P.S.

Don't forget to "Fall Back" an hour. Tis that time of year again, to pretend like we suddenly get 25 hours in a day!

Fright Night Done Right

Kaylee made a lovely little vampiress tonight. She wore the fake teeth around the house for a whole minute before she took them back out and refused to wear them the rest of the night because they made her drool. So she was a vampiress without pointy teeth. :)

Our first stop was at Grandma & Grandpa's house next door, as always when they are still here. :) Grandpa gave her the first candy of the season, and then we got in the Jeep and drove over to Russiaville. As I said last year, Russiaville is a small town that has a whole lot of community participation. The streets are filled with trick-or-treaters and many businesses participate. The fire department had coffee (for the parents) and juice and cookies, and a lot of the people were outside in chairs or on their porches with bowls of candy so the kids didn't even have to knock. Kaylee liked that one, not having to go knock on a stranger's door. We first stopped at Chuck & Judy's, and then went on to gather as much candy as possible. The first house we went to, the folks on the porch knew exactly what Kaylee was supposed to be, and told her she had the best costume they'd seen that night. She got several compliments on her wig. After her bucket was about 2/3rds full, she was getting pretty chilly, so we got back in the Jeep and drove to the church where she attends Awanas. She took off her collar/bat necklace and became a "night fairy" here. :) They were having a "Trunk or Treat" event there, where adults would take their SUVs, open up the backs and decorate them up in some form of Halloween theme, and they'd hand out candy from their vehicles. It's a good place to go for lots of candy in a short period of time where you know several of the people and know the candy is safe. One SUV was done up in Indianapolis Colts with blue and white balloons, and another SUV on the next row over was done in Pittsburgh Steelers with a big sign "Colts Fans Don't Scare Us". Made me laugh. They also handed out free donut holes and hot chocolate. Kaylee was so chilly she couldn't hardly hold her hot chocolate at first, so we didn't stay a real long time, but instead came back to our own neighborhood where we hit two blocks by our house. We ended with a couple of fun Halloween street displays nearby, and came on home where Kaylee dug through her goodies, changed clothes, had dinner and got cozy. This year people gave out really good candy! Hardly any gum balls and tootsie rolls and lots of Hershey bars and other good stuff...

Pictures are up Here. It was a fun evening, Kaylee got away with tons of goodies, the weather was cool but nice, and it was a Happy Halloween!

An Unpopular Stance

I'm watching this H1N1 thing with mixed emotions, particularly the vaccine. I joked in an earlier post about seeing lines of people showing up to get vaccinated and how it would make for a good horror novel. It would also work for a perfect Michael Crichton medical mystery novel, and it just seems more and more that way the farther this goes. I sound like a paranoid kook, but I don't feel comfortable. I've done some research, and not just on "kook" websites. Here's the deal. They rushed this vaccination, big time. The vaccine they used in 1976 for the swine flu outbreak killed hundreds of people and caused neurological disorders in a lot of people. People sued and the government made legislation so that people couldn't sue for it. The vaccine they are using now, for the similar strain, the CDC sent a release out to neurologists asking them to keep an eye out for an increase in GBS, one of the neurological issues that hit people in the 70s with that vaccine, because they haven't had time to know for sure that this vaccine is safe and what incidents of side effects they are going to see. There have already been people thus affected by the vaccine. Not many, of course, yet, but I've seen some of their stories online and on the news. Which crap shoot do you want to take? That you might die from the flu or that you might have life-altering neurological or even life-ending complications from a rushed-through, not-very-tested vaccine that they are just pumping into pregnant women, children, etc. as fast as they can get it, as the potential lesser of two evils?

Here's the deal. H1N1 can obviously be very dangerous, as can the regular flu, and I know the odds are much greater of getting the flu than having a vaccine complication. If someone has a very high risk of severe illness or death from the flu, then their odds of getting the flu and thus dying are much higher than the rest of us, and they need to get it and be as protected as possible. I also know that in the alternative, most people who get the flu will be fine, and by the same token, most people getting a vaccination will be fine. For me, the flu scares me less as the devil I know, I guess. Ending up paralyzed or twitching uncontrollably or dead because of a vaccine...no... And no, I don't trust them when they say it's safe. Do you know what else they've said is safe that hasn't been safe at all? Where do I start?? They learn more over time and revise their opinions constantly. Do you remember how doctors and companies claimed that anyone who said that using the cell phone too much could cause cancer or other issues were "conspiracy theorists" or nutjobs and there was no evidence of that? Well guess what? According to a 10-year-long, multi-country-wide study whose results they just released the other day, more cell phone usage Does increase the odds of ending up with a brain tumor, significantly. And maybe in another ten years they will debunk that study--who knows. I blindly got my newborn son vaccinations that they told me to, including Hep B. I wouldn't do that one for Kaylee at birth after some research, and what do you know, they've changed their recommendations over time to not give that to newborns any more due to the high rate of complications including death. Same for a few others. So maybe those of us a little hesitant about this vaccine are conspiracy theorists or paranoid too, but ten years from now let's look back and see what we've learned about this vaccine, and THEN I'll be willing to take the info of how many people safely used it vs how many people had a problem and make an educated choice on whether or not the benefits outweigh the risks for ours, an otherwise healthy family. Of course by then we'll be on to the Dog Flu and something new and different and scary anyway and it will be a moot point...

Just to be clear, I'm not saying people shouldn't get the vaccine. I'm sure most people will be fine, and I know that many, particularly in the SMA community or those who work around small children a lot have a huge chance of getting the flu, which could cause complications including death. What AM I saying? I guess I'm saying that I'm not comfortable with the entire country lining up to take a shot in the arm without much thought beyond "they told us we should get this for our own protection" when "they" are gathering and keeping statistics on the side effects for the first time as this comes out. Hopefully time will pan out their claims of safety...

Fall Break Friday

We got to sleep in a little bit this morning, which was nice. So I like Fall Break as much as Kaylee does. ;)

When I came out to the living room dressed to go to Glenndale, Kaylee's eyes lit up and she gave me a big smile and said "You're wearing my shoes!" She'd given me a pair of purple heels with a purple ribbon that tied across the top, and it made her day to see them worn and out and about in public. I have one purple shirt and it pretty much matches the shoes, so I was a very bright person on a very gloomy day today thanks to Kaylee. :)

I ended up at Staples and Hobby Lobby and the bank and the post office and Glenndale (twice) and Kokomo airport and Wendy's and...it seemed like every time I thought I was done with errands, I'd get a call, an email or a text that left one more thing to go do. Some days I should get Frequent Driver Miles, I say!

Kaylee and I continued the tradition of putting her foot print on a square of cloth fabric she'd chosen. We were supposed to do it when she turned 8, but she's still 8, so it will still count. We'll just wait a few months after she turns 9 to do that one. ;) She had picked out kitty fabric, and I used the purple paint and wrote the age down in gold. It'll dry overnight, then go with the rest of the squares waiting to some day be a big footprint quilt. It's almost scary to think about how we're basically halfway through the quilt already! I was going to go until she was 18, if she'd let me, and here comes 9 already. And I thought that 18 years was going to take forever...
I'm closing in a little bit on the person that hijacked my smasupport guestbook. I'm not sure how far I'll get, but I want to know a little more. I may or may not let you know if I do. ;)

Kaylee's looking forward to Halloween, of course, and I'm just hoping it doesn't rain on us. She said she'd do a blog update tomorrow afterwards...

Fall Break

Kaylee is on Fall Break now, but Steve and I both had flights this morning, so we told her she'd have to get up early anyway and come with us to the airport. She wasn't too thrilled about that, but fortunately for her, her Fall Break had a much nicer start after all. Once again we had fog all morning, which killed off the two flights. So she got to sleep in, and once she got up, she got to cuddle in a blanket on the couch, eat Frosted Flakes, and watch the new Tinkerbelle movie. She was in Kaylee-topia. :)

We met Steve and others for lunch and she got to have chocolate ice cream afterwards, so her day was still pretty good at this point. I then had a flight out at Kokomo and Steve had one at Glenndale, so she chose to go to Glenndale and play Disney Fairies for the first time in ages. I flew with Bill, a new CFI to our area. He'd recently moved here, has a lot of flight time and experience, and I was just checking him out in our Aeronca Chief. It was good and windy today, so it took awhile to get around the pattern in the 65 hp Chief. ;)

I was supposed to have a flight after that with a videographer from Lafayette's tv station who is doing the video work for a project for a group here in Kokomo. My job was to fly him low and slow over Wildcat Creek. However, he needed a nice smooth day and the winds were gusting up over 20 knots, and it just wouldn't have been a good day to videotape, so we're rescheduled for hopefully a better day. As I said, at least it's not UFOs this time!

Short Circuited

The day started early as I had to take Kaylee to a store before school and get a pumpkin pie. Today was her class party and she had signed me up to bring the pie, and I ran out of time last night. So we ran into a bakery and got a nice, large pumpkin pie with a little whipped cream, and it worked out great. She had a fun day, a good party, ate lots of junk food (and some grapes and carrots, mom), and is now officially out on Fall Break until Monday. :)

We lost power three times this morning at the house, which was different. The power was only out for 10 seconds or so each time, but I quit resetting the clocks after the second time. I now have four blinking clocks in my house even as I type this.

