Go!

Tonight when I picked Kaylee up from Awanas, the leader pulled me aside and told me that Kaylee's Pinewood Derby car actually qualified to go to State finals, that the church had already paid for her slot, and that if we could make it, she could compete in the finals in South Bend, Indiana next month. You go girl!

It was 70 some degrees today at its warmest, breezy but warm, and when we got home I got out the sprinkler, Kaylee donned her swim suit for the first time this season, and played outside for almost an hour, taking the cats out with her, though not into the sprinkler. ;) Tomorrow is her last day of school, and she's on Spring Break for over a week. She can't wait!

Tomorrow is April Fool's Day, and Kaylee keeps wanting to fool her teachers into thinking something horrible happened to her. Today she told me she wanted to show up at school with hair all mussed up, missing one shoe, black marks on her face, and tell them she was mugged. Uhhhhh... :O I'm not so sure that's actually funny. Her class has an April Fool's to play on the Principal. The teacher is going to call the principal down to their class claiming that everyone is misbehaving, they'll all pull a card when the principal walks in, and claim April Fools. (Pulling a card means you go from good kid to probation kid to in-trouble kid, depending).

Kaylee is reading a Judy Blume book that I'd had since I was a kid. What I didn't remember was that "Blubber" has curse words in it like "damn" and...female dog...that Kaylee is coming out of her room to point out to me. Fortunately they aren't there a lot, unfortunately they are there at all. But what I do like? Kaylee is turning into a book worm, reading late at night when she should be going to sleep, reading bigger books and getting into them. It took her awhile-I didn't think she would end up a book worm, but she is doing just that lately. And while I frown at her and tell her to go to sleep because it's so late, in secret I smirk, because I used to read by the light of a street lamp on the corner, or a flashlight under my covers, and I am secretly enjoying the fact that she's getting more into books. On the way to school today we talked about how fun it is to disappear into the world of reading, a world separate from the "real" world, from our world, and have great adventures without even leaving the house. She's "getting" it these days. :)

The Outline

• The morning's flight was postponed due to poor visibility.
• I flew the Baron to Muncie for lunch and brought it back with all seats packed out.
• The Baron still flies quite well that way.
• I went up with a student to make sure they had their groove on, and then sent them off on a trip (cross-country flight).
• It was their first time going somewhere else in a plane alone.
• They nailed it, made it there and back without getting lost, without getting scared, and without getting me or themselves in physical or legal trouble.
• This is considered "Success!"
• Kaylee is having trouble with one of her earring holes. It really hurts her, looks like a little blister just above the hole, but she is being really brave for her about the whole thing, sucking it up and getting the earring in there even though it really hurts to prevent the hole from closing.
• When I made a comment today that I couldn't find my purse, Kaylee says "You always lose things." I insist I do not, and she starts mimicking me in a high-pitched voice: "I can't find my purse. I can't find my keys. I can't find my sunglasses."
• Not only is she right, she's terribly sarcastic about being right! Oh, dear...
• That's Steve's influence. ;)
  
• I have been fighting off sleep all day long, and now that it's 12:30 I'm not as tired as I need to be.
• I'm going to go to bed anyway and see what happens.

SMA

Tonight SMA got some Prime Time on NBC through a show Dateline did about a woman with breast cancer and twin 12-year-old children with SMA (looked like fairly strong Type 2s) whose community came together to renovate their home into something wheelchair accessible even though the community itself was hit very hard economically. It was a great story, inspiring, and we even got a little sidebar info out there on SMA.

While I'm watching it, they keep doing these tearjerker side bar stories about the family, about the people volunteering their time to build the house, stories of people who are going through some very hard things of their own but put it aside to help someone else, stories about a woman whose son died and a kid with Cerebral Palsy who is helping and just all sorts of really neat, but tearjerking, stories. So Steve starts tapping me on the nose, which he knows I can't stand. His point? To distract me from the emotional stuff so I don't get all sad. It didn't quite work because I knew what he was doing, but it did kind of work too, because it breaks the 'spell' a little bit. If I'm thinking about yanking off his finger, it's hard to be completely immersed in the emotion of the story, too. ;) But watching the kids' physical characteristics, holding up their head with their hand sometimes when they get tired, seeing and hearing SMA on television, it always kind of throws me a little.

I came out of the restroom tonight to find a piece of chocolate cake with two candles in it and Steve & Kaylee singing "Happy Birthday" to me. See, they hadn't had a party at home for my birthday, and Kaylee has been harassing Steve ever since to do a "surprise" birthday thing for me-she felt bad that she hadn't done much for my birthday this year. She'd asked for a piece of cake tonight and I said no. So I got a surprise birthday song, and we all got a piece of chocolate cake. Devious little bugger, isn't she?? ;)

Tweens At Large

Well, the day is winding down and all is well. The girls got up this morning and Steve made them pancakes with fruit, which is a good way to start the day. He then had to work until pretty late this evening, so the girls and I hung out. After a few hours they had played everything they wanted to pretty much, and were a little tired from staying awake too late, so to prevent that dreaded sit-and-be-bored or start-nipping-at-each-other syndromes, I packed them up and took them to Target for a strawberry smoothie and a little window shopping. The girls went through looking at the clothes, and one would say "I like this, but I could do without that ruffle." Or "This is SO cute!" or "Ugh!" At one point I pointed out a skirt that normally Kaylee would like, and they both pshawed it and then walked in front of me saying "We don't know her." Of course when they wanted to ride a roller coaster simulator ride, THEN they knew me. ;) When we left Target to go look around the rest of the mall, they held hands and started skipping in front of me again saying "We don't know her!", so I started skipping behind them, saying "Those two girls are with Me!" They turned around and the look on their face was completely worth my effort. ;)

After the purchase of a "Friends" necklace that they each could have half of, it was time to go to Chuck E Cheese where Mal's dad was going to come pick her up. I bought them a bunch of tokens and unlimited trips to the salad bar and set them loose for two hours while I read a book. Of course, being Saturday afternoon it was pretty packed out, but I had a seat in the corner by a window and I did just fine. When her dad arrived, he asked me how I could read in all this noise, and I said I can read anywhere. :) In fact, that's the only way I can handle all that chaos. If it's just me, sitting there, soaking in the noise, it seems to get louder and louder until it feels like it's beating on me. If I'm reading a book, the noise fades to the background and I mostly "hear" the story.

While we were at the mall, I got Kaylee a pair of pants (she's short on pants) and a tank top. When we got home, she tried on the top, and came out irritated saying "WHAT is THIS and WHY is it HERE?" It's a sewn-in bra liner thing. She could wear 8-10 or 10-12 size clothes, as she's always right at her age and her age is 9. I got the 10-12 because she could wear it next summer too, and the 10-12 age group top had this shelf in it. When I explained to her what it was, she raised an eyebrow and then shrugged and walked away, and I was left shaking my own head at my daughter buying clothing that has bra stuff in it. My 9-year-old kid is comparison shopping at the mall, joking (so far) about being embarrassed to be seen with me in public, and buying clothes with a bra shelf in it.

Gulp.

But she still likes Chuck E Cheese.

Of course, I saw teenagers playing at Chuck E Cheese. I even saw a grown man with a shaved head, an earring and bulging muscles playing games at Chuck E Cheese. I didn't see a kid with him, but I am going to assume and hope that one was around somewhere.

Here are some photos from today. Kaylee hugged me tonight and snuggled up and told me she was my fuzzy and that she loved me. She played a fairy game and yet cleaned up the whole front of the house that she and her friend had messed up without complaining. She's a good girl...

