Fright Night...

Happy Halloween! Kaylee had a class party today and came home with a bunch of candy, which pleased her greatly and was a good start to her junk food day.

At lunch at Glenndale we had home made chicken & noodles and mashed potatoes, and it was quite tasty. I had to leave a little earlier today to take a flight at Sheridan. It was a little lumpy and bumpy today, which made it a good crosswind practice day for the student. After my flight I went back to Glenndale and we hung out with Jim and Steve and Kaylee until it was time to take her and get her ready for...dum da dum...Halloween! One of Kaylee's favorite holidays. :)

So, what did Kaylee decide to be this year? Well, she's always been something sweet and cute, and this year she wanted a change. So here's a timeline; Kaylee from her first Halloween through this one. Enjoy!

My Little Hershey Kiss...

Barney the Dinosaur-my attempt at irony.

What a pretty fairy princess!

Pegasus the Warm Winged Horse. ;)

Beautiful Disney Princess...

Tinkerbelle!!

Arial the Mermaid...

And this year, please let me introduce the sweet, the lovely, the darling little...Goth Girl???

You can see the rest of her photos on her two pages. The whole ball of wax in color on this page, and a few of them done in black and white on this page. She had a couple of people think she was a witch, one who asked if she was Elvira (NO!), and the rest seemed to get that she was a scary Goth Girl. She had a skeleton earring she wore for awhile until it caught in her hair and broke. The face paint was an exercise for her-she hated me putting it on, but she loved it once it was on. She wanted me to put swirlies on her eyes in black. We went to Russiaville, and there was just an entire herd of children trick or treating there. It's like small town trick or treating used to be but I haven't seen in awhile. Lots of porch lights on, tons of kids, friendly people sitting on their porches talking to the kids when they come up, fall trees and sunsets, warm temps, and it was just a really beautiful evening. Kaylee had a great time. Usually people have stared after her because she was, well, cute. This year she had them staring after her because she was, well, creepy. One guy with two metal studs in his face even said "Whoa! Scary!" If that doesn't say something... ;)

So I hope you all enjoyed your Fright Night too!

Rollercoaster

It's beautiful today, and I'm thankful for it and hope it holds out over the whole weekend.

After I took Kaylee to school I went out to Kokomo Airport to fly the T-6 for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was really kind of funny-I said awhile ago that there should be a "Man Rule" that you shouldn't be allowed to fly an airplane if you can't get it out, get it ready, fly it and put it away without somebody holding your hand or doing it for you. (Unless you work for the airlines or something). Of course that doesn't mean you refuse help if it is offered, but you should be capable of doing it yourself. ;) So today I got to practice what I preached. The T-6 was buried in the back of the hangar. So I pulled out the Baron first and got it out of the way. I hooked up to the tug and attempted to pull out the T-6, but the Cheyenne had been put away juuuust a little too far over, and after several minutes of careful maneuvering, unhooking and trying it again, etc. I stopped and was staring at it. A friend who was out there told me if I cut it real hard this way and got past this part and then cut it real hard the other way and got it past the other part that I could make it out. I contemplated that for a whole second before saying "I am just not that talented." So I fired up the Cheyenne tug and moved that out of the hangar too. I got the T-6 out, put the Cheyenne back in, put the Baron back into the corner, unhooked from the T-6, closed the door, remembered to get oil to put in the back since I was solo, did that and the preflight and all that good stuff, and finally was ready to go take that quick and easy morning flight. :D

I took my camera and was going to take a few photos while I was up there, but no inspiration struck; and besides, I was mostly just doing takeoffs and landings. Not much photo-worthy there. Basically I took off, flew around and did a few quick maneuvers just to get in the swing of things, and then came back in and did four takeoffs and landings. I started off with the dead calm winds I've had every time I've been in it, and ended up with a blistering 10 knot wind 50 degrees off the runway. Pretty pathetic as far as crosswinds go...my mornings have been busy every day, and the winds when my schedule is open have lately been a touch on the blustery side for what I'm trying to do. It was a good flight though; I enjoyed it and it felt right. When I'm cruising along for a few minutes not doing anything, I find myself looking around waiting for a simulated engine failure/fire or other emergency though-I kept realizing I was a little on edge, and it's because I was waiting to jump on something "bad" that happened. lol

Putting it away after I was done was much easier, since I left it in the front of the hangar for the weekend. I then ran to the store and got school and home supplies, went to the post office, unloaded all my stuff at home and got right back in the car and went to lunch.

We met back up at Glenndale, five of us, and we headed over to a funeral home in Russiaville, where there was a viewing for one of our club member's wives. It's just one of those stories that hurts to hear. Our friend was laid off of his job at 60 years of age, and then that same day or two, his wife pulled out onto a street not seeing incoming traffic, and was hit and killed instantly. There were no skid marks from either car trying to brake-it seems like nobody even knew what hit them. He is going through so much...my heart just really goes out to him. I remember coming out of the hospital after Devon died and thinking that the whole world should just stop, just for a minute, to recognize a profound loss. Feeling that it was almost obscene to walk around and see people laughing and going on and having no idea of what had just happened, wanting to just tell everybody and make them all stop and feel what I did just for a minute too. But life doesn't work that way and the world does keep spinning. But while it's spinning with me on it too in many other directions than this, I did want to stop just for that minute and pray for him as he faces these years without his lifetime partner. I can't imagine what he's going through with the loss of his job and his wife all at the same time...

I left there and picked Kaylee up at school, dropping off some school supplies, and taking her to gymnastics.

Oh, last night on the way home from Awanas, Kaylee told me that she only got one section said because kids cut in front of her in line to say their sections. I asked her if she didn't say something like "excuse me, but I was here", and she said that yes, she did, but they just ignored her. I told her that it's okay to stand up for herself in situations, politely and appropriately, and she responded with "I know, Mommy, but saying the sections isn't that important to have to get in an argument over. I'm not a tough girl, I'm a nice girl." Well, except for today when she said a girl at school called her a Loser and Kaylee informed me that she wanted to take the book she was carrying and "hit her with it." Fortunately she did not do that... *sigh*

This evening I've been working on all the laundry that got behind, dishes, groceries, all that good domestic stuff, and tomorrow will be another busy day...

Milestones

This morning was fun as I got to solo a student. It's always rewarding to take someone from not knowing anything about flying to sending them off in an airplane all by themselves for the first time. It's a lot of hard work they put into getting to that point and I'm always proud of and happy for them. Here's a photo I took of their first takeoff on their own. :)

As you can see, it was a pretty morning. After I left there I went to Glenndale until lunch time, and after lunch I ran errands until it was time to grab Kaylee at school. One of my errands was to stop at the nearest Redbox and pick up the new release "Tinkerbell", the movie. Kaylee shrieked when I handed her the video case in the car, and she raced through her chores so she could watch it before Awanas.

Kaylee said "All Disney movies have a lesson for you to learn. This one was about being proud of your talents and who you are and not trying to be someone else." She's exactly right, too, I thought that was a little insightful of her.

These are the quotes that came in today...

"People who consider themselves victims of their circumstances will always remain victims unless they develop a greater vision for their lives."
~Stedman Graham

"Don't be disquieted in time of adversity. Be firm with dignity, and self-reliant."
~Chiang Kai-Shek

"The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life. It is this, always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but rather be made to blossom, like Aaron's rod, with flowers."
~Helen Keller

"The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper."
~Aristotle

Conquering

Well, I personally spent the entire day sitting on my rear end doing Jack and its cousin Diddly Squat. But at least it was a productive day anyway!

