Tuesday

I fell asleep somewhere around 9 p.m. last night and woke up in time to go back to bed for the night. My throat hurt(s) and I am just probably recuperating from the weekend...

Today for lunch five of us piled into the Baron while two more went in an RV (airplane, not recreational vehicle) and we all flew to Greencastle. Steve was doing a flight review with a friend in an RV, and they decided to go to Greencastle, and it seemed like a good plan to meet up with them. The food there is quite good, and my leftovers will work for dinner, too. :) It was a pretty day for a flight, with hardly a cloud in the sky. A wise pilot will check for TFRs (flight restrictions) and NOTAMS (important notices about airports or runways or such) prior to a flight so they don't do something like blast through a presidential restricted area or land on a closed runway. The computer at the hangar wasn't working, so as Nathan fired up the Baron, I called Flight Service on my cellphone and asked for TFRs and NOTAMS for that route of flight. The guy paused and said "Are you IN an airplane right now?" I said yes, and he laughed and said "Well I guess I'd better hurry up then!" The last time we'd been to Greencastle was when Jim, Chuck, Nathan and myself flew down in the Mustang and the T-6 in formation. Nice...

I picked Kaylee up from school, and she had her math book with her. She has a math test tomorrow, and her teacher said she had a lot of corrections to do on her math papers and that she needed to study for the test. I asked Kaylee if she wanted to do that before or after ballet, and she shocked me by saying "before", so she could relax afterwards. I thought for sure she'd put it off, so I was glad she didn't. I was going over the math with her, the ones she'd gotten wrong, and I pointed to one and she immediately said "It's 'B'." I told her she needed to know HOW to get that answer for the test, and she said "No, this IS the test, and I remember that the answer is 'B'." Oh boy. That was ME. Memorizing the answers to do well on tests but not really studying. I made her go over them and others like them so she'd have to learn the concept not just memorize the answer, but she'd get tired and just start tossing guesses, or giving up. We ended up spending an hour on math tonight, and part of that was on counting back change from a purchase. Since I know of a LOT of teens and adults who can't figure out what someone's change should be from a purchase, and it really irritates me, I'm going to make sure Kaylee gets it figured out.

Kaylee also wore a pair of jeans today that are a little snug around the waist, and she informed me that she's fat, because everyone around her that's her age is a lot skinnier than she is and that she doesn't feel good about herself. Ugh. Fortunately, she's a dramatic kind of person who throws stuff like that out one minute and then is completely over it the next minute. I have to remember that when dealing with her, because I'm the opposite way.

A local law was passed nearby that bans anyone from standing by the side of the road with a sign to collect money. Anyone wanting to do that has to stay at least 50' away from the road. Here's why that makes me shake my head. Their reason for passing this law? To "protect" people from getting hit by cars on the road. Not to stop panhandlers, because that would be in violation of their rights. But to save them from harm. This law also affects the firefighters who go out with boots for the MDA and the teenagers who stand there with signs for car wash fundraisers for their schools and so on. So. Do we really need government to create a law telling people they can't stand within 50' of a road for their own good? Shouldn't that be a decision they get to make all by themselves? Either they're running around the fact that people have the right to stand on a public street corner with a sign by claiming it's for their safety, or it really IS for their safety and we're one step closer to being told what risks we as individuals can and cannot be allowed to take. *sigh*...