Interesting...

Kaylee spent a lot of today playing Monopoly with her Grandma. I hope she didn't wear out her welcome, considering how tired they must be after all their journeys, and trying to get settled back in up here! Kaylee's pretty wound up-mouth and body running like crazy until pretty late. I like seeing her happy, but wow she's wound up! :)

Steve was telling us at lunch today (my first time at lunch in over a week by the way) that an Indy racing team had called us and said if we brought the warbirds down to a party they were having, we were welcome to come to the party. Steve basically asked them what they were offering for cost deferment, they said they were offering to let us come to their party, and he said no thanks. He was telling Nathan about it today, who felt the same way. We're already supposed to be gone during that time anyway, so it doesn't matter. But see, I think it's kind of interesting. I'm not a huge racing fan, but even I know who this team is, the drivers are well-known, etc. Going to their party, well, I don't need to go "party", I'm not even that social, but I do like to do different, interesting things, with a friend or two, and that would qualify. If nothing else there would be stories. But see, Steve and Nathan have already been there and done that kind of thing, know it's pointless and boring, and don't care to do it any more at their own expense. Steve's already been in the pit during the race at the Indy 500, burnt his hand on a hot lug nut from a tire change, taught Tony Stewart in a private pilot ground school, etc. Hey, usually it's an advantage being the young chick of the group, so I can't complain. ;) Besides, I have plenty of time to amass my own interesting stories of life, and I don't have too bad of a start anyway, I'd say. :)

Speaking of which, here's one. I was asked today to be the Missing Woman in a formation flight to honor a former WASP who recently passed away. She was 87 years old and had just recently received her Congressional Medal of Honor for serving as a female pilot during WWII. She was an instructor and checkout pilot for guys in the military, flew a whole lot of warbirds, and ended up touring around doing shows in one for many years and started up a museum with her husband. After the war was over, she applied to airlines all over, and said her most interesting response was from one airline that said "With those qualifications, if you were a man, we would hire you on the spot." But she wasn't a man, and nobody would let her fly for a living, and she ended up not flying for decades, until after she'd had five children, and her husband bought a Bonanza and started up the fire in her all over again. She lived a pretty amazing, full life. At her memorial service there will be a formation flight of four T-6s. I will be Number 3, the "missing (wo)man", who will peel off and fly off to the west while the rest of the formation continues on without me, symbolizing the pilot going west and the empty spot where they will be remembered. You've probably seen this done at any air show in honor of those lost at war, usually to "Taps" being played on the ground. Gets me every time...

Fortunately I was feeling stronger today-unfortunately the non-stop coughing and hacking suddenly kicked in tonight like a switch went off. Thank heavens it waited until my throat had felt better for a whole day, because had it been that sore and I done this much coughing, I'd have ended up in real trouble. I couldn't hardly swallow water--coughing would have taken me out. As it is, I already drank cough syrup out of the bottle, sucked on several cough drops and tried almost two doses of Nyquil and I'm still coughing. I Hate this cough thing. I've got the codeine cough syrup to help me sleep tonight, thank heavens. Here's hoping it works!