After I left the store and dropped Kaylee off at school, I picked up a package at the post office and, well, ran several other errands. I was supposed to fly at 9 a.m., but by the time 9 a.m. rolled around, there was still a heavy fog out there. In fact, the fog was so thick you could see it on the ground, hanging in the trees, everywhere. Kaylee was amazed and "a little creeped out" by it on the way to school. I was impressed. You couldn't even see a stoplight from half a block away in some areas, and out in the country it was like you were alone in the world. It brought to mind the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and the farmers who would get lost and killed in a blizzard if they didn't tie a rope from their house to their barn when they went to care for the animals. Obviously flying was out of the question. Kaylee asked what it was like to fly in the fog, and I told her it was just flying in the clouds. The only difference is that fog is basically clouds on the ground, and the problem would be that I couldn't see the runway to come in and land, and I'd be stuck up there for awhile or have to go somewhere else. She paused and then said "Well, eventually you would run out of fuel, wouldn't you?" I do like how she can reason through things pretty quickly...

One of the (many) places I went today was to the BMV to renew the plates on two of our vehicles. I didn't even have the renewal paperwork, just my registration and insurance card, and I was fairly sure there would be a problem of some kind. I was there for five whole minutes. I walked in, she looked at my driver's license, I paid them money, and I walked out with my newly renewed plate stickers. It was scary easy...

After lunch (and a few more errands) I drove to Sheridan for a flight in the 180 with one of Steve's students while he was off on a checkride with another student. (Who passed with flying colors, of course.) :) On my drive out, the song "Dreams" came on in the car, and it made me laugh, because I flashed back to listening to that song on my way to the airport when I was learning to fly, and here I am on my way to the airport years later to teach, listening to the same song. I started daydreaming, until I looked around and realized I had no idea how far down the back roads I'd come and wasn't sure if I'd passed the airport or not. There aren't exactly many visual references out there in the corn fields until I came to a road I recognized and knew I hadn't gotten there yet after all. Doh. I had a nice no-wind day and calm skies (the fog was gone by then) with which to work with the student on those last five seconds of the landing, which is the trickiest part, and it was a productive flight for sure.

I was on my way home from the flight, thinking about the things I needed to do tonight, and Kaylee's Awanas popped into my head, followed shortly by the thought "She's supposed to dress up like someone from a different country tonight." SHOOT. I had meant to work on that earlier and I forgot. A quick glance at the clock showed me that I would have about an hour to figure out a costume for her once I got home. I looked up various countries on the internet along with what the women wore, and had nothing around the house that would work at all. I tried taking a long lavender silk thing and wrapping it up like she was from India, but there wasn't enough material and it looked cheesy. With 10 minutes to go, I found a black and red outfit that looked like it could pass as Spanish or Japanese with some final touches. A red thick ribbon tied around her waist, her hair up in a bun with a red holder, a pair of chop sticks stuck through it and a hand fan later, she was Japanese Girl, and she actually looked good. When we got to Awanas, I saw a girl walking in who was just wearing the green T&T t-shirt and no costume. So I walked in with Kaylee to make sure that 1) this was the right night to dress up and 2) she wouldn't be the only one dressed up, because that would be really embarrassing. Sure enough, several other kids were dressed, and she got a lot of compliments walking down the hall. When I went to pick her back up I was pleased to note that she had the most realistic looking costume. I had been bothered at the thought of her going with just a sheet wrapped around her or something, only to find the majority of other kids came just wrapped in a sheet. So I am marking a brief period of creativity and the successful completion of a costume I didn't have to borrow or buy in its entirety from someone else. And that uses up all my skills for the next year. ;)

We cuddled and talked for awhile afterwards, then I surprised Kaylee with a copy of Tinkerbelle's new movie to watch over her Fall Break. She jumped up and down and hugged on me for quite a bit. It's a nice thing to be able to do for $1 from Redbox. :)

On the not-so-nice end of things, somebody hacked into my SMA Support guestbook. They left a series of pop-up messages that said they were a "Grey Hat Hacker" and that they were only doing this to show me the error of my ways of having bad code that could be hacked, that they weren't doing it because they liked to make my life miserable, although that was fun sometimes too, and that I could have my site back and the instructions for fixing it were in the script. Unfortunately I don't know how to un-hack websites, but fortunately I know people who do. It was being worked on as of a few minutes ago. *sigh*

Extremes

I didn't do a darned thing most of today. No errands, no work, and the first thing I'm actually going to accomplish is taking Kaylee to dance this evening. I spent the morning out at Kokomo Airport talking and goofing off. We let the airport guys pull out the Baron and Cheyenne and put them out on the ramp for the filming to help make the airport look...airporty. :) The Extreme Home Makeover Edition (EHME for short) film crew were back today for the Big Reveal with the family, and they flew in just after lunch with David Cook (the winner from American Idol) and a woman winner or runner-up from American Idol (I don't know who, I don't watch the show) as well as the family whose house was just built (the Cowan/Brown family) who was returning from Disneyland in California. They filmed some footage out at the airport, getting the family into the big white limo, down by the entrance way filming the limo leaving the airport, etc. Steve and I went up to the terminal to watch a bit-Ty and David Cook had just left, and the family was still up there waiting to go to their Reveal. They were pretty glowing as you could imagine. Things cleared out around 2:30 and we went up by Nathan's hangar for awhile until it was time for me to go get Kaylee at school. The funniest thing was that I'd brought my camera along to take pictures...only to find the battery was in the charger at home. So, I had no camera. Which was ironic because I'd been complaining a bit about leaving to go eat lunch in case I missed a good photo opportunity, only to realize I'd just have been more tormented standing there with no photo-taking ability at all anyway. So no, I got no pictures, but at least it was something interesting that happened on a cold, gray, overcast, icky-looking day. The Big Reveal is happening while I type this, and they're broadcasting it over a local radio station. I'm not a big "in awe of celebrities" person by any stretch. I don't keep up on them other than what you have no choice but to know thanks to it being plastered on TV, and I'm not impressed just because someone is on tv or the movies. But I do think it's neat that EHME is in our area doing a house for somebody, and it does break up the monotony of the day to have film crews and tv celebs out bumming around at your hang-out. :)

Oh, one funny thing. The dad from the family for the EHME thing introduced himself to Jerry J., the line guy out at the airport, and when he heard his name, he realized that Jerry had been the police officer who gave him a speeding ticket several years ago. He said "Last time I saw you, you gave me a citation for speeding!" Jerry asked him if he pleaded 'not guilty', and the guy laughed and said "No, I deserved it, I just paid it." This is a small community, man, beware! :)

Kaylee had a busy day. She was of course in school from 8:30-3, and then she had dance starting at 4:30. She did Ballet from 4:30-5:15, Tap from 5:15-5:30, then Jazz from 5:30-6 p.m. (all in the same place/class). We went next door and had hot chocolate/snack, and then from 6:45-7:30 p.m. we went to her first Hip-Hop class (at a different place). The Hip Hop is offered twice a week, Tuesday & Thursday, but she only wants to take it one day, and she wants to make it Tuesday even though she already has other dance classes that day. She says she has nothing on Thursdays and she wants to keep it open for a "chill-out" day (along with Friday and the weekends). So we went tonight for a trial run, and she came away and said she loved it. She learned lots of new moves and they basically learned a routine one bit at a time until at the end they were doing the whole thing over and over to (of course very loud) hip hop music. The instructors are highly energetic to say the least. There's a woman who oozes energy even when she's standing still who is in impossibly good shape (she also teaches Zumba and Kickboxing classes and had just finished two hours of exercise prior to starting this class) and a black man who likes to "woof woof" bark at the class as a "You Go" kind of thing when somebody does something well. After class, he asked Kaylee if she had fun. She gives him two thumbs up and says loud and clear "Oh Yeah!" He gives her the bark, then a double fist bump, which she knew how to do back, and he said "Are you going to give me a bark?" She looked at him and said "Nnnno." He said "Maybe next time?" She said "Nnnno." I laughed. She shot me a look, then as we walked out said "I am SO not barking." She had been a little nervous about her first time there, knowing she would probably be the youngest one in the class. She was--but within a few minutes she didn't notice any more, and she had fun. She had told me she didn't want to offend me, but she would rather I not go. She said she doesn't like to be watched, and when I go it makes her nervous. I actually understand-I used to have the same problem when I was a kid, and I told her that. I also told her I was still coming tonight for the first class so I could see what it was about for myself. But I took a book, and anytime she'd be facing me, I would magically be reading, and when she was facing away from me she just assumed I would be reading. ;) Anyway, it went well, and we'll do it next week as well and just take it a week at a time. If she gets too tired with that busy of a Tuesday schedule, we'll rearrange, but she likes it for now...

Steve broke his new cell phone. The touchscreen quit working and has some fluid showing on the left side under the surface, he thinks maybe from when he dropped the phone a few days ago. The screen acts like it is always being touched and is just locked up. He can still use the inside parts of the phone, just not the touch screen on the outside. I see the irony, considering what a hard time he's given me about my phone biting the dust (literally) and me being relegated back to an old phone I don't like, but it's still a bummer that his new phone is now half toast.

