and back 'on the bike', and as I hit the back roads and got up to 60 mph, with my iPod in, nothing but corn and bean fields, I thought to myself "Self, this is why you like this thing." :) I only had one small problem-as I was riding along, I wondered about my shirt, and I reached back with one hand, and sure enough, I could tell that my shirt was up a little in the back and that my undergarments were sticking up a bit out of the back of my pants. I looked down in hopes that perhaps I would see black, which would match my pants and be invisible, but no, I instead got a nice vivid hot pink. I tried to tuck my shirt in, but my waistband is too loose, and it wouldn't stay. So after about 5 minutes of fussing with that, I decided I'd better just watch where I was going, that next time I'd have to take care of that issue one way or another, and that this time I was just going to have to pretend like I didn't care that I was wearing a Mustang shirt, which would readily identify me to anyone in town who knows me, and that a small part of my underwear was showing. *sigh* Oh well! I ran out of time to go out to Kokomo, so I wandered my way back home, put it away, then got in my car and ran to pick up Kaylee from school. What a difference. You don't have to concentrate at stop lights, time anything, and people don't cut you off (as often). And no, I didn't even consider picking her up on the motorcycle, being at least a somewhat decent mother. ;)
I enjoyed the ride, but it's amazing how a 40 minute or so time period of concentrating on something can be physically and mentally draining. I realized that the reason I didn't ride more often was because the prep work to going takes some of the fun out of doing it, and the concentration required for doing something you're not proficient at makes you have to choose to either deal with the mess-ups and tension and increased risk factors and get proficient again, or just let it go altogether. That's why a lot of pilots quit flying IFR, or taildragger, or at night, or at all, in fact. I considered getting rid of the motorcycle, because I just don't ride it enough, but I know that if I do that, the odds are that I will never ride a motorcycle again, and that's something I balk at. While the bike is in my garage, even if a year goes by before I ride it, at least I know at any given time I could go take it out for a spin or get proficient at it again. Once it's gone, so are my opportunities, and I don't like that. Anyway, it was a little tiring, a little exciting, and a little relaxing, but I'm glad I went. I'll feel much more comfortable next time I go, as long as I don't make it another year, that is. ;)
Oh, I had to laugh-you wouldn't believe how many heads still turn and stare when a girl goes by on a motorcycle! You'd think I'd be used to that from other areas, but occasionally it still takes me by surprise. :)
On the way to school yesterday, as Kaylee waved at her grandpa on the way out, she said to me "Mommy, Grandpa always waves at me when I leave. He always comes out for me. That's sweet. I appreciate that."
I had to make fun of my own imagination today. It actually started off on a serious thought process, but it ended with me having to reach into a place I can't see, with only my fingertips, and grabbing something there, in an area that has a lot of cobwebs nearby and such. As I was walking towards this place, I got the most vivid flash of a vision of me reaching there and feeling a big thick fat wiggly black spider body instead of what I was going for. It was such a realistic thought that I stopped in my tracks, and I had to bully myself into actually putting my fingers back there after that. I have had to bully myself into doing a lot of things over the years after my imagination sent the rest of me a quite vivid "snapshot" of something...One of these days I wonder if my imagination will win!
The rest of the day did not quite go as planned. Kaylee was supposed to start Awanas tonight, so I got her dressed, got her book, and got here there, only to find out it was postponed until Sept. 10th. Okay, no problem. I stopped at Arby's for a bribery jamocha shake for her, then just took her out to Glenndale with me where I was supposed to give a flight lesson. I got there, and the aileron on the airplane was sticking/rubbing, making the airplane officially down for maintenance and cancelling the flight. Ah well, I stayed and answered some questions for awhile, then took Kaylee home for the day.
Wednesday, Complete. ;)
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Double Yawn!
I couldn't fall asleep last night, and once I finally did it was well past 1 a.m.; unfortunately Kaylee woke up sometime after 4 a.m. and woke me, and once I woke back up I couldn't get back to sleep again. I laid very still and tried to play dead, but I was still awake when my alarm went off.
After I took Kaylee to school, I went back to Glenndale and flew with Greg Koontz for about an hour, hit lunch with everybody, picked up Kaylee from school and took her to ballet, then came back to the airport that afternoon to fly one more time with Greg in his Decathlon. We ended up flying about three hours total, and it was good. I've got a few things I can take from that and go polish up on my own. I was a little worried when I got there this morning, because I was so sleepy that I was worried I wouldn't be able to focus. Fortunately once I got going I was fine, and I didn't end up getting hit with the full sleep attack until about 7 p.m. I was still out at Glenndale by then, so I packed up Kaylee and came on home and am doing what I can to not fall asleep until bed time so I don't get into a bad sleep cycle. I'll probably wake back up around 10 pm anyway, per my usual second wind no matter what sleep I have or haven't gotten. :)
Kaylee had another great day at school, and Steve is doing fine. He was right behind me at the office, but that was almost an hour ago, so I'm guessing he got distracted or someone stopped in and needed something, as usual. :)
Our day in a nutshell!
After I took Kaylee to school, I went back to Glenndale and flew with Greg Koontz for about an hour, hit lunch with everybody, picked up Kaylee from school and took her to ballet, then came back to the airport that afternoon to fly one more time with Greg in his Decathlon. We ended up flying about three hours total, and it was good. I've got a few things I can take from that and go polish up on my own. I was a little worried when I got there this morning, because I was so sleepy that I was worried I wouldn't be able to focus. Fortunately once I got going I was fine, and I didn't end up getting hit with the full sleep attack until about 7 p.m. I was still out at Glenndale by then, so I packed up Kaylee and came on home and am doing what I can to not fall asleep until bed time so I don't get into a bad sleep cycle. I'll probably wake back up around 10 pm anyway, per my usual second wind no matter what sleep I have or haven't gotten. :)
Kaylee had another great day at school, and Steve is doing fine. He was right behind me at the office, but that was almost an hour ago, so I'm guessing he got distracted or someone stopped in and needed something, as usual. :)
Our day in a nutshell!
Monday, August 25, 2008
*Yawn*
Man, I've had a time of it waking up today. I've been tired enough all day long that I would even blink too long sometimes. That's not usually a good thing. This afternoon I even tried taking a quick nap, but my mind would NOT shut off, and I just laid there awake for 45 minutes before giving it up and getting back up.
Kaylee's first day back to school went well other than "Malorie" being mean to her and not letting her touch her fuzzy shoes. ;) The teacher sent a note home that the kids in the class were really doing well, and she expected that they'd be able to hit 3rd grade material coming up too.
I flew this morning with Greg Koontz in his Super Decathlon for awhile. He does an aerobatic routine in that Decathlon at airshows, or does a comedy routine in a Cub where he acts like a student pilot who got away with a plane without an instructor and ends up landing it on top of a truck. We did neither of those things. ;) It was a good day to practice some stuff with winds gusting up to 18 knots. We go again tomorrow morning as well, as I have a couple things I want to work on. Apparently lately I'm a glutton for punishment on some things. ;)
As you can imagine, I finally got pictures up tonight. Nothing fancy, but feel free to take a look if you wish...Videos too for you high speed connection folks who care about that sort of thing. :)
Kaylee's first day back to school went well other than "Malorie" being mean to her and not letting her touch her fuzzy shoes. ;) The teacher sent a note home that the kids in the class were really doing well, and she expected that they'd be able to hit 3rd grade material coming up too.
I flew this morning with Greg Koontz in his Super Decathlon for awhile. He does an aerobatic routine in that Decathlon at airshows, or does a comedy routine in a Cub where he acts like a student pilot who got away with a plane without an instructor and ends up landing it on top of a truck. We did neither of those things. ;) It was a good day to practice some stuff with winds gusting up to 18 knots. We go again tomorrow morning as well, as I have a couple things I want to work on. Apparently lately I'm a glutton for punishment on some things. ;)
As you can imagine, I finally got pictures up tonight. Nothing fancy, but feel free to take a look if you wish...Videos too for you high speed connection folks who care about that sort of thing. :)
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Mt. Comfort in Review
Friday I collected Kaylee from school and Jamie from his house, and headed down to the airport. I wasn't sure how to get there from Tipton's back roads, so I just decided to follow my GPS. Unfortunately, my GPS sent me to a road that no longer exists in the two years since my update, and I ended up wandering around most annoyedly for a little while there. I finally made it in by some circuitous route, but I made it. :) When I got there, the trailers were all set up, and Nathan was just landing in the Mustang, so the guys were going out to get him on the flightline. At the end of the day we wiped down the airplanes and secured them for the night, and I ran into an interesting guy wandering on the flight line; toothless, inebriated, and shirtless, he started asking me questions about the Mustang. I answered him for quite awhile, and then he started arguing with me about something on the plane, until I told him to talk to the owner and sicced him on to Nathan. ;) After he finally wandered off, we closed shop and went out to eat at the same place we ate last year, Lord something or other, and they have excellent food. Our waiter is the same one we had last year too. How do I know that, you might ask? Because he was quite memorable for one reason-he could take a table-full of our orders, and have it completely memorized, all the little details and all. Side dishes, drinks, the rareness of steaks, all of it. That's pretty amazing for a dozen or more people. After too much food, we headed back to the trailers and we set out lawn chairs and got the coolers open and did what we do best until bedtime. As it got dark, several hot air balloons in the field next to us lit up, and along with the sunset, it made for a beautiful back drop.
Saturday was busy. We got up early; Chuck and Steve brought us all back biscuits and gravy from the flightline after they got the planes ready for the day, and then we all headed out to the flightline where we spent the day under the wings of the P51 and the T-6. We answered questions, talked to people who stopped by, and stopped small undisciplined children from causing damage to the airplanes. Seriously-at Oshkosh, Sun-n-Fun, the Gathering, all these places, people treat the planes respectfully and carefully. At Mt. Comfort I literally felt uneasy leaving at the end of the day, wondering if somebody was going to damage the plane. I saw the feet of one little kid run towards the tail of the T-6, then suddenly he leaped up and HUNG off the elevator. I jumped up and ran over there, and his parents are fortunate that by the time I got there they had left the area. Chuck found one guy who had climbed up on the airplane and was looking around. A kid was using the underside of the wings as a drum set. Another tried hanging off of the pitot tube on the T-6. Another went up under where the wheels retract and started pulling on stuff up in the plane. Just Unbelievable. Apparently parents today don't use the phrase "Keep your hands in your pockets" or "Look with your eyes, not your hands" or "Be respectful of other people's property" or how about "Hey, don't touch that, I can't afford to buy it if you break it." On the other hand, and more importantly, there were a LOT of people who stopped by just to tell Nathan how much the plane meant to them, or people with really good questions, people who flew them in the war, or whose family did. We all get a kick out of sitting there and listening to people talk when they walk by. One lady walking by pointed at the Mustang and said "Herky's Bird! This is my favorite airplane of all time. It's all over my room." But the funny ones are the ones where guys are (usually) trying to show off for someone, so they start explaining something...only they are totally off-base and have no idea what they're talking about. Like the guy who talked authoritatively all about the chrome on the airplane. (It's not chrome, it's just basic aluminum, polished to a shine.) Anyway, it's always entertaining. But even better, we get to sit there and watch the airshow from the shade of the wings, in lawn chairs, with drinks by our side, and when the security guys clear the warbird ramp and make everyone leave, we don't have to leave, and we can sit there and watch the bombers and the fighters taxi by right next to us. What a sight and what a sound. We move our lawn chairs out from under the Mustang and put them under the T-6 when Nathan gets in and flies in the show, and then move them back to the Mustang (higher wing) when he gets back. We had tickets to the warbirds tent, where we could sit in a big area with a cooler and eat a good lunch, and it was right on the flight line so we could check out the show while we were at it. It also brought a smile to hear the announcer of a pretty good-sized air show announce two friends as performers. "Greg Aldridge from Kokomo, Indiana" and "Nathan Davis from Tipton, Indiana". Kind of neat. :) The kids (Jamie and Kaylee) went to the kid area for awhile and played on jumpies, tried the rock wall-unsuccessfully-and generally burned off some energy that way for awhile. Otherwise they hung out on the golf cart or under the plane with the rest of us. We ended the day with a party back at the trailers. Friends brought and prepared top-notch food and drinks, we set up a bunch of tables and chairs and we had a little shin-dig of our own, about 35 people or so, with the Glenndale crew, some friends, and a few of the air show performers. It was a fun evening.
Sunday I woke up early but tried to ignore it. Steve and Chuck got up and went to the planes and did the "open them up and get them ready for the day" thing, and brought us back breakfast again. We headed out to the flight line pretty early today, and it was another terrific day of sitting out and watching the human and aviation shows. The F-22 roaring by overhead, the low rumble of the warbirds, the skydivers, the comedy act...I really get a peaceful, relaxed feeling from sitting there, talking to strangers (believe it or not), and watching the airplanes go by. I like going into the performer tent and recognizing several of the people in there. Among my favorites is Frank Luckman, a "young" man I first met down in Gatlinburg when the Discovery Chanel was taping the "Mail Call" show. He's an old fighter pilot who seems to be everywhere, and more power to him! We ate lunch next to him one day. He is one sharp guy, still...
Oh, today's warbird show was awesome. In fact, it was better than Saturday's, and in my opinion better than Oshkosh. Oshkosh had quantity, and it's always neat to see the huge formations and the sky full of airplanes, but today they had all those planes that they did have up in the air, something going on all the time, which they didn't have at Oshkosh. Strafing passes, bomb runs, photo passes, there were planes up for a long time, always doing something. I got some decent photos of the Mustang I think, and I FINALLY got the Wall of Fire, too. Saturday I waited and waited, and finally got down from the wing of the T-6. A long time later, suddenly they blew the wall, and I muttered. So today I just sat there and waited, and I got it by George. ;) We finished off the show there, and then it was time to pack up and go home. All the trailers had to be packed up, secured, hitched up, and dragged home, and there's actually a fair amount of work involved in all that. But we made it out and made it home by 7 pm or so, and I got most of the bags unpacked, a load of laundry done, and my pictures downloaded and edited at least. It was probably the last "real" air show of the season, and it was a good one.