Girls Gone Wild. :)

Ah, Friday!

This morning was a flight in the C-172 for about an hour and a half. It was a beautiful, clear day, but it was just a little too windy with the winds too far off the runway to send a student on his first solo cross-country, so instead we went up and did some "pushing the envelope" stuff in the airplane. It was his desire to do it, I didn't make him. :) It's mostly a confidence-building thing, so somebody can see what all the plane can do and how they can still control it, still be in charge of it even in some wilder situations. Of course a C-172 doesn't get all that wild, but it feels that way to someone who hasn't done it before... We also had standing water on the grass strip today in several places including across the taxiway and most of the middle section of the runway. I took the Jeep and ran down the runway first, finding the best path in and out for the day. It wasn't a good day to do repeat take offs and landings there, so we did one take off to get out, one landing to finish up, and did the rest of the work elsewhere.

Kaylee got to have a friend over tonight, which excited her. We went and got her friend, M, stopped at a local store and got these stick on fingernails the girls wanted to try, some Sun Chips and iced tea, and came on home for an evening of hanging out. :) The bad news is that our Wii doesn't seem to be working! It isn't getting any power, won't turn on, etc. Bad deal, man. Steve's going to see if it's the power supply sometime I guess, but that took away a main fun thing the girls were hoping to do. Instead we put on the fingernails, did a little cooking, played games, the girls went outside with the cats and played out in the sunshine for awhile, we made some playdough (recipe and such from Judy, the girls loved it), and all in all had a fun evening.

Steve got home late after spending a lot of time putting out a few computer fires. Never fun, but fortunately the fires lit off just about when he walked in the door, so at least he was already there and able to take care of it...

Our school did a "Little Caesar's Pizza" fundraiser, and I got some pizza and breadsticks, so that's what I made tonight for dinner. Not bad, not bad at all! I need to cook the breadsticks less, because I like mine gooey, but it was pretty good.

And then I watched "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution". Watching him make chicken nuggets about made me gag. I'm a little...sensitive...to disgusting things in meat products or meat by-products in or as foods anyway, and seeing them made from the fat and skin and blood and guts all blended together with processed food stuff pretty much guaranteed me skipping eating any chicken nuggets for a Very long time, perhaps ever, or buying them for Kaylee. Fortunately, processed chicken has made me sick since I was pregnant with Sidney. I don't know why, I never did, but I can tell in one bite and it literally makes me queasy, even today. (Same with icky beef products like the fatty chunks of whatever in cheap canned beef soup.) And Kaylee can't stand McDonald's nuggets any more either, but we both kind of like Burger King's chicken tenders. At least I used to. That was really nasty. He made his point, at least to me. I have to admit it made me laugh though when he asked how many of those kids would now eat the chicken nuggets he just made and they all raised their hands. He was stunned. He had never had a bunch of kids grossed out who then went on to eat it anyway. He asked them if it was good or bad food, and they said bad. He said "so why would you eat it??" and one little girl piped up and said "Because we're hungry right now, and it's there." Annnnd, that's Kaylee!

Hope Springs Eternal

A little bit of dead winter ground combined with the first offerings of Spring. :) Since today was cold and gray again, I thought I ought to post this picture I took in Ann's garden when it was sunny the other day as a reminder that it really is the end of March and life is peeking out here and there.

Kaylee's school extended the testing by another day, because the math test alone was over an hour and twenty minutes long, and they thought that was a bit much to put on 1-3rd graders at once, so they divided it up. So far she says it's going fine...

I fixed "La Choy" for dinner tonight, which totally grossed out Kaylee. It's the one meal I don't make her eat with us. She insists it looks and smells and tastes like cat food. When it's cold in the can, I'll give her that it looks and smells kind of suspect. ;) I made her eat it twice, and as she eloquently put it tonight, "You're not going to make me eat that, are you??? Last time I almost barfed." So, if Kaylee ever joins you for dinner, do me a favor and fix La Choy so I can find out exactly how good her manners really are. ;)

Schooling

This week Kaylee has "Terra Nova" testing, which is private school grade-appropriate testing based off of the same requirements as the public schools' Indiana State testing standards. This is designed, of course, to make sure that kids in private schools are meeting educational standards age appropriately. Last year the testing showed our school's results were well above state averages for every grade, which is of course what we want. So today they took the testing on English and Reading, and tomorrow is Math. Kaylee said today's testing went well, and she has two more days of testing to go. Thankfully she's not freaked out by tests, and just does her best and usually does pretty well. It's always hard to instill that line between wanting them to realize how important it is for them to get a good grade, know the stuff and do their best, while not wanting them to end up paralyzed in fear over potential 'failure' or just over tests like happens sometimes...parenting is full of such landmines, huh?

I worked around the house this morning, then went out to Kokomo where we went over to Muncie in the Saratoga and had lunch at the restaurant on field. It was a side mission-Nathan was picking up the Cheyenne, and as long as somebody has to go over there anyway around that time, hey, why not enjoy lunch while you're at it? :) He let me fly her home, which I enjoyed a great deal. Going from the Luscombe, a little taildragger on a grass strip, to a 2000 horsepower turbo prop out of a controlled field the next day also made me smile. Good thing aviation has so much to offer, depending on whether your mood is low and slow or fast and powerful. ;)

On the pointless end of things, the news show this morning actually said that it would take one hour of exercise every day to just maintain one's weight over the age of 45, which is not what Nightline had on last night, but it's still somewhat depressing. ;)

So, I was wondering, does the disparity between how old you feel and how old you are ever actually equal out? I, for example, feel like I'm in my late 20s or something, and I'll turn 40 in two years. Of course I had chocolate Cheerios for dinner last night, so perhaps that says something. ;) I'm not bothered by my age so far, it just doesn't feel like the number matches the reality yet, that's all.

Quotes for today were about "Do It Now":
----------------------------------------------------------

“‘Now’ is the operative word. Everything you put in your way is just a method of putting off the hour when you could actually be doing your dream. You don’t need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for 20 minutes and watch your heart start beating.”
~Sam Ewing

“Stop rationalizing, stop stewing. Get up out of your chair and start doing.”
~Denis Waitley

“Now is the only time there is. Make your now wow, your minutes miracles, and your days pay. Your life will have been magnificently lived and invested, and when you die you will have made a difference.”
~Mark Victor Hansen

"Most of life is routine--dull and grubby, but routine is the mountain that keeps a man going. If you wait for inspiration you'll be standing on the corner after the parade is a mile down the street."
~Ben Nicholas

"I believe we can fly on the wings we create."
~Melissa Etheridge

Foggy Blue

The fog was so thick on my drive to school this morning that the road disappeared about six stripes before and after the Jeep. On stretches of road out more towards the country that are less populated, it felt like you were all alone in the now completely unfamiliar world. Kaylee thought it was creepy, and I have to admit, Stephen King does come to my mind at times like that. "The Mist", "Storm of the Century", "The Langoliers". The man does love white-out/black-out conditions as a backdrop for having something wicked afoot. :)

I took the morning and burned the problematic computer program to a cd, which went just fine, popped it into my laptop, ran the file, and the program loaded and worked exactly like it was supposed to. I'm IN! So to test it out I put up the pictures from Kaylee's Awana's Pine Derby Race. Next I tried out my FTP program by uploading some Random Flying Photos from the Month of March. Success! And just in time for lunch.