Lots to do tomorrow, including picking up the new Tinkerbelle movie that came out today that I can rent for $1 at Redbox that Kaylee will flip over when I surprise her with it. ;)

Yadda Yadda

Twas another day of productivity over here. Billing, banking, mailing, check-writing, a trip to Sam's Club for the office and house, a few activities for Kaylee, paperwork, housework, a little flying research, some SMA stuff. I just finished with the work day here around 11 p.m., and I'm ready to kick back and maybe have some hot chocolate and relax. :)
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"Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain – and most do."
~Dale Carnegie

Blue Skies

Last night while I was talking to our visitor at the hangar, Kaylee was riding around on her scooter. She was going so fast at one point that Steve opened his mouth and said "Kaylee, you'd better slow down or" and the words didn't finish leaving his mouth when she wiped out, hard, between the hangar door and the Mustang tug, onto the concrete floor. It was a narrow little path there, she was trying to shoot through it at high speed (again), she probably jerked when she tried to slow down or when she heard Steve calling out to her, and she went down, twisting and hitting her knee. It was actually a hard enough fall that she couldn't move her leg for awhile, and it still pains her to twist it in a certain direction. There's a bruise there today, but even though the bruise is small, I'm keeping an eye on that knee. She's got full range of motion and while I think it's a little swollen, it's not badly so, and she can use it, but she definitely went down hard on it.

As I suspected, today would be the day to hang out at the airport and maybe even get some flying in, but I need to get some work done at home today. I wrote a letter to try to help keep a grant that is being proposed in California towards SMA research and got that sent off in time, placed a couple of orders and sent out a couple of disbursements towards SMA Support, got the house & laundry back to a reasonable condition, got the kid working on her room and bathroom, and next need to work on business cards and billing entries. (Meanwhile I was watching the Colts game, but they're creaming the Rams, and while I'm glad for that, I still switched to the Steelers/Viking game, which is at least a game.)

Kaylee is looking forward to trying out a new hip hop class I found. She's wanted to do hip hop for two years now, but the only class at her dance school is on a Saturday at 9 a.m., which is just not going to work for us because of things from our schedules which have us often gone on weekends to needing at least one morning where the kid can sleep in and relax and not have something going on for the day. So I'd looked around at other dance schools to see if they had a hip hop class she could attend, but one was also on Saturday morning, and the other was at the same time as her ballet class and had very strict rules, more for the dancers who want to do that for a living when they grow up. I happened to stumble across a sign for a hip hop class at a church, which piqued my interest for two reasons. One, because I had just given up on finding a class, and two, because if it's at a church, it's probably not going to have some of the moves and music that some of the other places have had that I wasn't too fond of for (my) little kid. Okay, and three, because it's cheap. ;) So I talked to the person in charge; it's not a formal class, it's a mixed-age class for fun, and Kaylee is looking forward to giving it a trial run this week...

A lady named Mrs. Brandt passed away last night. She had double pneumonia, ovarian and uterine cancer. She had already beaten breast cancer years ago. She was one of my high school teachers, the mom of one of my classmates, and we all knew her. She was a kind, gentle, sweet woman who had her own quiver-full of kids and grand kids. I know she will be missed by many in the church and of course by her family and friends.

Well, I guess I'd better start the next load of laundry and give up the computer for awhile for Kaylee to make her blog entry before I get back to working on the billing and such...

Badda Bing

The economy is so bad:

• I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• I ordered a burger at McDonalds and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
• CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
• If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call and ask if they meant you or them.
• Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
• A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico.
• Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
• The Mafia is laying off judges.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!

Saturday

We brought breakfast out to the airport this morning, and had a nice group meal at the hangar then stayed for the day. It was cold and windy still, so we stayed indoors where it was warm and bright. :) The kids played in the hangars, usually staying in whichever one we were not in. At one point they had set up a "party" in the bathroom, with airplane tires on the floor as seats, flashlights pointed up for lighting, and bungee cords everywhere for decorations. Creative and festive, but a mess they had to clean up right away anyway. ;)

As we were getting ready to leave, a visitor walked into the hangar, said he'd heard a rumor that there was a P-51 on the field here and wanted to see if it was true. Of course, it IS true, so we gave him the tour, and he recognized both planes from Mt. Comfort and Oshkosh once he saw them. Found out he was someone whose name I recognized from WIX, a web forum for "Warbird Information Exchange". That was interesting, small world and all that!

We made it home right about at dark, and the rest of the evening is just the mundane relaxation of a Saturday evening at home. :)

Hanging Out

I didn't get a whole lot done today because I spent most of it either at one of two airports, or sleeping off a nasty headache. Today's Glenndale Friday lunch was meatloaf, so of course I was on my way to Long John Silver's when Nathan let me know he'd brought sandwich material too. That'll work. :) I woke up with a headache but was keeping it down to a dull roar until I'd been at the office for awhile and it decided not to be tamed after all. I ended up napping before I picked Kaylee up from school, and after, until 6 p.m. in fact, and I'm still ready to go to bed at 11 p.m. Those brain attacks just take it out of ya. Kaylee went with Steve out to Kokomo earlier, and I made it out there a bit later, in time to join everybody for a lovely steak & baked potato dinner, and we hung out until 10:30 or so. We were going to have a fire, but the wind was howling and it was nasty cold outside, so we stayed in the lit, heated hangar while the kids played outside, and just chewed the fat, literally and figuratively. :)

Color Me Impressed

I know this is long, but these girls are amazing. It IS funny how in the beginning it's a bunch of bored guys in the audience and at the end there isn't anybody left sitting down out there...I don't know how the girls pulled off some of those moves.

General Aviation

My student and I did some ground time then flew around for over an hour this morning while I tried to get him lost and he'd have to find his way home. I know that sounds mean, but really, it isn't. ;) We got down in time for lunch, after which we went out to Kokomo. We needed to pick up two airplanes at Muncie, so I flew over the RG with Nathan & Steve C. Nathan flew his Cheyenne home, Steve flew the Toga home, and I flew the RG home, making us our own little cavalcade. Or herd. Or fleet, perhaps.

Oh, while we were at Muncie we ran into the new restaurant owners. They invited us in and showed us around, and are excited about being up and running soon. He said they already have their room booked for engagements and that the locals are happy to have them open. We will be too, as we miss running over for lunch now and then. :)

Kaylee had a bit of a rough day at school, and when I picked her up she stabbed her finger on a fence, causing it to bleed a fair amount. It (obviously) hurt, and she started shrieking. I got a bandaid on it, but she wouldn't let me clean it other than running it through the water in the bathroom. Then she got into the Jeep and started giving me a litany of everything that went wrong today. She lost 5 minutes of recess because she pouted, she didn't get the partner she wanted for a project, her pumpkin got bent, and now she hurt her finger, and this whole day is just awful. We did the cuddle on the couch cure, and within about 15 minutes she was ready for a snack and a brighter afternoon.

Tonight was our EAA chapter meeting, and Nathan hosted it at his hangar. It had started a cold, drizzly rain, so I didn't really think it would be a huge turn-out, but it really was a pretty good-sized group. Chuck grilled up burgers for everybody, Dale brought some really excellent homemade soup, and we had plenty of food. Nathan gave a talk about corrosion protection in airplanes and then a bit about the T-6, then everybody just hung out until it was time to go home. We stayed late, which meant Kaylee got to bed late, which pleased her. She drove home with Steve in the Corvette, deciding she liked his car better than mine. That's my girl. ;)

Ty from "Extreme Home Makeover Edition" flew out today. He was really tired, and was headed to Nashville to jump right into another house rebuild project. The area around the house they did here was blocked off so you couldn't drive past and check it out, but you could fly over it. I didn't, but I think Steve did. :)

I'm missing a few things from today, but I'm tired, so it was a recitation of a few facts of the day or nothing, so there ya be. :)
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"The person who smiles in the face of adversity probably has a scapegoat."
~Author unknown

"Every time you give another a piece of your mind, you add to your own vacuum."
~Fenwicke L. Holmes

Wandering With A Purpose

I earned frequent flier miles to Muncie today. I went this morning with a student in KS for his first trip into a tower-controlled field, had lunch, then went back this afternoon in the RG to pick up Nathan. It was another pretty fall day for a flight, and probably the last one for awhile as the weather is supposed to deteriorate again starting tomorrow. At least I had two more days where I could wear short-sleeved shirts in comfort...

Guess who is in Kokomo? Here, I'll give you a clue:

That's right, It's Jerry J., the line guy at Kokomo Airport!! :) "Extreme Home Makeover" is in Kokomo doing a television shoot and house rebuild for a family here. I don't know the circumstances yet, but I really ought to ask someone...

I've knocked out a lot of work the last few days, gotten a lot of things organized, a lot thrown away, a lot completed, from paperwork to projects to emails to my logbook (not thrown away, just caught up!) to work things I'm...almost done with. Feels pretty good to get it caught up. Maybe I can keep it that way with the slower season coming up. Hopefully.

When I picked Kaylee up from school, I brought in another computer for them to use in the classroom. When I asked where it needed to go, it was to replace one that "quit working". I'm not sure what's wrong with it yet, but I just unhooked it to bring home then put the new one in its place. She asked me if I could hook it up and get it set up and running for tomorrow, so I did that while Kaylee played in aftercare. Yes, even I can figure out to plug the little green round thing in the little green round hole, and the pink in the pink, and the purple into the purple rectangle. The matching black ones could have been tricky, but the shapes gave them away. Hey, it's tough to fit the right shape and color to the right spot, but I somehow managed, and everything even worked when I turned it on. ;) Seriously though, that was good timing since the computer was down in the classroom, so I'm glad to get one up and running for them today.