It's also good to be home. It feels like we've been gone for a week, when in reality we've only been gone for one full day. Amazing...!
Saturday was busy. We got up early; Chuck and Steve brought us all back biscuits and gravy from the flightline after they got the planes ready for the day, and then we all headed out to the flightline where we spent the day under the wings of the P51 and the T-6. We answered questions, talked to people who stopped by, and stopped small undisciplined children from causing damage to the airplanes. Seriously-at Oshkosh, Sun-n-Fun, the Gathering, all these places, people treat the planes respectfully and carefully. At Mt. Comfort I literally felt uneasy leaving at the end of the day, wondering if somebody was going to damage the plane. I saw the feet of one little kid run towards the tail of the T-6, then suddenly he leaped up and HUNG off the elevator. I jumped up and ran over there, and his parents are fortunate that by the time I got there they had left the area. Chuck found one guy who had climbed up on the airplane and was looking around. A kid was using the underside of the wings as a drum set. Another tried hanging off of the pitot tube on the T-6. Another went up under where the wheels retract and started pulling on stuff up in the plane. Just Unbelievable. Apparently parents today don't use the phrase "Keep your hands in your pockets" or "Look with your eyes, not your hands" or "Be respectful of other people's property" or how about "Hey, don't touch that, I can't afford to buy it if you break it." On the other hand, and more importantly, there were a LOT of people who stopped by just to tell Nathan how much the plane meant to them, or people with really good questions, people who flew them in the war, or whose family did. We all get a kick out of sitting there and listening to people talk when they walk by. One lady walking by pointed at the Mustang and said "Herky's Bird! This is my favorite airplane of all time. It's all over my room." But the funny ones are the ones where guys are (usually) trying to show off for someone, so they start explaining something...only they are totally off-base and have no idea what they're talking about. Like the guy who talked authoritatively all about the chrome on the airplane. (It's not chrome, it's just basic aluminum, polished to a shine.) Anyway, it's always entertaining. But even better, we get to sit there and watch the airshow from the shade of the wings, in lawn chairs, with drinks by our side, and when the security guys clear the warbird ramp and make everyone leave, we don't have to leave, and we can sit there and watch the bombers and the fighters taxi by right next to us. What a sight and what a sound. We move our lawn chairs out from under the Mustang and put them under the T-6 when Nathan gets in and flies in the show, and then move them back to the Mustang (higher wing) when he gets back. We had tickets to the warbirds tent, where we could sit in a big area with a cooler and eat a good lunch, and it was right on the flight line so we could check out the show while we were at it. It also brought a smile to hear the announcer of a pretty good-sized air show announce two friends as performers. "Greg Aldridge from Kokomo, Indiana" and "Nathan Davis from Tipton, Indiana". Kind of neat. :) The kids (Jamie and Kaylee) went to the kid area for awhile and played on jumpies, tried the rock wall-unsuccessfully-and generally burned off some energy that way for awhile. Otherwise they hung out on the golf cart or under the plane with the rest of us. We ended the day with a party back at the trailers. Friends brought and prepared top-notch food and drinks, we set up a bunch of tables and chairs and we had a little shin-dig of our own, about 35 people or so, with the Glenndale crew, some friends, and a few of the air show performers. It was a fun evening.
Sunday I woke up early but tried to ignore it. Steve and Chuck got up and went to the planes and did the "open them up and get them ready for the day" thing, and brought us back breakfast again. We headed out to the flight line pretty early today, and it was another terrific day of sitting out and watching the human and aviation shows. The F-22 roaring by overhead, the low rumble of the warbirds, the skydivers, the comedy act...I really get a peaceful, relaxed feeling from sitting there, talking to strangers (believe it or not), and watching the airplanes go by. I like going into the performer tent and recognizing several of the people in there. Among my favorites is Frank Luckman, a "young" man I first met down in Gatlinburg when the Discovery Chanel was taping the "Mail Call" show. He's an old fighter pilot who seems to be everywhere, and more power to him! We ate lunch next to him one day. He is one sharp guy, still...
Oh, today's warbird show was awesome. In fact, it was better than Saturday's, and in my opinion better than Oshkosh. Oshkosh had quantity, and it's always neat to see the huge formations and the sky full of airplanes, but today they had all those planes that they did have up in the air, something going on all the time, which they didn't have at Oshkosh. Strafing passes, bomb runs, photo passes, there were planes up for a long time, always doing something. I got some decent photos of the Mustang I think, and I FINALLY got the Wall of Fire, too. Saturday I waited and waited, and finally got down from the wing of the T-6. A long time later, suddenly they blew the wall, and I muttered. So today I just sat there and waited, and I got it by George. ;) We finished off the show there, and then it was time to pack up and go home. All the trailers had to be packed up, secured, hitched up, and dragged home, and there's actually a fair amount of work involved in all that. But we made it out and made it home by 7 pm or so, and I got most of the bags unpacked, a load of laundry done, and my pictures downloaded and edited at least. It was probably the last "real" air show of the season, and it was a good one.
It's also good to be home. It feels like we've been gone for a week, when in reality we've only been gone for one full day. Amazing...!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Mt. Comfort Weekend
Last night Kaylee couldn't sleep, and she came into my room and twitched for awhile, keeping us both awake rather late. Finally I told her she had to go to bed and go to sleep because we had to get up in about 5 hours and it was going to be a long day! When my alarm went off this morning, I hit snooze, and we both were dragging a little.
Nathan's flying home from Key West today, around Tropical Storm (or whatever it is now) Faye. He gets rain coming and going, as it is raining here too. Fun fun! ;)
Well, I got my stuff printed, my bags packed, the house and cats and kid ready, a delicious lunch eaten at Glenndale, a few things purchased, and I guess I'm on my way to pick up Kaylee, then Jamie, then head on down for the weekend. There is no internet access down there for this one, so I'll catch back up to you Sunday or Monday. Have a good weekend!
Nathan's flying home from Key West today, around Tropical Storm (or whatever it is now) Faye. He gets rain coming and going, as it is raining here too. Fun fun! ;)
Well, I got my stuff printed, my bags packed, the house and cats and kid ready, a delicious lunch eaten at Glenndale, a few things purchased, and I guess I'm on my way to pick up Kaylee, then Jamie, then head on down for the weekend. There is no internet access down there for this one, so I'll catch back up to you Sunday or Monday. Have a good weekend!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday
It was "Last-Minute" Day. Well, one of them anyway-tomorrow will be another. :) Everyone scattered to the winds, so to speak, and headed down to the air show by Indianapolis. Chuck, Charlie, Sam and Steve are down there now, and Nathan, me and Ty will head down tomorrow.
Today included a little shuttling around. Charlie drove Nathan's bus down to Indy, Nathan flew the T-6 to Indy, and I flew the Baron down to pick them both up. It was one of those hazy lazy hot days of summer; one of the type of days we haven't seen much of yet this summer, and it's almost September! I had a nice view on the way to Indy, as you can see. I took a few photos, but due to the hazy skies, the bad angles, and me just having the point and shoot, not my good camera, I won't try to pass these off as professional, just fun. ;)
When I landed at the airport, it felt really strange taxiing past all the tents and hubbub for the air show that was coming. Anyway, I was waiting in one parking area while Nathan parked the T-6 in the warbird ramp area nearby. When I got out of the plane, there were several pilots and military guys standing around other planes talking, and I enjoyed just standing by the Baron and looking around at what else was on the ramp and all the stuff going on. It didn't take five minutes before a guy in a golf cart came riding up to me to see if I needed anything. I told him I didn't, I was fine, just waiting for someone. I don't remember what comment he made, but I said "No, I flew it (Baron) in." He said "YOU fly?" I smiled and said "Of course!" He smiled at me and said in the peppiest voice "GOOD girl!!" I smiled, he asked me how many years I'd been flying, I told him, he blinked in shock and then said "GOOD girl!" again. Aw, thanks. *pant* *pant* *pant*. ;) It was cute. ;)
We got our official ramp and lunch tent badges and golf cart passes, the camping guys are mostly set up, though the fire marshall nazi people wouldn't let us set up any decent, normal way. Don't get me started on that though. Anyway, things are officially looking good. Tomorrow Nathan takes the Mustang down, and I take the kids down, and the weekend commences for those of us left behind for the day...
Kaylee came hopping out of school again in a perfectly good mood and happy with the day. Tomorrow she has "Fun Friday", where after their work is done, they will be watching a movie and having popcorn at the end of the day. Sounds good to me!
I finished off some BBQ Bash invites (I hope), which I have to get printed tomorrow before I leave. Kaylee's bag is packed, mine is mostly packed, and other than the last-minute stuff Steve keeps texting me to bring, I think I'm in good shape and about ready to go. ;)
Tonight I've watched the Olympics and watched a movie and tried to relax...
One more for the night:
Today included a little shuttling around. Charlie drove Nathan's bus down to Indy, Nathan flew the T-6 to Indy, and I flew the Baron down to pick them both up. It was one of those hazy lazy hot days of summer; one of the type of days we haven't seen much of yet this summer, and it's almost September! I had a nice view on the way to Indy, as you can see. I took a few photos, but due to the hazy skies, the bad angles, and me just having the point and shoot, not my good camera, I won't try to pass these off as professional, just fun. ;)
When I landed at the airport, it felt really strange taxiing past all the tents and hubbub for the air show that was coming. Anyway, I was waiting in one parking area while Nathan parked the T-6 in the warbird ramp area nearby. When I got out of the plane, there were several pilots and military guys standing around other planes talking, and I enjoyed just standing by the Baron and looking around at what else was on the ramp and all the stuff going on. It didn't take five minutes before a guy in a golf cart came riding up to me to see if I needed anything. I told him I didn't, I was fine, just waiting for someone. I don't remember what comment he made, but I said "No, I flew it (Baron) in." He said "YOU fly?" I smiled and said "Of course!" He smiled at me and said in the peppiest voice "GOOD girl!!" I smiled, he asked me how many years I'd been flying, I told him, he blinked in shock and then said "GOOD girl!" again. Aw, thanks. *pant* *pant* *pant*. ;) It was cute. ;)
We got our official ramp and lunch tent badges and golf cart passes, the camping guys are mostly set up, though the fire marshall nazi people wouldn't let us set up any decent, normal way. Don't get me started on that though. Anyway, things are officially looking good. Tomorrow Nathan takes the Mustang down, and I take the kids down, and the weekend commences for those of us left behind for the day...
Kaylee came hopping out of school again in a perfectly good mood and happy with the day. Tomorrow she has "Fun Friday", where after their work is done, they will be watching a movie and having popcorn at the end of the day. Sounds good to me!
I finished off some BBQ Bash invites (I hope), which I have to get printed tomorrow before I leave. Kaylee's bag is packed, mine is mostly packed, and other than the last-minute stuff Steve keeps texting me to bring, I think I'm in good shape and about ready to go. ;)
Tonight I've watched the Olympics and watched a movie and tried to relax...
One more for the night:
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday's Whatever
Today's theme is supposed to be Wednesday's Woes/Whines, but really, I don't have anything to complain about. I was sitting here trying to think of something, and that made me kind of laugh, because why should I try to come up with something bad that happened today if it's not immediately apparent? :)
I did start off a little troubled, but it ended up fine. I took my badge 'photo' files in to Staples so they could help me make them into actual badges, and the guy I got was...less than helpful. When I told him what I needed, his first response was "we don't do that". So I patiently explained that I just needed him to print these images out, cut them out, and laminate them, all things that they do, in fact, do. He told me it would cost $1 per page to cut them out. I had 28 pages. I said "never mind, I can cut them out myself." Okay, so he takes my card, takes my money ($15 to print 28 photos), then says "They should be ready around 3 p.m.". The only problem was, it was 8:30 a.m. The look of shock on my face must have registered, because he said "That won't work?" For a high speed color printer to print off 28 pages? NO it won't work to take 6 and a half hours to print 28 pages! I got him to bring it down to noon, but I still knew I'd have to take them home, cut them out, take them back, get them laminated, and cut them back out. This was getting too labor and time intensive, to say nothing of expensive. Steve suggested another place, and I called them up at 9 a.m. and was told they could do it all for much less. I walked in there, they pulled up the photos, told me exactly how they were going to do it, and they had my badges done in entirety before I finished eating lunch, for a total of $1.78 per badge. I spent just a bit more on the entire batch of completed badges at Sir Speedy than I did on just printing the images at Staples. I went back to Staples, told them I was going a different path, and I got a refund on my $15 and my camera card back. All in all it was good though; the mission was accomplished and I'm pleased with the end result.
We had Mexican for lunch, and I tried to get some things ready for our trip. I stopped at the store for some drinks, went out to the airport to give Nathan his badges, went to UPS to pick up the Mustang alternator, back to Kokomo, out to pick up Kaylee from school, out to Glenndale to drop off the drinks at the trailer, to a computer store, to the post office, to the bank; it was just a serious run-around day. I still have things to do before we go, but fortunately I have one extra day since I'm not going down until Friday.
Kaylee said she had a "great!" day at school today. She was telling me they do a lot of work in class now, and I reminded her that she had a lot of work in class last year too, but this year she doesn't have any homework to work on for an hour (or more) after school too. She capitulated to that. Her first spelling test is tomorrow, and I went over her words with her tonight-and they are way too easy. I guess they are starting off gently, but "tree" isn't exactly a tough spelling word. :) She told Mrs. H yesterday that she had new Christian cds, and Mrs. H asked her to bring them in so she could listen to them. So today Kaylee brought in five of her new music cds. She's been very interested in music lately, in learning what she likes and choosing songs, artists, etc. It's interesting to see what she likes and doesn't. For one thing, she doesn't like "slow" music. She said it makes her sad and depressed, and she likes happy, peppy, exciting music. When one of my slower songs comes on, she always wants me to change it. I like the happy peppy stuff too, but sometimes it takes a beautiful, majestic song to bring out the...quiet. Maybe that's something she'll get into more when she gets older. It's hard to imagine her not, considering how much of a "feeler" she is. :)
Speaking of feelings, I felt bad for the man, but I smiled at a resulting comment from this. A guy took an airplane without permission and circled around in it, getting the authorities up in arms, then landed the plane at the same airport he took off from and ran down the runway until he was captured by the FBI. That's not funny, that's sad. What was kind of funny was someone sending me an email saying "What's up with Captain Emo?" How many of you out there have ever heard of an "Emo"? For those who don't-you know how every generation has its generation of pop subculture who think they are the only ones who have ever felt the way they do? Well, the Emos are another one of those. They are a group of people whose claim to fame is that they excel in being brooding and moody, thus "emotional", or "emo" for short. Personally, my eyes can't roll back far enough in my head for this one. I love how all these little groups think they are unique, just like everyone else. Oooh, a deep-thinking, emotional group of angst-ridden young men and women. What a new concept! Anyway, there is your pop culture lesson for the day. Sorry and you're welcome. ;)
Well, things to do before I sleep! It's been a good, productive day...