The fog burned off and left behind a calm, bright, blue sky, and I went out to Indian Hills where Ty let me fly his Luscombe for an hour and a half or so. It was the first time I'd flown a Luscombe, and it was in fact the first time I've gotten to fly a tailwheel at all in months. I did some takeoffs and landings at Glenndale, then went over to Kokomo for some wheel landings on concrete, then back into Indian Hills to do some practice there. My feet spoke up and said "Hey! You're not in a 172/Baron/Saratoga anymore, girlfriend!" It was a good refresher flight, and it's always nice to check out new-to-you airplanes. I found the Luscombe something you have to pay attention to keep coordinated even in level flight, it likes to pick up speed easily with minimal pitch changes, it's light and easy to fly, and it was a fun and good start-to-get-back-in-shape flight. :)


Steve had a Tiger Cubs group out at the hangar tonight, doing the aviation and airplane talk thing. He always does a good job with those. They were out there about an hour and a half or so, hopefully sparking if not a little interest in aviation, maybe at least making it cool instead of scary.

I turned the channel from another blow-by-blow about the health care bill that was signed into law today, and instead saw a news story on how research has shown consistently for decades now that exercise alone does not prevent women from gaining weight as they age. Even Sixty Minutes A Day. An hour of exercise every day is not enough on its own to even help a woman maintain her weight in her middle age or older years, UNLESS they were already at their ideal body weight. If they start off overweight, exercise alone will not only not help them lose weight, 7 hours of exercise a week won't even help them maintain their current weight. Now THAT is DEPRESSING. You have to reduce calories on top of the exercise to even maintain your weight. Do you see how many times I am repeating that? That's awful! They then said "Doctors fear that this study will cause women to give up exercising." Well, shyaaa. Let's see. Exercise for an hour every day and gain weight anyway, or don't exercise for an hour a day and gain weight anyway. Yes, I know, exercise is healthy regardless, yes I know that there are other benefits to exercise, and yes I still walked on the treadmill today anyway. But tell me that's not depressing to women everywhere...

I'm going to go back and look at the pretty picture above and wipe out all those nasty thoughts of exercise. Much better. :)

Randomness

Monday, Monday. (I'm hearing the Mamas and the Papas in my head right now).

Kaylee had a good day at school, though she complains because they have been really hitting math hard these last couple of weeks. She also told me she is getting better at a move in her gymnastics class, some back flip thing, and that all that's left is she needs to be able to land on her feet, which she can't do just yet. But she's happy with the progress there. On the way there she told me she'd like to learn to play the guitar. It's not the first time she's brought that up, but we'll see. Piano would be a better foundation...plus I actually know how to do that one. ;) She asked me my favorite part of it being Spring, and I told her honestly that I enjoyed the green and flowers, the warmer air, and the ability to do more fun airplane things. She said that she enjoyed the plants, and the fact that soon she'd get to go swimming, because she loves swimming the most...

Me, I hate computers sometimes. I spent hours yesterday with help from Steve and Justin trying to get my FrontPage to work on our newly renovated computer with a new operating system. No luck. So tonight I spent a few more hours, and got not only nowhere, but nowhere fast. After everything else was exhausted, we just decided to load FrontPage onto my laptop instead. No problem, right? THREE HOURS LATER, nothing. I download the program file but it needs unzipped. I don't have WinZip on the laptop. Fine, I'll download WinZip from the internet. Except it Won't Work. Reboot, redownload, retry. Rejected. Four times. Hangs up at the same place every time. It's downloaded, just not all the way, and won't open. Try another login just in case. Twice. Nope. Now to get FrontPage on my computer I have to burn off the file from the other computer onto a disk and try putting it right onto this computer. Do you think I want to go find out if I have a working cd/dvd burner over there right now? Wanna place odds? Well, I'm done beating my head on this for today, but I look forward to tomorrow spending more hours of my time trying to get one thing working... *sigh*

I sat here for awhile looking for a more pleasant topic to end on than a rant about computers, but it's after midnight, I'm tired, I'm irritated, and I'm going to go to bed now, so you'll have to wait for tomorrow for a more cheerful post. ;) Wait, I know, more quotes from today...

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"Adversity is the stuff that shows whether you are what you thought you were."
~American Proverb

“Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”
~Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.”
~Jim Rohn

Largely

Our house was completely decimated of food and beverages, so I wandered out this morning and gathered just a few basics at a nearby corner store so we could eat today. We ended up having homemade waffles that Steve whipped up, with fruit and powdered sugar, and they were Quite good! Not too long after that I ended up having a nap of Epic Proportions. I hadn't slept well last night-was awake until almost morning and then had weird, drawn-out, unpleasant dreams. One of them involved a friend's death, and it was so realistic that I had that sickening feeling you get when you realize someone is truly gone. Even after I woke up I couldn't shake it for awhile. Yuck! So anyway, when I laid down this afternoon, I went out hard, harder than I usually do even at night. I didn't hear a thing, and I slept for hours. I don't even know how many hours, but it was impressive, and not a bad way to spend a cool, gray Sunday afternoon.

We watched the last five minutes of the Purdue basketball game which they won in a last second shot in overtime to get into the "Sweet 16" of the NCAA tournament. I don't really care about basketball, but they are underdogs, and my alma mater, and this is the finals, so hey...

Not much else going on of interest, so here are a few quotes to end on:
-----------------------------------------------------------

"Stop trying to define maturity, and start acting mature."
~Anonymous

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.”
~Albert Camus

"Cynicism is not realistic and tough. It's unrealistic and kind of cowardly, because it means you don't have to try."
~Peggy Noonan,

"I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen."
~Martin Luther

"If you have courage, you will influence people based on your convictions. If you lack courage, you will influence people based on your comfort zones. Courage will take you anywhere you believe God is leading you. Without courage, you will go where you are comfortable."
~Wayne Schmidt

Another Day At Work

It was Saturday, but other than Kaylee not being in school, it was hard to tell. :) I got up this morning to blue skies that nobody thought would be here, making it possible for me to get in a flight that was supposed to start at 11 a.m. I flew down to the lesson in a 172, and waited about an hour for the student to arrive, get the plane preflighted and ready to go. (I could get into a side discussion here on punctuality and how rude and inconsiderate it is to be perpetually tardy, but you already know how I feel about that, so I'll let it go at that.) We flew around for another hour fine tuning a few things before I finally got out and let the student go on their first solo. They did great, of course, and had a whole crowd on the ground watching and cheering them on. One guy came out and said "Oh, critiquing a student's landings?" and I piped up with "Whomever critiques one of those landings gets to get out there next and show us all how it's done." It's a pilot tradition to critique landings, but some folks you don't critique, like brand new students, and some folks shouldn't BE critiquing, like those who couldn't do it any better than the person they are commenting to, or about. Nobody had any critiques, so I guess the student did great. ;)

Any time I solo a student, people around usually look at me and ask me how I'M feeling, ask me if I'm nervous, etc. The answer is no, not usually. When I solo them, I know they're ready to go, and I'm not worried about it, I'm just usually excited for them. But I remember the first person I soloed, and I thought about how they were going up in an airplane by themselves for the first time with nobody but me telling them they were going to be able to get back down in one piece. There's a serious responsibility, man.