Steve and I flew the Baron over to Muncie today, and he spent the next five hours doing his Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI) checkride with the examiner over there. What? Of course he passed! I've never had a student fail a multi or MEI checkride yet. ;) We joke about how now I have to go get my ATP (Airline Transport Pilot certificate) if I want to stay ahead of him, because now he has the same certificates/ratings I do and more total hours. And how the only problem is that on the way home he wanted to tell me how to fly the Baron now. Of course he'll never catch me on total multi hours, and so far I still have the T-6 on him. But the truth is that I'm happy for him and proud that he got it accomplished. Shhhhh. :) I took this photo after we got back-you can click on it to enlarge it. :)

On the way over, the sun was barely up and we were flying in between two layers of scattered clouds with the sun shining through them. It was Really pretty; I wished I had my camera with me instead of back in the baggage compartment.

We got back around 2 pm and hung out in Nathan's hangar until it was time for me to take Kaylee to ballet. A quick dinner at Applebees was the first food I'd eaten since last night, and boy did I need it. We came home and Steve passed out on the couch leaning to the right and I passed out on the couch leaning to the left, until Kaylee woke me up. We were just pooped! Late night last night, crunching to get ready for the checkride, getting up early, etc. It's good to have that finished up. :)

Oh, Kaylee's second grade school photo came back! I'll get them up on her site probably tonight, but here's the one. You know I have to say it: she's so big!

Blustery

Today felt like winter. Cold, windy and gray. I'm going to have to hunt down my gloves soon. *sigh*

As soon as I dropped Kaylee off at school, I went to Sheridan for a flight. We had decent winds today of around 17-20 knots, right down the one runway, and a decent crosswind (50 degrees off) off the other runway, which was really good practice for the student. I left there and went right out to Kokomo where I met up with Steve and we did some multi-engine work. Engine outs both simulated in the pattern and a full feather engine stop up at altitude, steep turns, and stalls. On the power on stall, the power sneaked in a bit higher than it needed to be, and I was watching out the window and he pulled it up to stall. We slowly went about vertical, then he pulled back a little more, it was looking a little too interesting of an angle in a Baron for my tastes, so I said "Okee dokee, good enough, let's recover" Steve harassed me about wimping out on it for about an hour, before admitting he'd just looked out the side window and saw his angle and was just a half second behind me on getting out of that particular maneuver. Never can trust that guy. ;) We happened to end up just south of Glenndale on our way back to Kokomo to land for lunch, so Steve dropped down and checked the runway for them. So at lunch Nathan says "You know, I happened to be out at Glenndale today, and I saw what sure looked like one of my airplanes going by..." Well, it's been a long time since the runway was carefully checked, and I can say that Steve gets his sign-off for Baron Runway Checking Maneuvers. ;)

We left the airport and went to lunch at Applebees, then Steve and I went right back out to the airport for one last flight. Let's see. Vmc Demo, Drag Demo, engine failure on takeoff roll, simulated engine failure after takeoff, short field takeoff, and a crosswind landing off the other runway, around 60 degrees off gusting up to around 21 knots or so. That kind of good stuff.

One nice thing-in order to do the single engine Vmc demonstrations, we had to get above the cloud deck because it was too low to do below. So we found a hole and climbed up on top of the clouds, and after all the climbing stuff ended up around 10,000'. It was blue sky and bright sunshine with puffy white below. Quite pretty, really, and I got a little bit of light therapy on the otherwise gray day.

We got everything put away, and it was time for me to get Kaylee from school and relax briefly before she went to Cheer practice. The rest of the day was just as busy as the first. I dropped Kaylee off at Cheer, ran out to Glenndale, ran out to Kokomo, flew for an hour or so with someone doing crosswinds, went to Arby's to grab dinner, dropped back over at Cheer to pick up Kaylee, and came home for the end of day stuff.

Steve is right now hitting the keys on that adding machine like a...machine. :) He's adding up logbook hours and getting everything in order in there, filling out paperwork, studying, just going over some things.

A rather busy, productive day I'd say!

Lounging

We all took a much-needed break today from the outside world. Kaylee slept in until 9, and I got up sometime after that. It's the latest I've slept since...I can't even remember.

Kaylee made chocolate chip pancakes with Steve, and they were better than IHOP's version. :) I even sprinkled more chips on top of mine and microwaved them to soft gooeyness, because nothing says "healthy breakfast" like a layer of melted chocolate on top. Yum.

As for me, I shamelessly admit to sitting around with no makeup and messy hair and comfy pants, wearing my one-armed glasses and reading the latest Jonathan Kellerman novel while eating extra cheesy Goldfish crackers and drinking Diet Mt. Dew. Three hundred and fifty-three pages later the book is finished, leaving me with nothing deep to chew on, but at least a filling up of my "calm and restful" bag.

The winds today were gusting up to around 40 knots, and knocked over Kaylee's basketball hoop outside. It was nice sitting in the comfort of our own home, listening to the wind bluster, and have nowhere to have to go and nothing to have to do. A little tranquility...

Tea Time

Saturday morning, how nice to get to sleep in a little bit for another morning in a row! And tomorrow morning too! I like Kaylee's vacations. ;)

This morning we left the house around 9:30 to head down to Noblesville to go to a birthday party for Kaylee's friend Maggie. The girls all watched the "Kit Kittredge", the "American Girl" movie, and had popcorn and juice. Kaylee liked the movie, and so did I. It was set during the times of hobos and the Great Depression, and a few families' struggles when the husband lost his job and what the wives and kids had to do to make it while many husbands were off looking for work in other cities-unsuccessfully. It also included a good old-fashioned adventure for a young girl and her friends, of course. At one point, jewel/cash thieves were getting away, so Kit got into the back seat of the car to try to stop them, get her money back, and save their home. Kaylee leaned in towards me and said "That's dangerous. She should really let the grown-ups handle something like that with bad guys." I probably lose good parenting points for this one, but I told her that while usually, yes, it is best to let grown-ups handle stuff like that, there were no grown-ups around, and Kit was trying to save her family and home, she'd told others what she was doing and to go get help, and that she was very smart and brave. And that kids can do almost anything they put their minds to too. What kid doesn't dream of being the hero, of being the one to save the day without grown-ups? Did you read Tom Sawyer? Trixie Beldon? Nancy Drew? Countless child heroes both classic and modern? You didn't hear Penny from Inspector Gadget say she'd best leave it to the grownups. Ya know? So while I certainly don't want her in real life accosting a 'bad' adult, she's too young to move past the "kids can save the day too" phase in my probably-wrong-but-I'm-sticking-by-it opinion. ;)

After the movie, the girls came downstairs and had a tea party in a room in the theater. Tea and finger sandwiches and cookies and birthday cupcakes; followed by opening presents and hanging out for a few minutes before heading home. The girls had a good time. Here's a picture of Kaylee and Maggie together that I thought turned out nicely, and here are the rest of the photos from the day of mostly Kaylee. :)

On the way home, Kaylee said she wasn't feeling well, so I dropped her off at home and then went back out to fill up with gas, stop at the post office, and go to the store to pick up pancake stuff for tomorrow. The rest of the day we're home and hanging!

Crispy Fried Friday

We woke up this morning to the gray skies and rain that we knew was coming, which cancelled my flight for the day. Well, actually I woke up this morning to Steve flipping on the light in the bedroom and asking me questions while I was asleep. I think the bedside lamp I threw at him only left a little bruise. No, I didn't do that, of course! (I was waaaay too sleepy to exert that much energy...) ;)

It was Fried Chicken Friday today at lunch. Even with the cold rain we had a good turn-out. Deviled eggs, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie. Can you beat that? :)

Steve left to go work on his Jeep wheels, and Kaylee and I left to go to Target. She did a great job not asking for every toy she saw...in fact, we were there for about an hour and it wasn't until the end that she asked for something small. I was impressed. Something tells me she isn't the only 7 year old who asks for everything she sees usually, so for her to see the Holy Grail of Shopping Toy Center and not ask, well, I was kind of proud of her for it. :)

While we were at the mall, I stopped in and got my eyebrows done and picked up hair stuff. When I left, Kaylee ran her fingers over my eyebrow and said "Why do you want to take away hair from there, anyway?" I told her that I just liked it better that way. I still owe my wicked friend Heather for getting me started on torturing myself in such a fashion.