What is the deal with all the ladybugs?? They are crawling all over the deck window, they're inside my Jeep, they're flinging themselves at my face when I walk in the yard. Kaylee is totally creeped out by them, which I find funny. When I was her age I collected them in big jars and let them crawl all over my hands. She squeals and curls into a ball. Who is afraid of ladybugs?? Spiders, okay, they can kill you and are ugly and mean and evil. (Fine, except Charlotte, and she's still ugly). But lady bugs? Awww... :)

Kaylee is at Awanas for "donut night" which made her quite happy, and I guess I'll get back to a project on my end. These came in today, and since Procrastination is something I fall prey to now and then, particularly the last quote, and I know I'm not the only one out there, I'll share. :)
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"Most people spend their entire lives on a fantasy island called 'Someday I'll'."
~Denis Waitley

"You may delay, but time will not."
~Benjamin Franklin

"Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can."
~Mary Frances Berry

"Some people procrastinate so much that all they can do is run around like firefighters all day -- putting out fires that should not have gotten started in the first place."
~Nido Qubein

Tuesday (I'm feeling so creative today)

I've spent today working on a lot of things that I'd fallen behind on over the months. My emails are down to the 30s in my inbox now, which is pretty good for me. :) I ended up driving all over town for various things and working on a lot of airport stuff on the computer...none of it exciting, but all of it necessary. I've got a good amount more to do this evening, probably while I watch NCIS. I love laptops and wireless networking systems. :)

Kaylee and I went to dance a little early so we could stop and have a scoop of ice cream and sit and chat a bit. It's a beautiful day outside for once, and I wish I could take her out to a park or something, but it's not meant to be today, any more than the T-6 flying I'd liked to have gotten in. Her Fall Break is coming up and maybe we'll get a good day then. Plus this weekend we may be hanging out at at the airport some so she'll get lots of good outdoor time there--if the weather cooperates, that is...

Ann (my mother-in-law) has been ill for quite awhile now, so any prayers for her would be appreciated!

Monday Returns

Kaylee's first day back to school was uneventful, though none of us wanted to wake up this morning! She got her first quarter report card in too, and is doing great. Her 3rd grade class pictures were taken on Friday before we left for Worthington, and she dressed up in her pink and white plaid skirt, white and pink shirt and little black necktie (or whatever they call the equivalent article of apparel in girls). She looked quite nice when she left home anyway. :)

Pictures from the weekend are up on Kaylee's site. There are four pages of them; two from the trip, of the camp area, 4-wheeling, fire, etc., one of Fall pictures I took of Kaylee, some serious, some goofy, some attempting to look semi-professional and some just for fun, and one page of Kaylee carving a pumpkin at her friend Maggie's house. :)

My afternoon flight was cancelled because the winds weren't exactly favorable and he wanted to wait for a better day. Instead, I took the Citabria and flew to Muncie to pick up one of our guys who had dropped off an airplane there for maintenance work. Thanks to winds aloft of around 35 knots, I was getting a ground speed in the 70 knot range on the way home, which is about as fast as driving over would have been. :) The winds were close enough down the runway to be fine, though the 9-10 knot gust factor made it a little more interesting. The Citabria shot up into the air like it had 180 hp. You have to like that...

It's a little depressing waking up to the dark again. I like it better when the sun rises before I do. But alas, school and work won't let you wait until 8 a.m. to get up, so I guess it's time to get used to it again!

Southern Indiana

The hard part about catching up on three days' worth of information at once is that you are tempted to either just say "we went here" and be done, or you forget things that you would have remembered after just one day. Or at least I do. ;)

Friday afternoon, Kaylee, Steve and I took the Jeep and followed Chuck & Judy down to southern Indiana. Judy has family down there, and they invited us to go along and camp out at a trailer in the woods on her sister's property. They live in the heart of Amish territory, and it is lovely countryside with rolling hills and narrow country roads winding around underneath tall, colorful trees. Kaylee was happy to go somewhere that didn't involve flying...at first. By the time we were getting close to arriving though, she realized she could have been there hours ago if we'd flown, and she decided that flying thing isn't all that bad after all. ;) We arrived after dark, got everything unpacked, visited for awhile and then went on to bed.

The next morning we got up early to go to breakfast in town. It was one of those restaurants where the locals go each morning to hang out and drink coffee and talk and the food is made by a real person who knows how to cook real bacon to extra-crispy-goodness. The drive out gave us our first chance to see the beautiful countryside, and when we got back I grabbed my camera and kid and made her pose for a lot of pictures for me by the little pond, by the willow tree, the wishing well, the trellis, by the sun shining through the leaves, etc. She was a sport and didn't even give me a hard time about it. We started a fire in the pit by the trailers to take the chill off, and got out the 4-wheelers. Chuck has one he had taken down there that's a bit of a hot rod. It's a 400, and it'll do over 55 mph, which I know because I took a little hand-held GPS and took it flat out down the runway at Glenndale once a few years ago, and before my eyes got blurry with tears, I saw at least 55 on the screen. ;) Chuck's brother-in-law has one there as well, a slightly bigger 4-cylinder one that's a slower 300 I think. Steve and I took turns taking Kaylee out on Chuck's, with her in front of us, zipping around through the fields and on the back roads. She loved it. Steve started letting her do the driving with him on the back seat, and she was doing a really good job being careful, listening to directions, nothing crazy or sudden or anything. Same when I took her. So...Steve hopped off once and soloed her for one trip around the campsite, and I took a picture like everyone who soloes should have. ;)

We spent Saturday eating, hanging out, talking, playing by the fire, and running the 4-wheelers around. By Saturday afternoon, Kaylee was making Steve and I take turns on the other 4-wheeler while she'd take Chuck's, and we'd drive around following her and stopping and talking and looking at stuff and taking pictures and having fun. Kaylee also got to go up to the house with the ladies and make a craft--a little hat that works as a pin cushion. She chose her fabric, stuffed it with saw dust, sewed it, glued it, put a ribbon around it, and had a lovely finished product. :)

Chuck's brother-in-law (Ray for short!) took his "Treker", which is a 4-wheel-drive little gator-like vehicle, and Chuck sat up front with him, and they led us into the woods to follow a bunch of trails. Kaylee was riding with me on Chuck's, Steve was on Ray's, and Ray & Chuck were in the lead in the Treker. Right off the bat we went down this hill and crossed a little stream area, and a cement block rolled in front of my rear tire. If I turned away from it to the right I wasn't sure I could make the steep-looking drop off area, and I sure didn't want to tip over. So it took me a bit to maneuver around. When I finally got across, I looked up and everybody was gone, so I just gunned it to catch up. Of course the path split in two, and not being able to see or hear anybody down either, I took the right path, and went as fast as I could to try to catch up. The path ended with a tree blocking it, which told me they probably didn't go that way, so I backtracked and went down the other path at a high rate of speed. Steve had turned around and was looking for us, and I ran into him. Not an auspicious beginning, but I at least knew how to get home from there, so it wouldn't have been bad. :) Ray made all those trails, so he sure knew where they were and where to go. We went over the river (creek) and through the woods, through grass taller than we were, and around, over and through trees. The Treker got over a pretty good-sized log in the road with no problem. Steve got over it okay. I got halfway over it and my rear wheels spun out in the mud. So I hit reverse and told Kaylee I was going to hit it again, and she said "I'm getting OFF!" She jumps off, I go over this log at a pretty high rate of speed, and I go flying through the air. I successfully clear the log, and I am just laughing out loud at the launch. Kaylee gets back on and we keep going on our merry way. A few times we had to turn around because it wasn't accessible to us, and once the Treker actually plowed over living little trees that were in our way. They may have been saplings, but they'd sure have stopped us. Once the Treker got through, I was next in line, and I kind of shrugged and thought that hey, they'd broken the trees, so as long as I remembered where exactly they went, I should be able to get through in the 4-wheeler too. Yep. A little extra power here and there and a lot of bouncing around and we came out of that too. Kaylee ended the trip on the back of Steve's 4-wheeler with him and I had the yellow one to myself. It was a blast. We all had a lot of fun, and there were things we went over, through, up and down that I'd never have known the 4-wheeler could handle if I hadn't seen somebody in front of me successfully go there first. I also had No Clue where we were back there, and had they left us back there and driven off, it would have taken me a whole lot of wandering time to get back to civilization. I have better pictures than that I know, but I'll put them up soon enough. Let me add it's a little tricky driving a 4-wheeler through rough terrain with your left hand over on the right handle where the throttle is and your right hand holding a camera up to your eye so you can snap photos. But it can be done. ;)

For dinner we cooked hot dogs over the open fire, then did S'mores for dessert. An easy and tasty meal when one is out camping. :)