The guys watching down below today asked me why I went around the pattern so much with the student today before getting out and letting them go solo. I said "I needed a little more consistency and I was waiting for my spidey sense to go off." Four private pilots looked at me funny and one instructor smiled and nodded. You just know. The last person I soloed, I soloed in a crosswind higher than I've soloed anyone else in. I had no intention of soloing them that day, and on paper it wouldn't be a great idea; but about half an hour into the flight, I knew. I waited through two more landings, then got out and did it anyway. The other day I went up with someone who I WAS planning on soloing that day. I waited and waited, and it seemed like I should do it, but I didn't. Today I was only planning on doing three takeoffs and landings and then getting out. On paper everything was perfect, but it wasn't right. An hour later, after working through an issue that popped up that hadn't been there before, it WAS right. Ding. Spidey sense. Successful solo, happy student, happy instructor, happy bystanders, shirt cut off, photos taken. It's another one of those things in life that you can't just go by what "should" be, by the numbers or by the book. It's there or it's not there, and the "paper" doesn't always tell the tale. That's why when we have brand new instructors, when it comes time for their students to solo or go on a checkride, we send them up with a more experienced instructor first. This makes the student happy usually to know that two instructors say "You're ready!", and it makes the instructor more comfortable too to know that their opinion is validated, or to learn something they might have missed that the student might need to polish up first. How do I know? Because Steve hired a bunch of green instructors many years ago, and that was the policy set up, and personally, I was glad when Mike or Steve would say "Yep, he's looking good, send him off!" ;)

After the adventures there, I flew the 172 to Kokomo and hung out with Steve, Nathan and the kids for awhile, until I was too hungry and tired to wait any more, flew back to Glenndale to put the plane away and drive for dinner and home. It felt more like a work day than a rest day, but at least good things got done. Kaylee got to play outside a lot, drive a golf cart around, ride scooters and just get dirty for the first time in awhile. Steve got to relax a little bit and hang out, I got to do my thing, and now it's kick-back time!

Here's a photo of a pilot making their first ever landing alone in an airplane. Watch out world. :)

CFI Days

It's been a good couple of CFI (Flight Instructor) days for both Steve and myself. His student who was a candidate for getting his own CFI rating passed yesterday. You might not think that's too big of a deal, but actually, getting your instructor rating is the toughest flight exam there is, and it has a very high failure rate. Steve's last four or five CFI candidates have all passed on the First Try. This is VERY unusual. This time, the guy told Steve's 'student' that there had been eight CFI applicants between the last one Steve sent and this one...and that none of them had passed. Both of his did. So, that tells you that he's obviously very good at knowing what they want for this very difficult checkride, and getting it done. So, go Steve! :)

The guy I did some multi training with passed his Private Multi-Engine Instrument checkride this morning, and he's buying dinner sometime soon as a thanks, which sounds good! lol Later this morning I went on a cross-country with a student who had it down cold, and had we not run out of time, he could have done his first solo cross-country. That doesn't probably sound too exciting to too many people, but 1) actually going someplace else in an airplane by yourself for the first time IS a big deal and 2) this guy has worked harder than probably any other student I've ever had to achieve this goal. It doesn't come easy to him, and he's persisted way past where most people would have just taken up golfing. So I'm excited for him. :) Late this afternoon I also had a student who had to deal with winds with a 10-knot gust factor that went up to 22 knots or so, at one point with a 30 degree crosswind, who ended up handling it like a champ; better than some full-blooded private pilots. Watch out world, here comes another one of those crazy pilot people on the loose by themselves. ;) One of the old-timers from the airport came over and wanted to cut the student's shirt back, and I had to tell him to hold off on that for a day. He's a hoot though; a former military pilot and retired airline pilot who is going to join up and get checked out in our C-172 down there because he wants something to play around in. He also told me I should get my Designated Examiner certification so I can give checkrides to students. Steve's thought about it, and I have too off and on. The FAA only allows so many examiners in a certain area and our area is "full", and I don't know that I'd care to get that close to the FAA, but I think Steve might be perfect for the job. He can schmooze the best of them and he already has a decent relationship with the FAA folks down in Indy. Not a bad idea, if he had the time...

A friend got their medical back for flying today, which is great news. (We have such a good doc for that here, who is really on the pilot's side because he is a pilot too.) I was so pleased to hear that it was all good, and a big congrats goes out. :)

All in all a good couple of aviation days...

Logbook Fodder

I spent the morning sick to my stomach, missed going in the Cheyenne with Steve, Chuck and Nathan to go eat, but I had a student working on crosswind landings in the 172 today. We flew for about an hour, and as we landed we ended up needing to take the Baron to Muncie as a chase plane. It was a tad bumpy today, but I'll take it for the warm weather that's come with it. I ended up coming back with all five seats filled (a little fella in the back seat). Picked up Kaylee, took her to eat, ate a late lunch, and spent the next several hours sick to my stomach again. Something is not agreeing with me--felt like I had an ulcer or something yesterday, a big acidy stomach, and today was worse. Hopefully tomorrow it goes away! I've got a trip to Portland (that would be Indiana, not Oregon!) in the morning, then I have a student right after lunch too. Hopefully we can get a lot done during these nice days, and hopefully it won't be as windy as today, because I'd like to let the students go off on their own. :)

How We Spent Three Hours on a Wednesday Night

Tonight was the Pinewood Derby at Kaylee's Awanas. I had to get her there around 5:30 for registration, where they weighed her car, measured it, tagged it, judged it and gave her a number to wear around her neck. Her car could not weigh more than 5.0 ounces. Her car weighed in at... 5.0 ounces. That's impressive considering we didn't have a scale at home. Kaylee was Number 18, and I sat on a plastic bleacher while they ran the little bitty kids, then the high schoolers, then the adults. Steve joined me about an hour into it, and we watched the other cars run while we waited for Kaylee's group (T&T) to go. After everyone else ran, they stopped and did a 10-15 minute devotional about running the race of life, and then finally Kaylee's group went. She came in second place in two of her heats and first place in the other two. Her face when she won was great, it cracked us both up. One of the wins her car was pretty far ahead of the others, and she pumped her fist and did a "YES!" kind of thing.

In the end, out of twenty some cars, she won a first place trophy for novelty design, and we think she took 5th place overall on speed. The 3rd place car came in at 2.75 seconds and her average was 2.77 seconds, so she was really close! Steve thought he saw her in 5th but they took it down too fast and only showed the top three. Either way she did pretty well, and she was very surprised and pleased with the 1st place trophy for design. She's the one that picked the shape, and Steve and she worked on the paint and stuff together. He's already got plans for her car for next year. It was really obvious that some of those dads (most likely) had spent a WHOLE lot of time on the cars. There was one shaped like a little Louisville Slugger bat including signature on it, one done up like a stop light, and a couple of cars that looked like metal cars, shiny precise paint scheme and all. A trophy was awarded for the car that most looked like a real car, for overall speed, and best novelty design, which is the one Kaylee won, which really surprised all three of us. :) We didn't get home until after 8:30, so it was a bit of a long night of it, but it was a good family adventure. I took some photos, but until I get the web programs reinstalled on my computer, I can't put them up. Soon enough, along with the rest of the sunset ones I took last night.

So today while I was on the ground at Muncie waiting for a student to complete his three solo landings at a tower controlled field, a guy inside there asked me basically what I was doing, and I told him. A few minutes later he says "Did you say you're waiting for your son to get done flying?" My SON? I later said to Steve "Do I LOOK like I've got a son old enough to be flying around out there?" He of course doesn't like to let a good rhetorical question go unanswered and said "yes". *sigh* (Actually I am old enough to have a 16 year old out soloing...which is a weird thought.)

