All Hallowed Eve

The iPad was great today, because the wifi at the boat wasn't working, and nobody had internet...but I had the 3G iPad, and was able to easily pull up a weather briefing and file a flight plan for the trip home. This is the one in a rare case where I had no other internet access, AND my phone does not get good reception out there. So, it helped. But it is certainly not a laptop replacement. I am so glad to have my computer back. ;)

Kaylee helped walk the dogs several times, and this morning we all went on a long walk around the area. It is probably one of the last nice weekends as far as weather, temps in the 60s, bright blue sky and warming sun, fading tree colors, it was just a nice day for a walk, and an even nicer day for a flight home.

Speaking of the flight home; I had just been handed off to Terre Haute approach, told him I was level at 7000', and he came back on with the barometric pressure, and then said "Hey, Laura!" I blinked for a second, because this wasn't my home turf people, and nobody should know me down in Terre Haute. I repeated back the pressure, then said "Who've I got?" He said his name was Doc, and then he said "You don't know that your name is in the remarks section of your flight plan, do you." No, no I did not. He asked me how I filed, so I told him through ForeFlight off of an iPad, and he let me know that sometimes those programs will put your name down in the "remarks" section. Good to know. Not a problem or anything, they have my name on file anyway, but still kind of funny...

We were actually late coming home. We were supposed to make it home around 3:30 or so in order to drive down to Noblesville by 5 p.m. for a trick-or-treat extravaganza with her friend Maggie, but we got a late start, and I ended up touching down at Kokomo at 4:30. That meant no trip home first, no change of clothes from the boat, no dropping off bags or getting the right shirt for Kaylee's costume. I didn't even put away my airplane-I hopped out of it, threw my bags into the Jeep, and walked away from the plane on the ramp. Steve C. put it up for me. As I was driving out of the parking lot, I look down and find myself below 1/4 tank of gas. Perfect! I figured I'd just drive and see if I had enough gas to get there without stopping. I did. ;) I was about 20 minutes late, which wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and seemed to be just about in time for the festivities.

Kaylee (flamingo), Maggie (Orphan Annie w/dog Sandie), Hannah (Tinkerbelle), and a friend from next door named Candy (Belle) went trick-or-treating around their neighborhoods, and they were really very active. Kaylee ended up with more candy than she's ever managed before--a huge bag full--and there was some good stuff out there! One neighbor handed out full-sized candy bars (now that's my kind of place!), another guy worked for Nabisco and was handing out entire store-size boxes of Oreo cookies! Lots of good stuff out there. Glow sticks and bells, chips and drinks, real chocolate, just all manner of goodies. And no Tootsie Rolls that I saw. ;) Kaylee had a Blast. She loved it, and this was the first year she'd gone trick-or-treating with anybody but me. I have a feeling she's not going to want to go back to just going with me ever again, either! Her comment was "This is the best Halloween EVER!" She got to wear her flamingo costume, she got so much candy I'm going to have to meter it out, she got to race from door to door with friends, and Halloween remains her second favorite holiday of the year.

By the end of the evening, poor little Tinkerbelle was so wiped out she was dragging her bag of candy behind her on the concrete. The girls slowed down, we finished off another block, then headed back to gather the rest of the adults and go to Subway for dinner. Kaylee and I hadn't eaten since lunch, we'd been running non-stop from lunch on through to 8 p.m. here, it was dark, my Jeep was out of gas, Kaylee was tired and so was I, and it was a really nice day, but it was time to Go Home!

I hadn't slept real well the night before--I never do, like back in the days I used to sleep in my friend's basement, in a room with no lights, on a waterbed, and I used to get the most horrific nightmares. I still get nightmares or weird dreams when I'm on water or waterbeds, particularly in a dark room, and keep waking up, never able to fall into a nice deep sleep. And...I have no idea why. Just weird, I guess. :)

When we got to the gas station tonight, Kaylee asked, as she always does, if she could help. I always say no. This time I figured, why not? I let her swipe the credit card and fuel up the Jeep (with me standing right there, of course.) She did just fine.

I got a bunch of trick-or-treating pictures, and I've downloaded them all, but I've hit the proverbial wall, and I'm going to bed! I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

Edit-it's tomorrow. ;) I've got photos up from the lake, and from trick-or-treating last night...

Kentucky Dam

Well, this morning Kaylee and I hopped in the Baron and flew down to Kentucky Lake for the day. Steve was supposed to come along, of course, but he has now been stricken with a head cold plague, and ended up staying behind. Dad and Gayle have bought a new, bigger houseboat, and we were coming down to christen it. Their church was also hosting a "Trunk 'n Treat" in the parking lot there, so Kaylee brought her costume and did a little bit of trick or treating, after which we ate way too much at a local restaurant. It's four hours later and I am still full.

I am typing this up on the iPad. It's not bad, but I definitely prefer a laptop for this kind of thing. I'm glad for the option though!

Everyone but me is asleep here at 9:30 p.m. in this time zone, but after the busy yesterday and the early morning, I am more tired than I expected...

Fish-n-Boots

Kaylee has been wanting these boots she saw for quite awhile, and the other day I took her to the store, and we got them. She was so excited ahead of time that she wouldn't stop talking about her boots, at home or at school either one. The next day, she wore them to school, excited to show her friends. Two of the girls in the class informed her that those were stupid ugly boots and made fun of the footwear, informing her that she didn't know what real fashion was. The teacher made them apologize, though you can imagine how that felt. I had the usual parent conversation about it, telling her that sometimes people just like to try to make themselves feel better by cutting down other people. That they were probably jealous-that unhappy, mean people usually were unhappy or jealous. I told her that the best thing she can do is not let them get to her, that if SHE likes the boots, that's what is important, and not to let other people's bad manners get to her. All easier said than done, of course. The first thing her Dad said? "They're just jealous." The first thing her Grandma said? "They're just jealous." All independently, which I thought was kind of funny. :) I don't understand why people, of any age, feel the need to just stomp on other people's happiness. Why on earth is it necessary to be so...mean? Anyway, then we had a different kind of conversation, a conversation that some folks might not agree with. Steve and I both gave Kaylee some ideas and ammunition on how to handle situations like that in the future. Not meanly, not inappropriately, and not treating people badly back, but standing up for herself in a firm, funny, yet polite manner. Yep, we gave her actual comebacks to that kind of picking on. And we told her the number one secret of dealing with things like that: confidence. That when you're confident in yourself, you don't fall for what they're trying to do to you; you can make a witty remark back and move on with your day, and they will be the ones who fall flat, while you walk off confidently in your euphemistic new boots with not a care in the world. Best of all? She's already got a pretty good grip on that. She already said that she really likes her boots, that one of the girls wears these shoes that she personally thinks are really ugly, and she wanted to say that back to her, but she said she didn't think Jesus would want her to do that, so she didn't.