Duane sent out this link about aviation carrier operations, and I have to say after watching this, I feel much better about my own landings; well, most of them anyway. ;) (Of course I haven't been trying to do them on a moving, rocking, dipping, swaying, postage-stamp sized piece of runway at 19 years of age after minimal training, either, but that's beside the point, right?)

Satiated

We had a beautiful morning to fly, which I did for 2.3 out of Sheridan with a student. I love the fall mornings with the rich colors and the cool temps, though pretty soon it's going to go from "cool" to "chilly" to "brrrrr!" to "I don't want to leave my house".

I flew back into Glenndale in time for lunch, and Kaylee was waiting for me at the airport with Steve. We all had a burger then headed out to Kokomo where Steve and I flew the Baron for awhile. I'd missed the Baron! He's getting ready for his Multi-engine Instructor checkride, and we had a good flight. I still think it's pretty cool that we can fly with each other in this kind of capacity without marital conflicts. ;) I can take him up and have him work with me on stuff, he can take me up and have me work with him on stuff. It's really quite handy having a fellow CFI for a spouse. Flight Reviews, Instrument Proficiency Checks, any sign-offs needed we can do for each other, and we can actually work with each other-at minimal cost. ;) Oh, there's good-natured harassment now and then on stuff, but nothing ugly, and we push each other to do and be better at what we do. And we have friends with whom we all who do the same, so it's a win-win-win situation.

After our flight we came back home, and we did something noteworthy. We cooked real, actual food. And not just any food. This was amazing food. Jim Z. (the gentleman who did my T-6 training) is also an airline pilot. He had a trip to Seattle, and while he was there he sent back a bunch of fresh seafood to Nathan for all of us. So tonight I fixed fresh salmon with some dill, lemon and capers. Steve and Kaylee sauteed some scallops with milk, flour and butter, and we boiled what have to be the largest shrimp I have ever seen. We thought they were lobster tails at first-only the little legs gave them away. What an amazing meal. Oh man oh man. That Was Delicious. Thank you, Jim!

Rat Race

This was one of our last sunshiny days for awhile, as our forecast is calling for gray and rainy for about the next five days. So, I got plenty done while I could. I hit the post office twice today, two banks and a store. Went to lunch in town, and caught up on some work and personal stuff at home. Then it was time to get Kaylee from school, and she came bouncing out of there for some reason. Oh yes, because she is now on Fall Break!

Kaylee got her "Science Lab" book orders in today, from school. She wanted these crime lab and science lab kits, so I got them, and after school today we did one of the science experiments. We mixed milk with white vinegar, microwaved it, strained it through a coffee filter, and took the resulting curds and shaped them into a flat disc which Kaylee drew a face on. It has now hardened into plastic. Sour milk stinky plastic. One chemical reaction, one science lesson, a bit of a mess and a little fun; Check. :)

And then it was time for The Great Adventure. Kaylee and I hopped in the car and headed to...Chuck E Cheese! We met up with Nathan, Tre, Holly, Jamie & Gwenie, Roger, his wife and their three kids, Chuck and Steve. You know, we all agreed that Chuck E Cheese improved their pizza from the last time we had it. I got salad bar and breadsticks because I generally can't stand their pizza, but I had a piece tonight and it was actually decent. That's good news, because it's generally hard to kill pizza! The kids had a great time and ran around collecting tickets while we sat around and ate and chatted. Kaylee ended up with a little plastic snake and a giant red moon ball for her prizes, and she was quite pleased with the end of her day and the beginning of her Fall Break.

I've got a few pictures I'm probably going to put up somewhere, but I'll link to those after I get them up. In the meantime, Chuck gave me a few he had on his camera. This one is of me shutting down the T-6 after my last lesson with Jim. I do believe that is a smirk or a smile that I am sporting along with that nice radial-engine-induced Mohawk helmet-head hairdo I've got there. Not a very "pretty" picture, not overly flattering, and yet for some reason it still makes me smile. ;)

And...

Flew for 2.3 this morning in the 172; lots of takeoffs and landings. The days are getting colder and the nights are getting longer. *sigh*

I've sat here for twenty minutes trying to think of something else to say about the day, and am coming up completely blank. The weather? Nice. Flying? Fine. Lunch? Fish, and tasty. Kaylee? Fine day at school, fine at ballet. Steve? Fine at the office, having to use the Vette now that the Jeep broke down and left him stranded at lunch yesterday after the rest of us left him sitting there not knowing the Jeep was broken.

And so passes Tuesday. :)

Mondays-They Keep Coming Back

I had a flight at Sheridan this morning for about an hour, went to Glenndale then out to lunch, ran a few errands, home to do a little work, take Kaylee to Cheer practice, and do some work at home. I've got some photos to burn onto a disc for Kaylee's school from our pumpkin patch trip, and some photos to get off my camera of Chuck in the T-6 from yesterday. :)

I heard that Sarah Palin is being called not mature/responsible enough to be President of the US because of her Saturday Night Live Appearance. That's kind of funny-her 'readiness to be Pres' has been a question to many from the beginning, but now the SNL visit is being used as proof of her immaturity. Well, Palin's not the first "serious" political, news or sports person to go on the show, and all she did was stand there and talk on the first skit, as herself, and sit there at a desk and "raise the roof" with her hands while someone else did a song about her on the second skit. But I'm sure that was much less mature and responsible than President Clinton jamming on Mtv. SNL is supposed to be a place a person can go to be goofy and human and poke fun at themselves. I wonder if now they will have more difficulty getting the political folks to come visit, or if it'll be fine and she's the only one who will be skewered as immature for doing it...

The Tooth Fairy has left our building. Kaylee learned yesterday that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real. Steve did a very good job telling her Mommy was the Tooth Fairy and why and how, and then he asked her if she wanted to tell me that she knew I was the Tooth Fairy or not. Kaylee said no, because she wanted to keep me happy because it made me happy to make her happy. She held out for a day, and then today she came to me, saying she wanted to tell me something but was afraid it would hurt my feelings. I finally got it out of her, and she said "I know the Tooth Fairy isn't real, and I know YOU are my Tooth Fairy, and that you did it so I could keep believing in something special. And I know you didn't lie to me, either, because you never made stuff up, you just let me believe, and then you made it happen." So we had a long talk about that, and I reassured her that her Tooth Fairy would still sneak money into her tooth pillow whenever she lost a tooth. A little bit more of growing up, all the time... *sniff*

Quotes that came in today:

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
~Galileo Galilei

"There are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else."
~Cyrus Curtis

"Remember: One lie does not cost you one truth but the truth."
~Friedrich Hebbel

"Dwell not upon thy weariness; thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire."
~Arab Proverb

"People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it."
~Ogden Nash

And Another One Goes

I was planning on sleeping in this morning. After all, there was no pitter patter of little feet to wake me up, and I didn't have to be anywhere at any given time. So...I woke up completely awake at 7:15 a.m. Naturally! So I just got up, got ready, took my time and made it out to Kokomo Airport around 9 something. Chuck and Jim were out there working on ground school up at the building, so I washed/folded Nathan's airplane rags, cleaned the windshield on the T-6 from the giant juicy bug I hit yesterday, and read Reader's Digest on the couch with my feet up and just relaxed. Not too much later Chuck and Jim finished up with the paperwork and came out and did their first flight. Nathan had just arrived, so he took photos with one camera and I took photos with another camera, and we had a good ole time. I think it was almost more fun for me to watch Chuck go than it was for me to go. Well, not really, but it WAS awesome to watch him start her up and head out and fly. :)

I made a Subway run, and we spent the day hanging out, talking, reading, watching TV, etc. while Chuck and Jim did their ground and flying. Chuck came back quite pleased with the experience. I am more than pleased for him. :) Jim had to leave shortly after their flight, and we were kind of waiting for Steve and Kaylee to get back, and Nathan let me take the T6 up, just me.