We spent Sunday much like Saturday. Breakfast in town, 4-wheeling around with Kaylee on one machine and one of us on the other, taking pictures, hanging out by the camp fire, and eventually packing up and getting ready for the trip home. One time on Saturday Steve and I were both on the blue 4-wheeler, and we started to "race" Kaylee. She gunned hers, looking over her shoulder at us with that intent look on her face, and pulled in front of us. So Sunday I was out riding on the blue one with her on the yellow, and we were clear at the back of a big open field area with tall grass and bumps and such. I started to pass her, and she just opened the throttle and went zipping across there, intent on beating me. For the first time in a very long time, I backed off and fast, because like every other thing you just learn to drive, be it bicycle, motorcycle, car or airplane, just when you think you've got the hang of it is when it's going to bite you. She has no experience controlling something that big going that fast and I didn't want her to take a tumble. She did fine in the short period of time before she realized she was creaming me and slowed back down, but I didn't do that any more. For some reason, even though she had good judgement up to then on going at an appropriate speed, well, I started it, and she seems to be unwilling to be beaten in a race even in fun. Huh. ;)

We packed everything up and headed back north, with me driving. We left at 2 p.m. By 2:10, Steve was asleep. By 2:20 Kaylee was asleep. They pretty much slept until a police car passed us with sirens and lights on due to an accident ahead of us on the road. After we cleared the blockage, Steve was back asleep in a few minutes, and while Kaylee took a little longer this time, she also went back out, and I pretty much had the car to myself. Kaylee slept well last night, but Steve and I didn't. (Nothing uncomfortable with the trailer, I just Could Not Sleep.) Everybody slept until we got close to Noblesville, where we stopped at Brad & Allie's house with Chuck & Judy and carved a pumpkin. Gina was there and did one, and Allie's mom, and their neighbors, and Maggie & Hannah, and Chuck and Judy, and us, so we had quite a crew. Kaylee picked a Tinkerbell template, and did most of the drawing onto the pumpkin. She also did all the guts-scooping-out and prepping the pumpkin for it, then did a little bit of the cutting. She was afraid she'd goof it up and wouldn't take no for an answer, so I did the rest of the carving part of it. I'm not very good at that, but you can at least tell it's Tink...mostly...from a distance...with a candle in it. ;) Brad put a green light in there and took all the pumpkins outside on a table so we could take photos of them lit. It would have been better to wait about an hour and get it actually dark outside for it, but Chuck & Judy were leaving, Kaylee had school in the morning and it had been a busy weekend, we were still 45 minutes from home with a lot of unpacking to do, and it was already almost bed time; so we took our photos in the mostly daytime, took our pumpkin and headed on home.

It was a great little weekend vacation. The area with the trailers was very pretty back there in the woods, and the trailer was hooked up to utilities, so no worries about conserving water or electricity or heat. The company was lovely, of course, and we all enjoyed being outdoors and goofing around on a beautiful fall weekend. You know we enjoy letting Kaylee run around outside, get dirty, and be able to do things you can't really do while living in the middle of a city. And she got to carve a pumpkin with her friend too. A most successful weekend for everyone. :)

Second Verse Same as the First

In other words, nothing much new to report today. It's still cold and gray out--we are almost 20 degrees colder than normal for this time of year, and I'm not happy about it. We're also coming up on the next "Fall Back" time change, which is going to goof up my zulu time figuring (pilot thing) again for the next 5 months. I got this one committed to memory just in time to have it switch on me...

Errands, paperwork and computer work pretty much comprised the day again, with a lot more to go still. The day did get an interesting break as the entire country, including Wall Street, stopped for hours to watch a helium-filled home-made mushroom-looking balloon thing float across Colorado with what they thought was a six-year-old boy trapped inside, only to find out he was hiding in a box in his attic after all. I watched it too, imagining my six-year-old at 8,000' rocking around like that. I'm so glad he was okay after all, but that kid's brothers have some serious explaining to do.

One of the things I did today was get the paperwork ready to send in to the FAA to get a replacement Commercial Single & Multi-Engine Instrument pilot's certificate. See, mine was from the early 90s, and was paper. They've since moved to shiny green plastic ones with Wilbur & Orville Wright on them, and they are forcing everybody to swap over to the shiny plastic or your certificate will become invalid. Well, that's not nice. I like my paper one. Plus the new plastic ones will have a new issuance date instead of the original issuance date, meaning my Commercial Pilot's License will have been issued in 2009 now. Phoo. My last real one, for the multi-engine addition, was issued on Halloween in 199something. That's a much better date. I remember that was quite a grueling checkride and I didn't get to fly home until after dark, and I was looking down over the city and seeing all the Halloween decorations, the people out with flashlights, etc. and I felt like it was not a "wicked" day at all. :)

Kaylee is still writing in her blog pretty often. She got a big grin out of it when her teacher left her a comment today, and enjoys reading her Grandma's and others notes too. :) She really does that on her own. I don't tell her what to write or type it for her-as a matter of fact she is mimicking me and doesn't like it if you look over her shoulder when she's typing. She'll write what she wants, do a spell check on it, and publish it, and I just read it afterwards like everybody else. Kind of neat, actually. Here she is tonight, having just taken a bath, sitting at the computer and making her post for tonight...

Mumble Grumble Wednesday

Fifty (pointless) points to the first person who can list all the things wrong with This Story. Let me start. He threw her against a wall, then threw her against a bathtub by her hair, but the entire story is about the fish. She's devastated about the fish. He's sorry he killed the fish. His attorney is sorry he killed the fish. She is getting a Memorial Tattoo of the fish. He's getting a psych eval for killing the fish he knew she loved. The judge says he doesn't have to stay away from fish. (uhhh) Hello, folks, there's also that part where he stalked his former girlfriend and tossed her into hard objects around her apartment by her hair when she wouldn't get back together with him. Anyone? No? Good grief.

Okay, well, then does that make This Story make any more sense? A six-year-old boy joins the Cub scouts and is excited about it so he brings his camping eating utensil tool to school with him to use for lunch. The school says it violates their zero-tolerance policy on weapons and he is now suspended and faces 45 days of reform school. He had to provide character references and go to a disciplinary hearing. For a spoon/fork/knife combo camping utensil. Within the story is another gem of a 3rd grade girl who was kicked out of school because her grandmother sent a birthday cake to school with her along with a knife to cut her cake. The teacher used the knife to cut the cake, then called the principal on her who expelled the 3rd grader for a YEAR. Or the two high schoolers who were both suspended due to the "war on drugs" when one gave her boyfriend an Advil for a headache-and was forced to go through "drug counseling". What is WRONG with people?? Zero Tolerance = Zero Rational Thought/Brain Activity. How unbelievably sad, and wrong. These school administrators have a bright future in the Federal Government in the IRS or the TSA. No thinking for yourself, no logic, no determining what is right or wrong, just march the party line and wipe out the innocent in your quest to bring down the bad guys.

Okay, I'm done, sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled, fascinating description of life in Kokomo.

Flying = cancelled this morning due to rain. This afternoon the Saratoga was finished at Muncie with getting its autopilot repaired, and it needed to come back today for a trip that it's going out on tomorrow. The weather was such that we thought we'd have to file an IFR flight plan to get over there and back, so Nathan and I went to take the Baron and do that. But things cooperated just enough for us to be able to run over underneath the clouds with good visibilities at least. I flew the Saratoga back home and tested out the autopilot, and landed with the exact right amount of time to fuel it up for the guy's trip and get to school to pick up Kaylee.

Kaylee = she's doing great, and is fortunate enough to go to a school where the teachers and administrators alike actually have brains and common sense. And a good school board too. ;) She's still coughing, but she got a good night's sleep and is in good spirits. All seems well. Last night I was working late on some SMA things, and ended up going through a lot of paperwork and crumpling it and tossing it on the floor when I was done with it. Kaylee came walking in, looked around, and said "Nice mess! And you get on me about my room!" She was walking back to her room when I said "Yes, but I'm going to pick this all up before I go to bed. How about you??" Her voice wafted from up front "Okay, good point..."

Steve = he's 50 now, you know. ;) But he still works most of the day then comes home and works more from home until about midnight or so most days. It's nice that we get to meet up for lunch each day and take a break during the day to hang out with friends.

Laura = I've been working pretty hard these last few days too, and I have quite a bit more to get done shortly here. I keep up on billing as we go throughout the month these days, which means I've got more to do most days, but it keeps me from having days worth of non-stop billing stuff at the end of the month. What's that saying? How do you eat an elephant...one bite at a time. I've also been working on some SMA accounting and disbursements, a lot of paperwork for school and insurance and yadda yadda. If I'm really good I might even get my logbook back up to date. Nah... I threw away an entire large trash bag of papers I went through and accomplished yesterday, and I still have a foot-high pile of papers on my desk waiting for me. If I were smart I would do it as it comes in, but sometimes you just can't. Some days you have flights all day, or trips, or you're gone for a weekend/week, or you only have a couple of hours before it's time to do Kaylee's stuff and then it's evening and you'd like to just chill out. Or whatever, but once I get behind, man, it's a big elephant. I'm just sayin'. :) (And you don't even want to know the sheer number of things that go through Steve's "desk". Makes me look lazy. And I'm not.)