So this morning Kaylee gets dressed, walks over and pulls on her new boots and goes skipping out the door without a second thought. I smiled and didn't say a word. How many tweenie girls would get made fun of for wearing something one day, then turn around and wear it the next day too? (I don't know that I would have as a kid.)

Little things in life, not important in and of themselves, not big on the scale of life, but each incident a lesson that leaves an opportunity to weaken or strengthen a person. I wish it wasn't so, but then again, as my Mama always said, Life Isn't Fair.

Steve recovered from his back and/or intestinal severe pain, felt better for a few hours, and then last night felt a head cold coming on. He's not happy about it. I'm not happy about it either. It hit him hard and fast and has already moved into his lungs in less than 1 day. Great...

So tonight was Kaylee's school's Fish Fry & Tenderloin fundraiser. It started at 3:30, and Kaylee and I went in at 4 p.m. to volunteer. Steve was supposed to come at 6 p.m. and meet up with Chuck & Judy, Nathan, Tre and the kids, Jon & his wife, Kenny & Sheryl, Richard & Ann, and Duane and his grandson. Unfortunately Steve couldn't make it off the couch, but it probably ended up being okay, because the line was out the door from 4:00 to 7:15 p.m., and everyone came at different enough times that they couldn't have eaten or sat together very well anyway.

I started off running the dessert table, which I thought was very brave of them. Kaylee got to play on the bouncy houses for awhile with her school friends for that timeframe. Then they got behind on the food line, so Kaylee took over the dessert table, which was also brave, and I became the Bun Girl. For the next three hours, I handed out buns and rolls and such. :) Kaylee worked the dessert table for two hours, which is pretty good, then went off and had a "total blast" on the hayrides outside, coming in covered with bits of hay hidden everywhere, and jumped around on the bouncies some more. She had quite a few little friends there, and on the way home said something like "that was the most awesome thing EVER!"

So, since a ton of people came, no kidding the line was out the door for hours, and the kid had a good time, I'd say it was a successful evening all around! Thanks to everyone who came and stood in that huge line to help us out and eat fish and tenderloins and rolls and buns and green beans and cole slaw and applesauce and any manner of dessert they wanted. :)

Did I Mention Breezy?

Yet another day of "too windy for primary students learning to land". I canceled both my morning and my evening flights due to winds. Originally I was going to Pennsylvania today, but that was taken care of by others. Thankfully I woke up feeling much better than I did the last two mornings (when I slept for hours after I woke up), and Steve woke up feeling better too. So instead, he and I got ready, then drove down to the Indianapolis FSDO (FAA Flight Standards District Office), home of the Big Bad FAA Guys. Steve was renewing his CFI certificate by number of active students he'd successfully signed off, and he wasn't quite sure if he was well or not, so I drove and went along as a chaperone just in case. :)

It's ironic--the FAA offices are about the last place most pilots want to visit, but we have really good relationships with three of the main guys there, and the guy who helped us today, while we don't have much of a relationship with him yet, he's the one who signed off on our BBQ Bash fundraising "charity" rides. It's a good thing to be known as someone who always follows the rules as far as the feds are concerned, and it's a good thing to have a fed at your back who will look the other way a bit if you...interpret...a rule differently. Like the low passes at the airshow on July 4th, when because it was R+10, they didn't say a word. And later, when it was me, associated with it, they also didn't say a word. Because there are still some guys who know real world safety vs. politically correct safety. Which is nice.

And yes, Steve has officially renewed his CFI certificate as of today, due to signing off 9 people in the last two years for certificates or ratings, who passed successfully. :) We were in and out of the FSDO office in about 15 minutes or less. Of course it took over 3 hours of driving, half a tank of gas and most of a day's time, but all in all, it's still easier than the online course I do every two years just because I don't like dealing with actual people unless I have to. ;)

I'm watching a show where a person is making the difficult decision of whether or not to donate their husband's body parts after he was killed on a motorcycle. So this leads me to say, that while I've already got it stated on my driver's license (with motorcycle endorsement), and already told Steve, that should anything ever happen to me, and should anybody be able to use anything left behind by me, please, by all means, do! If I am gone, why on earth bury me with all the things that could save or make much better the lives of others? Take my organs, and do something with them! Help somebody! And don't suffer a moment's pain about it--I'm already in heaven, so let somebody else have more time on earth with their loved ones, or a better quality of time on earth with their loved ones! Anything else is silly, illogical, and a waste, in my opinion. Got it?? Thank you! :)

More Wind

This whole week has been blowing like crazy. It's canceled all my primary students so far the entire week, and probably will tomorrow, too. It's kind of hard to learn how to land when you're getting blown around like a kite.

Kaylee and I went to the mall today and picked up a little something for her--boots. She is currently wearing them to Awanas, even though they are not great running shoes, and I may have trouble getting them off of her to go to bed tonight. She practiced her guitar for us tonight, and she is doing much better on the chords-not having to look at how to do at least two of them, and sounding much more proficient. And she's proud of herself, too. :)

Steve, he's just now feeling better. He spent today inside and lying down, and it wasn't until this evening that he's started getting relief. I've made three trips to a drug store and he was on the phone a couple times with a medical professional, and finally tonight I think he turned a corner, which is good, because he was in lots of pain for awhile there.

