Adventures Continued

So, last night at 1:30 a.m., the radar looked good up to a nearby airport, so Steve departed Terre Haute on an attempt to get home. He didn't get very far when he said the biggest bolt of lightning he has ever seen in the air shot down in front of him. He told himself that it had to be at least 75 miles away, that radar was clear, all that stuff...but the fact remained that was the biggest bolt of lightning he'd ever seen in the air. (As a side note, I have been in an airplane with him for some impressive lightning shows, so if that was the biggest...) Being night, VFR, with no on-board weather, unable to see cloud buildups, new (to him) airplane, getting very late at night, and now an ugly lightning bolt ahead, he decided to turn right back around, land, and go sleep. Of course the story is so much more involved that that, but it's his story to tell after that point. ;) He called me at 2 something a.m. to let me know he was in a hotel, and then called again at 7 something a.m. to look at weather and such. Of course at that point there wasn't a storm in sight, but it was low IFR around here. It's always something, isn't it? Eventually it burned off enough that he could get in, and he did. He stayed at the airport through lunch, had a flight after lunch, and right now it's 11 p.m. and he's been out working for at least five hours on the important computer job he was supposed to do yesterday until he got stuck in Terre Haute. It's been quite the 24 hours. Welcome to the annoying side of aviation. ;)

I got a lot of work done today myself, in various arenas. I got some paperwork done, got some internet stuff done, got some phone calls made, put up a lot of pictures I'd been behind on, organized my photo folders, ran several errands, cleaned up some stuff, just kept busy. Probably mostly so I wouldn't fall asleep. I also had a flight after lunch in the 172 out of Glenndale with a young man that we fondly refer to as "one of those". This young man could have had his license in about 30 hours flight time (most people take about double that), and he's one of very few people I've ever met who fall into that category. So he just got his license last year, flew for a couple of hours, and hasn't been able to fly since last summer, almost a full year now. Anyone with minimal flight time who takes a year off from flying will likely have a lot of time getting back into the swing of things. I flew with him for one hour, he really only needed about half that, and his first landing in a year, with a bit of a crosswind, was a roll-it-on, squeaker landing. Disgusting. ;) This fellow is headed off to Officer Training School and has been accepted into the Air Force's flight training program, so I got him to agree to do a fly-by of Glenndale in whatever he ends up in coming up down the road. He doesn't know where he will be placed yet, but he's just excited whether it be bomber, fighter, transport, whatever. He's a nice kid and has a good feel for airplanes, without the arrogance (which is good, since experience is something that can't come 'naturally'), and I wish him the best. :)

Kaylee's class took standardized tests before the end of the year, and I just got the results in the mail today. One part made me laugh. She scored the lowest for herself on history/culture, and she said "Mom, Mrs. H. told us she hadn't taught us some of that yet, and they wanted to know what the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial and the place with columns and stuff was, and how was I supposed to know, nobody told me that yet!" So I showed her photos of those historical places, and she was duly unimpressed. ;) She killed it on the 13 areas tested on reading and math though. She was in the 94-97th percentiles and was given a "high mastery" of the topics. She complained about math this year, but she's really very good at it, at logic based problems, at the things that gave me fits as a kid. Well, except reading. Nobody could beat me at reading back then. ;)

By the way, American Trust bank has the slowest drive-through banking service I've ever seen. It is not unusual for me to be sitting at the window for ten minutes, or like today, almost 15 minutes. And it was JUST ME in line, with two checks to deposit. Period. What do they DO in there that takes so long? You have to plan a big window of time just to hit that bank, whereas any of the other two banks I go to, I'm in and out of there in 30-60 seconds most of the time, barring some weird transaction. So if you're a person who needs to hit a drive-through on a lunch break or right after work or on the run, I suggest a different bank. Just saying.

Like I said, I did a lot of catching up on photos that needed uploaded, mostly Kaylee's. First, here is her professional Cheer Photo from the end of the cheer season. Today I just got back her professional Ballet and Tap Photos as well. I got up the rest of the photos from the End of May that I was behind on. And then there were the photos Kaylee took with my little digital Canon camera the other Day at the Airport. I took the camera long enough to take the few golf cart photos, but the rest were all her. And that was an interesting study into her mind, to see the 109 files of photos and videos she took. She took photos all over the T-6, inside it, on the wing, the tail, about six photos of the red cowling, the seats, just all over it. And several photos of it taking off, taxing around, landing, sitting on the ramp, etc. She took photos of all the people that were there, all the planes, Nathan's Vette and tug, all sorts of stuff. She took several videos too, where she did it a lot like a webcast, tilting the camera, making silly noises, waving the camera around back and forth on purpose, going right up close to her own face (or mine), all sorts of things. It was definitely interesting to look at what she thought was photo material!

I do believe I have some sleep to catch up on... *yawn*