This afternoon I took Kaylee shopping for a Halloween costume. Much like last year, I was still dismayed to see the walls and walls (and dressing rooms) for adult women to dress up in the most sexually explicit costumes they could find. One wall and one divider for children's costumes, three walls and 8 dividers for adult's costumes. What's wrong with that picture? And if you're an adult woman, you can either be a giant pumpkin or clown if that's the size that fits, or you can show off...a whole lotta everything. It must be good business, selling smutty costumes to grown people at Halloween, because they're still here. Kaylee was willing to be "Silvermist", a fairy from Tinkerbelle, but they didn't have that kind of thing. Instead they had the one small divider of cute things like ladybugs, bumblebees, Snow White, Hannah Montana, etc., none of which Kaylee was impressed with at all, and then a giant wall filled with devils, sorceresses, witches and vampires for the girls. The boys' section included doctor, astronaut, police officer, fireman, swat team, etc. (Can't have those options in the girl section too, can we?) After much deliberation, Kaylee went with a red, black and white long-sleeved and floor-length "gown" with a red and black wig. Not as scary as last year's "Goth Girl", but still "scary". She did say that she likes to dress up scary, but not if it means she is celebrating Halloween like a devil's holiday. What's in her heart is no deep-seated evil seeking celebration of darkness, but I did tell her she couldn't wear that costume to a school, Awanas or church Halloween function out of respect for their rules. She understood that...

That took us into time to run home, eat dinner and prepare for Awanas tonight, where she is learning about why God gave us the Bible and how we can use it...

Random Thoughts II

Thanks to a TV show I was watching last night, I was thinking about those times when it is harder to keep your head high, harder to keep your dignity intact. Whether it's simple like when you are singled out in public for an error, or a little further down the line like when during tough times you have to remove items from the super market conveyor belt one at a time, watching the total, in order to bring the amount back down to what you can pay, with a line full of people behind you. Or maybe it was a period of time in which you need to use food stamps, or a time when you found you were played for a fool, or unfairly vilified, or lost your job, your spouse, your home. I think most people have had times in their lives at various levels when you have to grab onto your dignity and hold it a little tighter and remember that you are more than what happens to you, greater than your circumstances, and as a great lady once said, "no one can make you feel inferior without your consent." Some folks sure do give "making others feel inferior" the old college try though, don't they?

Kaylee lost one of her baby molars last night-she danced around quite excitedly when she pulled it out herself. She's no tooth wuss, that's for sure! Unfortunately though she was awake until after 1 a.m. coughing. I'd given her a dose of adult cough syrup and she was STILL coughing like crazy. No fever, decent appetite, lots of energy, just a cough that won't quit. Finally she passed out and the Tooth Fairy made her appearance just before she got too sleepy for the night herself. :)

This morning I just didn't think it was a good idea to wake her up early for school after she's been recovering from whatever she had and was up so late, so I let her sleep in. She finally woke up at 10:30 a.m.!! I got her ready and went ahead and took her to school for a half day, because she was now bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and eager and fever free for 48 hours. I also gave her cough meds to try to help tame that hacking down at school, but I don't think they worked any better than they did last night, and this is the strong 12-hour stuff! When I picked her up at 3, she started yelling "I got an A on my Math Test and an A+ on my Social Studies test!" Of course that got a High Five, and then I asked her about her make-up homework for missing two half days and one full day of school. Her response was "Oh, I don't have any. I finished it at school today." I said "You finished all the back homework plus today's work plus took two tests today?" "Yep." "Did you do it right?" "Yep. I didn't have any corrections on my math or anything." Awesome-you go girl!!

There were five kids missing from Kaylee's class of ten today, all out with the flu. When she went in at lunch time, she bumped it up to at least 60% of the class being there after all. That's pretty bad...

Kaylee also said to me "You know how sometimes you just look at somebody and you feel something about them and you can't explain it?" Yes, I do. She said "There's a lady at such and such a place, that every time I look at her or catch her looking at me, I just don't feel right about her." Well, color me silly, but I trust people's instincts, and I told Kaylee that. Not that a person can't be wrong about someone of course, but those feelings can also be quite legitimate. Tonight Kaylee was also mentioning how someone at dance was yelling at the girls meanly behind the scenes at the recital last year. She said "I know she was probably just stressed out because of everything going on, but really, that's still no excuse for being mean to other people." Again, I just told her I thought she was right. I've never had a child this age before, but it wouldn't have occurred to me that an 8 year old would be able to see some of this stuff. Instead of just saying "so and so was mean to me", it's "I understand she had a lot going on back there", and still not accepting it as a valid reason, even if it is understandable. I was just kind of impressed by that, but hey, it could just be me. :)

I mostly worked today on catching up on billing again, and running all the errands I didn't do for the last four days. Plus Kaylee had dance and I needed to get to the store before the cats (and the rest of us) started eating out of the garbage can. ;) I got quite a bit done today, but I have a lot I need to do in the SMA realm now, as it has piled up on me too.

An enjoyable thing from today: I got a thank you email with several photos of a young lady (with SMA) out and about today for the first time with a van lift we were able to put in for them. And the thanks go back out to people who help me with the BBQ Bash and fundraisers here and there that make things like that possible. :)

Many years ago, a mom I knew lost her daughter unexpectedly to SMA. I say unexpectedly, because SMA or not, when the kids are healthy and thriving and doing well, and they just...die...it is still a horrible shock. I sent the mom a quote that I had recently read which had really resonated with me regarding the loss of a child. I remember feeling as though the world should have stopped, at least for a minute, when my child was gone, and it seemed unnatural and surreal to see the rest of the world skipping along as normal when my world had just collapsed into itself in spectacular fashion. I'd thought of that quote since then, but I could never find it again, even when Googling a couple of the key words. This week the mom reposted part of an entry she had posted when her daughter passed away, which included the quote I'd sent her back then, and there it was again, and it still resonates with me.

"The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack: the round world should have shook lions into civil streets and citizens to their dens."
~Shakespeare from Antony & Cleopatra

The Return of the Week

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day I first soloed the T-6. There hasn't been a year's worth of flying since then, as it went down for five months for bad winter weather shortly thereafter, but we'll count it for a year anyway. :) I've gotten to do several pretty excellent things in that year, from flying at a couple of small air shows to a little bit of formation flying to flying into Oshkosh to just learning and having fun. I don't know how much time we have left this season for flying it, or how much I'll be able to do, but I do know that I appreciate every flight I get to make.

Kaylee has been fine all day. No fever, plenty of energy. The only things "off" on her are that she's still coughing and congested a lot, like she has been for the last several weeks probably due to allergies, and that her appetite is way down, which is totally unlike her. This girl can eat more than I can normally, but her stomach has shrunk a bit and she gets stuffed with a piece of chicken and a drink right now. Other than that she is back to her sarcastic, hopping-around-crazily self. :)

I just finished reading Dan Brown's latest "The Lost Symbol", and thought that was pretty interesting. Like him or dislike him, think he's writing hidden wise truths or just enjoying a work of pure fiction, say what you like, it's entertaining and kind of impressive. Anybody who could come up with that intricate of a plot line with regards to history, religion and science all merged, and make it seem perfectly plausible by using real facts interpreted in reasonable-sounding ways on top of it all, has some serious brain power.

Today has found me draggy, and from meeting up with some friends at lunch, I found I wasn't the only one in that condition. I decided to take it easy today with Kaylee. We slept in, we spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch, I read a book while my 4,000th load of laundry ran (not really, but it seems like it--I got behind), I just...took it slow today, with her.

Altered

Last night Kaylee kind of wigged out on us. She was mostly asleep, but she woke up several times in the night with a fever problem. She thought her music box was talking to her at one time, and thought something shattered when she dropped her cool wet cloth I had on her forehead, for examples. Steve ended up staying on the couch where he could hear her if she called out, and he had to go in a bunch of times, and she was just...altered. Her fever was around 102, and she's several times gotten over 103 or even 104 in the past without this kind of behavior. It was really weird, and at one point before I went to bed when I went to check on her, she was lying there with her eyes open but looking like nobody was home. She didn't make any sense, so we flipped on lights, took temps, woke her up fully, etc. It was...disconcerting. She woke up this morning perfectly fine and overly energetic. By three this afternoon her fever started rising again, but she acted fine, and has ever since. Her temperature today has been at to below the 102 range to even normal most of the day, and she was surprised when I told her no school tomorrow. I don't think so! :) She really does act perfectly normal most of the time, even bouncing off the walls bored with being stuck in the house. But that time of confusion last night was just creepy!

This afternoon I headed back to Detroit with three people on board. We had a nice flight, and enjoyed a sunset view back into Kokomo. The pilot enjoyed the flight-a little Class B airspace (busy airspace), a new, faster airplane to fly with gizmos, a little night time, and flying in the IFR system which was new to him, a little actual in the cloud time, and all in all he had a great time, and I always enjoy doing new things with pilots. His wife packed sandwiches and apples again, which was appreciated!

Tonight I'm on call for Kaylee, and I hope she has a good night's sleep and no weird wig-outs. :)

Of Flying and Fevers

I rose before the sun today for a flight to Detroit. Kaylee woke up before I left and came and cuddled on the chair with me and talked for 15 minutes before I had to go, and that was a nice way to start the day. I carried her in to bed and headed on out to the airport a little early to get everything ready to go, watching another lovely sunrise out my windshield.