I'm fighting off something myself. Yesterday when we flew to Ohio, I fell asleep in the pilot's lounge and slept until after 11 a.m. I figured I was just tired from getting up at 6 a.m. This morning I took Kaylee to school, canceled my morning breezy flight, and went back to bed until well after 10 a.m. I wasn't up late, wasn't up early, just...tired. And stuffy. So I didn't really mind not flying today, honestly...

Blow-hio

It was a windy, stormy day. When I arrived at Kokomo Airport at 6:54 a.m, the Cheyenne was already running, so I popped the door and hopped in and away we went, over to Akron, Ohio. Even that early in the morning the winds were already up to about 25 knots. While we were on the ground in Ohio, a line of storms moved through Kokomo, taking out some trees, knocking out the power in a few places, damaging some roofs, and heading to Ohio, with wind gusts up to 60 knots or so. We watched it for a little while, then decided to stick it out on the ground in Ohio and wait for the worst of it to move through before we came home. The plane was safe in a hangar, we were safe in a building, seemed the best plan of action. Once the worst of it moved through, with very high winds and heavy rain, we loaded up and headed home, much slower than we got there.

The news is saying at least six tornadoes touched down in Indiana today, including one in Kokomo and into Howard County. Kokomo had the highest concentration of damage in the state today, and I saw news reporters standing by a torn-up home on the road to the airport on my way home. I know that our house lost power because all my clocks are blinking. There were trees down, houses damaged, signs blown over, power outages, etc. around here while I was gone, but our airports and home were all undamaged.

For some reason, Nathan and I were the only ones out flying today that I saw. ;)

Steve hasn't been feeling well at all, having really bad lower back and abdominal pain, and he's lost a lot of time to feeling pretty yucky, so here's hoping tomorrow is better for him.

Kaylee had her guitar lesson today, and she was pretty pleased with it. She wants to get these chords down just a bit better, and then probably next week she'll start learning songs comprised of those chords. She's doing just fine...

Great Memories

Kaylee is Such a sweetie. She just left a little sealed note on my pillow, and one on Steve's pillow, addressed to each of us personally. In it she told each of us how much she loves us and how much we mean to her, and she goes on to list specific things about each of us that she appreciates. She didn't just carbon copy a nice note, she took some time and thought about a whole page full of things she could say about each of us individually that she appreciates. What a heart-melter that is.... I am SO keeping that. :)

Steve is almost finished up with his logbook, catching it up to date after more than a year. He's about to break 10,000 hours, last I heard. Me, I caught up my logbook last night too, and I am exactly three hours shy of breaking 6,000 hours. I'm never going to catch him, unless he quits flying for the next 10 years. :P

On strange things for the day, I ran over a chicken. Poor little bugger ran right in front of my Jeep and *poof*, a whole lot of orange/red feathers went flying everywhere. You never know what you'll find on the back roads of central Indiana. I know it's inappropriate, but I did keep thinking about stopping at KFC for dinner after that...

This is one of the photos Trey took-I'm so glad he took it. I put it and a few more up on my site. These were the four of us who went on the photo shoot. Funnily, the four of us should be fairly distinguishable. Me, the girl, check. WWII veteran in his 80s wearing a Fighter Group hat, check. Younger pilot of the P-51 in a flight suit, check. That leaves the guy on the right to be the photographer. Another great memory. Thanks to Steve for helping me work it out on an already nutso day for him so I could go do this, who in fact always supports me, and thanks to Nathan, who, well, let me check out in and fly his airplane, lets me practice not running into him in formation with no visible fear (as does Steve), and has made some pretty special things possible...

Resting...

It was Pumpkin-Carving Day today. The winds were blowing, the rain was threatening, so everybody around here but me slept in. Although after 8 a.m. is still sleeping in for me these days. :) I went and ran a couple errands while Steve and Kaylee did the pumpkin this year, and a Nice job they did, too, as you can see! I baked up the seeds from the pumpkin, and Kaylee wanted to do sugar and cinnamon seeds, which I have never heard of. I tried it, for her, and you know what, anything with cinnamon and sugar on it is going to be pretty good. ;)

I traded Steve-I ran out to Glenndale and to the store to pick up emergency rations while he stayed home and worked on the pumpkin. I was grabbing his records from the office, because his CFI expires at the end of this month, so he's doing a bunch of paperwork here to prove he's had enough sign-offs for checkrides to be able to just go down there and get it renewed without having to go through the online 16 hour course. He's over there having fun catching up his logbook while I type this, in fact.

I am currently watching one of my two favorite NFL teams play. Who are they? The Colts, and whoever is playing against the New England Patriots. Unfortunately, Team #2 there is losing. *sigh*

While I am speaking randomly, I have to say, I am...disinterested...in hearing any more political ads. It's gotten worse every year, and now I have apparently hit the wall on them at age 38. For one thing, hearing about how Mister or Miss so and so did this or that, all twisted up to make it sound as good or bad as possible, with a grain of truth somewhere in there if you knew where to find it, is just tiring. I am sorry for those who are deep into politics, but It Does Not Matter. People sobbing and crying hysterically in joy when Obama got elected? Did it matter? Did you get all that Hope and Change you were so sure was coming? Now if a bunch of Tea Party or Republican people get elected in, is it going to really change anything? Nope. The system rules the country, like everything else the economy and unemployment will go up and down, and it does not matter what rear-ends get placed in what seats; the system has a mind of its own. Does not matter. Some day I hope to be proven wrong, but for now? Nope...

I did get photos up on Kaylee's site from carving the pumpkin, and a few up on My site of the Friday Photo Shoot...

Saturday

Kaylee was at her friend's house until about 2:45 this afternoon. Steve and I were sitting at home, and there was nothing on television, and nothing to do, so we headed out to the Saturday hangout at the airport. A bit later on Nathan and Tre, the kids, her sister and niece and some more kids all came out, followed later by Brad & Ally and their two kids, then Tre's son and his friend. We had quite a crew going for awhile there! We ended the day by taking all the kids to Chuck E Cheese and sending them off with salad, pizza and tokens, not to be seen nor heard from again until it was time to cash in and get the "prizes".