Here's another Kaylee one to end on. The trophy, her car, and the "participation ribbon" they gave to everyone who came and raced tonight. I know they have to make everybody feel good, thanks for playing, here's a ribbon, but most of the kids know the ribbons don't mean anything. Kaylee got a trophy for participating in a gymnastics thing, and while she liked it at the time, when she said that this was her first trophy, and I reminded her of that one, she replied with "Mom, everybody got one of those. Not everybody got one of these. THIS is a real trophy." You mean people appreciate things more if they actually earn them? Huh!! ;)


P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day, unless you are Protestant in which case I hope you wore orange in protest. (One of the dads at Awanas tonight gave a speech about this, sorry...)

Sunset on the Day

I'm writing from Springfield, Illinois while I have a few minutes here, figuring nothing much exciting is going to happen the rest of today. At least I hope not. ;)

Steve stayed up late last night working on a Derby Car for Kaylee to race tomorrow night at Awanas. It's painted, has stripes and a few stickers, and she's pleased with it. She really wants to win, of course, but I guess we'll see. This is the first year she's in the older age group for this, and this will be the first time she's ever done a Pinewood Derby Race. I've actually never done one myself, so this will be a first for me. Not for Steve, of course, but I'm guessing back when we were kids it was more a guy thing than a girl thing. Not any more!

Our schedules are really filling back in, which is good! The weather is finally turning nicer and people are coming out of their winter hibernation to come fly. Me, I'm just grateful to 1) not be freezing all the time and 2) not have to worry about making it somewhere in clouds loaded with ice. I probably already complained, but I had to cancel more flights this winter in just a few month period than I probably had to cancel in the year previous to it. Unreal.

My flight today with a student was supposed to be in the Saratoga. Steve Cusick fueled it up for me, and told me later that something on a whim had him turn on the Master inside to check that everything was ready. He said he'd told me the plane would be ready, and he just felt the need to check that. The thing is, none of us goes in the plane and turns on the Master prior to a flight. You just...don't. It's just not a typical preflight item. But this time he did, and when he turned it on, nothing worked. No idea why, what caused it, nothing was left on, it just. wouldn't. work. Because he found this early enough, we were able to swap around and take the C-172RG instead, and I was able to be on time. Had I arrived at the airport at my usual time, pulled out the Toga and gotten ready to go, only to turn on the Master and find that nothing worked, I would have been too late to swap planes (the other one needed something done too), too late for the flight, and that would have been a bad deal. I'm just slightly amazed at the circumstances, or the fact that I didn't get it jumped and going here at Kokomo thinking it was a bad battery only to get to Springfield and get stuck, because it was not a bad battery. They found the problem, and are working on it, but the set of circumstances leading to this flight being able to come off okay was slightly amazing...

And our guys really kicked in the teamwork, too, and completely saved the day. Steve Cusick found the problem, then got the RG fueled up and ready while Nathan and (my) Steve worked on figuring out what was wrong with the Saratoga and getting it fixed, while Jon Tharp replaced several spark plugs on the RG, skipping lunch to get that done before I needed to take the plane. They were fantastic, and I am *really* grateful for them!

My post was interrupted so I'm finishing this from home. I had a lovely sunset in flight on my way home from Illinois tonight. It was a clear, smooth evening, very nice for a trip. When I got back to Kokomo though, the tug for the airplane spazzed on me and the switch stuck "on". I ended up shorting out the switch, after which the whole tug was dead, so I tried to hand push the plane into the hangar without any tow bar. THAT didn't work. I tried pushing down the tail and moving it over-not enough mass on my part. I tried pushing a rudder and rocking to try to get it to turn/move. No luck. I next went on a hunt for a manual tow bar I could use. There was one in the hangar, but it didn't fit the plane. I went to Nathan's hangar, no luck. Then I call Steve who informs me there is one in the baggage compartment of the plane. *smacks forehead*. I finally get the plane put away, locked up, and secured, stop at McDonald's for that dinner I hadn't gotten yet, and came on home to give Kaylee a late goodnight kiss...

Nuthin' Much

While we are grateful for the more Spring-like weather, I think I jinxed myself. I said I was glad to only have to worry about storms instead of ice, because I don't like messing with icing in flying, but storms you can usually go around or wait for them to move. Friday I was supposed to fly to Alabama and back, but a giant wad of thunderstorms in between here and there put an effective stop to that. The storms covered parts of a five-state area, lasted most of the day, and I didn't stand a chance. The first time I had a trip where I didn't have to mess with icing and I get stuck by storms. Ironic.

Glenndale's runway was closed due to snow drifts for quite awhile and now the runway is closed due to flooding.

But at least we are warmer. ;)

Steve spent today getting everything working on my newly updated computer. It takes a village to get Laura's computer (and scanners and printers and software and...) running properly, or at least three of the village people. ;) Greg, Steve and Justin all helped, and remind me again that I'm glad to not be on my own, stuck calling Dell's Help Center based in India or something.

Kaylee didn't do much exciting today. She helped me bake brownies, cleaned her room and bathroom, and played Disney Fairies. A day off, sort of, though it was kind of another work day for Steve, returning phone calls, going through papers, and working on computer problems...

I was supposed to have another flight this afternoon which once again was canceled for weather, but that left me relaxing most of today instead.

Clocks are going forward in an hour or so here and that makes it almost officially Spring. :) It's also almost officially my bedtime. The cats are both asleep, the kid is asleep, and the spouse is asleep. I'm the last one standing, and I'm droopy and trying to finish off Saturday Night Live...

Breezy

I had to cancel a student today thanks to thunderstorms that never actually showed up when they were supposed to. Oh well, it would have been a little too gusty for him anyway right out of the gate. So instead Chuck dropped me off at Sheridan where I picked up the Cherokee 180 and flew it back to Kokomo for the maintenance guys to look into something.

When I picked Kaylee up from school, she asked to take me out for my birthday. She had $5.00 and wanted to take me to ice cream, so I drove her to the Cone Palace and we sat inside while she had an ice cream cone and I had a peanut butter shake with chocolate chunks in it. Yum! We just sat and chatted and laughed and spent some time hanging out as girls. I had flashbacks of going to the local Dairy Queen with my mom when I was a little girl, sitting and hanging out and chatting. Kaylee just sat there eating her cone, kicking her feet, looking around at people, making up silly stories, busting up laughing when I got silly with her. You know, once in awhile I look at her at just the right angle and it feels like I'm looking at myself. Kind of amazing, really...

I have been without a desktop computer for a couple days here as Steve has taken it away to operate on it. As I'm typing this I hear him pulling into the driveway with my newly resuscitated computer with Windows 7 installed on it, and I'm sure he's eager to get right to work and hook it all up for me and reinstall Outlook and get everything up and running. ;) It sure is handy having a computer fella in the family!

WASP-I Love This Article

Yesterday, on my birthday, roughly 300 former Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) received the Congressional Gold Medal (highest honor a civilian may receive) for service to their country during World War II. More than 60 years since they served their country as the first women trained to fly United States military aircraft, some 800 medals had to be awarded posthumously to surviving family members. The below article is great, I think it's pathetic that it took until the year 2000 before these women were allowed to have flags on their caskets, that it took 60 years to be acknowledged for what they've done, that they had to pay for their own room, board, food and uniforms while they were in service to their country, and that over 800 of them died before hearing their country say "thank you". But Anyway. The article is great. I love how she delivered the first P-51 to the Tuskeegee Airmen, how when she delivered a T-6 to a base, the commander wouldn't accept it because she'd delivered it, how she'd love to have been sent to actually look for the enemy, not just deliver airplanes. I love how this lady says she doesn't do the senior home because she doesn't fit in, and how at 93 she did some dogfighting and said she's more comfortable in the air than in a car. When I'm 93 I want to be her. ;)

Female Fighter Pilot, 93, Takes Ride of a Lifetime

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (March 10) -- It's been 66 years since Violet Cowden flew fighter airplanes during World War II, but when she took to the skies recently off the coast of Southern California, it was like she was home.