I did start off a little troubled, but it ended up fine. I took my badge 'photo' files in to Staples so they could help me make them into actual badges, and the guy I got was...less than helpful. When I told him what I needed, his first response was "we don't do that". So I patiently explained that I just needed him to print these images out, cut them out, and laminate them, all things that they do, in fact, do. He told me it would cost $1 per page to cut them out. I had 28 pages. I said "never mind, I can cut them out myself." Okay, so he takes my card, takes my money ($15 to print 28 photos), then says "They should be ready around 3 p.m.". The only problem was, it was 8:30 a.m. The look of shock on my face must have registered, because he said "That won't work?" For a high speed color printer to print off 28 pages? NO it won't work to take 6 and a half hours to print 28 pages! I got him to bring it down to noon, but I still knew I'd have to take them home, cut them out, take them back, get them laminated, and cut them back out. This was getting too labor and time intensive, to say nothing of expensive. Steve suggested another place, and I called them up at 9 a.m. and was told they could do it all for much less. I walked in there, they pulled up the photos, told me exactly how they were going to do it, and they had my badges done in entirety before I finished eating lunch, for a total of $1.78 per badge. I spent just a bit more on the entire batch of completed badges at Sir Speedy than I did on just printing the images at Staples. I went back to Staples, told them I was going a different path, and I got a refund on my $15 and my camera card back. All in all it was good though; the mission was accomplished and I'm pleased with the end result.
We had Mexican for lunch, and I tried to get some things ready for our trip. I stopped at the store for some drinks, went out to the airport to give Nathan his badges, went to UPS to pick up the Mustang alternator, back to Kokomo, out to pick up Kaylee from school, out to Glenndale to drop off the drinks at the trailer, to a computer store, to the post office, to the bank; it was just a serious run-around day. I still have things to do before we go, but fortunately I have one extra day since I'm not going down until Friday.
Kaylee said she had a "great!" day at school today. She was telling me they do a lot of work in class now, and I reminded her that she had a lot of work in class last year too, but this year she doesn't have any homework to work on for an hour (or more) after school too. She capitulated to that. Her first spelling test is tomorrow, and I went over her words with her tonight-and they are way too easy. I guess they are starting off gently, but "tree" isn't exactly a tough spelling word. :) She told Mrs. H yesterday that she had new Christian cds, and Mrs. H asked her to bring them in so she could listen to them. So today Kaylee brought in five of her new music cds. She's been very interested in music lately, in learning what she likes and choosing songs, artists, etc. It's interesting to see what she likes and doesn't. For one thing, she doesn't like "slow" music. She said it makes her sad and depressed, and she likes happy, peppy, exciting music. When one of my slower songs comes on, she always wants me to change it. I like the happy peppy stuff too, but sometimes it takes a beautiful, majestic song to bring out the...quiet. Maybe that's something she'll get into more when she gets older. It's hard to imagine her not, considering how much of a "feeler" she is. :)
Speaking of feelings, I felt bad for the man, but I smiled at a resulting comment from this. A guy took an airplane without permission and circled around in it, getting the authorities up in arms, then landed the plane at the same airport he took off from and ran down the runway until he was captured by the FBI. That's not funny, that's sad. What was kind of funny was someone sending me an email saying "What's up with Captain Emo?" How many of you out there have ever heard of an "Emo"? For those who don't-you know how every generation has its generation of pop subculture who think they are the only ones who have ever felt the way they do? Well, the Emos are another one of those. They are a group of people whose claim to fame is that they excel in being brooding and moody, thus "emotional", or "emo" for short. Personally, my eyes can't roll back far enough in my head for this one. I love how all these little groups think they are unique, just like everyone else. Oooh, a deep-thinking, emotional group of angst-ridden young men and women. What a new concept! Anyway, there is your pop culture lesson for the day. Sorry and you're welcome. ;)
Well, things to do before I sleep! It's been a good, productive day...
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday Talk
While we were at Oshkosh, we heard the news that Alan Henley, the lead pilot of the Aeroshell T-6 Aerobatic Team, fell while playing with his kids at home, and broke his neck, ending up alive but paralyzed. The skywriting guy at Oshkosh wrote "Get well soon, Alan" in the sky, and the team performed with only three planes, with his twin brother taking over the lead. His family has set up a Caringbridge site (it's a freebie website for families who have someone ill or injured) for him, and they keep a journal on there that I've been reading. They are showing a lot of strength and grace in all this, and are professing Christians as well. Their statements of faith and trust are humbling. One thing that got to me though was when his wife said he was finally aware of what was going on, and one of the first things he mouthed (he had to have an emergency trach or hole in the throat and put on a ventilator, so he couldn't speak out loud) was about how he wasn't going to be able to fly any more. There is only a 5% chance he will ever walk again, and the chances of him getting a medical back if he did? Who knows. They are holding out for a miracle, and you can do no less in that situation. His flying means so much to him that even though his very life is still in danger, it's one of the first things that hit him. His wife and kids are doing their best to hang in there too, but they could really use any extra prayers anyone has. His wife's world is just as turned around as his as she now finds out all the care required; the suctioning, the positioning, the trach care, the halo care, the physical therapy, the feeding tube care and issues. All things that SMA parents are quite familiar with, actually, but not in their spouse all of a sudden one warm day in July.
When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn't that interested in getting up, and neither was Kaylee. But we made it, got ready, and she got to school on time and still in a good mood. She says that second grade is easy so far-her spelling words are easy, the math is easy, etc. I laughed and told her they start off a little gently to ease the kids back into school and find out where they all are in the scope of learning, and that it would pick up soon enough, but to enjoy her days. So far she is. I did hear one thing I don't know that I've ever heard a kid say before. I asked her what her favorite and least favorite parts of the day were. She said her favorite was a project they did-which Mrs. H told me was very artistic of Kaylee-and that her least favorite thing of the day was recess. Her least favorite thing was Recess?? Since when?! I asked her why, and she just said the playground wasn't as fun. I think there must be something more there, but Kaylee just didn't know what else to say about it, so I let it go. The main thing is that so far, so good for her. :)
The other day, I got a phone call from someone whose number I didn't recognize, and when I said hello, they started asking me questions, culminating in "who is this?" Well, THEY called ME, so I said "Well, my name is Laura, and who is This?" She didn't answer my question directly, but asked if I knew this person or that person, and said that someone from my number had called their house, and got rather belligerent. Well, I didn't know who they were, and said so politely, and we hung up. About 45 minutes later, the same number called back to my house. I let my phone ring, having no desire to have a repeat of the conversation. But I thought about it some more, and the only phone call I could think of that might have been made was Kaylee calling our neighbors to see if her friend could play. Sure enough, she had-she said the phone just rang and rang and no machine or person picked up so she hung up-and I didn't have the number memorized. Well, another 45 minutes later, my phone rings for the Third Time, this time with another number I didn't recognize. So I answered it, and it was another woman on another cell phone asking me who I was and asking who called them from this number in a rather hard tone. HONESTLY, people! If someone finds it important enough to leave a message, or can, they will, but is it really necessary to become stalkers and keep calling and calling someone who called, didn't get an answer and couldn't or didn't leave a message? Do they harass everyone whose number shows up on their caller ID box? I told her who I thought they were, and that was immediately relieving to her, and she said "You never know." I never know what exactly? *sigh* To be fair, I don't know the other side of the story, either. Maybe they DO have someone causing their family problems...such things do happen. Anyway, I am glad that their minds are put to rest.
I got our badges created today, finally. They come in handy as credentials now and then at air shows where we go on the flight line and secure the airplane, wipe it down, get it ready in the morning, etc. They got Steve and Chuck past the line and onto the flightline at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, too. :) I needed to make up some current ones, make some improvements on our existing badges, so I got that done today, and will get them printed and ready to go tomorrow.
I picked up Kaylee's new tap shoes, now that she's outgrown her second pair, and switched her ballet class from Monday to Tuesday. This gives her a break on Mondays, which she needs. Yesterday she came home from school talking about having a bit of a headache, and she thought about skipping cheer because she said her coach yells sometimes and that when she yells it makes her head hurt worse. Fortunately, by the time cheer came around, she was doing fine, and she has the next two Mondays off anyway. So far I think the introduction back into a school routine couldn't have gone any easier than it has.
I was watching the women's gymnastics tonight, and was really happy to see Shawn Johnson win a gold medal on the beam. She earned it, and she has the sweetest face with the brightest smile and eyes. She seems like the nicest kid, and even when she earned a gold that was given to the Chinese rather unfairly, she handled it with a smile and grace. I was really happy to see her win gold tonight, and watching her parents bawling in the stands was pretty touching too. :)
It was a busy day, particularly for Steve. We need to get to bed and get some sleep now that we all have to get up too early these days. :)
When the alarm went off this morning, I wasn't that interested in getting up, and neither was Kaylee. But we made it, got ready, and she got to school on time and still in a good mood. She says that second grade is easy so far-her spelling words are easy, the math is easy, etc. I laughed and told her they start off a little gently to ease the kids back into school and find out where they all are in the scope of learning, and that it would pick up soon enough, but to enjoy her days. So far she is. I did hear one thing I don't know that I've ever heard a kid say before. I asked her what her favorite and least favorite parts of the day were. She said her favorite was a project they did-which Mrs. H told me was very artistic of Kaylee-and that her least favorite thing of the day was recess. Her least favorite thing was Recess?? Since when?! I asked her why, and she just said the playground wasn't as fun. I think there must be something more there, but Kaylee just didn't know what else to say about it, so I let it go. The main thing is that so far, so good for her. :)
The other day, I got a phone call from someone whose number I didn't recognize, and when I said hello, they started asking me questions, culminating in "who is this?" Well, THEY called ME, so I said "Well, my name is Laura, and who is This?" She didn't answer my question directly, but asked if I knew this person or that person, and said that someone from my number had called their house, and got rather belligerent. Well, I didn't know who they were, and said so politely, and we hung up. About 45 minutes later, the same number called back to my house. I let my phone ring, having no desire to have a repeat of the conversation. But I thought about it some more, and the only phone call I could think of that might have been made was Kaylee calling our neighbors to see if her friend could play. Sure enough, she had-she said the phone just rang and rang and no machine or person picked up so she hung up-and I didn't have the number memorized. Well, another 45 minutes later, my phone rings for the Third Time, this time with another number I didn't recognize. So I answered it, and it was another woman on another cell phone asking me who I was and asking who called them from this number in a rather hard tone. HONESTLY, people! If someone finds it important enough to leave a message, or can, they will, but is it really necessary to become stalkers and keep calling and calling someone who called, didn't get an answer and couldn't or didn't leave a message? Do they harass everyone whose number shows up on their caller ID box? I told her who I thought they were, and that was immediately relieving to her, and she said "You never know." I never know what exactly? *sigh* To be fair, I don't know the other side of the story, either. Maybe they DO have someone causing their family problems...such things do happen. Anyway, I am glad that their minds are put to rest.
I got our badges created today, finally. They come in handy as credentials now and then at air shows where we go on the flight line and secure the airplane, wipe it down, get it ready in the morning, etc. They got Steve and Chuck past the line and onto the flightline at the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends, too. :) I needed to make up some current ones, make some improvements on our existing badges, so I got that done today, and will get them printed and ready to go tomorrow.
I picked up Kaylee's new tap shoes, now that she's outgrown her second pair, and switched her ballet class from Monday to Tuesday. This gives her a break on Mondays, which she needs. Yesterday she came home from school talking about having a bit of a headache, and she thought about skipping cheer because she said her coach yells sometimes and that when she yells it makes her head hurt worse. Fortunately, by the time cheer came around, she was doing fine, and she has the next two Mondays off anyway. So far I think the introduction back into a school routine couldn't have gone any easier than it has.
I was watching the women's gymnastics tonight, and was really happy to see Shawn Johnson win a gold medal on the beam. She earned it, and she has the sweetest face with the brightest smile and eyes. She seems like the nicest kid, and even when she earned a gold that was given to the Chinese rather unfairly, she handled it with a smile and grace. I was really happy to see her win gold tonight, and watching her parents bawling in the stands was pretty touching too. :)
It was a busy day, particularly for Steve. We need to get to bed and get some sleep now that we all have to get up too early these days. :)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Firsts
Today was Kaylee's first full, real day of 2nd grade. I couldn't really get a good photo, because the sign for the school is right on a busy road with 
a narrow driveway, and when you drop them off, you do it in a round driveway where you literally just let them hop out of the car and go to their teacher. So there really aren't good photo ops here. But maybe on a later date I'll sneak her out by the sign and the road and do it anyway. :) In the meantime, here she is right before we got in the car to come to school today.
She had packed her own lunch last night, and in it she included a lot of carbs. So I sneaked a couple things in for her to find at lunch time too, of a healthy variety. ;)
When I picked her up, Mrs. H came to the car with her, and told me that they had done testing today to see where all the kids were, and that Kaylee did great. She also said "Kaylee told me up front that she wasn't a very good reader, but she IS. She did a terrific job reading." We enjoyed hearing that. They did a nature hike today, and Kaylee came home with a leaf, a twig, a dead locust, and a flower. At least it wasn't a dead spider...
She said she'd enjoyed her day at school, and she was quite chatty on the way home about. So, this is good.
I did some work at home, ran a few errands, picked Steve up in Greentown, did the lunch thing, ran a few more errands, did some more work at home. Then this afternoon I went to a board meeting at the airport, which lasted about an hour, to give a little progress update for them on the flight training ops out at Kokomo. (So far so good!)