Trey sent on a bunch of photos he took from yesterday, and he got some good ones. It really was an honor to get to meet and fly next to Jesse Frey and Pat Buzzeo, WWII pilot and crew chief respectively, of the "Ain't Misbehavin'" P-51. If I never got to do anything else in the warbird arena, the men I've met and the stories I've heard these last few years have just been amazing. I truly am honored to be even a small part of that.

Plans, Awry, Thankfully

The plan was; a flight this morning, come home and help Kaylee get ready, get a present for Maggie, etc., a flight this afternoon, then meeting up with Steve at home, picking up Kaylee, driving her down to Indy for a sleepover, and eating out at a nice place down there while we were there. Well, the first flight happened, anyway, but from the time I sat in the plane with the first flight, my phone started going nuts with texts...and Steve's phone went nuts from about 7 a.m. on. It was one of those days where it felt like water from a fire hose, coordinating a bunch of stuff all at once that keeps changing around and you just get one thing lined up and something else needs factored in now.

My lesson ended around 11 a.m. or so, I tried to arrange a few things, then booked out of there to get home and get Kaylee, take her to get a birthday gift and card, hit a drive-through lunch, come back and pack her bag up, arrange some more things, get a student off on his long-cross-country, move my 3 p.m. flight to another instructor, rearrange for Steve to take Kaylee to Indy by himself, arrange another flight, do some research on Indy Exec, then head back to Kokomo Airport to get the T-6 ready for its flight. Jon had already topped me off and checked the oil, so I pulled on my flight suit and dark shoes, got the plane ready, and waited for Trey to arrive.

There were two pilots from states quite far away who fly a P-51 painted as "Ain't Misbehavin'". They came all this way to meet up with a former WWII veteran pilot and 90-year-old crew chief of the Real "Ain't Misbehavin'", who were here in part through the efforts of the CAF. An aviation photographer wanted to do a photo shoot of these men in "their" Mustang, but needed a photo ship and pilot. He asked Trey about it, who called me. Me, I called Nathan first, because, well, I've never done that particular thing before, it's his plane, he's a highly experienced formation guy, you know...that kind of stuff. ;) He couldn't do it, so it was up to me, they were kind of stuck down there, and I was apprehensive about doing it, frankly. I asked Nathan for any advice on doing it, and I took all three pointers quite seriously: fly smoothly, understand what the photographer means with the words he uses when he wants to move people around, and don't goof it up. :) I got the schedules worked out and decided to go for it. Trey flew us down to Exec, and we had a nice flight down, including a couple upside down stops, and as soon as we arrived it was time to brief and get in the air before the sun got too low.

The pilot of the P-51's first question, as it should be, was "Are you formation qualified?" Of course I had to say no, and he wasn't real thrilled about that, but he was willing to give it a shot. We got through most of the flight briefing, and we were talking about how on downwind I would give the Lead over to him, then I'd follow him down in a low pass over the runway so the photographer could get him landing while I just flew alongside. He paused, then started telling me how strange it would be when I was "acute" of him at that point, looking over my shoulder at him, etc., and I gave him a big smile then said seriously "I won't run into you." That's all he wanted to know. He laughed, and we were good to go. He did a very good, thorough, professional job of the briefing, I knew exactly what to do, and that takes a lot of the pressure off.

The flight itself went really, really well. The air was smooth, I was Lead, and the photographer would provide directions to me that I would then relay to the P-51. "Ten down." "Five right". "Stack up". Etc. When the photographer felt sure he got his shots, I brought us on into the pattern, handed over Lead to the Mustang on downwind, and then I flew off of him down through his landing sequence, only I didn't land. As we were coming in to land ourselves, the photographer said "I'll tell you what, that was about the best job I've seen of a T-6 flying off a Mustang in the pattern like that", which I really appreciated. That was followed by the P-51 pilot coming on the radio and saying "You were really smooth! You did a great job!" We got on the ground, and took photos of the pilots and the Real pilots in front of the Mustang and fueled up. The CAF guys were really happy, the photographer was really happy, the veterans were very happy, and the former pilot there insisted on getting his photo taken with "the pretty girl". LOL His wife was there, and when they asked her if she was going to let him get away with that, she said she was okay with it as long as she was standing there. He asked me if I was nervous at all up there with them so close to me, and I truthfully said no, not at all. (It was obvious from the beginning that the pilot was proficient and experienced.) I got a couple of hugs, several handshakes, and a couple more "You were smooth as silk! Great job, really", which honestly, I don't say to brag, but out of relief. This formation stuff, it gets under my skin sometimes, and not having been the Lead and photo ship before for real, I just didn't want to mess it up for these guys, or put forth an embarrassing show. I am SO grateful that it went off so smoothly for everyone. Kaylee and my Mom were chatting while I was gone, and they prayed for me together via FaceBook chat, which is awesome and sweet.

Trey flew us home again, on a beautiful sunset flight, and after we got the plane put away, he headed out for dinner with the photographer while I headed out to dinner with Steve. We had ourselves some most excellent food, celebrated a day well executed, and came home to an empty nest. Kaylee's having a good time with her friend, and we're relaxing on a Friday night, with nothing on the schedule in the morning for once.

Life is good. :)

Boo-yah

Have you ever had one of those nightmares that is a repeat offender? That as soon as it starts up, you know right where it's going to go, and you're kind of stuck watching it happen even though you know it's coming? You can even try to change some of the details, and it inexorably heads right back to where it was going to go anyway. I've had a few like that over the years, and this morning I found myself in one of them. I changed the details in my sleep, but as soon as I saw the giant black dog appropriately named "Bear", I knew that even though I'd changed settings and such, it was still about to be a very ugly dream. I couldn't stop it, so I woke myself up just in time. Too bad I couldn't do that very well when I was a kid, huh? Tis a good skill to have if one also has an overly vivid imagination. ;)

So the one morning I could have slept in during the week found me wide awake at 6 a.m. I lay there until 6:30, then gave up and got up for about an hour. Tried to lay back down, still couldn't sleep, so gave up for good and started the day off with exciting things like laundry and dishes and housework and paperwork and billing and accounting. Kaylee is officially on Fall Break, and today was pretty much the only weekday in ages I didn't have a 9 a.m. flight scheduled. It was good to catch up on a few of the things I did today-I was really getting behind.