I took off from Kokomo and just climbed up to altitude, wandering around and looking at the city, at Glenndale, at the sky. I was working on getting where I wanted to be, and then I looked off to my left, saw the big star on the wing, looked behind me at the empty T-6 canopy, and I got an admittedly large and toothy grin going. I ended up doing some of the maneuvers-Dutch Rolls, 60 degree bank turns, and flying it right on the stall buffet and just keeping the wings level with the rudders. I didn't feel rusty today-I had a great time. I came in and did three takeoffs and landings, was pleased with those, and shut down to a nice smile of my own, to match Chuck's.

The three of us plus Judy went to dinner, and then Steve and Kaylee arrived home shortly thereafter. She'd lost another tooth and had a wonderful weekend with Grandma & Grandpa. :) I hear they played a lot of Uno and just had fun, that the airport event went well too and the "boys" had a good time as well. It's been waaay too long since we got to go visit anyone...

So, a productive and enjoyable weekend was had by all!

License to Learn...

Last night I got home around 9, and it wasn't 20 minutes later that I was old cold. There was nothing on TV, and I just passed out and didn't wake up until midnight! I'm too young for that! But I got back up so I could go back to bed; slept halfway through the night then woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. So when my alarm went off this morning at 7:15, I had a little trouble getting out of bed. I think it doesn't help when you're now getting out of bed when it's still dark, and it's cold...

So, Jim and I flew the T-6 twice today, and we went over all the paperwork. Filling out the books, my logbook, just going over everything and making sure we covered everything we wanted to cover. At the end of it, he's basically washed his hands of me and I'm good to go forth and keep learning. Our flights today covered just about everything again, and introduced overhead approaches, some aileron rolls, dutch rolls, and steep turn lazy 8's. It was a fun day along with being rather productive. It's been a terrific experience and a huge learning event too. It is a fun and challenging airplane, and I have had enough highly experienced people in a row tell me the exact same thing several times-that just as soon as you think you have the airplane mastered, it will bite you-that I decided that the cure for that might just be to never think I have the airplane mastered. So far that's not a problem-I'm quite aware that I'm not at the "mastery" phase. :) And I'm not just saying this as an excuse to keep flying the airplane, but if I'm going to fly it, I really need to keep flying the airplane until I get it cemented in more. Even after just one week I felt stumbly at it at first again. Not unsafe or lousy, but...rusty for lack of a better word. Which seems silly after just one week, but true none-the-less. This is quite the airplane. I think I'm in love. ;)

We left the airport and went to dinner, and thus concludes my Saturday. Tonight I will NOT fall asleep on my couch, either. ;)

Of Pumpkins and People

We woke up quite early this morning to do one of my favorite things in the world-go to the dentist! Ugh. Steve got a 7:10 a.m. appointment and mine was at 9 after I dropped Kaylee off at school. He wondered how it so happened that he got stuck with the early one. *whistles and looks away* As the dental hygienist was doing the polishing, she looked down and said "Why, you're as stiff as a board!" Now I know I'm not the only tense person in a dentist's chair, right?! Maybe I'm the only tense person during the polishing portion of it, I don't know, but I hate that...

I got out of the dentist's chair with that "overly slick teeth" clean feeling, and drove right to Kaylee's school to pick her up for her field trip. Today it was Pumpkin Patch field trip day. I was kind of glad that instead of doing the train ride one, we did another place called "Stoneycreek Farm". It's still about 45 minutes away, so that's a long way to drive for something, but it's a neat facility and the kids had a blast. They had a "Haunted House" jumpy thing and a giant caterpillar the kids could go through, a big hay mound to play on and a large playground area as well. They even had a food/snack area where you could buy lunch and stuff. So first, the kids all ate lunch, and from there we let them run wild for an hour on the stuff. Then we had our hay ride on a wagon pulled by an old tractor, all the way to the pumpkin patch, where the kids picked out their pumpkins to take home. This year and/or in this place, all the pumpkins are small, which works better for carrying but wasn't as cool to Kaylee who had a big ole pumpkin last year. :) After the pumpkin adventure, the kids played a little while longer and then I hustled Kaylee back to the car so we could come home and get her stuff for the weekend. One of her friends was stung by a bee while we were there, and Kaylee is mega paranoid about bees, so she wanted to know all the gory details. "Did you scream? How bad does it hurt? Is it poison? Mom, does that kill you? I heard that could kill you." Thank you, Kaylee... ;)

On the hayride, I had noticed that one of the girls (M) in Kaylee's class had made a face when Kaylee was going to sit next to another girl (L), so on the way home I asked Kaylee if she played much with M or L. Kaylee said that she used to be friends with M, but M was "dating" a boy named C, and Kaylee told her that her mom said she (Kaylee) was much too young to date, and she said that M got angry with her, "broke up with" C not long after that, and hasn't really been her friend since and mostly hooked up with L. So Kaylee has two new friends she hangs out with more, both boys. Okay. We all know they weren't "dating", but the fact they say they were just sets me to twitching for one thing. And secondly, I don't blame Kaylee, I know the two boys she is friends with and they are quite sweet. In fact, during the Great Pumpkin Patch Hunt, one of her guy friends found a nice round pumpkin and gave it to Kaylee saying it was the best pumpkin he'd found in the patch and she could have it. She accepted it quite graciously, thanking him sincerely. I later asked her if he liked her, and she said that he was her best friend at the school. I don't think I'm quite ready for this stuff.

We drove straight home and grabbed her suitcase, which I had somehow managed to forget when I left the house at 8 a.m. that morning, and left right away to go to Kokomo airport to meet up with Steve. I checked the plane while Steve loaded it, and away they went. They are currently 39 minutes away from landing in Missouri as I type this part. Kaylee is excited to see her Grandparents, whom she hasn't seen in quite awhile. They are having a fly-in this weekend at a little grass strip down there, as a fundraiser/fun type thing.

After they were gone, I had a couple of hours to go home and work on some stuff, so I also uploaded my photos from the Pumpkin Patch today. You can see them Here and Here II if you wish.

After I got the photos up, it was time to head out to dinner with Nathan, Chuck and Jim Z. I got home around 9 something p.m. and now it's time to relax before tomorrow starts bright and early with paperwork and T-6 flying. :) It's been a BUSY day; I'm pretty much ready to go to sleep already...

Preparations

Well, the day continued with a lot of preparations. I did all our laundry so Steve and Kaylee can pack their bags tonight. I got Kaylee's stuff ready for her field trip, got my errands run of course, got a photo frame ready to go, and am in the process of downloading a year's worth of digital photos to kodak for a backup and so I can reprint a handful (just a handful, don't panic Steve!) for a project. I even got to the store and got some stuff for the weekend at the airport and next week for Kaylee's lunches. Boy do I miss hot school lunches. ;) So, basically I've worked on projects all day, successfully.

Last night Kaylee came out with a bottle of lotion, handed it to me, and asked me if I would rub her feet because they hurt from running at Awanas. I told her she was too young for her feet to hurt, but I rubbed her feet, with lotion, anyway. She is so funny, she just laid there with her feet in my lap and her head upside down and relaxed most happily...

The guy is back in full force-the one that is on his CB or Ham Radio or whatever he is on and is broadcasting so powerfully it is interfering with my wireless keyboard, it is coming over my computer speakers clear as a bell, and it is interfering with our wireless telephones. This morning while I was trying to work, I could hear him singing-badly-over my speakers. I am going to take care of this situation this coming week.

I was saddened to hear about the death of a helicopter pilot from just south of us. He flew medivac flights, and crashed while transporting a patient. The man survived two tours in Vietnam as an Army helicopter pilot. He was awarded two Purple Hearts, came home alive, owned several companies and got out of it to go back to flying just because he loved it. And tonight he flew his helicopter into a radio tower wire he didn't see. He was hugely experienced and capable, and this just leaves me sad for his family and the families of those on board.

