Saturday in Review

I woke up around 6 something this morning again, had to get up for that early flight lesson. We did some of those fun things like an aborted takeoff from 50 feet above the ground (which you'd better be quick at in the Saratoga, because it comes down) and engine-out landings and so forth. About an hour and a half of that and he had to head home, and I didn't just yet, so I pulled out the T-6 for a little recurrency training of my own. Or for de-twitching, whichever you believe more. ;)

Really, I spent a little while working on a few things up in the air that felt like they needed refreshed to me, then relaxed for a bit and went over and visited some friends at Indian Hills and Glenndale and around, then came back into Kokomo and did a series of various takeoffs and landings. Part of the reason I like this plane so much is because you (I) can't just think about other things while I'm taking off or landing or performing a few other maneuvers. There's no going over my to-do list in my head, or thinking about dinner, or wondering about anything, like I do with...yep, just about anything else I fly. I actually have to concentrate on what I'm doing here. It's not tame, or stable. It is fairly docile, it's not a total bugger...unless you quit paying attention to it or push the envelope too far. Push it, and it'll push back. It may be slightly twisted of me, but I like that about the airplane.

Nathan came out for awhile and worked on the Cub, fixing a sloppy strut, doing a little welding, getting along on the annual. Steve came out and helped, and I sort of helped now and then and mostly observed. I fetched wrenches a couple of times, held a blanket over the welding area to try to cut back on the wind, put out a fire and lifted the strut up, if that counts. ;) Nathan took his two kids up in the T-6 (one at a time, naturally), giving them rides around for awhile too, so we kept the T-6 hopping for awhile today.

While I was up flying, on the 'up in the air relaxing' phase of it, I spent some time thinking about our son Sidney. Today is the 11th anniversary of his birth & death. It's not exactly a happy anniversary for us, because he never really had a chance. But for him, he got to skip a lot of bad things. He got to go where there is no pain, no sorrow. Today his grandma & grandpa took a stuffed animal to the local ER in his honor, to bring comfort to a child who was in the hospital and afraid. He and his brother changed my life and maybe even a few other lives too. Isn't that part of what life is about? His life was short, but it matters. He matters...

Meanwhile, I think Kaylee is fighting off a bug. Or allergies. She has had a headache for two days, gets these moments where she'll get really hot (she calls them "hot flashes" much to Steve's dismay), has circles under her eyes, isn't sleeping well at all, and is emotional/cranky, which usually happens if she's not feeling well. Poor girl. I hope it's allergies and that it goes away as soon as I get to the store and get some more Zyrtec.

I didn't get to sleep until after 1:30 a.m. and was awake again around 6 a.m., and Steve got even less sleep than I did thanks to Kaylee not getting much sleep either! So I'm guessing we should all sleep like a rock tonight. I hope. :)