We're trying to get ready for Mt. Comfort airshow next, which is this coming weekend, and I have a couple things I need to make up and have ready. I didn't get as far as I needed to on those today, but tomorrow is Tuesday and most people are going down Thursday, so I need to get a move-on. I won't be able to go down until Friday, because Kaylee is in school until Friday afternoon. So once she's out, I'll pick her up, pick up another little guy, and head on down for the weekend.
I don't really spend a lot of time "surfing" the internet. For one thing, I have a tough enough time keeping up with the email and boards I am already interested in. But today I got sent to a site that I actually spent 20 minutes looking at, occasionally laughing so loud that I made the dogs next door start barking. I can't even explain why I found it funny, but it was called "Cake Wrecks", and it's a blog that shows photos of professionally done cakes that are completely messed up for one reason or another. Terrible grammar or spelling, goofed-up looking, really weird or creepy shapes, etc. I'd link it, but not all of them are G-rated. But the commentary is great and some of those cakes are just nothing you'd believe. A link from there sent me to the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotes, which pokes fun at all the professional signs out there that have quotes in completely wrong and inappropriate phrases. In other words, I spent about 40 minutes surfing totally unnecessary and unfamiliar blogs, but I got a good laugh out of some of it. Laughter is good medicine you know, and good exercise too, so really it was part of my health plan for the day. ;)
Kaylee was tired after today-her Mondays for now include school all day, then ballet/tap, then cheer. We're switching her ballet class to a different day, but for today she had to go to this class, and she's pooped. When we came home at 7:30, she asked if she could just lay on the couch and cuddle with me for a few minutes. She hasn't asked to do that in awhile. Of course I was delighted to cuddle with my sweetie. :)
It was a really busy for all, but overall good day...
a narrow driveway, and when you drop them off, you do it in a round driveway where you literally just let them hop out of the car and go to their teacher. So there really aren't good photo ops here. But maybe on a later date I'll sneak her out by the sign and the road and do it anyway. :) In the meantime, here she is right before we got in the car to come to school today.She had packed her own lunch last night, and in it she included a lot of carbs. So I sneaked a couple things in for her to find at lunch time too, of a healthy variety. ;)
When I picked her up, Mrs. H came to the car with her, and told me that they had done testing today to see where all the kids were, and that Kaylee did great. She also said "Kaylee told me up front that she wasn't a very good reader, but she IS. She did a terrific job reading." We enjoyed hearing that. They did a nature hike today, and Kaylee came home with a leaf, a twig, a dead locust, and a flower. At least it wasn't a dead spider...
She said she'd enjoyed her day at school, and she was quite chatty on the way home about. So, this is good.
I did some work at home, ran a few errands, picked Steve up in Greentown, did the lunch thing, ran a few more errands, did some more work at home. Then this afternoon I went to a board meeting at the airport, which lasted about an hour, to give a little progress update for them on the flight training ops out at Kokomo. (So far so good!)
We're trying to get ready for Mt. Comfort airshow next, which is this coming weekend, and I have a couple things I need to make up and have ready. I didn't get as far as I needed to on those today, but tomorrow is Tuesday and most people are going down Thursday, so I need to get a move-on. I won't be able to go down until Friday, because Kaylee is in school until Friday afternoon. So once she's out, I'll pick her up, pick up another little guy, and head on down for the weekend.
I don't really spend a lot of time "surfing" the internet. For one thing, I have a tough enough time keeping up with the email and boards I am already interested in. But today I got sent to a site that I actually spent 20 minutes looking at, occasionally laughing so loud that I made the dogs next door start barking. I can't even explain why I found it funny, but it was called "Cake Wrecks", and it's a blog that shows photos of professionally done cakes that are completely messed up for one reason or another. Terrible grammar or spelling, goofed-up looking, really weird or creepy shapes, etc. I'd link it, but not all of them are G-rated. But the commentary is great and some of those cakes are just nothing you'd believe. A link from there sent me to the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotes, which pokes fun at all the professional signs out there that have quotes in completely wrong and inappropriate phrases. In other words, I spent about 40 minutes surfing totally unnecessary and unfamiliar blogs, but I got a good laugh out of some of it. Laughter is good medicine you know, and good exercise too, so really it was part of my health plan for the day. ;)
Kaylee was tired after today-her Mondays for now include school all day, then ballet/tap, then cheer. We're switching her ballet class to a different day, but for today she had to go to this class, and she's pooped. When we came home at 7:30, she asked if she could just lay on the couch and cuddle with me for a few minutes. She hasn't asked to do that in awhile. Of course I was delighted to cuddle with my sweetie. :)
It was a really busy for all, but overall good day...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Recovery
Tis Recovery Day. I woke up not feeling well, and it took me until about 1 p.m. to recover. Meanwhile, Kaylee got to have a Kaylee Day with Steve. I don't know what all they did, but they shot her BB Gun, played cards, worked on some stuff outside, played X-box, and did several other fun things. After I felt better, I ran out to Kokomo for a quick errand, picked up a few groceries that we were out of on my way home, and came back and read Foreign Body by Robin Cook.
In the car the other day, Kaylee said something about her size. I said I thought she was healthy, and that was what was important to me. Her response was "At least my arms aren't pipes any more." I said "what?" She said "You know, my arms used to look like pipes, at least that's how I thought of them. Now they have some muscle on them and they don't look like pipes any more. See??" She's right, she has grown a lot in the last several months.
On to Monday...
In the car the other day, Kaylee said something about her size. I said I thought she was healthy, and that was what was important to me. Her response was "At least my arms aren't pipes any more." I said "what?" She said "You know, my arms used to look like pipes, at least that's how I thought of them. Now they have some muscle on them and they don't look like pipes any more. See??" She's right, she has grown a lot in the last several months.
On to Monday...
Sheridan Show
Today was a kind of "open house" for Sheridan Airport. It was a celebration of their 60th Anniversary, though really it was their 62nd year. :) 
As with most aviation activities, it involved airplanes, golf carts, lawn chairs, and refreshments. A Pitts and an Extra 300 did aerobatic routines a couple of times each, skydivers came down with flags, and we had several airplanes on static display. It's a quiet little country airport, so it is enjoyable to see the people show up and have a good time, and it's neat to see the variety of airplanes there. We had everything from ultralights to multi-engine airplanes to warbirds to trainers to little taildraggers to aerobatic performers to experimentals. Everything went well, people had a good time, the event was safe, and I even got to meet the new prospective owner of the airport. We were there until pretty late in the afternoon, after which Kaylee and I went to KFC and picked up dinner while Steve took a Jeep load full of stuff to Glenndale to unload. It was a good day. I didn't take many photos, and no flying ones, but here are the ones I did take...
Kaylee had fun as well. She wanted to play with a couple of little girls that she spotted, but she felt too shy to go over there, so she grabbed me by the hand and told me I had to go with her. I walk over with her, and I'm just standing there while she eyeballs this other girl for awhile. Finally I say "Kaylee, just introduce yourself and say 'hi'." She said "You meet the mom and introduce me!" I did that, but the other girls didn't really engage, so we left. Suddenly, a bit later, I looked around and they were running around playing like long lost good friends. Ah, to be kids! :) Then a bit later, her friend Maggie came too, and they got to play for awhile.
Basically, Kaylee ran around and played in the dirt and grass and beans and had what I like to call a Good Childhood Day...and the rest of us didn't do so bad ourselves. :)
As with most aviation activities, it involved airplanes, golf carts, lawn chairs, and refreshments. A Pitts and an Extra 300 did aerobatic routines a couple of times each, skydivers came down with flags, and we had several airplanes on static display. It's a quiet little country airport, so it is enjoyable to see the people show up and have a good time, and it's neat to see the variety of airplanes there. We had everything from ultralights to multi-engine airplanes to warbirds to trainers to little taildraggers to aerobatic performers to experimentals. Everything went well, people had a good time, the event was safe, and I even got to meet the new prospective owner of the airport. We were there until pretty late in the afternoon, after which Kaylee and I went to KFC and picked up dinner while Steve took a Jeep load full of stuff to Glenndale to unload. It was a good day. I didn't take many photos, and no flying ones, but here are the ones I did take...Kaylee had fun as well. She wanted to play with a couple of little girls that she spotted, but she felt too shy to go over there, so she grabbed me by the hand and told me I had to go with her. I walk over with her, and I'm just standing there while she eyeballs this other girl for awhile. Finally I say "Kaylee, just introduce yourself and say 'hi'." She said "You meet the mom and introduce me!" I did that, but the other girls didn't really engage, so we left. Suddenly, a bit later, I looked around and they were running around playing like long lost good friends. Ah, to be kids! :) Then a bit later, her friend Maggie came too, and they got to play for awhile.
Basically, Kaylee ran around and played in the dirt and grass and beans and had what I like to call a Good Childhood Day...and the rest of us didn't do so bad ourselves. :)
Friday, August 15, 2008
First Days
Kaylee woke up bright and early this morning around 6 a.m., and couldn't get back to sleep. This means she came into my room at 6 a.m. and squirmed around until I gave up and got up around 7. But it was her first day of school, so when we got up, we were both a little bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. She got ready without a single complaint or grump, and she was so excited to go that we were actually 15 minutes early to school. She wasn't nervous at all, until right before I walked out the door, when she gave me a little extra hug and a slightly nervous smile. Her teacher started talking to her, I kissed her goodbye and walked out, and when I sneaked a peek as I was going out of sight, I saw her grinning and talking and doing just fine.
She only had a half day today, and when I picked her up she was quite bouncy and happy. She got a baggie of goodies and a fun first day and chatted to me about it all the way back to Glenndale. It was Friday Lunch, and we were about 30 minutes late for it, which meant there wasn't any food left. :) But her friend Maggie was there to play with, and I heard her tell Maggie "Today was my first day at school. I have an AWESOME school and an AWESOME teacher! The best EVER!" Ah, that made me smile. I know that in December it may not be as exciting for her, that there will be work and tests and confusion and tiredness, but each good day is, well, a good day, and worth celebrating! One down, 179 to go. :)
I'm glad that Kaylee had a good day, because the rest of us had a bit of a trying one. :) There was a fuel problem at Glenndale, and Steve was running around like crazy trying to fill up every plane he could, filling up fuel canisters, whatever he could do in order to not end up with a fairly large problem. So he's got the airport hopping trying to do that. Meanwhile, Chuck is on an errand in the Citabria, the kids are playing, and Nathan calls and says that he's lost a washer off the Mustang that can't be replaced locally and needs eyeballs to find it in the hangar. So a few folks kindly agree to go help us look, and about eight of us with two magnetic wands search for a good hour and find...nothing. This thing has disappeared. Now he's got to special order the part from the other side of the country. Just one of those 'Not Going Right' kind of days for a few folks.
Oh, one of the ladies at the airport gave Kaylee a little portable radio with earphones. It is pink, has a princess on it, and ear buds like my iPod, with really good sound, actually. When we got home, Kaylee took it outside, found a station she liked, and then sang to the flowers, so that they would grow and bloom beautifully for Grandma & Grandpa when they get back. Kind of sweet. :)
She only had a half day today, and when I picked her up she was quite bouncy and happy. She got a baggie of goodies and a fun first day and chatted to me about it all the way back to Glenndale. It was Friday Lunch, and we were about 30 minutes late for it, which meant there wasn't any food left. :) But her friend Maggie was there to play with, and I heard her tell Maggie "Today was my first day at school. I have an AWESOME school and an AWESOME teacher! The best EVER!" Ah, that made me smile. I know that in December it may not be as exciting for her, that there will be work and tests and confusion and tiredness, but each good day is, well, a good day, and worth celebrating! One down, 179 to go. :)
I'm glad that Kaylee had a good day, because the rest of us had a bit of a trying one. :) There was a fuel problem at Glenndale, and Steve was running around like crazy trying to fill up every plane he could, filling up fuel canisters, whatever he could do in order to not end up with a fairly large problem. So he's got the airport hopping trying to do that. Meanwhile, Chuck is on an errand in the Citabria, the kids are playing, and Nathan calls and says that he's lost a washer off the Mustang that can't be replaced locally and needs eyeballs to find it in the hangar. So a few folks kindly agree to go help us look, and about eight of us with two magnetic wands search for a good hour and find...nothing. This thing has disappeared. Now he's got to special order the part from the other side of the country. Just one of those 'Not Going Right' kind of days for a few folks.
Oh, one of the ladies at the airport gave Kaylee a little portable radio with earphones. It is pink, has a princess on it, and ear buds like my iPod, with really good sound, actually. When we got home, Kaylee took it outside, found a station she liked, and then sang to the flowers, so that they would grow and bloom beautifully for Grandma & Grandpa when they get back. Kind of sweet. :)
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Quietly...
It was Kaylee's last morning to sleep in, so I let her, even though she's going to find tomorrow morning a bit of a shock-as am I. ;) But we got her clothes ready for tomorrow, her "stuff" is ready to go, and I think she'll enjoy her first half-day. She's not nervous at all, at least not yet!
I got the paperwork for school, and I've already entered all the days off and half days off into my calendar so that I don't wonder halfway through the year when our Spring Break is or if she has Labor Day off or not. Since I happen to be known for doing that.
I did normal work stuff today. Printed checks, answered correspondence, ate lunch with friends, then left Kaylee with her dad while I flew Nathan to Muncie so he could pick up his airplane. This is great news, as now finally all the 'birds' are home to roost, so to speak. :)
I came back to Glenndale to pick up Kaylee, took her to gymnastics, hit my errand run, and we spent the evening getting ready for tomorrow.
A quiet day with not much to say-making up for yesterday I guess. ;)
I got the paperwork for school, and I've already entered all the days off and half days off into my calendar so that I don't wonder halfway through the year when our Spring Break is or if she has Labor Day off or not. Since I happen to be known for doing that.
I did normal work stuff today. Printed checks, answered correspondence, ate lunch with friends, then left Kaylee with her dad while I flew Nathan to Muncie so he could pick up his airplane. This is great news, as now finally all the 'birds' are home to roost, so to speak. :)
I came back to Glenndale to pick up Kaylee, took her to gymnastics, hit my errand run, and we spent the evening getting ready for tomorrow.