My 1 p.m. flight was canceled because of high winds, up to 27 knots, almost directly across the runway at Glenndale, and a little much for what he needed to do. So instead I took up the T-6 from Kokomo. I wanted to do a little tougher crosswind stuff in that plane. I flew over by Indian Hills to say hello to Ty and Chuck and John Dale down there doing a kid airport day of their own, and then came in to do some takeoffs and landings. I did several passes down the direct crosswind runway, kind of feeling it out, but came to the conclusion that going ahead and setting down in those conditions and playing the "will it or will it not stay straight after touchdown in these gusts" would be unintelligent. It was good practice though. I did a couple landings on the other, slightly less exciting runway, and put it back away for the day. Actually, Steve put it away for me, technically. :)

Kaylee has discovered FaceBook. She'd been asking to join for awhile, and I held her off, but finally I caved and set her up today. What really hooked her in though was the live chat. She spent something like an hour chatting with her Grandma down in Missouri, and can't wait to do it again. She doesn't know yet that I can monitor her chatting; of course, I didn't know that either until today, so I feel better about that. She won't like it, but she's 9 and she doesn't get a say on FaceBook complete independence just yet. ;) She also asked her dad to join, and he told her he is still holding out, but if there's anyone who could get him to join FB, it would be her. Hehe. I told him I'd be happy to set him up an account, set up his photo and everything for him. For some reason he told me "no way"...truuuust me. ;)

Kites and Arrows

When I woke up this morning, it was still dark outside. It doesn't seem like it's been dark outside before today when I got up. By the time I get out to the car, the sun is up, but who likes to wake up in the dark? Boo!

It was a windy one today. At least it started off just slightly windy, so I got to make it up with a pre-solo student who got a real work-out for awhile with crosswind landings. By the afternoon it was gusting up over 30 knots, so naturally it was a good time to head over to Muncie to drop off Nathan. :)

We had a group of 30 Second graders on a bus come out to the airport today. They're from the school right on the airport's road, so they and their teachers (and some parents) were commenting that they see us fly over them all the time. Several of them also mentioned that they made it to the air show this summer, and they recognized the Checkertail planes. One 7-year-old girl was asking me questions, and she said "I saw that airplane at the show, and there was a lot of hair coming out of the back of the red thing the pilot was wearing." I said "Yes, that was me flying then", and she said "Thank you for flying planes for us girls, too! Really, thank you!" Aww! That was sweet...

Time

It was a busy day. Kaylee got to wrap up a bunch of stuff at her school before Fall Break, which starts Friday morning, and Steve's been swamped with computer projects. I flew this morning out of Glenndale with a checkride prep fellow, fine tuning a bunch of the maneuvers. Left there and hit the Dollar General store since we were out of everything from bread to kitty litter and everything in between. Threw it in the car and made it to lunch with folks for just under an hour before heading to Kokomo to take up the Baron after it had gone through a little maintenance. I got down just in time to see my next student pull out the Saratoga. We went over some radio communication stuff and some cross-country stuff, then flew over to Muncie where he dropped me off to do his three solo takeoffs and landings at a tower. Picked me back up, we flew home, then worked on a solo cross country plan for a good hour and a half, before he headed off for that trip and I ran home to unload my groceries, then pick up Kaylee from her guitar lesson. Her teacher said she has a great eye for detail, and that if she practices 15-20 minutes a day, next week they'll get to move on from just chords and go into learning a song. She was excited by that one! Then it was homework time, and chores time, and dinner time, then paperwork time, then a little billing time, and finally sit down and not do much time. Maybe.

Cranky Pants

October 15th, a young-ish airline pilot was stopped by the TSA as he was going in to take a flight, for his "usual" security check to get past the gate, which he had done about every day for almost 5 years. He passed through the usual metal detector, and then the TSA told him to pass through the new AIT (Advanced Imaging Technology) machine, which basically shows you naked. He refused. They then told him he could come over for a physical search instead. He told them "No naked photos and no groping me." This of course unleashed a "serious problem" involving many supervisors, until he was allowed to leave, but not fly. Half the people out there are screaming about our rights being taken away, and the other half are telling the guy he should have just sucked it up, that it's not that big of a deal, do it and move on. One fellow put something akin to "Bite Me, TSA" under his clothes, which showed up on the scanner, and he was detained. They didn't find it as funny as he did. Frankly, I wouldn't do real well on the scanner and the pat down either. I don't like being touched by strangers, and I don't like walking through and having some minimum wage goon staring at my basically naked image, just to go fly. The pilot in question may or may not be out of a job, depending on if his union and employer will go to bat for him or not. But let's think about this for a second, shall we? He was THE PILOT. He could walk through the security point buck-raving-naked, get a proctology exam for internal bombs, and if he wants to take the plane down, he's THE PILOT. Just pull the nose up, power off, kick a rudder and let go! Whee! I just...I don't know what to say. Next people are calling for biometric information to identify the good guys from the bad guys. You know, a chip or DNA or eye scans. Which scares me even more, being the paranoid Revelations kind of girl that I am. "Oh, but it would be impossible for fraud to happen if we all had a chip!" Oh really? Anybody see "The Net" with Sandra Bullock? It was done in 1995 before most of this was even thought of. Or "Enemy of the State" with Will Smith from 1998? Art imitating life imitating art, most likely. All it takes is a government or government agent or a hacker, or even an innocent mistake, and you ARE a bad guy, or no longer exist as far as the records are concerned. I don't want to give them "biometric information" about me. I just want to live in my country where they aren't supposed to sacrifice freedom for the pretense of security. I will never forgive George Bush and Congress for setting in motion the largest rights-sucking terrorist agency in our country. If you read the professional pilot boards, you'd be shocked and horrified to know of all the things going on in the name of "security". It's disgusting. And really, really scary. I am going to end up on a farm in Montana wearing a tin foil hat after all, I think.