Steve had two flights today as well, but just before I left, Steve called to tell me that Kaylee woke back up with a fever over 102, listless, etc. UGH. :(

The flight was uneventful, which is always the goal. It was clear at Kokomo, but before we even got to Ft. Wayne a layer of clouds had moved in below us, and we heard a bunch of people on the radio trying to get into various airports in the area unsuccessfully due to fog below. 1/8 mile visibilities, 100' vertical visibility and fog. Not pretty. It was beautiful up where we were at 5000' and clear above, however. But this low foggy weather wasn't supposed to be there, and as we got to Toledo and they were STILL reporting low IFR, I started wondering about our arrival at Detroit. The airport we were going into doesn't have any precision approaches into it. Fortunately, while it was IFR not too far away from it, our particular landing spot was severe clear. Works for me.

The flight home had us skimming the tops of clouds as we traversed over the area of IFR below, and once again coming into Kokomo it was perfectly clear. 3.9 hours of flight time total. After putting the plane away, I grabbed a quick turkey sandwich that the guy I flew with had brought-his wife had packed sandwiches, water, apples, grapes and celery for all of us, which was really thoughtful.

I finished up at 1:30, and had a Discovery Flight at 2 p.m. in the 172RG. It was her first time in a small airplane, and she was really excited about it, which is always fun. She helped me do the take off and did some flying around. It wasn't windy but it was bumpy this afternoon, and at one point I looked over at her and saw sweat on the upper lip and a paler complexion--we'd discussed feeling ill ahead of time, so I just asked her if she was doing okay, and she said she was feeling a little sick and wanted me to take over. I made the smoothest, straightest descent and landing back into Kokomo possible, with air vents aimed at her and directions to gaze outside in a relaxed fashion. She made it down okay and was still asking about flight training and getting a pilot's license, getting her picture taken in front of the plane, etc. :)

Since I had to start up the plane anyway to taxi it back to the hangar to put away, I decided to take it up for a quick spin of my own. I flew over Glenndale, flew over Tipton, and played around for just a few minutes before coming back in to land and put everything up for the day.

A quick stop at Steak & Shake for dinner for the family and I came home to an okay-looking kiddo who was happy to see her strawberry/banana shake. She'd been a trooper today, doing pretty well, but as the evening progressed she got quiet again, until I looked over and saw that she'd fallen asleep on the couch curled up next to Steve. I left her there a good hour, and then decided I'd better take her into her own bed to lie down. When I touched her arm, it felt like a furnace, so out came the thermometer, which read 102.7. Ugh again. Time for another dose of Tylenol, and I carried her into her bed with her hot arms and legs wrapped around me and her burning face up against my neck. A cool wet cloth on her forehead made her say "aaaaaaah!", lights down, and hopefully she will get some good sleep tonight, poor thing.

Kay's Day

I was going to let Kaylee sleep in, but she ended up waking up about the same time as usual for school anyway. She felt cool to the touch and didn't seem sick, but I had a few tests for her first. She ate a good-sized breakfast and was fine. The next few hours I just watched her, and she ran around and played, all bright-eyed. Finally around 10:30 I took her temperature, which was an almost perfect 98.5. So we took the next hour to get ready, and I schlepped her off to school. Today she had a field trip at the Fire Station, and she was awfully excited to go, both for the field trip and because the school now has a bus available for group field trips and she loves bus rides. When I picked her up at 3, her teacher came out and said "Kaylee's definitely back, her usual goofy self", and sure enough she's still in good shape. I don't know if she was fighting off a bug or what, but she seems fine now other than a loose tooth that is hurting her.

The other day she came out and said "Hey Mommy, you know what guys can call other guy friends? Brother from another mother!" Huh.

When we were lying on the couch for a few minutes this morning, a show was on about a 10-year-old girl who started her own dance class with a pink bus that would travel to various locations and had the studio inside the revamped bus. The girl and her mom were alone in the world, and they looked alike. Kaylee leaned over to me and said "They are close to each other, like us. I think when a mom and daughter look like each other, they're close to each other. Just like you and me!"

She's having fun with her blog still, so if you want to go visit it and leave a message now and then, there's a link to it on the left here on my blog for "Flowers & Spaghetti". Feel free. :)

Torpid Thursday

The weather moved in this morning before I could get a flight in to Muncie with a student, so we did two hours of ground school instead. All morning I kept thinking it was Friday, which was fine because yesterday I kept thinking it was Thursday. The record in my brain apparently has a scratch on it...or for you youngsters today, the dvd in my brain apparently has a scratch and keeps skipping forward to the next scene. So I stuck around the airport, thinking lunch would be in an hour anyway, and by the time I remembered it was really only Thursday, I was too sleepy to leave and spent over half hour lying on the couch at the airport listening to the rain. We went to Harvey Hinklemeyer for lunch, and I was just finishing up my excellent BLT when I got a phone call from Kaylee's school: she's complaining of a headache, she's lethargic, and she needs to come home.

Aw, man.

I packed up and got her from school, and brought her home where she insisted on a hot soaking bath, saying she'd been cold all day. A little chicken soup and some Children's Motrin later, she was lying in her bed watching cartoons while I came back and laid down on my own couch. See, I'm 'lethargic' too. Sure enough I conked out on the couch, and woke up to find Kaylee crawling on top of me on the couch, curling into a little ball on top of me. She passed out, and I woke up at least an hour later with her still on top of me, feet up on the back of the couch, head down by my hip. It was an interesting position! I rearranged her to a more comfy spot next to me and promptly fell BACK asleep. It was weird-I got plenty of sleep last night, but felt like a zombie (ha) much of today. Kaylee ended up sleeping until 5 p.m.! She's still lying on the couch, and she's definitely not quite herself, poor thing. No fever, no nausea, fine appetite, just sleepy. We'll see. She may be up half the night after this long of a nap. So might I, for that matter.

What do you know, my diet could be perfect for my job. ;)

Shortly here I'm headed out to a Mom's Night Out with several other local ladies. We only do it a few times a year, usually in conjunction with someone's birthday, but it had been too long since we got out and about again. Seafood wet burrito anyone?

Gray Eagles

Thirty minutes long, just a story of a man and a machine...

Wednesday

Isn't it nice how some of Hollywood is coming to the defense of poor, beleaguered Roman Polanski? After all, it was over 30 years ago that he ran from the country after admitting to drugging and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, and she doesn't want to have to relive the details again, and a half of a million dollars exchanged hands, and he makes such wonderful, powerful movies, so why don't we all just forget about it? And how DARE they arrest him in a neutral country at a film festival where he should have been safe from being arrested for what was it again? Oh yes, drugging and assaulting a little girl. There's even an international petition to try to help poor Roman out. Whoopi Goldberg and Harvey Weinstein want us to have compassion for Roman. Harvey thinks that this is a shocking way to treat such a great man, and states that "Hollywood has the best moral compass, because it has compassion." I'm sorry, I think I just choked on my Diet Coke. "Hollywood" and "moral compass" and "compassion", yes, those are definitely words I put in the same sentence. Ugh. About all of it. Ugh.

Kaylee is having fun with her blog for now; we'll see if she keeps it up. I kind of doubt it, but that's okay, it was an experiment for her, and she got a kick out of the comments that were left for her. :) It also hasn't been a bad teaching experience on a couple of levels...

The other day Kaylee came home from school and was just cantankerous. At one point she stood in the kitchen with an icky scowl on her face, arms folded across her chest, just stewing. I looked at her stormy face, and started to get on her for her attitude, but it was really uncharacteristic of her, so I picked her up, carried her to the couch, and just laid down with my arms around her. She BURST into tears and said "I don't know what's wrong with me Mommy, I just feel SO eMOtional!" It actually made me laugh a little. After about thirty minutes of just snuggling and talking, she was back to her happy self. I'm not sure what set her off, but sometimes a girl just needs a hug, you know? :)

Cactus Cuties

A whole lot of celebrities and singers could sit back and watch these little girls from Texas show them how the Star Spangled Banner should be sung. Bravo, ladies, gave me goosebumps.

Flowers & Spaghetti

Kaylee has wanted to do her own blog for awhile, so tonight I set her up with one. She made her first entry, doing all the typing herself (she thought the spell checker was a cool function, thankfully, though the only word she misspelled on her own was "introduction", which is pretty good! Punctuation doesn't count. ;)) She called it "Flowers & Spaghetti" for now, and would love for her friends and family to go visit her there. She had to go to bed before getting it all set up the way she wants it, but tomorrow after school she plans on adding some stuff to it, and it would make her day if you'd go add a comment and say 'hi' and let her know you read it. :)

Click to read Kaylee's Blog...

"Fall"ing

I got up with the sunrise this morning, to do another checkout flight in the Chief out at Kokomo. It was really quite pretty with the particularly golden color of the sunrise shining on all the colored leaves in the area. It was also a little chilly, making me break out the sweatshirt and jacket, but it was a nice flight. (Once we got the plane started. She doesn't like the cold much.)