A quiet day with not much to say-making up for yesterday I guess. ;)
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
In The World...
Grab a Coke. ;)
This morning as I was getting ready, I was watching the women's sand volleyball team. They certainly like to make sure they get the fewest tan lines possible, don't they?? There was only enough material on their body in one place to put their last names in small writing, and that was on their bra back. Even their rear-end only had enough room for the Nike "swoosh" mark. You know, I played volleyball a fair amount-even sand volleyball in college all the time (not for a team there, just for fun), and I'm trying to imagine running around the court diving and stretching and whatnot all while wearing spandex pasties, and it's just not working for me. It certainly doesn't look very comfortable to me, but what do I know...I played in shorts and a t-shirt.
I just shook my head at the news that the 7-year-old Chinese girl who sang the song at the Opening Ceremonies at the Olympics was kept behind the scenes because she wasn't cute enough (in their opinion) to put on television. So instead they brought out a cute 9-year-old to lip sync while the 7-year-old actually sang it behind the scenes. Chinese officials said that it was just a performance putting the best voice with the best face. I'm picturing telling a 7-year-old "nice voice, but that face. Stay back here, we've got someone prettier to put up." That is...disgusting. If her voice is so beautiful that she is chosen to sing in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, heard round the world, then she deserves to be seen singing it.
The announcers last night were talking about the lead for the Chinese women's gymnastics team. She's 20 now, and was taken from her home at age 3 to train, saw her family maybe once a year, called and asked them to come home at one point, but they wanted the status she could bring to their family, so they said no and told her she had to stay. This was all announced on the tv while she was warming up, like they had instead said "She trained in Indianapolis for the first four years prior to moving to Denver to step up her routine." I realize this is a different culture, but I'm sorry....no.
This was just brought to my attention, and has for once rendered me speechless. All I can think is "Seriously??" :O I'm so glad this guy is a pilot. He is a ringing endorsement of the sanity of our fellow skybound compadres. He is...he is...what is he? Okay, so being a child of the 80s I know what he's supposed to be, but wow.
In more scary pilot news, USA Today had an article talking about how the TSA (Transportation 'Security' Administration) has now put private airplanes in its sights. See, the TSA are the people who make your life miserable if you fly airlines. The TSA are the ones who search old ladies in wheelchairs and ten year old boys prior to boarding an airplane, but won't search anyone actually likely to be a terrorist who could then accuse them of "profiling". They are the ones who have now saved us from acts of terror perpetrated by tubes of toothpaste or bottles of water larger than 3 oz. And they are now coming for private airplanes. Sure, for now they are aiming at the private planes over 12,500 pounds, which would mean private business jets, etc. But guess what comes after them? Us pesky small unregulated dangerous airplanes, that's who. Don't you hear how dangerous it is that we can take off, fly somewhere, and land without having to talk to a single person in authority? Let's not take any common sense into account; for example, that you can hop in your car and go somewhere without having to show papers or speak to a person in authority (so far), or that a U-haul truck is unregulated and holds a lot more room for damaging weapons or explosives than any small airplane, and anyone can rent them, drive them somewhere, and leave them without having to talk to a single person in authority. The "we'll herd you like sheep and make you feel safer even though you aren't" rules hit the airlines, and now are hitting the privately owned business guys. It feels like someone just turned up the heat on the water in the pot in which we 'frogs' are slowly cooking, if you know what I mean.
In amusing-to-me flying stuff, I ran across an article written by Budd Davisson about learning to fly a T-6 and Mustang. This guy is a real deal, so reading his first entrance into these warbirds was interesting to me. I really enjoyed reading about his fight with the SNJ (Navy T-6). A few of my favorite lines included:
"The name of the flight program could have been Davisson versus the SNJ, as far as I was concerned---- and the SNJ usually won."
"My first hop in the SNJ was probably the most humbling hour in my rather nefarious flying career."
"Visibility up front is almost adequate, but taxiing, takeoffs, and landings are still an experience in terrified frustration. On my first takeoff from Burchinal's strip, I suddenly saw the entire runway off to the right of the nose as the torque swung me left ... right rudder, right rudder. I never knew my right leg was so short."
"My first couple of landings were pretty exciting. I'm basically a rag-leg, puddle-jumper driver, so by the time I would turn final at 90 knots, usually I'd already forgotten several things, and my mouth turned to cotton every time we even got close to the ground."
"If you hit perfectly lined up, the airplane will roll straight for a hundred yards or so and then make a gentle swerve one direction or the other. If you are anything but perfectly straight when you hit, all hell breaks loose. The second you touch in a drift, the nose darts for the bushes. It's not a quick turn, it's an instantaneous sort of jerking, careening swerve that happens so fast it's almost impossible to believe. A number of times I thought it was all over, as I had all I could put on the pedal, but I'd feel Junior mash the brake and save the bacon."
"When I could almost (but not quite) handle the front office, Junior moved me back to the back seat, or the "black hole of North American." The lack of ground vision didn't bother me too much because I do a lot of instructing from the back of Citabrias, but flying final was like backing into a dark room. With Junior up there, arms folded across the panel top, the runway disappears, the taxiways go, and in the case of his own strip, the entire airport disappears the second you're lined up on final."
"The first five hours in the SNJ went so badly that I thought about burning my pilot's license. I was really dejected. Then, he put me in the Mustang and told me to taxi for a while. Sitting in the Mustang, with all those horses blowing past the open canopy, I knew I was going to whip that idiotic SNJ because I really wanted to fly the Mustang. It was like giving a full bottle to a reformed drunk; I was hooked."
The sad thing is, he's talking about a harder version of the T-6 than I've flown, because of the type of tailwheel on the airplanes. And yet what he had to say about the SNJ sounds slightly familiar to me even on the 'easy' version of the AT-6. ;)
There is an internet site called "We Feel Fine". I clicked on it on a whim off of something else, and I've been really kind of fascinated ever since. If you click on "Open We Feel Fine" and give it time to load, you'll see a bunch of dots flying everywhere. This is the "madness" screen. You can click on any of those dots, and it will pull up a line written by someone on a blog somewhere in the world that relates to "I feel" or "I am feeling". Now on the bottom left of the screen it has the words "Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics, Mounds". Each one of those that you click on sort the colored dots into various categories. You can look at comments made by gender, by feeling (anger, good, sad, lonely), by age, by geography, by weather even. Some of them are connected to photos. It's just really kind of interesting and you could spend a lot of time looking around.
Now, back to my own world.
Today I was at lunch with Kaylee, Steve, Chuck and Nathan. When it came time to pay the bill, the waitress handed our bill to me. Somebody made a smart-alec remark (no!! ;)), and she leaned in and said "Well, we're not supposed to give the bills to the men any more. It's considered sexist. We usually just leave it in the middle of the table now." Whaaaat?? Political Correctness has now extended to deliberately not handing a bill to a man because it might offend a woman at the table who can by george pay the bill herself? Wow. How...progressive of us. :(
Tonight we met with Kaylee's new teacher, Mrs. H. Mrs. H. had sent a post card to Kaylee in the mail, which she got today, and which greatly impressed her. She said "There's a
smiley face on the card, mom, that means she's a nice lady." Kaylee also noted that the teacher had printed it instead of written in cursive, so SHE could read it herself. She also marvelled that the teacher had said she hoped she was having a good summer even though she didn't know her at all yet. Kaylee wanted to dress up in a nice dress to meet her tonight, so that's what we did. Well, what she did. I stuck with slacks. ;) I took a photo of her in her dress and nice shoes to show her grandparents, and you can see all the photos on her site at the bottom half of the page. Mrs. H said that she would probably have the kids call her "Miss Sam", and she seemed energetic, fun, and patient. She interacted directly with the kids, not just the parents, a nice change from last year. She is very active, and believes in letting the kids have plenty of time to move, go outside, play, etc. She will also not be sending homework home, unless the kids do not finish their work during class, or need additional work or help in a particular topic. After all the take-home work we had last year, I couldn't have been more happy to hear this one. Anyway, all in all, Kaylee came away excited to start school, and I came away with a good feeling about the situation. Her first day of school, Friday, is more a half-day meant to just introduce everyone to each other, and I think she's going to enjoy it. I really hope that she has a positive, fun, informative school year...and I think she will. :)
This morning as I was getting ready, I was watching the women's sand volleyball team. They certainly like to make sure they get the fewest tan lines possible, don't they?? There was only enough material on their body in one place to put their last names in small writing, and that was on their bra back. Even their rear-end only had enough room for the Nike "swoosh" mark. You know, I played volleyball a fair amount-even sand volleyball in college all the time (not for a team there, just for fun), and I'm trying to imagine running around the court diving and stretching and whatnot all while wearing spandex pasties, and it's just not working for me. It certainly doesn't look very comfortable to me, but what do I know...I played in shorts and a t-shirt.
I just shook my head at the news that the 7-year-old Chinese girl who sang the song at the Opening Ceremonies at the Olympics was kept behind the scenes because she wasn't cute enough (in their opinion) to put on television. So instead they brought out a cute 9-year-old to lip sync while the 7-year-old actually sang it behind the scenes. Chinese officials said that it was just a performance putting the best voice with the best face. I'm picturing telling a 7-year-old "nice voice, but that face. Stay back here, we've got someone prettier to put up." That is...disgusting. If her voice is so beautiful that she is chosen to sing in the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, heard round the world, then she deserves to be seen singing it.
The announcers last night were talking about the lead for the Chinese women's gymnastics team. She's 20 now, and was taken from her home at age 3 to train, saw her family maybe once a year, called and asked them to come home at one point, but they wanted the status she could bring to their family, so they said no and told her she had to stay. This was all announced on the tv while she was warming up, like they had instead said "She trained in Indianapolis for the first four years prior to moving to Denver to step up her routine." I realize this is a different culture, but I'm sorry....no.
This was just brought to my attention, and has for once rendered me speechless. All I can think is "Seriously??" :O I'm so glad this guy is a pilot. He is a ringing endorsement of the sanity of our fellow skybound compadres. He is...he is...what is he? Okay, so being a child of the 80s I know what he's supposed to be, but wow.
In more scary pilot news, USA Today had an article talking about how the TSA (Transportation 'Security' Administration) has now put private airplanes in its sights. See, the TSA are the people who make your life miserable if you fly airlines. The TSA are the ones who search old ladies in wheelchairs and ten year old boys prior to boarding an airplane, but won't search anyone actually likely to be a terrorist who could then accuse them of "profiling". They are the ones who have now saved us from acts of terror perpetrated by tubes of toothpaste or bottles of water larger than 3 oz. And they are now coming for private airplanes. Sure, for now they are aiming at the private planes over 12,500 pounds, which would mean private business jets, etc. But guess what comes after them? Us pesky small unregulated dangerous airplanes, that's who. Don't you hear how dangerous it is that we can take off, fly somewhere, and land without having to talk to a single person in authority? Let's not take any common sense into account; for example, that you can hop in your car and go somewhere without having to show papers or speak to a person in authority (so far), or that a U-haul truck is unregulated and holds a lot more room for damaging weapons or explosives than any small airplane, and anyone can rent them, drive them somewhere, and leave them without having to talk to a single person in authority. The "we'll herd you like sheep and make you feel safer even though you aren't" rules hit the airlines, and now are hitting the privately owned business guys. It feels like someone just turned up the heat on the water in the pot in which we 'frogs' are slowly cooking, if you know what I mean.
In amusing-to-me flying stuff, I ran across an article written by Budd Davisson about learning to fly a T-6 and Mustang. This guy is a real deal, so reading his first entrance into these warbirds was interesting to me. I really enjoyed reading about his fight with the SNJ (Navy T-6). A few of my favorite lines included:
"The name of the flight program could have been Davisson versus the SNJ, as far as I was concerned---- and the SNJ usually won."
"My first hop in the SNJ was probably the most humbling hour in my rather nefarious flying career."
"Visibility up front is almost adequate, but taxiing, takeoffs, and landings are still an experience in terrified frustration. On my first takeoff from Burchinal's strip, I suddenly saw the entire runway off to the right of the nose as the torque swung me left ... right rudder, right rudder. I never knew my right leg was so short."
"My first couple of landings were pretty exciting. I'm basically a rag-leg, puddle-jumper driver, so by the time I would turn final at 90 knots, usually I'd already forgotten several things, and my mouth turned to cotton every time we even got close to the ground."
"If you hit perfectly lined up, the airplane will roll straight for a hundred yards or so and then make a gentle swerve one direction or the other. If you are anything but perfectly straight when you hit, all hell breaks loose. The second you touch in a drift, the nose darts for the bushes. It's not a quick turn, it's an instantaneous sort of jerking, careening swerve that happens so fast it's almost impossible to believe. A number of times I thought it was all over, as I had all I could put on the pedal, but I'd feel Junior mash the brake and save the bacon."
"When I could almost (but not quite) handle the front office, Junior moved me back to the back seat, or the "black hole of North American." The lack of ground vision didn't bother me too much because I do a lot of instructing from the back of Citabrias, but flying final was like backing into a dark room. With Junior up there, arms folded across the panel top, the runway disappears, the taxiways go, and in the case of his own strip, the entire airport disappears the second you're lined up on final."
"The first five hours in the SNJ went so badly that I thought about burning my pilot's license. I was really dejected. Then, he put me in the Mustang and told me to taxi for a while. Sitting in the Mustang, with all those horses blowing past the open canopy, I knew I was going to whip that idiotic SNJ because I really wanted to fly the Mustang. It was like giving a full bottle to a reformed drunk; I was hooked."
The sad thing is, he's talking about a harder version of the T-6 than I've flown, because of the type of tailwheel on the airplanes. And yet what he had to say about the SNJ sounds slightly familiar to me even on the 'easy' version of the AT-6. ;)
There is an internet site called "We Feel Fine". I clicked on it on a whim off of something else, and I've been really kind of fascinated ever since. If you click on "Open We Feel Fine" and give it time to load, you'll see a bunch of dots flying everywhere. This is the "madness" screen. You can click on any of those dots, and it will pull up a line written by someone on a blog somewhere in the world that relates to "I feel" or "I am feeling". Now on the bottom left of the screen it has the words "Madness, Murmurs, Montage, Mobs, Metrics, Mounds". Each one of those that you click on sort the colored dots into various categories. You can look at comments made by gender, by feeling (anger, good, sad, lonely), by age, by geography, by weather even. Some of them are connected to photos. It's just really kind of interesting and you could spend a lot of time looking around.