While I'm at it, a pilot was recently arrested and charged because he did a practice run over a soccer field, dropping toilet paper out of his airplane. He did it at a legal altitude, and there is nothing illegal about dropping TP (or anything else) out of your airplane as long as it does not pose a hazard to "person or property" on the ground. He was testing it for a homecoming or some big school event being held the next day, which they knew he was going to do. The problem was, there were teens on the soccer field below, the TP got wet on the way down, and some of their mommies called the police because of the scary plane flying low and dropping things. He was arrested, and the police state that after 9/11 we take things like this very seriously. Because yes, we do need saving from the Toilet Paper Terrorists. I'm not sure what bothers me more; the arrest for TP dropping (which I have done and will do again I'm sure, though not over a field of kids I admit), or the pilots who are clamoring for his head. I'd say maybe he knows not to do it when the field is occupied next time, even if it's not illegal as far as the FAA is concerned, but arrested and charged? Really? This is what we need to spend our money and time on?

Okay, think I'm done.

Me, I flew twice today, with a pre-solo student who is just about to break through and "get it" and with a student who is getting ready to do his solo cross-countries. I didn't even have to be searched to go up with them yet. Although I did have to see their birth certificate and swear on paper that they weren't illegal aliens. This afternoon Kaylee and I baked some cookies for her school "Fall Party" coming up in two days. Some schools won't allow you to bring goods you baked yourself, but make you bring goods from a bakery for "safety of the children" reasons. So far I can still bake my own cookies too, if I want to. Kaylee is off practicing her guitar, finding chords and learning how to hold her fingers. She doesn't enjoy practicing very much, but wants to play the guitar without having to practice. I relate, actually, but find myself every day saying "Just go practice!" I may be close to setting a timer for her. What goes around comes around, right, Mom? ;)

Mission

We took our day of rest in our way. Kaylee slept in, relaxed for a little while to recuperate from her super busy day yesterday and lack of sleep the night before. This afternoon I took her to a birthday party at the local skating rink. She's done rollerblading out at the hangar, but she's never worn regular roller skates and been on a rollerskating surface. She could hardly stand up at first, but by the end she was speeding around the track. She says she still can't make sharp turns or stand still on the track without falling, and she counted eight wipe-outs today, but she had a great time and was really glad she went. She spent the rest of her evening doing her chores, picking up her room, reading a book, and playing on the computer, before reading our devotions for the night and heading up to catch up on some more sleep.

Steve spent some time relaxing with a friend, then took the day to work on projects around the house, indoors and outdoors.

I was planning on staying home and relaxing today. I started off well, finishing up a new novel that I started on the trip to Alabama last week. Then once I needed to take Kaylee to her party, and came back two hours later to get her only to find out they extended it for an hour, I had to come home only to turn around an hour later to get her again. At this point I was staring at what a gorgeous day it was, just like yesterday. I let yesterday get away from me because I didn't feel like doing anything, and I still didn't feel like doing anything, but it was nagging at me. How many nice days do we have left this year? I have some stuff I need to get accomplished. So I went back out to Kokomo and pulled out the T-6. The airport itself was really busy, but "our" guys were all doing different things today, so it was just me out at the hangar. I brought my iPod along and just wore my Bose headset so I could put in the ear pieces for the music. Some motivational music later, I took off, circled over the house to say hi, then climbed up to a nice respectable and safe altitude at which to do some stalls. I lost count of how many stalls I did--maybe 30 or 40. The more aggressively you stall it, the more interesting it is. You don't get a lot of warning in this plane before it breaks, but there is a split second, if you're not entering it too abruptly, where you can feel it just before the right wing lets go. I was determining a few things, like how best to teach the stalls, recoveries from various degrees of abruptness and over-corrections that people might do, etc. Finally I decided that was good enough for today, and did quite a few rolls to the left and right before coming in and working on 3-point and wheel landings for a bit. One nice wheel landing was actually supposed to be a 3-pointer, but that's the way it works sometimes. ;) There were a bunch of us in the pattern, and about after my 6th landing another person entered the fray, this time to practice instrument approaches, so I decided to call it mission accomplished for the day...

Walkin' on Sunshine

Kaylee enjoyed her slumber party--when I picked her up, she was straggly-haired, baggy-clothed, sleepy-eyed, and content. She said they were up until 1 or 2 a.m., and the Mom told me she'd heard the girls giggling at 6:45 a.m. So Kaylee was running on maybe 5 hours of sleep today. We had some plans out at the airport, so when I picked her up I took her right out to Kokomo and told her to try to be patient. I was slightly amazed that she played all day out at the airport, with three other kids, until close to sunset when we went out to eat, made it through the restaurant, and never got cranky. She then stayed awake until at least 11 p.m., too. I bet she's wiped out tomorrow, though! She did well; I was impressed.

First thing this morning, I had a Discovery Flight with someone in the Champ. It was such a beautiful morning for a flight--if the weather could always be like today, I would be perfectly happy. Chuck came out and was my handpropper, which I appreciated. I couldn't exactly ask the new guy to prop the plane, and neither was I all that eager to to do it myself with a non-pilot at the controls, particularly since this plane requires a little extra TLC to keep running after you start it, and no way could I get from the front to the throttle fast enough to keep it running. It still died a couple times on me, keeping Chuck busy for a little while, but finally we got her warmed up and ready to go, and went on to have a very nice flight. :)

Steve grilled up burgers and dogs at Kokomo, we opened up the hangars, the kids played on bikes, scooters, and golf cart, AE brought over homemade vanilla, strawberry and blueberry ice cream (and man was it good), and a friend who is purchasing an airplane had someone bring it up here so Nathan could do a pre-purchase inspection on it. We ended up with twelve people hanging out, eating, working on the airplane, etc. The guy who delivered the plane up here told us to please request him the next time we wanted a plane delivered, because he'd never been treated so well. ;) Lots of good food usually works well for hospitality around here. ;)

After a group dinner of Outback, I made it home just in time to log on to the online conference a small group of us is doing for formation groundschool. We went over hand signals today, and formation takeoffs, covering Chapter 2 and and an Appendix in the manual. Altogether it was about an hour and a half to two hours of material tonight. Next week I think we're meeting somewhere down in Indy to do a more difficult chapter in person, and then the rest should be online again, which is handy for us since we're not all in the same area. Hand signals I have down, most of the ground work I have down not too bad. It's the flying part I could use the practice with, but the ground isn't a bad refresher, that's for sure. The more that sinks in, the better...