I'm not sure if it was the slightly earlier hour or the weather that moved in with its cold wind, occasional chilly rain, and low hanging gray clouds, but I feel like I could fall asleep sitting here right now. On the way to dance class tonight, Kaylee said "It's almost like winter right now! Winter makes me feel like I'm trapped in all that white." I thought that was interesting, because I've never said that to her before, but winter makes me feel trapped sometimes too, even though I realize that isn't the case. I sure hope we get a few decent months of Fall before Winter sets in with any teeth. Tonight feels like a "Dark Mayan Chocolate" coffee drink night, if you ask me. ;)

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
~Pablo Picasso

Back to Work

What a pretty day. It was the classic, perfect Fall day, with cool temps and warm bright colors. I started the day with a checkout flight in the Chief out at Kokomo, which lasted until almost noon. Steve was out in the Toga while I was out in the Chief. For once his airplane could have eaten my airplane for breakfast. ;)

I was actually out at the airport until it was time to pick up Kaylee from school, bring her back and do work at home before taking her to gymnastics, hitting the store, all that. I didn't get home until almost dark, but at least I got in some flight time, some paperwork, food back in the house, end of month bills out, and lots of other stuff done. I was itching to take out the T-6 on this beautiful evening to keep the rust away, but Steve was working and Kaylee had gymnastics and I didn't have time to do it before dark. Such is life!

Kaylee had "Show and Share" at school today and decided to bring her soft bear and blanket that she's had since she was a baby. I hesitated and asked if she was sure she wanted to take those to school as show and tell, wondering a little if some of the other kids might not make unkind comments about the worn and "young" items. She said she was sure that she wanted to, and said she didn't care if some of them thought it was silly. After school she said one girl had made derogatory comments about it, calling Kaylee's show & share "lame", and then Kaylee said "But she says that about everybody's stuff, and one of these days people are going to be mean back to her if she's not careful." Water off a duck's back-I'm so glad she's not as sensitive to that kind of thing as I was as a kid. :)

Tomorrow starts a little too early for me, but one must make hay while the sun shines...or at least while the rain is light enough to still go fly in hopefully...

Chiefly

Steve had a couple of flights today and I've got one, although mine is just me going up by myself in the new (to us) Aeronca Chief that we've just put online and that I'm giving a checkout flight in tomorrow morning. Decided it might be good for me to see it and fly it before checking someone else out in it.

I've got a situation where a person, who has been a problem in the past, has done one of two things. Either they made up an entire fundraiser, including stories about press releases, problems encountered setting it up, weather problems the day of, the exact amount of money raised to the penny, I mean every single detail, all along the way, frequently posting publicly about it...either they made the whole thing up, or they did a fundraiser in my organization's name and then kept all the proceeds. From their history, I am guessing it was Choice A, but I don't know for sure. I've known about it for awhile, and I've attempted to act in good faith, providing information and time for the proceeds to be sent in, but at some point good faith has been broken and you've got a course of action to follow when someone is misusing a charity organization either for their own financial gain or because of their own mental instability. I dislike being put into this position, I dislike people abusing the trust of others, and I'm...disappointed.

So I went on out this afternoon to fly the Chief. Steve mostly liked that I didn't have Chuck or Ty around to hand prop it for me, I think. ;) I still prefer sitting in my plane and pushing a button/turning a key to start an airplane as opposed to swinging the prop around from the outside until it starts running and then hopping in asap, because it's much more ladylike. Well, less effort anyway. Actually, this one starts pretty easily, and the plane is so lightweight that I can push/pull it around to wherever I want very easily, so that part's nice. The climb rate...not so sweet, which is why it's at 5200' long runway Kokomo and not 2500' long runway Glenndale. :) The police had closed down the main taxiway and were practicing a driving course with cones and their cars. I enjoyed the show from the air-after I went up and did some stalls, (what are incorrectly known as) dutch rolls, slow flight, steep turns, all that good stuff, I came in and just did several take offs and landings and watched those guys from the pattern. It's always different going from something like the Baron or the T-6 with switches and levers and prop levers and cowl flaps and gear and mixtures and radios and GPSs and flaps and everything you could need to something like this. No radio, no headset, no mixture, no flaps, no gear to move, nothing but two mag switches, a throttle, and a few basic instruments. Coming down to land, my mind still does a GUMPS check, but unlike even a C-172, there's NOTHING to do. You just...land. No wonder people could solo in 4-8 hours in the old days. :) It was a little lumpy and bumpy out, but it was a good flight, and the plane is ready for tomorrow.

Off the Grid

When Kaylee was lying across my lap picking songs to play off of the laptop, she ran across one called "Best of Both Worlds" and eagerly wanted to select it. She wasn't quite so interested when I told her it was Van Halen, not Hannah Montana. ;)

I woke her up around midnight and brought her out to the living room, and we laid on the couches and watched cartoons and hung out until she passed out again sometime around three a.m. Sometime around six or so, she climbed up under my covers to fall asleep cuddling with me, and stayed that way until Steve left to go work on a computer job. We had a nice time. :)

On the random end of things, it will be great when the current "in" hairstyle of long bangs goes away. Most of the new season of TV shows have the actresses with these bangs so far down over their eyes that it's practically hitting their upper eyelashes. Some guys, too. Ick. I just want to brush them back out of the way, because that would drive me nuts. And that sounds like my Grandmother speaking, but hey, it's true. Since "no bangs" was in for awhile, "great big long thick hangy bangs" must therefore be in style for awhile per the cyclical rules of society, but the good news is that after awhile it will be back "out" and people will have eyebrows and foreheads and wide open eyes without hair hanging in them again... Speaking of hair, Kaylee would like to grow her hair long again. She said she liked it short, but she misses the long, so that's her plan. :)

It was a quiet day here. Steve and I both did some work, then spent the rest of the day just relaxing, hanging out, napping, enjoying Kaylee, snacking, and taking a good portion of the day off the grid.

My Girl

Kaylee and I had a nice afternoon/evening. When she got home from school, instead of a snack and a tv show, she just cuddled up with me and we talked, for a long time. Out of the blue, she paused and said "You know what Mommy, I don't remember you ever getting really super mad at me. You're a good Mommy." I said "Really? You don't remember any time I ever got really upset at you?" She thought about it for awhile and said "No, I just remember you saying 'Kaaaaaaayleeeee'!" Just because she doesn't remember me getting "super mad" at her doesn't mean she never made me super mad, but it has been a really long time since she indiscriminately pushed buttons to that point. She's a smart girl, after all. ;) She's actually an interesting combination of logic and emotion. She'll lash out emotionally, but if you speak to her clearly, explain situations, talk through the logic on it, she'll follow the logic over the emotion a good portion of the time, while still being able to express how she feels emotionally about it all. That's a pretty good skill to have, frankly.

On the way home from school, she put these funky teeth in that she'd gotten from the "treasure chest" for being good this week. I laughed and said "you know, people looking in the window will stare and think something is wrong with your teeth", and she replied back without even a thought, in a bored voice, "What do I care what they think?" Yep! I did talk a little bit about things where the majority is right and it's okay to listen and better ourselves, and times when we are who we are and it IS the right thing to not care what anyone thinks about it. She seems to have a good balance with that for a kiddo. :)

Later this evening, Steve was hanging out with a friend, so Kaylee stayed cuddled on my lap and had my iTunes pulled up on my laptop and was randomly selecting songs she wanted to listen to. She likes a lot of the same kinds of music I do so far, except she can't stand some classical music or anything that she calls "sad". She likes her music to be majestic or peppy or happy, and if a slow song comes on she wrinkles up her nose and says "Change it! It's depressing me!" She made me laugh though when she chose "Footloose" and started dancing around the living room while listening to it. She says she wants that one on her iPod. I'm feeling a little generational circle of life thing here, watching my daughter dance joyfully around to songs that I used to enjoy as a kid/teen too, only mine were on a big tape player with headphones strapped to my waist. :)

Tonight I'm going to wake her up and bring her out to the living room and she and I will do a little camp-out thing together. Usually I let her and her daddy do that together on a weekend night, but she wanted to do it with me this time, so we will. My flight for tomorrow cancelled on me, so I don't have to worry about being overly functional very early. It'll be a perfect way to spend a cold, gray, windy, rainy night/morning. She won't want to cuddle forever, so I'll take it while I've got it. ;)

I very much enjoy her.

Busily

It was a beautiful day, and myself, Steve and Ty all had several flights each today with folks who wanted to make the most out of a (finally!) good day. I had a 3-leg cross-country flight in the morning until lunch, then had a checkride prep flight with a guy after lunch, both in KS. We had a little fun at the end of the second flight, doing engine outs with a big old slip to land at Glenndale, which he enjoyed. We also met with someone new to the area who started flying in 1952, is an instructor, lots of tailwheel time, and like the rest of us addicts, found his way to the nearest grass strip as quickly as possible to check things out. :)

Kaylee went with her grandparents after school for a little special time, had some good food and a little shopping trip and a fun time. After my afternoon flight I came home to get back to work on the last of the time sheets from September and get some more things done around the house.

News today broke about results from Ardi, the fossilized remains that are "a step closer to the missing link". With this discovery, scientists have had to reverse their former theory, previously accepted and taught in schools as fact by many for decades now, that man evolved from chimps.

Kaylee cracked a joke on the way to school today, and when I laughed, she burst out with "Oooh, man I'm on FIRE today!" :)

Looking forward to Friday...

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"Once I might have wished for that: never to grow old. But now I know that to stay young always is also not to change. And that is what life's all about--changes going on every minute, and you never know when something begins where it's going to take you."
~Joan W. Blos