"It's like I never left," said Cowden, 93, who flew a light fighter plane for an hour, completing stunts that included barrel rolls and a mock dogfight with two other airplanes. "I feel more comfortable in the air than I do in a car," she told AOL News.

Cowden took the flight Feb. 26 as a prelude to an even more exciting event -- receiving a Congressional Gold Medal. As part of the dwindling group of Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs, Cowden and her sisters in flight received the highest honor bestowed upon a civilian during a ceremony today at the U.S. Capitol. Although the WASPs worked for the military, they were not enlisted and their place in history has been largely ignored until now.

"I wish more of us could be here," Cowden said from her Huntington Beach home. "Every year we lose more and more."

Air Combat USA

Violet Cowden poses in Fullerton, Calif., with backup pilot Mike "Maverick" Blackstone on Feb. 26. She and fellow WWII female pilots are to be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

Of the 1,102 certified WASPs, only about 300 are still alive. Of those, about 200 attended the Capitol ceremony. Relatives of the deceased pilots received medals in their honor.

"The medal is something that we did not expect, so of course we are very pleased," said Pearl Judd, 87, a WASP from southern California. "When we were discharged in December 1944, we were told to go home and our records were sealed. We didn't get our veteran's status until 1977 and didn't have the right to have a flag on our coffin until after 2000."

Judd told AOL News that she fell in love with airplanes as a child and signed up to join the WASPs when she heard of its formation. WASPs were used to test and ferry war planes across the United States, freeing their male counterparts for deployment in battle. The pay was $150 a month during training, with a $100 raise after graduation. Recruits had to pay for their own room and board and uniforms.

Judd was a test pilot, making sure airplanes that needed repair were worthy to go back into battle.

"They tried out everything on us -- we flew every plane that they had on the Air Force menu from [the] first jet to the B-29," Judd said. "The B-29 was a little touchy. Its engines caught on fire."

Cowden had the most glamorous job of the group -- she flew the fabled P-51 Mustang fighter plane from factories to various military bases around the country. The P-51 has been credited with winning the war by guarding the larger bomb-dropping aircraft from attack. Its lightness and speed made it a match for any approaching enemy aircraft.

"I've never felt afraid of flying," said Cowden, who sometimes flew the single-seat aircraft for five hours at a stretch. "I'm so comfortable in the air."

The former first-grade teacher from South Dakota grew up on a farm and wanted to fly long before she knew planes existed. As a young woman, she scrimped to take flying lessons and, when the war broke out, she tried to enlist.

"I thought I would be flying up and down the coast looking for the Japanese," she said. "I didn't think I'd be in combat, but I would've loved it."

Asked if she had wanted to be deployed over Berlin, Cowden piped: "Absolutely. No question."

Air Combat USA

Then and now: Cowden posed, left, on a fighter plane during her time as a WASP in World War II and recreates the moment in Fullerton, Calif., on Feb. 26. "It's like I never left," she said.

Combat or not, the petite pilot endured some prejudice in her job from men who thought she was overstepping her bounds.

"Once I delivered an AT-6 [aircraft] in Kansas. It was supposed to be the commander's personal plane. He refused to accept the plane when he saw that I had delivered it," Cowden said with a smile. "When I got out of the airplane, wherever I went, it was a shock usually."

Cowden said the GIs would often watch her landings and then tease her if the plane bounced -- which was infrequent.

One of her most notable achievements was delivering the first P-51 to the Tuskegee Airmen, the famous group of black fighter pilots.

After the war ended, Cowden packed up her navy blue polyester uniform and headed to California, where she opened a ceramics business. She married and had a child, but her days as a pilot were just a prelude to even more adventures.

"My daughter and I backpacked for three months around much of the world," she said. The 1966 trip included the Great Wall of China, Taiwan, India, Germany, England and Sri Lanka.

Cowden also likes to hang glide and skydive. At 93 years young, knitting and jigsaw puzzles aren't her deal, and she doesn't go to the local senior center.

"I don't fit in," she said.

Cowden attributes her youthfulness and vigor to her frame of mind.

"No matter how bad things were, I thought there must be something good happening, so I always tried to look at the best side of life rather than the negative," she said.

Mike "Maverick" Blackstone was in the cockpit as a backup pilot during Cowden's recent flight. He flew the plane during takeoff, but the rest of the flight and the landing were under Cowden's control.

"She is a great pilot," said Blackstone, a retired airline pilot who works for Air Combat USA, which stages mock dogfights and invited Cowden to participate.

"You would assume someone her age would jut sit there and rely on co-pilot," Blackstone told AOL News. "It was just like back in the '40s. She had a grin on her face and knew where she was going."

Thirty-Eight

So, today's my birthday. Somehow that's not nearly as interesting in your mid-to-late-thirties as it is when you're a kid. :) I got birthday wishes from the DAR, from Culvers, from friends and family in person and on line (FaceBook made me feel loved today ;)), and from my mom who says that I was never a pain in the butt and that God gave her a perfect child. I'm not making that up and she said she'd sign and have it notarized for proof for you unbelievers out there! It's good to be loved. :)

The afternoon and evening were just gorgeous, and I was so glad to be walking around in a t-shirt comfortably, soaking in the sun. There are green things poking out of the ground in Ann's garden next door, which brings a smile too.

Tonight Nathan treated us to Outback Steakhouse while Kaylee was at Awanas, and this made for a nice end to a birthday as well as making it a good thing I walked a mile and a half today for some exercise. ;)

Nothing profound, I'm sleepy. Just...on to another year!

Busted

I would certainly have to qualify today as a productive one, having gotten lots of things done that nobody but me (and my family) really care about. ;) I got work stuff done, home stuff done, computer stuff done, SMA stuff done, even personal email stuff caught up for the most part. Kaylee had a half-day at school today, so she joined us for lunch at Culvers, where they had $1 Butter Burgers for the day.

On the down side, as I quipped elsewhere, "I'm trying to remember how many times I've been pulled over and how many tickets I've received in my lifetime thus far, and counting today's, that would be........I lost track." Today's ticket was a crazy one though, a fluke. I dropped my water bottle and it rolled on the passenger side floor mat away from me. I couldn't reach it. At a stop sign I took off my seat belt, stretched over and picked it up. It was my turn to go. I went. I looked farther ahead and a police officer was waving me over to the side. I knew if I put my seatbelt back on right now he'd see me. Sure enough, he had already seen it, and he cited me for not having a seat belt on. Fortunately it's only $25 and no points on my license. The crazy thing is, I ALWAYS wear a seat belt. I don't need a "reminder" to wear a seat belt or a lecture about the safety. I also happen to be personally opposed to laws protecting me from myself, but that's a topic for another day. ;)

Anyway, they had a trap set up and they stayed in that same spot for hours. I had to go by that way again later, as it's right by my house, and as I was headed down that road, the car right behind me was on my bumper the whole way. See, I knew something he didn't know, that the police had a radar gun pointed up this road. So the speed limit was 30 mph and I did 30 mph and it drove the guy behind me nuts. As I pulled up to the trap, suddenly he backed off, right when the police officer who had cited me an hour earlier recognized me, pointed at me, and I gave him a big nod hello as I was properly obeying all traffic laws to the letter...