So, Joe the Plumber is a real guy, and he is making $250k a year. That's right, a quarter of a million dollars a year. I am SO in the wrong business. Of course I like my office better than his office-I have a MUCH better view. Point to me. We can dress the same way (well...minus the tool belt and accompanying spackle necessary) and he gets paid better. Point to him. I don't have to deal with other people's toilets. My point-a big one might I add. People beg him to come to their house and hurry, and are willing to sit around and wait hours for him to show up. Meanwhile, I often sit around and wait hours for other people to show up. That's a tie, actually, because I don't mind that. That's what good books and computers are for. I get to travel far away to lots of different and often interesting places. He probably sees some fascinating homes in his town. Definitely my point. He has his own wikipedia page now, and I don't. I'll take that point. He makes $250,000.00/year. I, uh, guess I'll grant him that point... Actually, Joe seems to be taking this whole flash fame thing in stride. Are the elections over with yet? I'M done. How about you?

*Yawn*

The whole day is covered by the subject title. It's gray, it's windy, it's rainy. Kaylee's face decided not to sport a noticeable bruise for her photo day, which is good. She looked quite lovely today. She asked if she could wear one of my necklaces. I said okay, so she pulls out this huge multi-colored bead thing which actually DID match her shirt quite nicely, but covered half her chest. Then she asked if she could wear my dangly black onyx necklace, so I let her. I asked her where her own necklaces were, and she just gave me that little sideways mischievous smile and informed me that she just wanted to borrow mine if I didn't mind. I didn't mind.

We were in the car today on the way home from school, and I said something gross, I don't remember what. She said "Mooommmmmmy! That's something Daddy would say, not you!" I laughed and said "Kaylee, I have a secret for you. I'm actually the one who says gross stuff more than Daddy does, I just try to be a good example to you." She said "Really? But I don't need a good example!" Trust me honey, you DO need a good example!!

I am currently avoiding watching the last Presidential Debate. Is there really, truly, actually anybody left in America who is "Undecided"?? Oh, I know some places have their "undecided panels", but come on. They've got to be either lying, seeking attention, or doofi. Obama and McCain have about Zero policies, plans or proclivities in common. Are people for real this far into the election process and just "can't decide" between the two? Seriously??

Oh. I was sitting at the computer this evening before Kaylee went to Awanas, and suddenly she shrieked at the top of her lungs and ran into the living room where I was. I waited for her to quit yelling, and finally I got her to use words instead of screams. Her words? "I OPENED THE FREEZER DOOR AND LOOKED DOWN AND THERE WAS A BIG, HUGE, GIANT SPIDER ON MY ARM! IT WAS ON MY ARM MOM! KILL IT!" She apparently flung it off of her and it stuck to the refrigerator door. She dragged me in there to point out that it was still on our fridge and insisted I get rid of it. I'm not touching that thing, so I hunted down the spider spray, chased it around the fridge with spray until it gave up the ghost, and then had to wipe down my fridge of all the poison. How's that for excitement? Two bug stories in one week. Oooh. Well hey, that's what you get when I'm sick and don't get to do anything fun for a week. ;)

Today...

Another day grounded for me, but I am feeling better.

I got through about four loads of laundry, got Kaylee's book order in, ran errands, ended up having a two-hour lunch at an amazingly slow restaurant with nine friends, more errands, time to pick up Kaylee from school and take her to ballet/tap, bath time for her and time to pick out her outfit for school pictures tomorrow, a little work on the computer, and that's my Tuesday.

One thing I did think was funny-Kaylee was hit in the face with a chair on accident today, which is not funny at all, except she has a red spot on her face now which will probably turn into a bruise, just in time for her school photo to be taken tomorrow. Last year she had the Great Crooked Bangs that I had never seen on her until they somehow combed her bangs to look as bad as humanely possible. Hopefully this year they let her own normal beautiful self shine through. :)

Just the Quotes

This poem is one I used to have on my wall when I was I think in high school. I know, most girls my age had posters of "Lost Boys" and Motley Crue and Andre Agassi on their wall, and I had poems, quotes and poetry. What can I say, final proof I was, and am...myself. ;)

IF
~by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

The rest of the quotes that came in for today:

"Great performers in all fields seem immune to what outsiders think about them. Their sense of themselves never depends on the feedback -positive or negative – they get from the environment."

~John Eliot

"The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone."

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

Turning the Tide

After my giant five-hour nap, you'd think I wouldn't be able to sleep last night, but you'd be wrong. Well, mostly. I went to bed at 12:30 and woke up an hour later coughing my head off. I got up so I wouldn't keep Steve up, and fell asleep sometime after that on the couch. I woke up feeling pretty bad, but as the day progressed it got better. One more nap this afternoon and I'm almost feeling like myself again. Sleep is good, and I have even been eating my vegetables. ;)

My errand run items were all closed today because of Columbus Day, but Kaylee still had school. I was still too sick to fly without my head blowing up, so the day really passed with me taking it easy, occasionally doing things like dishes or laundry or lunch, taking Kaylee to cheer practice, but nothing strenuous.

And that's the extent of our exciting Monday...

Sunday Snuffed

By late Saturday night I could feel the crud moving down into my lungs and filling up my head, and sure enough, when I woke up this morning I knew I was in a bit of trouble with it. I barely got out of bed and out to the airport in time, was hacking up a lung, and felt like my head and chest had a vise on it. So, I sadly had to concede flying. But Chuck got to go to Noblesville with Jim, and called later and said they had a great time, so that's most excellent there. :) I stayed out there long enough to make sure everyone got off okay, stopped at Steak-n-Shake for lunch for my home crew, laid down on the couch and slept until almost 5 p.m. I woke up, medicated, and was just starting to feel human when Chuck called and invited us to Half Moon for dinner with everyone. I wanted to go and get out of the house a bit, but Steve basically told me not to be an idiot, so he took Kaylee and went and I stayed home and made mushroom and cheese noodles and decided to sit here and cough and type some for awhile instead.

It's been a fantastic couple of weekends. As Jim said, only about 2% of people are pilots, and of those, only a fraction of a percent are tailwheel pilots. Of those, how many can say they've gotten to fly the things I've gotten to fly? Or soloed in a T-6? Of course I know or know of quite a few of them, all much more experienced than I, so I'm not saying that in a big-head way, just in an appreciative way. What a ride, three days of cram-packed flying in an airplane I just love. Life permitting I really look forward to delving into this arena; but even if life didn't permit, what an amazing set of experiences I've already been privileged enough to have...

Saturday's Stuff...

I was up this morning before the sun. I could feel some cobwebs in the ole brain and I was still stuffed up, coughing and congested, but as I drove out to the airport with some music on, watching the sun rise, I could tell it was going to be a good day. I even took a photo of the sunrise just to prove I was out and about at that time of day. ;)

I got the T-6 preflighted, hooked up to the tug and pulled out. Jim arrived, and we taxied up to the terminal, got gas and went over the ground stuff inside there first. We flew two rounds of: short field takeoffs, emergencies, no flap landings, half flap landings, more simulated engine outs and engine fires, wheel landings, crosswind landings, touch and goes, etc. After round one we stopped and Chuck had brought out homemade vegetable beef soup that Judy had made. It had been simmering for 3 days, and it was Delicious and warming and just really hit the spot as far as my system was concerned. I was feeling a little puny by then, and that warm soup was really helpful. After round two of flying, when I climbed out and the adrenaline wore off, I felt pretty cruddy. I kind of melted onto the couch for awhile and actually half slept for a bit while Tre and Nathan cooked burgers and hot dogs on the grill. I was lying back on the couch when the Cheyenne taxied out, and the assault of Jet A fumes blowing into the hangar woke me up just in time to go eat. I was thinking that I might have to call off Round Three of flying for the day, because I just wasn't sure I'd be able to do a good job focusing, but after the food and being up and about for awhile, I decided to get the last lesson of the day in after all.