We all enjoyed our Saturday. Those are the days full of sunshine, food, camaraderie and relaxation that leave you tired and content at the end of the day. :)

Friday

This was what a Friday is supposed to be like! A nice Fall flight in the morning with a student, followed by a very relaxing lunch at the airport, followed by a run to a store (okay, not my favorite thing), followed by picking up one very excited kid at school. She'd gotten all A's on her papers today, and she had A Birthday Party to go to tonight. It was a birthday sleepover with a total of three 10-year-old (almost) girls, and she's been looking forward to it for over a week. She picked out the presents, she wrapped them, and she's been ready to go ever since!

Steve and I dropped her off at her sleepover, then went over to a local restaurant in town and enjoyed some live music, some really good food, and a little time to ourselves. I am now officially stuffed and content. :)

I was sort of wishing Kaylee could have been at the restaurant with us though, because the band there consisted of two guys, one of whom played an electric acoustic guitar, and he was good. He was playing bass with his thumb while playing the melody and strumming with his other fingers, and he never missed a beat. She would have really enjoyed watching him play, and it might have even inspired her a little bit.

While I was at the store today I saw a book about Justin Bieber's life. He's what, 15? And has a book out about his life? Just like Miley Cyrus, I guess. Silly.

I look forward to the weekend! :)

Alabama Part Three

Was a lovely day at the office today.

Up at six a.m., wheels up by 8 a.m., headed to Alabama. There was a thin layer of fog/mist on the ground here this morning, but it was a quiet, smooth flight. I landed, picked up the three guys, and turned around and came home. A little more bumpy, a little more windy, but it worked.

I was home by 2 p.m., but the guys accidentally took my flight bag with their stuff when they left. My flight bag also had my purse, my car keys, my wallet, you know, pretty much everything I needed. Steve happened to be out at Kokomo too, so I stole his car to go pick up Kaylee. I'm on my way to pick her up when I look down and see that the car is below the "E". I think, no problem, I'll get gas. Oh yeah, I have no wallet. But I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before, so I'd also stolen $20 from Steve to grab "lunch" at almost 3 p.m. Good enough. Pick up the kid first, where I actually shut my car off in the line so I didn't run out of gas, then hit the gas station where I have $12 to spend on gas, drop off the kid, hit McDonald's to spend my last $8 and snarf down a Big Mac combo, run out to the country to pick up my flight bag and wallet, then run back out to Kokomo to drop Steve's car back off and pick up my own. I make it home, sit on the couch for 20 minutes, and then it's time to take Kaylee to the mall to pick up two birthday presents for the two birthday parties she is attending this weekend. By the time I got home, at something close to 8 p.m., I was getting cranky. So was Kaylee, who had also forgotten to take her water bottle and her snack and lunch to school today. It was a bit of a rough day for awhile there I guess. :) Fortunately all's well that ends well, we have a pumpkin and a pumpkin-carving kit, we have a Halloween costume, we have birthday presents, and we all had a productive day...

Pet Stuff

I had the distinct pleasure of taking Roadie to the vet this morning. It's amazing how many legs cats seem to have when you try to get them into a cat carrier. No matter where I tuck them, more legs grow back and grab onto things making it like trying to wrestle a hairy octopus. Funnily enough, when it was time to leave the vet clinic and I opened the cat carrier door, she ran in there before I even touched her. She knew that was her portal to home.

So why was she there? She had a bald patch on her belly that was growing, along with a sore looking thing in the middle. Plus she hadn't been for a couple years for a checkup. So the final diagnosis? She's 10.5 pounds, which the doc said put her at risk for all sorts of things because she's overweight for her "frame". The bald spot is her pulling her own hair out with her teeth either because she's obsessive/compulsive or because she's itching from allergies. She got a shot of steroids to see if that stopped any potential itching to rule allergies out. The doc said that hair may never regrow, as if that would upset me, but, um, it's a cat, and it's on her belly, and, well, there are many more important things to be upset over than that. ;) And then the vet comes out with a paper towel with the, er, "results", of expressing the anal gland, to show it to me and talk about what it meant. Really? I really didn't need the visual. I really could have just heard the words "it's grainy and needs to be more liquidy, or it can become impacted and even burst and we can end up in surgery, and you can check this yourself at home." Um, no. I'm not checking that at home. If I catch her dragging her hiney on the carpet like a dog again, I'll take her back in and pay somebody else to do that one, thank you.

So $138 later, she had two vaccinations, a shot of steroids, two tests run, an exam, and a diagnosis of being a chubby cat with a likely mild mental/behavioral disorder. I could have told them last part for free. But it was time for her to get checked over. Dulcie's next, and she isn't going to be happy about that. She's still hissing at Roadie since we got back, just from the smell of the place...

Fret

For the last week, Kaylee has been on Cloud 9 waiting for her first guitar lesson. She's told everyone she can get to listen that her first guitar lesson was today, including the library lady at school. She wanted to take her guitar to school to show them. She told everyone at school today that she was going this afternoon. Before we went over for her lesson, she had to run next door and tell Grandma & Grandpa that she was on her way. She was lit up like Christmas, so excited she couldn't sit still all the way there.