Just A Monday in March

Hellooooo, Monday. At least it dawned sunny and bright, well, minus that whole strange and brief ground fog thing. I flew in the Baron after lunch, just teaching a couple of instrument approaches including a single-engine one, which is always fun. What wasn't so fun is the headache I had for most of today. I woke up with it, and when I got to lunch they put us in a back room that was dim, filled with florescent lights on a dimmer switch, down low, that were all buzzing and flickering. By the time I left there I was about ready to throw up. Fortunately the good healthy soup I ate while I was there, followed by fresh air, sunshine and warm breezes helped dim the headache down to a manageable level.

Last night we were watching TV when suddenly Kaylee screams "DAAAADDDDDDDY! SPIIIIIDEEERRRRR! KILLLLL IIIITTT!!!" He went running in there, while I stayed in the living room, snickering. When he came back out and threw away the spider-laden paper towel, she yelled from the other room "It was HUGE!" I looked at Steve, because it's a running joke that we take even a little bitty spider and claim it's big and nasty. But this time I looked at him and he nodded and said "It really was. It was really big." One of those nasty black fat body spiders. Gives me the heebie jeebies that it was running loose in my house. Probably with its big brothers. Spiders are evil and should all be destroyed.

Flying is starting to go-I've got another trip later this month, Steve's got two students getting ready for checkrides, one a CFI (the hard one) and one a Commercial. My primary students are coming back out of the woodwork now that we're seeing some sunshine and human temperatures again. Welcome Spring, let's do this!
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"He that can't endure the bad will not get to see the good."
~Yiddish Proverb

"I will prepare and some day my chance will come."
~Abraham Lincoln

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see it’s what you would have wanted had you known.”
~Garrison Keillor

"Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together."
~John A. Morrison

Homeward Bound

I fell asleep on the couch last night, out abnormally early, and as you can see by the picture Steve took with his cell phone, wisely without my face in it, Dulce was keeping me warm for awhile. ;) Even though I ended up waking up at 7 a.m., all told I still got a lot of sleep last night, which I needed.

I'm about a week behind on billing, so we spent most of today working on that. We also got the kitchen and dining room mopped and the front living room swept, Kaylee's room picked up, clothes put away, laundry done, dishes done, and two meals actually fixed and cleaned up. I headed out to the post office to drop off our airport billing in the mail, then had to stop at the store to pick up some emergency supplies for the house. Steve and Kaylee hand-washed the Oldsmobile and did some work out in the garage, too, and I did a bit of computer stuff as well. Not an overly relaxing day by definition, but at least it was (mostly) at home, with family, getting stuff done that needed to get done, stuff that makes you feel better when it's done. :)

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"What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup."
~Boris Pasternak

"Courage is as often the outcome of despair as of hope; in the one case we have nothing to lose, in the other everything to gain."
~Diane de Poitiers

Aviatin' Fool

I've been an aviating fool for the last three days, all day long. Up at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, up at 6:30 a.m. on Friday and not home until after dark, awake at 7:00 a.m. but at least I didn't have to get up. (WHY can't I sleep in any more even when I could?!) but out at the airport at 9:30 and home early evening. A student and I did some cross-country work, had lunch down in Greenwood, came on back to Kokomo, then he took off to fly to Sheridan and I took off in the Baron. I slowed the Baron down to about 90-100 knots and kept him on my traffic scope about two miles away because Sheridan can be a bugger even for a person experienced at finding little airports in the white ground. He found it fine, and we left the 172 there while I brought us back in the Baron. Had a little fun flight action, and landed in time for me to go flying with another guy, doing multi training. The only down side was that he was still feeling a few "flu-like symptoms", which is no fun for him, and if I catch the flu, will be not only not fun for me, but also double not fun for him. ;)

I grabbed some dinner on the way home and am glad to be here, in comfy clothes and relaxing. Hopefully my weekend can begin now, tomorrow I've got nothing happening and I do need the day to unwind. You make hay when the sun shines and these are the first three days it's been shining in months, so we packed it out. But tomorrow has a 70% chance of precip, which is okay with me, because I do need a day off now... :)

Over and Out

This morning I woke up at 6:30 in order to head to St. Louis Downtown Airport. It was a pretty morning for a flight, and an uneventful one, which is always good. We had a few adventures on the way there, there, and on the way home, which I am too tired to talk about. I got home just in time to run to Sheridan for a flight lesson I had there, but the person I was flying with ended up being an hour late. By that time I was half asleep (or more) in my car. We finally got off the ground and were able to fly in the calm air for an hour, doing stalls and take offs and landings to get back into the groove of things after almost 3 months of not flying. That person's going to solo soon, which will be fun. We flew until the sun set. It was below the horizon while we were on the ground, and once we got up in the air we could see it again, until finally it fell too low to be visible and we called it a night. I got home sometime after 7:40 p.m., and spent an hour working on something for Kaylee. At this point, I'm exhausted, bleary-eyed, can't focus, and going to sleep. Tomorrow I have flights until late afternoon again, so even though it's only 10:30, I'm probably going to bed!

Sunrise Laura

It's only 9:30 p.m. but it feels about like 12:30 to me. Of course part of that might have to do with the fact that I was woken up at 1:15 a.m., then had to get up at 3:30 a.m., left the house by 4:30 a.m. and was in the air on the way to Tennessee by 5:30 a.m. (There is something really odd about waking up in the "morning", turning on the TV, and seeing Jimmy Fallon on instead of the usual morning show fare.) I shocked "my" guy who came out at 5 a.m. with me to help get the plane ready, pull it out, etc., by saying "Good Morning" and not being cranky, but nobody believed him when he told them over lunch. ;) It was a beautiful, glass-smooth morning with a bright moon, full stars, and a brief stint of clouds below during the sunrise. One passenger was on his first small airplane ride ever and he also has bad issues with motion sickness. Fortunately the trip out was so calm that he didn't feel a bobble. The trip home however, we were over the mountains and under a cloud deck and got bounced around a bit. Even though I had a headwind that got worse the higher I got, I climbed up higher until I got to smooth air, a compromise he was very happy to have, and when we were back on the ground he was quite pleased to have made it to Chattanooga, done stuff, and gotten home, all by 2 p.m. so he could then go to the office and be productive into the afternoon too. I was home in time to pick up the girl from school. Go aviation. ;)

Another guy that was along liked it so much he wants to take lessons. We started today and keep going tomorrow. :)

Tonight I had a birthday celebration dinner with Michaele whose birthday is one day before mine, and two of our friends. We went to The Quarry and had a very nice dinner and time together. It's always fun to get out and hang out for a few hours!

Time to come home, get comfortable and try not to fall asleep too early...

Blue Skies are Back

What shall I do today? I know, print charts off, do a first look at weather (yay, looks good for the first time in months!), get Kaylee's stuff ready for tomorrow to make it easier on Steve, do laundry also for the kid, help her study for Awanas tonight, go get something fixed that has been bugging me, hit lunch with eight friends, get my little bag ready, stop in at UPS and ask about a problem, go to two banks once and one post office twice, arrange departure times and flight times and rental car information and sick sacks and headsets in airplanes, and go to bed waaay early because I have to be out at the airport at 5 a.m. Yes, I did say five. Which means I have to get UP at...gulp. I wonder if it's a bad deal to show up without a shower wearing pajama pants and fuzzy slippers. ;) Just kidding. I think. The trip started off taking me from here to Tennessee to Texas (to TN to IN), changed to here to Tennessee to Alabama (to TN to IN), and now is just plain old Tennessee and back. Not nearly as interesting, but at least it will be warm down there and I can find a good new place to have lunch nearby.