It was rather shorter than the other flights we did. I did a normal takeoff, and on downwind he told me I had an engine failure, so I did a power off landing. Did another takeoff to a normal landing. He asked how I was feeling physically, and I said I was doing fine again. I taxied back to take off again, when he dropped his checklist. I've done it-anything you drop goes into the belly of the plane way down there. So I held the brakes while he climbed around back there to get it. Then the checklist goes flying outside, he climbed out to go get it, and said while he was doing that I ought to just take the plane around for three takeoffs and landings by myself. So, that's just what I did. :) As I taxi out, I see a golf cart over there with a crew on it, sitting by the runway and watching, with at least one camera out and pointed. Steve, Nathan, Chuck, Jim, and Nathan's friend Roger. I did my first takeoff, and was a bit surprised at how heavy the nose was without someone in the back seat. Jim had thought ahead (I see now) and put two cases of oil in the baggage compartment in the back to help, and even with that I could feel the difference in CG (center of gravity). After the first, I opened the canopy up. I didn't have to worry about the noise or squelch in the intercom now, and I wanted the wind in my face on a beautiful Saturday evening with the sun getting low. It was...peaceful. I made my three full stop landings then taxied on in and parked it. Jim gave me my own red "tool" that you use to open the gas caps and oil door on the T-6 as a tradition he does for his soloing T-6 students, and a round of handshakes and hugs ensued. Oh, and the crew all approved of my three takeoffs and landings. ;)

We relaxed for a little while at the airport before retiring to Applebees. Everybody was really tired-it's been a busy couple of days-but they came out anyway. We made it a bit of a double celebration-"Tall" James (Nathan's son) also did his long cross-country flight today, by himself. An accomplished day. :)

I'm now home, Steve is asleep on the couch and I'm going to bed myself. Tomorrow is one more day of flying; hopefully my sinuses and attention span will let me do the fun stuff we've got planned, which includes a little trip to a fly-in and some aerobatics. We'll see. For now, I've got to get some sleep!

Of Coughs and Critters

This morning my mind opened up at full speed some time after 6 a.m.; finally I gave up and got up before 7 and started getting ready. After dropping Kaylee off at school, Steve dropped me off at Kokomo so I could fly the Cherokee 180 back to its home at Sheridan, and Chuck picked me up at Sheridan in the Citabria and brought me back to Glenndale. Another of our round-robin trips. :) It was SO beautiful out. The air was so smooth that Chuck diverted from our home base and we wandered out west for a little while just enjoying the scenery, the changing trees, the blue skies, and the nice cool air.

Our Friday Airport lunch this week was a chicken and noodle dinner from Dale's church. They were doing a fundraiser, so we bought about 25 of the dinners total. Homemade chicken and noodles, along with mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, rolls with butter, white and chocolate cake and brownie. Yum.

It was time to pick up Kaylee, and I arrived a couple of minutes late because of going to pick up my car. When I got there, Kaylee said "I thought you'd be Daddy and I was going to yell at him for being late again!" So I told her it was his fault I was late anyway, and she rolled her eyes and said "that Daddy". He he ;)

I am officially fighting off some sneezing/sniffling/coughing thing, and the timing could not hardly be worse. So I'm taking my vitamins, drinking nice soothing warm tea with honey, snorting Zicam, and trying to get rest. I've got a packed-out day of T-6 flying scheduled for tomorrow starting bright and early. Hopefully this holds off...enough.

I was sitting here on my couch, innocently, when I felt a tickle on my neck. I thought it was a hair, so I brushed it and went back to logging into my computer. And then I felt something move in my hair. Assuming it was a fly or bug, I brushed it out, where it PLOPPED onto my laptop and stared at me, and it was about the size of a quarter. At first I thought it was a grasshopper, and then in some sort of horror I realized it looked like a spider. I made that half-strangled sound I do when I'm actually freaked out, and it ended up on the floor limping, and I have no idea what it is but it's UGLY. I dropped a paper towel on it and tried to squish it unsuccessfully. Kaylee came running out and asked me what was wrong, and I said "that thing was in my hair". She grabbed her book bag and handed it to me, and I battered the beast until the paper towel quit moving across the floor. It is still sitting there. Tonight I will claim Girl Privilege and let a big strong man take away the carcass for me. ;)

Speaking of, I have to give Steve some "props" here. Not just for removing the disgusting squished spider/grasshopper thing, but for all the help and support with this flying stuff. He will pick up Kaylee from school so I can take a trip. He'll stay out at the airport all weekend and take care of stuff so I can get this training in. Again. He's genuinely happy for me, excited when I am excited, he never doubts that I can do or accomplish something, and he has never, ever, not once been anything but behind me all the way--he's even provided a pep talk or two. The flying things that I get to do are made even more fun because I can come home and talk all about them with someone who "gets" it, and who is as excited about it as I am. That's pretty rare, and special...

Quotes of the Day:

"A professional is a person who can do his best at a time when he doesn't particularly feel like it."
~Alistair Cooke

"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
~Bertrand Russell

Slipping Away

This whole week is just Gone, in a flash. I can't believe tomorrow is Friday already. I'm not ready. I haven't studied for the weekend, I haven't gotten the house ready, I haven't gotten Kaylee's book order ready or her chore chart updated; I just can't believe it's the end of the week already.

Nothing new today. I flew this morning at Sheridan for a couple of hours, and made it back in time for lunch with Steve, Chuck, Nathan, Joe, Jon & Katie, then on to errands, a little work at home, a store run, picking up Kaylee from school. I took her right to gymnastics. She wanted to take a private lesson with a teacher one on one to try to catch up from where she fell behind last year, so we did that. The good news is, she did better one-on-one. The bad news is, she did better one-on-one. :) This isn't going to be a permanent arrangement, because it's a little steep to do cheer, gymnastics, and private lessons every week. But I'll use it now and then to help her move forward, now that she's focusing and working harder at it again.

Today at gymnastics, I found myself sitting next to a soap opera. :( A woman in her early 30s was there with her mother who looked like she was in her 50s or so, and three kids. One was in class, and the other two ran wild, screaming, knocking into people, etc. This grown woman was texting some man things like, well, mean things, and telling her mother out loud about it, and they would both cackle and laugh at his increasingly angry responses, which they also shared out loud. This culminated in him calling on the phone, them letting it go to voice mail and then listening to the voice mail on speakerphone. Everyone in the room could hear him yelling and shouting and cursing her up one side and down the other, and they just sat there and laughed. Fortunately, Kaylee was in class and couldn't hear, but there were a LOT of small children in the room. It was just...sad. So why didn't I say anything to them? Because my child wasn't affected and it was fairly obvious they were the type of person to escalate a situation. I'd have left it up to the owner to deal with them, anyway. *sigh*

On another note, Kaylee and I had a discussion about learning. She said that she has passed cartwheels in gymnastics but she can't in cheer. She said that the cheer coach will yell and be very demanding about it, and that she can't do it right then because she gets flustered. I told her that some people learn better in that format and some people can't learn at all that way, and she informed me that she can't do it right when someone yells at her. I told her I understood-that I've never dealt well with that method of teaching either. I told her I just ignored some of my 'teachers' who were like that, but that I know it's hard. So later tonight she told Steve all about it too, and informed him that I ignored it but that she couldn't. :) I told her I TRIED to ignore it, not that I was always successful at it! Anyway, I think the private lessons with a more patient person will help her master them a bit more for when she gets with the less patient person. Steve and I also both told her that if anything the teacher says really bothers her, to tell us about it and we would take care of it. Me first.