Now, back to my own world.
Today I was at lunch with Kaylee, Steve, Chuck and Nathan. When it came time to pay the bill, the waitress handed our bill to me. Somebody made a smart-alec remark (no!! ;)), and she leaned in and said "Well, we're not supposed to give the bills to the men any more. It's considered sexist. We usually just leave it in the middle of the table now." Whaaaat?? Political Correctness has now extended to deliberately not handing a bill to a man because it might offend a woman at the table who can by george pay the bill herself? Wow. How...progressive of us. :(
Tonight we met with Kaylee's new teacher, Mrs. H. Mrs. H. had sent a post card to Kaylee in the mail, which she got today, and which greatly impressed her. She said "There's a
smiley face on the card, mom, that means she's a nice lady." Kaylee also noted that the teacher had printed it instead of written in cursive, so SHE could read it herself. She also marvelled that the teacher had said she hoped she was having a good summer even though she didn't know her at all yet. Kaylee wanted to dress up in a nice dress to meet her tonight, so that's what we did. Well, what she did. I stuck with slacks. ;) I took a photo of her in her dress and nice shoes to show her grandparents, and you can see all the photos on her site at the bottom half of the page. Mrs. H said that she would probably have the kids call her "Miss Sam", and she seemed energetic, fun, and patient. She interacted directly with the kids, not just the parents, a nice change from last year. She is very active, and believes in letting the kids have plenty of time to move, go outside, play, etc. She will also not be sending homework home, unless the kids do not finish their work during class, or need additional work or help in a particular topic. After all the take-home work we had last year, I couldn't have been more happy to hear this one. Anyway, all in all, Kaylee came away excited to start school, and I came away with a good feeling about the situation. Her first day of school, Friday, is more a half-day meant to just introduce everyone to each other, and I think she's going to enjoy it. I really hope that she has a positive, fun, informative school year...and I think she will. :)
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Tick Tock
Kaylee's last days of summer are ticking down very quickly! Today I took her school supply shopping, and she got to pick out her pencils and her notebook and her folders and all that good stuff. She had fun deciding which things to get, and when we were done, the damage wasn't too terrible. ;) We have a little function with her 2nd grade teacher tomorrow evening, and her first day of school is Friday. It's just a half day, so I'll even get to take her to lunch at Glenndale afterwards. She's kind of looking forward to school and kind of isn't. Did I mention in an earlier post that the other night she got bored in her room before bed and decided to do three pages of math homework for the fun of it?? Yep. :) She's doing well in reading; we read every day, and hopefully school won't be too much of a shock to her system. Oh, who am I kidding, the first few weeks of school are *always* a shock to a kid's system. I'm not so old that I forgot that yet! Anyway, we talked about her schedule, and I'm going to see about either dropping ballet or switching class days. Her last years' Monday schedule was nuts and even she doesn't want to repeat it this year. School all day, home to do homework real quick and eat a snack, go to ballet, go to cheer, get home at 7:45 pm and eat, then go right to bed. How fun does that sound?? Anyway, we're going to change it this year, and she's going along with my paring down this time, unlike last year. At least so far. :)
Today when Steve got home, a little early this time, he and Kaylee played for awhile before her
bedtime. One of Kaylee's favorite silly things to do is to have an underwear fight. Yes, you heard me! So they had an underwear fight tonight. Sometimes I participate in the festivities, but tonight I just watched and took this photo. ;) Doesn't Steve just look so cute with the white frillies on his head?? lol (And, might I add, I love that girl's dimples!) They have such fun. After the undie fight, I told Kaylee she needed to clean up her bathroom. Her response was "Aw, Mom, every time I have fun, you always make me do something not fun!" I told her welcome to life, but this is why I make sure to do fun stuff with her sometimes too, so I'm not always the party pooper. ;)
We've been watching the Olympics, and it's funny, but we've actually gotten into them a little bit. I didn't expect to, but I've enjoyed several things. First came the American swim team on the relay. When the French are talking smack about "smashing" the Americans, and the Frenchman is leading on the final lap, and the American chases him down from a pretty big deficit, overtakes him, and beats him by .08 of a second, we were grinning and cheering a bit. The announcers had all been saying "no matter how you do the math, the French will win the relay." Or not. That was fun. The next night I learned that the American men's gymnastics team had been pretty much written off when Paul and Morgan H. had to withdraw from the team. Paul was the only returning Olympian, meaning the rest of the team were all "green" guys, no experience, and not the powerhouses that Paul was. So nobody thought they'd go anywhere. Instead, they gave the Japanese a run for the silver medal for awhile, and ended up with a bronze, shocking about everybody. Their comment to the world was the equivalent of "you thought we couldn't do it-we knew we could. Don't Ever Quit!" You gotta like that. You know I love the underdog. I even enjoy the non-underdogs in the Olympics though. Michael Phelps in swimming, the girl volleyball team (Misty Kay and...) who are like 113 matches undefeated...
(Do you remember when the world stopped for the Olympics? I remember being a kid, and no matter what cold war or problem was going on, the Olympics were...the Olympics. It seemed like they ran on every channel, though probably not. It just doesn't seem the same any more, does it?)
Well, today was mostly work-at-home day for me, other than a few quick errands and school shopping with Kaylee. Tomorrow is the meeting with her new teacher, and I look forward to meeting her. :)
Today when Steve got home, a little early this time, he and Kaylee played for awhile before her
bedtime. One of Kaylee's favorite silly things to do is to have an underwear fight. Yes, you heard me! So they had an underwear fight tonight. Sometimes I participate in the festivities, but tonight I just watched and took this photo. ;) Doesn't Steve just look so cute with the white frillies on his head?? lol (And, might I add, I love that girl's dimples!) They have such fun. After the undie fight, I told Kaylee she needed to clean up her bathroom. Her response was "Aw, Mom, every time I have fun, you always make me do something not fun!" I told her welcome to life, but this is why I make sure to do fun stuff with her sometimes too, so I'm not always the party pooper. ;)We've been watching the Olympics, and it's funny, but we've actually gotten into them a little bit. I didn't expect to, but I've enjoyed several things. First came the American swim team on the relay. When the French are talking smack about "smashing" the Americans, and the Frenchman is leading on the final lap, and the American chases him down from a pretty big deficit, overtakes him, and beats him by .08 of a second, we were grinning and cheering a bit. The announcers had all been saying "no matter how you do the math, the French will win the relay." Or not. That was fun. The next night I learned that the American men's gymnastics team had been pretty much written off when Paul and Morgan H. had to withdraw from the team. Paul was the only returning Olympian, meaning the rest of the team were all "green" guys, no experience, and not the powerhouses that Paul was. So nobody thought they'd go anywhere. Instead, they gave the Japanese a run for the silver medal for awhile, and ended up with a bronze, shocking about everybody. Their comment to the world was the equivalent of "you thought we couldn't do it-we knew we could. Don't Ever Quit!" You gotta like that. You know I love the underdog. I even enjoy the non-underdogs in the Olympics though. Michael Phelps in swimming, the girl volleyball team (Misty Kay and...) who are like 113 matches undefeated...
(Do you remember when the world stopped for the Olympics? I remember being a kid, and no matter what cold war or problem was going on, the Olympics were...the Olympics. It seemed like they ran on every channel, though probably not. It just doesn't seem the same any more, does it?)
Well, today was mostly work-at-home day for me, other than a few quick errands and school shopping with Kaylee. Tomorrow is the meeting with her new teacher, and I look forward to meeting her. :)
Monday, August 11, 2008
Formerly Known As 'Crank'
Something turned on my cranky switch today and I had trouble turning it back off. I was fine up through lunch, and then when we sat there for an hour before we ate, I felt cranky. Normally I'm pretty laid-back on that kind of stuff... I left lunch and took Kaylee to the park. Her summer is almost over, so I wanted to give her some play time. She came up to me and said "Mommy! That lady over there is from my school! Can I go say Hi?" I said "Sure, go ahead." She hesitated, felt shy, paused, thought about it, and finally walked over to the woman and said "Hi!" with a big smile. The woman turned, looked at her, said "hi." and walked away. Kaylee came back over to me kind of sad and said "I don't think she recognized me." I said "No problem hon. Go play!" But Kaylee kept watching her, and finally came back to me and said "She keeps looking at me Mommy, I think she's trying to remember who I am. Is it okay if I go tell her who I am?" I told her it was up to her, and she decided she wanted to. She chased her down across the park, and I saw them talking for awhile, and then the woman walked up to me and told me that she had decided that because a little girl shouldn't be coming up to strangers and saying 'hi', she'd decided not to talk to her because she didn't want to encourage her to talk to people where something 'bad' might happen to her. I said "Kaylee recognized you from school and asked her parent permission to go say hello. I said it was fine." She said "Oh, I know that now, but I didn't the first time. I just didn't want to encourage her to talk to strangers." Well, thank you for making her feel about a foot high for awhile there instead of being polite and giving her a chance to tell you who she is, and for teaching her a lesson for me. (See, I'm cranky.)
Then she stood there for 45 minutes and talked to me about suicide, abortion, baptism, how God feels about it all, and all other manner of things that I found myself at a loss to discuss. What an odd, odd interaction that whole thing was. One thing I did find out was that Kaylee's former first grade teacher is being moved to a 5th grade teacher. This is an excellent move, because she was Not a first grade teacher. She treated first graders like fifth graders, so I'm glad she's being put in a more appropriate teaching environment for her personality. I wish it had happened last year instead, but at least the next generation is getting the former Kindergarten teacher, who is gentle and much loved. Kaylee did learn a lot from that year, and maybe in the end it will have been of benefit for her.
After we left the park, we were home for a little under and hour and it was time to go to ballet and then her first week of Hot Shots, or the actual little cheerleading group that does the high school basketball game half-time shows. She had 30 minutes to get on her ballet outfit and pack her cheer outfit, and it took her 40. We butted heads over every little thing. Her tights were too small. She couldn't find others. Her shoes are too small. She doesn't like those shorts. She doesn't like that shirt. She doesn't want her hair up. She's not allowed to speak to me in that cranky whiny voice. Yadda yadda. We arrived late, and now we're BOTH cranky. She did pretty well at ballet today. Her class is down to four kids because of summer, and with a smaller class size she tends to pay more attention and do better. So that's good.
We left ballet/tap and I took her next door for an ice cream, which certainly improved her mood. :) I took her to Hot Shots next for her first day back in there, and then I got in line to pay for the class and her next round of gymnastics. I was in line for FORTY MINUTES. There were only five or six women in front of me in line, and it took me 40 minutes of standing there to get up to the window and pay. By the middle of that, my cranky was now showing on my face, as evidenced by a friend who walked in, walked past and said "You look thrilled." Lol I probably had that little black thundercloud with little lightning flashes right over just my head. My own personal thundercloud...
Anyway, from there I decided that I was sick and tired of my own cranky, so over dinner with the three of us at a Mexican place and beyond I've worked on improving my disposition, probably much to the relief of others. I was supposed to take a trip to Cleveland tomorrow morning with someone new, but that was just cancelled, unfortunately. It would have been a quick trip with easy weather and decent income, but it didn't work out on his end.
Now, on to something actually important, I have to throw out a prayer request for my friend Anita and her son Garrett. Anita was walking home from a graduation party with her husband and four children, when her son was hit by a car. What a scary, frightening thing for a family to see happen. Last I heard Garrett didn't have internal injuries best they could tell, though he did have a probable concussion and some other injuries. He just got back from the hospital after a one-day stay, and is holding up like a little champion. If you'd like to stop reading about whining and read something written in grace and faith, read what happened for yourself.
If I were going to turn all my crankiness things into thankfulness things, what would they be? Let's see:
1. I spent that lunch hour waiting for food with friends and family, relaxing and hanging out, in air conditioning with drinks and a restroom, and nothing more pressing to do right that hour anyway.
2. I'm thankful that Kaylee is persistent enough to try again after being a little rebuffed. I'm thankful she is confident enough to go up to an adult and introduce herself and have a conversation with them.
3. I am thankful that Kaylee can go to ballet, tap and cheer. That we can do that for her for now, and that she can learn teamwork, flexibility, strength, and gracefulness along with just plain old having fun.
4. Instead of earning money, I can spend a little extra time with Kaylee prior to school starting. Maybe get school supplies or get her hair done or something girly and fun that she wants to do. :)
I'm also thankful that Garrett is home and doing okay, and for a beautiful, cool, bright day and the time to go do this...
Then she stood there for 45 minutes and talked to me about suicide, abortion, baptism, how God feels about it all, and all other manner of things that I found myself at a loss to discuss. What an odd, odd interaction that whole thing was. One thing I did find out was that Kaylee's former first grade teacher is being moved to a 5th grade teacher. This is an excellent move, because she was Not a first grade teacher. She treated first graders like fifth graders, so I'm glad she's being put in a more appropriate teaching environment for her personality. I wish it had happened last year instead, but at least the next generation is getting the former Kindergarten teacher, who is gentle and much loved. Kaylee did learn a lot from that year, and maybe in the end it will have been of benefit for her.
After we left the park, we were home for a little under and hour and it was time to go to ballet and then her first week of Hot Shots, or the actual little cheerleading group that does the high school basketball game half-time shows. She had 30 minutes to get on her ballet outfit and pack her cheer outfit, and it took her 40. We butted heads over every little thing. Her tights were too small. She couldn't find others. Her shoes are too small. She doesn't like those shorts. She doesn't like that shirt. She doesn't want her hair up. She's not allowed to speak to me in that cranky whiny voice. Yadda yadda. We arrived late, and now we're BOTH cranky. She did pretty well at ballet today. Her class is down to four kids because of summer, and with a smaller class size she tends to pay more attention and do better. So that's good.