When you go into bigger airports, they have what are called "Landing Fees" and "Facility Fees". They used to be called "Ramp Fees" but now those are called "Overnight Fees". Whew, I'm getting confused. Anyway, when you land, you get hit with the landing fee. When you park overnight you get hit for the overnight fee, and when you go inside their building to get a snack or sit down, you get hit with the facility fee. BUT, if you buy gas from them, they will usually waive the facility fee. In this case the facility fee is $60. Well, now, I wasn't planning on using $60 worth of their facility, but I may give it a shot now. ;) So you can pay $60 flat out, or you can pay for 30 gallons of fuel at over $5 a gallon. You're thinking "$60 or $150, no brainer!" But at least with the $150 you actually get GAS for it, you get something, it's not just money out of your pocket. So whether you buy the gas or not depends on how expensive their fees and fuel both are. If the difference between the price of the fuel there and the price of the fuel at home means you'll be paying more in that difference than in the facility fee, you just pay the fee. Otherwise you get the gas. (Yes, children, math really is important in real life!). Aren't you glad to know that? ;)

I did have to stop in to the string-wielding eyebrow lady today for a quick turn-around. I think it's funny that I lived to be something like 30 years old without ever thinking a thing about my eyebrows, and the first time that bad influence Heather Mike does them for me, I now feel like this guy sometimes. Minus the mustache, of course...so far. They have a sign up on their wall that they also do eyelashes. Everything else they do is hair removal. Chins, cheeks, eyebrows, upper lips, forehead (really? There are people with forehead hair? Eew!). So since I'm pretty sure they don't remove eyelashes, I asked her, "what do you do with eyelashes?" They put them in, one at a time. They...glue? I don't know, but I suppose they glue in eyelashes, individually. While you're sitting in a reclining chair in the open space of the mall. So if you ever need eyelashes glued in one at a time, I have the strip mall for you...

Well, I still have some things to accomplish before I go to bed in a couple of hours here, plus get Kaylee to Awanas and back, so no more computer procrastination, even though I can see clear blue sky and sunshine out the window over my computer desk. Hello, Blue-I missed you!

Hodge Podge

It's been a busy few days, which is good! I spent some time coordinating a flight I have later this week, getting things lined up for rental cars and landing fees and times and fuel and all that good aviating trip stuff. Our house was completely devoid of anything to eat, and I'd packed Kaylee's lunch with a hodge-podge of strange foods today, so I also took a trek to a store. I have one more trek to make, to a store that actually has fresh veggies and other things I need that Store #1 doesn't have, but Store #1 is very low priced on what it does have, so I always go there first. My Jeep was coated in dirty winter gray crud, so I got fuel at a gas station and bought the car wash (I thought). It gives me my receipt, I get in line, get to the front of the line, look at my code number, and it says "Carwash Code Error". Well, phoo. I try to stick quarters in the slot, and the quarters slot is taped over. That won't work. There are two guys behind me in trucks. I can't drive forward through the car wash because the door is shut until you enter the code. I roll my window down and wave my arm backwards to the trucks and yell "I can't go through, the code is goofed up, I need to back up." Nothing. I wait literally a minute or two. Nothing. I wave some more. Nothing. Finally I get out of my Jeep and walk back there-the guy is heads-down in his truck messing with his phone. I say "excuse me" at his window and he jumps two feet in the air. I pass on my message, and these two trucks back up one at a time down this narrow alley thing so I can back up too. I'm a little irritated by now, but when I go inside, the guy behind the counter had seen what happened and he gave me a $6 wash and wax for the $2 price. Good enough, and now you can tell the Jeep is actually red. :)

I was stopped today by two funeral processions on two different ends of town, too. One was on the way to lunch, and in my rear view mirror I saw this guy who kept driving around other cars and kept going even through the funeral procession. So I moved the Jeep into a position next to another vehicle that was also stopped and blocked the guy in and made him stop for the funeral. Show some respect. (Why did I just hear an Italian accent come out of my virtual mouth? ;))

I also kept finding myself behind an usually high number of folks going well under the speed limit in every lane, including when I drove Kaylee home from school. I generally do not speak out loud in the car especially when Kaylee is there because it is a terrible example, doesn't help my attitude in the least, and doesn't have any positive outcome for doing so; but today I did mutter something under my breath. Kaylee said "What did you say Mom?" I said "Oh, nothing important, I'm just talking to myself. But this is why I like airplanes. Nobody gets in front of you and drives slow, you get in, you go, you have the sky to yourself for the most part, and the only thing slowing you down is the capability of your airplane and the winds off your nose. You're not stuck on a skinny little path with stop lights and stop signs and traffic and people getting in your way." Kaylee thought and said "Yes, I understand what you are saying, but down here I can look out my window and see cars and buildings and trees and people and...STUFF. Up there I look out my window and it's just like...blue. Or white. I feel confined." I said "*I* feel confined down here! Isn't that funny?" We agreed to disagree, and she did admit that getting somewhere in a fraction of the time sure was worth it. ;)

There was much running around and doing stuff today, including going out to the airport to run an actual weight and balance on an airplane by hand, something I haven't had to do for real in a while, but I knew the numbers would be close and I wanted to make sure I would be within safe bounds. (I was.) Just one of those busy little go go days, you know?

Roundly

It's March! Not only did I survive to another year of age, some signs of Spring should be here by the end of this month. I have rarely been so glad to see Spring as I am this year...

Kaylee got a paper home from school in Math that had one marked wrong that I shook my head at. See what you think. The question is: "Explain it. How could you describe a cylinder to someone who has never seen one?" Kaylee's answer is: "It looks like a coke can." The correct answer the teacher wrote in below that? "2 flat surfaces called bases connected by a curved surface. It does not have vertices. It can roll."

Really?! First of all, these are 9 year olds, right? Secondly, the question did not ask for the technical components of a cylinder, it asked how would you describe it to someone. Do you really think that anyone but an engineer brain would instantly get a mental image of a cylinder based on the above description? *I* had to look up "vertices", and I have a Bachelors of Science degree. Third, her answer shows that she in fact does know what a cylinder looks like, and has an efficient way to describe it to someone. Last but not least, after I read "two surfaces called bases connected by a curved surface with no vertices that rolls", my first thought was "Oh, you mean like a Coke Can??" ;) I told her that while she has to put the answers they want her to in school, I still thought her response did a better job answering the question that they actually asked. ;)

In all seriousness though, I can't complain that the school is not "dumbing down" the kids at least.

Today has mostly been a "ground work" day. Phone calls, flight planning for trips, going through mail and responding appropriately, billing and accounting for the end of the month, all that fun stuff. Tonight I had a school board meeting, where I asked the other twelve professionals there how they'd describe a cylinder and the two who responded said "a hot dog with the ends cut off" and "a soup can". HA! I told them the answer that was expected in Kaylee's class, and the administrator laughed and said she was glad to hear her 3rd grade math curriculum stumped us. ;)

I have some accounting to do for SMA Support as well here that I need to get to tonight, and a bit more planning for an upcoming trip. Life, continued!

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"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."
– Virginia Satir