When we got home, I walked around the kitchen counter and found that Kaylee had a humongous mess on the floor-Goldfish cracker crumbs, play dough crumbs, just her whole floor was covered over there. I've never seen anything like it, not even when she was a two-year-old. She is in general very neat when it comes to eating. I told her that she was going to have to clean that up herself, and when she asked how, I got out the broom and the vacuum and told her to sweep it all to the carpet then vacuum it up. She asked something about the cleaning people, to which I responded that there was no way she was going to make a mess like that and leave it for anyone else, including me or them, to clean up! She decided that the vacuum is heavy and the broom isn't very efficient at picking up little stuff and that next time she would be a little more careful with her crumbs. ;)

Well, I have quite a few things I need to do before I get sleepy tonight...Happy Friday tomorrow!

Well...

It was a busy day, but not doing anything noteworthy. Housework, laundry, errands, lunch, more errands, work at home. Kaylee had a good day at school and came bouncing home tonight from Awanas excited because she passed three sections, got a jewel, and finished a book. And her team won again tonight. So she's in quite a good mood. :)

I really don't have much, so I'll end with the below prose:

Because I fly,
I laugh more than other men.
I look up and see more than they.
I know how clouds feel,
What it's like to have the blue in my lap,
To look down on Birds,
To feel freedom in a thing called the Stick..

Who else has seen the unclimbed peaks?
The rainbow's secrets?
The real reason birds sing?
Because I fly, I envy no man on earth.
~Brian Shul

Aw, Man...

I woke up this morning with a scratchy throat but assumed it was the fall allergy thing that is kicking in for a lot of people. I'm not sure now, as by the end of today I'm also feeling that "blah" thing too. Kaylee had some classmates who got sick, she's been coughing, sneezing and drippy, and this afternoon she claims to not feel very well either. She has no fever at least, so hopefully if it's anything it is just a cold. I stopped at CVS and restocked the medicine cabinet since I was out of anything but cough syrup. And I came home and took my vitamins.

I had a two hour flight this morning at Sheridan, and it was a perfect day for a flight. We had light winds that turned into a light crosswind which was perfect for what we were working on. Not so much they couldn't do it, but enough to get a feel for what was happening.

Lunch at Half Moon was delicious as always, though also too much food as always. ;) Really, the rest of my day is highly uninteresting. A trip to the post office, to CVS, to the airport...such excitement!

I have to throw in here my acknowledgement of the complete and utter irony of OJ Simpson being convicted of an offense that could put him behind bars for life exactly 13 years from the day of his acquittal of murder. Someone's guilt and innocence is to be determined by Someone much wiser than I, but I can still admit to noticing the irony...

The last of the stuff I can think of from the flying to answer; I got sore simply because there are a few repetitive movements that were done a whole lot in about a 24 hour period. It's not a "delicate flower" kind of airplane. I like it. ;)
-------------------------------------
"Pessimism wilts everything around it."
~Michael Levine

"Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?"
~Friedrich Nietzsche

"Being in power is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
~Margaret Thatcher

Can't Get No Respect

I just got home here at 9:30 at night, for the first time today, and I am worn out. I was in an upbeat mood most of the day, but the last three hours of my day along with not getting nearly enough sleep the last two nights (not by my choice, either!) has really sucked it out of me. I shall try to get it back before I go to bed here though. :)

To answer my thought from yesterday, no, two flights in the 172s today were not enough to bring me back to reality. In fact, I was prone to random moments of smiling at nothing in particular at odd times throughout the day.

I woke up this morning with some muscles that felt like they'd been hit with a 2.5 ton airplane. Oh wait... ;) Steve said "So are you sore today?" I said "Yes!" He said "Awww, poor baby, does your widdle bitty muscles hurt after having to fly all day? I don't wanna hear it." We're at lunch. Steve tells them I'm sore. The other participants there...have no sympathy whatsoever either. I fly this morning with a new CFI, after which we hit lunch with the "boys"; on our way to lunch, from the back seat, I hear from the peanut gallery "How out of shape does a person have to be to get sore flying an airplane?? I mean, really??" I am alone, adrift in a sea of uncaring and disrespect. ;)

I had some people ask a few questions about the weekend flying, so I'll throw a few thoughts out about it, and then life will get back to normal for awhile. :) For one thing, as I've said to a few people, I came away with a definite appreciation/respect of the airplane. Not that I didn't before, of course. But for example, when we teach stalls to students in our normal trainers, you full stall it, it mushes, the nose drops, you recover, yadda yadda. As Nathan said, the T-6 is a trainer, but it's not a big C-150 trainer, it's a fighter trainer, and it stalls like one. You can't stall it and just hang out and "falling leaf" it. You also can't hesitate or stop to think about what you need to do. There is not a ton of warning prior to the stall, and once it goes, it goes. The actual exercise itself is fine, it's just a stall in an airplane at plenty of altitude to recover, not a problem. But how it reacts, even if you recover immediately, completely coordinated, is interesting enough that I can see how someone could really get themselves into a very bad situation very quickly (and that is what training is for!).

Well, I flew a bit at Glenndale this morning, went to lunch, then flew this afternoon as well, at Sheridan. When I left Sheridan, I drove back to Glenndale to pick up my purse, then went to Kokomo to pick up Kaylee from Steve out there, brought Kaylee back to Glenndale to drop off some stuff we needed to leave for another instructor, went home and got ready, took Kaylee to cheer, and I left for a school board meeting that lasted for 3 hours. Aaaaaaah. Well, it's good to be home, even if it's late and I'm past tired again...

Worked Hard

If you're interested in what Kaylee and Steve did today, or anything other than flying, you are sorely out of luck and might as well skip this one. ;)

I got out to Kokomo around 9:15 a.m., and Chuck pulled the T-6 out of the hangar for me (thank you, Chuck!) I did the preflight, then Jim arrived. To shorten this post up by a large amount, the bottom line is that we did three flights throughout the day of about an hour and a half or so each. Jim called that a "quick turn". We'd do ground school for around 30-45 minutes, go fly for an hour and a half over what we briefed, come down and go over what we had done, take a break for a drink and some food, then brief the next round, go fly it, come down and debrief it, take a break for a bit, then do it again for the third time. We covered an amazing amount of material. In fact, at the end of this, I'll type out some of what we did just in the last two days, and most of it has been done multiple times. I am sitting here at home now with my entire body aching. My wrists are sore, my arms from holding certain things, my shoulders from pulling, my legs, my neck, there is not much on me that couldn't use a massage and a hot tub. And I like it. ;)

Jim and I both had a lot of fun today, that's for sure, and I'm feeling really pleased about the whole thing. I haven't even had to demonstrate my bounce recovery skills yet. ;) (But I'm quite sure that's coming. We had two light wind days.) I'm really glad he was up here for the weekend and could fly this much for two days. I've learned a lot and did I mention I had a blast? I'm wrung out, sweaty, sore, wiped out, worked hard, and...internally I'm the Cheshire Cat. ;)

What we were doing probably looked crazy from the outside. We did aborted takeoffs, go-arounds, no flap landings, emergency procedures, a touch and go, just all sorts of things that will make you go "hmmmm". So here's a list of some of the stuff we did yesterday and today, all multiple times, not including all the ground school items we covered, for you to skip if you're uninterested:

Cockpit familiarization, of course starting, taxiing, run up, takeoffs, climbs, turns, power on and power off wings level stalls, turning stalls, approach to landing stalls, engine failure at cruise altitude, pattern and full flap landings, taxi practice in a confined area, steep turns up to 60 degrees bank, minimum controllable airspeed, aborted takeoff, go-around, low altitude engine failure, simulated fire on start up, half-flap landings, no-flap landings, balked landings, simulated hydraulic failure, engine out on takeoff roll and simulated engine out right after takeoff, simulated fire during flight, and of course checklist usage and familiarization. That doesn't cover all the ground work like performance charts, aerodynamics discussions, yadda yadda. Lots of information, and Lots to go still, too.