We left ballet/tap and I took her next door for an ice cream, which certainly improved her mood. :) I took her to Hot Shots next for her first day back in there, and then I got in line to pay for the class and her next round of gymnastics. I was in line for FORTY MINUTES. There were only five or six women in front of me in line, and it took me 40 minutes of standing there to get up to the window and pay. By the middle of that, my cranky was now showing on my face, as evidenced by a friend who walked in, walked past and said "You look thrilled." Lol I probably had that little black thundercloud with little lightning flashes right over just my head. My own personal thundercloud...
Anyway, from there I decided that I was sick and tired of my own cranky, so over dinner with the three of us at a Mexican place and beyond I've worked on improving my disposition, probably much to the relief of others. I was supposed to take a trip to Cleveland tomorrow morning with someone new, but that was just cancelled, unfortunately. It would have been a quick trip with easy weather and decent income, but it didn't work out on his end.
Now, on to something actually important, I have to throw out a prayer request for my friend Anita and her son Garrett. Anita was walking home from a graduation party with her husband and four children, when her son was hit by a car. What a scary, frightening thing for a family to see happen. Last I heard Garrett didn't have internal injuries best they could tell, though he did have a probable concussion and some other injuries. He just got back from the hospital after a one-day stay, and is holding up like a little champion. If you'd like to stop reading about whining and read something written in grace and faith, read what happened for yourself.
If I were going to turn all my crankiness things into thankfulness things, what would they be? Let's see:
1. I spent that lunch hour waiting for food with friends and family, relaxing and hanging out, in air conditioning with drinks and a restroom, and nothing more pressing to do right that hour anyway.
2. I'm thankful that Kaylee is persistent enough to try again after being a little rebuffed. I'm thankful she is confident enough to go up to an adult and introduce herself and have a conversation with them.
3. I am thankful that Kaylee can go to ballet, tap and cheer. That we can do that for her for now, and that she can learn teamwork, flexibility, strength, and gracefulness along with just plain old having fun.
4. Instead of earning money, I can spend a little extra time with Kaylee prior to school starting. Maybe get school supplies or get her hair done or something girly and fun that she wants to do. :)
I'm also thankful that Garrett is home and doing okay, and for a beautiful, cool, bright day and the time to go do this...
Sunday, August 10, 2008
The Good Times
For those of you on the edge of your seats, yes, the Tooth Fairy was indeed successful at reacquiring Kaylee's tooth last night around 2 a.m. ;)
I finished reading "The Shack", and I certainly found it interesting. If I start getting into a book review on it, I'll talk too much for even me, so I'll just suggest that anyone interested in issues such as spirituality, loss, grief, God, religion...most if not all of the "hard" topics relating to God, pick it up and read it some time, with an open mind. However, I would also suggest you have some quiet time and space in which to read it, because as good as I am at tuning out what's going on around me when I read, even I had to actually concentrate on this one. It got pretty heavy. There were several things in there that Steve and I had talked about years ago on how we felt on them, one in particular that I wrote up in an email years ago and saved and send off whenever someone asks me "How could God let this happen". Another on the role of "religion" in spirituality. The roles of man and woman in marriage. There were also a couple things that I had never thought of before that I found kind of interesting. Anyway, it was a deep read that used small words. I don't know how to put this, but it was a thought-provoking and intelligent book written in such a way that it almost seemed overly simplistic. In other words, it wasn't a great novel/story per se, not nearly as eloquent as Jodi P. for example, but you sure could pick up a lot of thoughts to feed on if you're willing. I'm going to do something I haven't done in awhile, and re-read the book. Sometime Later.
Not a lot has gone on today, and that's just fine. :) Steve grilled out burgers for lunch and steaks for dinner, all quite tasty. Kaylee slept on the deck with Steve last night (and *I* slept like a Rock in my own bed!!), and they spent some time playing, wrestling, and all that fun Daddy stuff. Later, Kaylee's friend from next door came over, and she was quite happy to have someone her age to go play with for awhile too.
I finished reading "The Shack", and I certainly found it interesting. If I start getting into a book review on it, I'll talk too much for even me, so I'll just suggest that anyone interested in issues such as spirituality, loss, grief, God, religion...most if not all of the "hard" topics relating to God, pick it up and read it some time, with an open mind. However, I would also suggest you have some quiet time and space in which to read it, because as good as I am at tuning out what's going on around me when I read, even I had to actually concentrate on this one. It got pretty heavy. There were several things in there that Steve and I had talked about years ago on how we felt on them, one in particular that I wrote up in an email years ago and saved and send off whenever someone asks me "How could God let this happen". Another on the role of "religion" in spirituality. The roles of man and woman in marriage. There were also a couple things that I had never thought of before that I found kind of interesting. Anyway, it was a deep read that used small words. I don't know how to put this, but it was a thought-provoking and intelligent book written in such a way that it almost seemed overly simplistic. In other words, it wasn't a great novel/story per se, not nearly as eloquent as Jodi P. for example, but you sure could pick up a lot of thoughts to feed on if you're willing. I'm going to do something I haven't done in awhile, and re-read the book. Sometime Later.
Not a lot has gone on today, and that's just fine. :) Steve grilled out burgers for lunch and steaks for dinner, all quite tasty. Kaylee slept on the deck with Steve last night (and *I* slept like a Rock in my own bed!!), and they spent some time playing, wrestling, and all that fun Daddy stuff. Later, Kaylee's friend from next door came over, and she was quite happy to have someone her age to go play with for awhile too.
It was a good, quiet, peaceful summer day. :)
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Ups and Downs
After being awake until past 2 a.m. yesterday, I was lounging around on a Saturday morning in my pajamas, reading a book, drinking a Diet Coke, and relaxing while Steve and Kaylee goofed around outside. I was doing that until I got a text that said something like "Anyone want to take me to Huntington to pick up the T-6?" Yay! This means the T-6 is completely and utterly done and Nathan's ready to take final delivery of it, and it is coming home sweet home. I got ready post haste and headed on over there, and me, 
Chuck and Nathan flew the Baron over to Huntington, and Nathan and Chuck flew her home (picture left) while I brought back the Baron. Later that afternoon, Nathan went back up and I went along, and we spent a good hour cruising around Tipton, Sheridan, Rossville, Glenndale, just flying around. It's a sweet-flying airplane; smooth engine and controls-a true pleasure to fly. He flew some, I flew some, and it was a really enjoyable, relaxing flight. We finally came in and it was time to fix our helmets (long story), put stuff away, and head on out. I had to get to Sam's Club and another store before they closed...
While I was walking out the door at Sam's Club, the woman who checked my cart items against my receipt handed me a 'free' dvd along with my receipt back. I took a quick look, and it was a "Keep Moving" Exercise DVD from Tylenol. What are they trying to say?? What's even more ironic is that when I sat down to type this entry, I put my fudgy chocolate brownie right down on top of that exercise dvd cover until I got settled in. ;)
Kaylee was spraying herself down with bug spray in preparation for the fire we were having in our back yard, and while spraying the back of her leg and looking down to see where she was spraying, she shot the bug spray directly into her face. It got directly in her right eye and her mouth. The first I heard of this was her shrieking across the house looking for a towel. The can says it can cause serious and permanent eye damage, and that if it gets in the eye, to flush the eye with running water for 15-20 minutes. Has anyone ever tried to actually do that, let alone to a seven-year-old who absolutely detests getting water on her face and always has?? Oh, that was a nightmare. She's in pain, and crying, and semi-hysterical, and I don't blame her. How would you feel having two people three times your size making you lie down on a kitchen counter and pouring water into your forced-open eyeball? Or making you lie down belly first and dunk your head in water, something she won't do without peer pressure in a pool anyway, and open your eyes. We spoke calmly, we tried to go slowly, but the bottom line is, after awhile when she wouldn't cooperate, we had to tell her rather firmly that we don't want to do this either but we're trying to save her vision and that she has no choice and she needs to buck up and be strong. I hated it almost as much as she did. She would beg us to stop, say she couldn't breathe; it was one of those parenting moments that make being the grown-up miserable. Finally at the end Steve was holding her head and just telling her how important this was, and she did "buck up". She was sobbing, but she held still, forced her eye open, and let us do it. Afterwards she and I were both pretty well soaked, and she laid on my lap on the couch against my chest for about ten minutes and just cried. I've checked her eye a few times, and there is some residual redness, but I think some of that is from her rubbing (ack!) it so hard to begin with, some from the initial chemical trauma, and some from the water torture. Under her eye is red too from all the patting and rubbing. But she claims no blurriness of vision and no more stinging, and seems to be fine. While she seems to be well over it, she is, however, slightly traumatized as far as spray cans and water are concerned. *sigh*
While this was going on, a friend came over to visit, and got a fire going in our back yard. In a fire pit, if I need add that. We all went outside and enjoyed the fire until it got dark, and then Kaylee headed to bed when it started dumping rain on us.
Tonight is SMA Awareness Night. The second Saturday of every year, 7 p.m. in every time zone around the globe, families light candles in honor of SMA children here and gone. Mine is lit.
It's funny, the last two books I've read/am reading both have depicted God in ways you wouldn't typically think of him. "Change of Heart" by Jodi Piccoult (an excellent author by the way) is making you think by showing a "murderous" prison inmate as God. The Bible talks about "I was naked and you clothed me, hungry and you fed me, in prison and you came to me." Well, this guy was in prison, and you never knew what to believe all the way through the book. But the parallels between him and the story of Jesus during his time on earth were quite arresting. Tonight I'm reading "The Shack" by William Young. I'm not that far into it, because life keeps interrupting, but the premise as I can see it so far is about a man's relationship with God after his seven-year-old daughter is murdered by a serial killer and her body never found-only her torn and bloodied little red dress. Which is horrid by the way. Same as Jodi's book, where a seven-year-old girl was shot and killed. Why are these two books making me read stories of innocent, beautiful, sweet girls the same age as my own dying in horrid ways and how their parents have to go forward and spirituality involved in it? But the Jodi book was good, and I'll find out on the other tonight.
Right now I'm sitting in a dark living room, with only one low lamp on, because our bright light in the corner blew a bulb and I don't have a replacement. So I have my "amber glow" candle going, and a lamp, and the dryer running quietly, and the rain falling, and a chocolate brownie, and it is good. Tonight Kaylee is sleeping on the deck in sleeping bags with her daddy, and the Tooth Fairy is going to try to steal her tooth from her without waking her up. Wish her luck. ;)
This picture is of her clutching her tooth pillow last night. She keeps trying to catch the Fairy, and one of these days, she just may! :O
Chuck and Nathan flew the Baron over to Huntington, and Nathan and Chuck flew her home (picture left) while I brought back the Baron. Later that afternoon, Nathan went back up and I went along, and we spent a good hour cruising around Tipton, Sheridan, Rossville, Glenndale, just flying around. It's a sweet-flying airplane; smooth engine and controls-a true pleasure to fly. He flew some, I flew some, and it was a really enjoyable, relaxing flight. We finally came in and it was time to fix our helmets (long story), put stuff away, and head on out. I had to get to Sam's Club and another store before they closed...While I was walking out the door at Sam's Club, the woman who checked my cart items against my receipt handed me a 'free' dvd along with my receipt back. I took a quick look, and it was a "Keep Moving" Exercise DVD from Tylenol. What are they trying to say?? What's even more ironic is that when I sat down to type this entry, I put my fudgy chocolate brownie right down on top of that exercise dvd cover until I got settled in. ;)
Kaylee was spraying herself down with bug spray in preparation for the fire we were having in our back yard, and while spraying the back of her leg and looking down to see where she was spraying, she shot the bug spray directly into her face. It got directly in her right eye and her mouth. The first I heard of this was her shrieking across the house looking for a towel. The can says it can cause serious and permanent eye damage, and that if it gets in the eye, to flush the eye with running water for 15-20 minutes. Has anyone ever tried to actually do that, let alone to a seven-year-old who absolutely detests getting water on her face and always has?? Oh, that was a nightmare. She's in pain, and crying, and semi-hysterical, and I don't blame her. How would you feel having two people three times your size making you lie down on a kitchen counter and pouring water into your forced-open eyeball? Or making you lie down belly first and dunk your head in water, something she won't do without peer pressure in a pool anyway, and open your eyes. We spoke calmly, we tried to go slowly, but the bottom line is, after awhile when she wouldn't cooperate, we had to tell her rather firmly that we don't want to do this either but we're trying to save her vision and that she has no choice and she needs to buck up and be strong. I hated it almost as much as she did. She would beg us to stop, say she couldn't breathe; it was one of those parenting moments that make being the grown-up miserable. Finally at the end Steve was holding her head and just telling her how important this was, and she did "buck up". She was sobbing, but she held still, forced her eye open, and let us do it. Afterwards she and I were both pretty well soaked, and she laid on my lap on the couch against my chest for about ten minutes and just cried. I've checked her eye a few times, and there is some residual redness, but I think some of that is from her rubbing (ack!) it so hard to begin with, some from the initial chemical trauma, and some from the water torture. Under her eye is red too from all the patting and rubbing. But she claims no blurriness of vision and no more stinging, and seems to be fine. While she seems to be well over it, she is, however, slightly traumatized as far as spray cans and water are concerned. *sigh*
While this was going on, a friend came over to visit, and got a fire going in our back yard. In a fire pit, if I need add that. We all went outside and enjoyed the fire until it got dark, and then Kaylee headed to bed when it started dumping rain on us.
Tonight is SMA Awareness Night. The second Saturday of every year, 7 p.m. in every time zone around the globe, families light candles in honor of SMA children here and gone. Mine is lit.
It's funny, the last two books I've read/am reading both have depicted God in ways you wouldn't typically think of him. "Change of Heart" by Jodi Piccoult (an excellent author by the way) is making you think by showing a "murderous" prison inmate as God. The Bible talks about "I was naked and you clothed me, hungry and you fed me, in prison and you came to me." Well, this guy was in prison, and you never knew what to believe all the way through the book. But the parallels between him and the story of Jesus during his time on earth were quite arresting. Tonight I'm reading "The Shack" by William Young. I'm not that far into it, because life keeps interrupting, but the premise as I can see it so far is about a man's relationship with God after his seven-year-old daughter is murdered by a serial killer and her body never found-only her torn and bloodied little red dress. Which is horrid by the way. Same as Jodi's book, where a seven-year-old girl was shot and killed. Why are these two books making me read stories of innocent, beautiful, sweet girls the same age as my own dying in horrid ways and how their parents have to go forward and spirituality involved in it? But the Jodi book was good, and I'll find out on the other tonight.