What a wonderful, fun, exciting weekend...I guess we'll see if 739KS and 739SC, the two C-172s I am flying in tomorrow, will be enough to bring me back to reality. ;)

Fun Flying

What an excellent day. We all slept in just a little bit, got ready, stopped at Meijer to pick up food and drinks for the airport among other things, stopped to pick up a late breakfast, and went on out to Kokomo. It was a beautiful weather day. Blue skies, light winds, cool temperatures; just one of those lovely fall-ish days that I so enjoy!

Nathan's friend Jim Zazas came up from N. Carolina for the weekend; he's an airline pilot who is also a T-6 (and other birds) instructor. He went up with me for about an hour and a half, for my first time in the front of Nathan's T-6. We started from scratch, from preflight through start-up (don't forget the wobble pump to prime the primer, btw) and taxi practice, on through some turns in the air, power off stalls clean and dirty, yadda yadda. For a nice change of scenery, he demonstrated two barrel rolls and a cloverleaf. Man that plane does such smooth aerobatics. I really enjoy it, actually better than I enjoy the yank and bank zippiness aerobatics of the Pitts. We came in for a landing, realized we were starving and called it for the lunch break.

Chuck was there fixing his Citabria, Nathan and the kids, Charlie & Dawn, Steve & Kaylee, Jim T. and Jim Z., and we fixed up burgers, chips, potato salad, cookies, you know, a normal fun airport group lunch. ;) After we ate, Chuck flew his plane for awhile, and Jim and I did some ground time over things from performance charts to, oh, all sorts of stuff. That ended with a "blind" cockpit check, where he calls out something in the cockpit and you have to put your hand on it right away without looking. We had time for another flight, so went up for round two. Steep turns, minimum controllable airspeed, more stalls and recovery in various configurations and power settings, and landing. It was a lot of fun, and felt pretty good. We stopped when fuel told us we needed to; Max had stayed at the FBO past his closing time just to fuel us and the Mustang up after we all landed, which was so nice of him. We went over a few more things on the ground, and then the group of us put everything away, locked up the hangars and headed to Outback Steakhouse for dinner.

Can't beat that, now can we? :)

While I was flying, Steve and several of the others were working on wiring some things up in between Nathan's hangars, and Nathan took Jonathan for a ride in the Mustang. It was a beautiful evening for it, so calm and smooth, and in the relative quiet of the airport, nothing beats the sound of that thing going overhead...

A marvelous experience, for sure. I am a fortunate lady. Gal? Woman? ... Person. :)

Friday, Finally

I didn't get to sleep early enough last night, leaving me with a case of the sleepies today. I got the airport bills folded up and sent off into the mail this morning, and I was planning on making a deposit to SMA Support of BBQ Bash funds, but when I drove by the bank was really busy, and I had a rather time-consuming transaction, so I waited.

So, most of the talk around today has been about the bail-out bill that just passed or about people's opinions of the Used Car Salesman v the Hockey Mom. On a side note not relating to the politics of anything, I do wish Mrs. Palin would properly enunciate her present participles and ease up on the "you betcha" and "doggone it" stuff. I know she can, because I've seen her speak calmly, professionally, and enunciating her words just fine in a video clip of her in previous local level debates, which makes me think she is using the "not pronouncing her g" thing on purpose to be endearing. I like her, and I think she has guts, but I'd like our Vice President to speak...professionally. I know she can, so I kind of hope she lightens up in professional settings on the "I'm gonna be runnin' for the office and I'm lookin' to be gunnin' for the..." kind of speak. Be yourself, be friendly and approachable and a real person, but be appropriate for the setting and be professional-it is an important office you are running for in representation of our country.

Yes, I'm sure she'll listen to me... ;)

Let's see. Today was Mexican for Friday lunch at Glenndale, and it was a nice day for it. Attendance seemed to be a little lower than usual, but still plenty of people there to clean out all the bowls/pans. :) Shortly after lunch I took the Decathlon to Kokomo to pick up Nathan and take him to Huntington, and he brought his airplane back home for awhile. There's kind of a friend hang-out 'thing' out there this weekend and we were originally going out to the airport tonight for awhile, but just couldn't make it. Tomorrow will be another day. :)

I did get my bank run in finally along with a couple of other errands, and home for the night...

Progress

Even though I haven't had a lot of highly fascinating things to discuss lately, I've still been quite busy and productive for the most part. I worked around the house this morning, then made a bank run. In a burst of irony, Steve remembered last night that our other license plates also expired the end of September, so while we got one car replated, two others were being driven around expired for the last two days. So I got to go back to the BMV when they opened at 8:30 this morning. I was thrilled. I think Steve said something like "Oh, stop whining." ;) I must say, at 8:30 a.m. on a Thursday, you can hear crickets in there. I walked to the desk and was sent right to a helper as one of the only people in the place. $300 later I was on my way. *sigh* At least I'm legal again. I went from there out to Glenndale where I put on my updated stickers on the two cars, did some computer work, paid an important bill online, yadda yadda until lunch time.

A former flight student of mine came in today. She was a "Flying Squirrel" several years ago, and was with me into her cross-countries, prior to going off to college to finish all her flight training. She just yesterday passed her CFI checkride, and agrees with my assessment that if she had to do the CFI stuff all over again she's not sure she would! :) Anyway, she's going to start instructing for us, and it was nice to catch up with her for a bit. Her dad is one of "our" guys who helps out a ton with maintenance and such. We're lucky to have them both on board.

After lunch it was time for a couple more errands prior to going through a car wash and picking Kaylee up from school. I always enjoy watching her walk out to the car with her teacher, because they are always talking and laughing. Kaylee talking, Mrs. H laughing, Mrs. H talking, Kaylee laughing. Almost every day. You can tell they have a mutual "like" for each other and that Mrs. H gets a kick out of Kaylee. Yesterday I heard them laughing as they came to the car, and when she opened the door, Mrs. H leaned in and said "Kaylee has a new talent-she can burp anything!" This is not a new talent, this is an old talent I have tried to prevent Kaylee from admitting to or demonstrating in public. However, her class has mostly boys, and Mrs. H has declared it has made Kaylee popular amongst the boys to be able to burp their names or anything else they ask her to say. Greeeeeat. ;)

I've been debating on whether or not I'll watch the VP debates tonight. I guess I'll turn them on and if I can't stand them any longer, turn them back off. I'm in the midst of a book, have tons of laundry to do, and an amazingly large pile of paperwork to go through and work on anyway, so it might be as good a night as any for all that...

The Utmost in Excitement

Ah, another uneventful day. I spent the morning at the office entering fuel sheets and time sheets and pilot supplies for the end of month billing, went to lunch with the usual suspects, came home and did my thing here until it was time to pick up Kaylee, helped her study for her spelling test tomorrow, took her to CVS where we picked up drug store items we needed, took her to Awanas, met Steve for dinner at Olive Garden (yum), picked her back up at Awanas, and put her to bed. What excitement. What a thrill. What awe and wonder you must be feeling. ;)

The knuckle on my wedding ring finger is a funny bruise color. My ring got smashed into my finger along with the wooden drawer, and that whole hand still hurts to put pressure on it. Something that would please both Steve and my mother is that I can't really pop my knuckles on that hand because they're all bruised a bit. Whenever I forget and start to do it subconsciously, I am reminded quickly when I put pressure on them. They're getting better though and only one looks like it was smashed, so that's not bad.

I took Kaylee with me to CVS, and she brought her money along to shop for junk. She bypassed the dolls and the ponies and the jewelry. So what did my girl end up buying for $4.99? A pair of silver handcuffs with quick release buttons. *raises eyebrow*

The quotes from my inbox today:
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"Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought."
~Leon Blum

"Fear imprisons, faith liberates; fear paralyzes, faith empowers; fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals; fear makes useless, faith makes serviceable."
~Harry Emerson Fosdick

"You gain strength, courage & confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do."
~Anna Eleanor Roosevelt