Right now I'm sitting in a dark living room, with only one low lamp on, because our bright light in the corner blew a bulb and I don't have a replacement. So I have my "amber glow" candle going, and a lamp, and the dryer running quietly, and the rain falling, and a chocolate brownie, and it is good. Tonight Kaylee is sleeping on the deck in sleeping bags with her daddy, and the Tooth Fairy is going to try to steal her tooth from her without waking her up. Wish her luck. ;)
This picture is of her clutching her tooth pillow last night. She keeps trying to catch the Fairy, and one of these days, she just may! :O
Tooth Fairy
Kaylee has had a loose tooth for days now. She has been bugging me to death to pull it with the pliers, but this time I said "no, just let it fall out naturally." Well, these last couple of days she has been non-stop on that tooth coming out, so this afternoon I checked it, it's just barely hanging there, and I agreed to pull it-but she chickened out as soon as I got ready. I shrug and say "then don't bug me about it any more girly!" Twenty minutes later, she yells that she's pulled it out herself. She puts the tooth in her Tooth Fairy pillow, hugs it close to her, and goes to sleep.
The Tooth Fairy always has a difficult time with the Tooth Fairy Pillow, because the tooth is so tiny it goes all the way into a corner of the pocket, and it's tough to fish around in there without waking up the kiddo. Tonight, the Tooth Fairy got the money in the pocket, but the process woke up the girl, but not enough to be aware. So the Tooth Fairy had to leave the tooth alone in there lest the girl wake up and catch the Tooth Fairy in the act, which would be a very bad deal.
So around 2 a.m. I go into Kaylee's room to tell her that instead of sleeping on the couch tonight, her daddy wanted to sleep on the deck with her tomorrow and sleep in his own bed tonight. As I'm walking into her room, she is walking out clutching her pillow. She shows me the money in her pocket, and then says "And guess what, Mommy? I asked the Tooth Fairy if I could keep the tooth for one more day because I'd JUST gotten it out and I wanted to spend one more night with it and see it for another day. And she said yes, because my tooth is still here even though the money is too! Isn't it great?!"
Ah, how these things work out sometimes. ;) Now, how is the Tooth Fairy going to get this tooth out of the pillow tomorrow night??
The Tooth Fairy always has a difficult time with the Tooth Fairy Pillow, because the tooth is so tiny it goes all the way into a corner of the pocket, and it's tough to fish around in there without waking up the kiddo. Tonight, the Tooth Fairy got the money in the pocket, but the process woke up the girl, but not enough to be aware. So the Tooth Fairy had to leave the tooth alone in there lest the girl wake up and catch the Tooth Fairy in the act, which would be a very bad deal.
So around 2 a.m. I go into Kaylee's room to tell her that instead of sleeping on the couch tonight, her daddy wanted to sleep on the deck with her tomorrow and sleep in his own bed tonight. As I'm walking into her room, she is walking out clutching her pillow. She shows me the money in her pocket, and then says "And guess what, Mommy? I asked the Tooth Fairy if I could keep the tooth for one more day because I'd JUST gotten it out and I wanted to spend one more night with it and see it for another day. And she said yes, because my tooth is still here even though the money is too! Isn't it great?!"
Ah, how these things work out sometimes. ;) Now, how is the Tooth Fairy going to get this tooth out of the pillow tomorrow night??
Friday, August 08, 2008
Friday Rolls By Again
I was on my way to Glenndale with Kaylee in the car, and out of the blue she said "You know what Mommy, it's like every word in the world is a card in your head, like 'candy', and when you pull the card 'candy' in your head, it tells you all about the different types of candy and stuff." I was kind of impressed with that, and I said "You're right, your brain IS like a filing system." Confused Silence Ensued. "Like a computer. Your brain is like a computer." "Ooooh, yes! Exactly!" What was I thinking, to use a filing system as a reference for a seven-year-old?? :)
Other than getting the house picked up and some laundry done, I spent the day at the office. Maggie and Kaylee got to play for several hours again, and they both enjoyed that a lot. Steve and I finished up the billing finally, and while it wasn't done in time to get in the mail like I hoped, at least it's done and ready to go.
We learned last week that one of the guys at our airport has a terminal brain tumor. He left lunch last Friday, thinking all was fine. Went to a doctor appointment after lunch, and ended up that night in an ER having a brain operation to remove a tumor. A few days later he was told he had 3-6 months to live. His wife was at our lunch today, and they think they may be bringing him home tonight if it works out. It's just kind of a shock-he had that thing ticking in there for how long? To leave our little lunch and think you're fine, and a few hours later be on your way to a terminal diagnosis. It's just...a little scary I guess. I really feel for his wife. I don't want to imagine being in her shoes. I know that lots if not most spouses are in those shoes at some point; I just don't want to imagine it.
Well, it seems like I have a quiet evening to myself for a few hours here, so I'm thinking of reading "The Shack" while my laundry goes, and I should finish it in a couple hours. Hopefully I will be able to resist coming back and publicly waxing melancholy afterwards. :)
------------------------------------------
"Depression is often caused by thinking too much about yourself. Try to think of others, try to help them. You will be amazed how that lessens your depression. That satisfaction is priceless."
~ Kirk Douglas in an essay for Newsweek
"All too often the difference between success and failure, progress and regress, happiness and depression--and, yes, balance and imbalance--is simply a matter of perspective."
~Paul Wilson, Business executive and author
"Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise."
~Samuel Lover, Novelist and songwriter
Other than getting the house picked up and some laundry done, I spent the day at the office. Maggie and Kaylee got to play for several hours again, and they both enjoyed that a lot. Steve and I finished up the billing finally, and while it wasn't done in time to get in the mail like I hoped, at least it's done and ready to go.
We learned last week that one of the guys at our airport has a terminal brain tumor. He left lunch last Friday, thinking all was fine. Went to a doctor appointment after lunch, and ended up that night in an ER having a brain operation to remove a tumor. A few days later he was told he had 3-6 months to live. His wife was at our lunch today, and they think they may be bringing him home tonight if it works out. It's just kind of a shock-he had that thing ticking in there for how long? To leave our little lunch and think you're fine, and a few hours later be on your way to a terminal diagnosis. It's just...a little scary I guess. I really feel for his wife. I don't want to imagine being in her shoes. I know that lots if not most spouses are in those shoes at some point; I just don't want to imagine it.
Well, it seems like I have a quiet evening to myself for a few hours here, so I'm thinking of reading "The Shack" while my laundry goes, and I should finish it in a couple hours. Hopefully I will be able to resist coming back and publicly waxing melancholy afterwards. :)
------------------------------------------
"Depression is often caused by thinking too much about yourself. Try to think of others, try to help them. You will be amazed how that lessens your depression. That satisfaction is priceless."
~ Kirk Douglas in an essay for Newsweek
"All too often the difference between success and failure, progress and regress, happiness and depression--and, yes, balance and imbalance--is simply a matter of perspective."
~Paul Wilson, Business executive and author
"Circumstances are the rulers of the weak; they are but the instruments of the wise."
~Samuel Lover, Novelist and songwriter
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Ah, Productivity
My first task of the day was to go out to Kokomo and pull out an airplane to be used in a Freshman Orientation Film that IUK (Indiana University of Kokomo) was putting together. It was a skit, and part of the skit involved an airplane, and they didn't even need to go flying. They sat the actress in the left seat, and had these phone headphones. I said "I have a real headset you could use." but they weren't interested and said they weren't too worried about the realism since it was more a funny skit part of the movie anyway. I tried. ;) You know, we get some of hte most odd requests relating to aviation sometimes. lol
Kaylee and I met up with Judy, Maggie and Hannah for lunch today, and then went on over to "Go Bananas". This is a kid place filled with blow-up jumpy things of all shapes, sizes, obstacle courses, etc. They loved it. They ran and jumped non-stop the whole time, going from one to the other, down a 12' slide, through inflatable obstacles, all that
stuff. They also had one of those inflatable things where you put on a big vest attached to a giant rubber band and run as hard as you can and try to "stick" a velcro thing to the velcro side and see how far you get. Kaylee would run, the rubber band would pull her back, and she'd go flying off her feet backwards. She loved it. The other one that was funny was one of those "sticky" walls. She put on a huge velcro suit and ran and jumped onto a velcro wall and "stuck". It was so funny to watch her running in what looked like a sumo wrestling suit, way too big. She was always a little timid until her last run-she took a good run and it and flung herself up and forward and finally hit the wall a decent distance up there. But the suit was so big, IT stuck to the wall while SHE slid out of it, giving herself a "wedgie" as she said. It was really funny to watch-I should have gotten a video of that one. We stayed there until it was nap time, then went our separate ways. Once we left the building I realized how QUIET it was out in the real world. Inside that building, you could hear nothing but children quietly screaming over the sound of a Ton of blowers keeping all those inflatables up and running. Kaylee did have one observation though-one of their rules is "No Running". There is also "No Jumping on the slides" and "One at a time on the slides". So her observation was "The name of this place is 'Go Bananas' but you can't exactly Go Bananas if you can't even run!" But it's clean, well-organized, safe, and fun for kids. Two thumbs-up from our crew. Photos up on her site. :)
I took Kaylee home long enough to grab her gymnastics stuff and a snack, took her to Glenndale for a little while, then on to her class. I came back and entered time sheets, and got that done sometime this evening. I took Kaylee out to Kokomo where she rode her bike for awhile while I did an errand there, and then we stopped at Steak & Shake for dinner.
I got the house picked up a little bit and will do more tomorrow, and all in all it was an uneventful but productive day...
Kaylee and I met up with Judy, Maggie and Hannah for lunch today, and then went on over to "Go Bananas". This is a kid place filled with blow-up jumpy things of all shapes, sizes, obstacle courses, etc. They loved it. They ran and jumped non-stop the whole time, going from one to the other, down a 12' slide, through inflatable obstacles, all that
stuff. They also had one of those inflatable things where you put on a big vest attached to a giant rubber band and run as hard as you can and try to "stick" a velcro thing to the velcro side and see how far you get. Kaylee would run, the rubber band would pull her back, and she'd go flying off her feet backwards. She loved it. The other one that was funny was one of those "sticky" walls. She put on a huge velcro suit and ran and jumped onto a velcro wall and "stuck". It was so funny to watch her running in what looked like a sumo wrestling suit, way too big. She was always a little timid until her last run-she took a good run and it and flung herself up and forward and finally hit the wall a decent distance up there. But the suit was so big, IT stuck to the wall while SHE slid out of it, giving herself a "wedgie" as she said. It was really funny to watch-I should have gotten a video of that one. We stayed there until it was nap time, then went our separate ways. Once we left the building I realized how QUIET it was out in the real world. Inside that building, you could hear nothing but children quietly screaming over the sound of a Ton of blowers keeping all those inflatables up and running. Kaylee did have one observation though-one of their rules is "No Running". There is also "No Jumping on the slides" and "One at a time on the slides". So her observation was "The name of this place is 'Go Bananas' but you can't exactly Go Bananas if you can't even run!" But it's clean, well-organized, safe, and fun for kids. Two thumbs-up from our crew. Photos up on her site. :)I took Kaylee home long enough to grab her gymnastics stuff and a snack, took her to Glenndale for a little while, then on to her class. I came back and entered time sheets, and got that done sometime this evening. I took Kaylee out to Kokomo where she rode her bike for awhile while I did an errand there, and then we stopped at Steak & Shake for dinner.
I got the house picked up a little bit and will do more tomorrow, and all in all it was an uneventful but productive day...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Kaylee
I was bemoaning this yesterday and today to Steve and Chuck, and I started to do an entry on it with lots of pictures yesterday but it was too much effort, so I will stick with these. Kaylee matured SO much in just this one year. I had been noticing it for awhile, but it really hit home when I looked at the photos from last Oshkosh. Last year she had the baby face still. This year, she's a young lady. I don't know exactly when it happened, but she grew up on me a lot in a short time! I was showing her that this morning-showing her photos from last year-and she said "I look like I was two!" I fake sniffed and said "you're getting all big on me!" and she made some comment about not getting any bigger. I told her that she's supposed to get bigger and more mature and that I want her to grow...just that this particular growth spurt seemed a little fast! See for yourself. :)
Minutia
Kaylee is having trouble getting back into a normal sleep routine. She's wide awake until midnight or so, even with lights off in her room, in her bed quietly. She's just...awake. I've been putting her to bed 30 minutes earlier every night trying to help her wean her way back, and wake her up a little earlier each morning, but she's not enjoying it much, which means neither am I. ;)
So it was a fairly quiet morning around here; after lunch I took her out to the airport with me, and I stayed and entered time sheets, answered the phone, talked to a couple of walk-ins, chatted with a couple of students, all that good stuff. At 6, Kaylee and I left and met up with Chuck, Judy, Maggie and Hannah at the church in town there for their annual fish fry fundraiser. It's really good fish, and it's all you can eat, along with baked beans, green beans, cole slaw, apple sauce, lots of drinks, all for $8. There are also tables full of desserts that you can buy for extra at $1 a pop. (The desserts, not the tables.) It's quite tasty!
Well, I think I've stared at the blinking cursor long enough-I have nothing more to add for the day... :)
So it was a fairly quiet morning around here; after lunch I took her out to the airport with me, and I stayed and entered time sheets, answered the phone, talked to a couple of walk-ins, chatted with a couple of students, all that good stuff. At 6, Kaylee and I left and met up with Chuck, Judy, Maggie and Hannah at the church in town there for their annual fish fry fundraiser. It's really good fish, and it's all you can eat, along with baked beans, green beans, cole slaw, apple sauce, lots of drinks, all for $8. There are also tables full of desserts that you can buy for extra at $1 a pop. (The desserts, not the tables.) It's quite tasty!
Well, I think I've stared at the blinking cursor long enough-I have nothing more to add for the day... :)
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