So when we walked in, though technically she probably floated in, and the guy behind the counter said "Well, he already has someone back there for this time slot", my heart wasn't the only one that sank. As he was double checking his records, Kaylee's ears turned red, and she got quiet, and as he was apologizing for goofing up and explaining how he would give us a free lesson to make up for it, I was watching her out of the corner of my eye. He finally turned directly to her and apologized, and she gave him a smile and said "that's okay" in a very polite, perfectly normal and sweet sounding voice. You couldn't tell that it was any big thing at all to her. Considering how well I know her, and how excited she was about this, I know what that took from her to do, but she did it. I was so proud of her grace. When we walked out and got to the car, I stopped and told her how sorry I was, and how proud I was of how she handled herself. But she was so...deflated...you could see it happening slowly right in front of your eyes...that the only thing she said the whole way home was one very quiet "I was so excited, Mom." She didn't cry, she didn't whine, she just curled up on the couch and stared off quietly. It's just a guitar lesson, I know, but I haven't seen her that eager for something, and she was really truly let down in a big way by it.

I made some phone calls, and ended up being able to arrange for her to go later that evening after all. I had a flight at Sheridan, and Steve had a lesson, so Grandma & Grandpa took her, and it worked out just fine in the end. Once I got it arranged for her to go? That's when she actually broke down and cried a little. But once she got to do the lesson, she loved it. She had taken some of her music in for him to listen to, and one of them was a Johnny Lang cd, which her teacher played along to on his guitar for a little while. He traced her hand, showed her how to properly hold the guitar, how to place her fingers on the various strings, what a 'fret' is, and gave her an assignment of practicing four chords for next week. She already practiced for today, and her goal is to be able to play a song for her dad for Christmas. She's on her way. :)

Fuzzy & Fredinka

Kaylee calls me "Fuzzy" these days. I don't know why, that's just the nickname that has been bestowed upon me. It's nicer than what she calls her Dad. ;) By the same token, I called her "Fred", for no good reason, until she insisted that it's a boy's name, so I switched to "Fredinka", which she likes a little better, even if she can't figure out why I call her that. That's okay, I don't know why either. It just is.

This girl of mine, she and I have a lot in common. We kind of look alike. We both really enjoy reading. She is taking home a stack of 10-12 books at a time from the library, and is starting to cost me money at book fairs and fundraisers at her school, too. What am I going to say, as I look around my house stacked tall with bookshelves and novels? She's sensitive, and yet sarcastic. Me, I used to be sensitive, and then I became sarcastic, so I'm going to take that as a commonality. ;) She's good in school, but tends to go fast just to get it done, getting things wrong in the process--and she can't make herself slow down and do it right for hardly anything. Neither could I. And the talking too much in school thing--Check. She likes to try out lots of new things, get to where she's pretty good at them, and then try something else. Yep. (Steve, too.)

And then there's forgetfulness. Of all the things to inherit. I gave someone my keys. They gave them back to Steve. Steve gave them back to me. I promptly lost them for two days because I didn't put them where I always put them so I don't lose them. The day I found my keys--on the floor of the Baron where I had put them for "just a second" to clean up the plane, by the way--I lost my sunglasses. I didn't put them where I usually put them so I don't lose them. I still haven't found them, and have reverted back to one of my 6 pairs of cheap sunglasses that I keep around for when I lose them.* My purse can sometimes be found in my car. Sunglasses tucked into a bag. (Yes, I looked there.) Things get found on top of the refrigerator at the hangar. The last time I lost my car keys it was after my Jeep's exhaust fell off and I stuck the keys on the roof of the Jeep before I bent down to examine it. I searched for my keys for an hour. I never did find them--a guy taller than I am saw them up there. I probably never would have found them up there, because they don't belong there, so why would I think to look there? It's easy for me to set something down somewhere as my mind is completely focused on something else, and then have absolutely no recollection of the entire thing.

Little Fredinka here is just as bad, and it drives me crazy, which I suppose is one of those parenting paybacks. It drove my dad crazy too. In fact, it drives Steve crazy. He's spent 14 years of marriage trying to make me not be so...haphazard I guess is the word, which is probably about the same number of years ole dad tried too. As a kid, I felt a little righteous indignation, because hey, I can't help it! Like I said, paybacks. I now have a place for my purse, and my keys, and my sunglasses at home, and when I am home I almost never lose them, because I keep those things in that place. It's when I leave home that the trouble begins, but hey, it's a start. In the meantime, I'm watching Kaylee lose every single stick of chapstick she owns, one at a time, as she sets it down somewhere weird never to be seen again. I think we must have 20 sticks of chapstick around this house. Somewhere. She loses power cords and games, and she loses sunglasses and books. I hear the words coming out of my mouth: "Put it in the same place all the time and you won't lose it!" I feel myself getting irritated as I'm on a hunt for her stuff with her. Again. Shoes. A paper for school. A cd she wanted to listen to. Her iPod, which we still have not found. And I realize, once again, this is definitely payback.

But we are not alone. And that is why this blog post Cracked Me Up. I can see it. I can SO see it. I don't see why the teacher was completely unamused, which she was as the mom described elsewhere, as I couldn't stop smiling when I read this, because I think it's about perfect, and I'm probably going to have to implement something similar to little Fredinka here at some point in her school career. Forgetters of the world, unite! And come up with clever ways to keep yourself out of trouble!

As alike as we are, we are also polar opposites. She's emotional and blurts out whatever without thinking, whereas I usually button it up, figure it out and then decide what to do. She's extremely social, loves to always be around someone, doesn't enjoy being alone, and likes to go non-stop. I socialize in limited fashion, love to be alone now and then, and like down time where I don't have to be doing something all the time. She freaks out, panics and worries about things. I, if anything, "under" freak out, and tend to figure that most things will work out just fine one way or the other. I like powerful vehicles, she wants to drive a "Slug Bug" or a Fiat, for heaven's sake. She told me today she wants to be an actress when she grows up. Help me. I'm hoping for "passing fad", like cheerleading was, which was also about as opposite of "me" as you can possibly get. She has the ability to push my buttons-good and bad-like nobody.

This is why I still think God smiles when He sends a personality down to a family. You're forced to see yourself in mini-form, from other people's point of view. You're also forced to deal with things you just don't "get". It's certainly an eye-opening experience! I'm not complaining though. Fuzzy and Fredinka have much to learn from each other yet. :)

*Steve found my sunglasses at lunch, sitting on the dash of the golf cart at the hangar. Whaddya know...

Monday...

Had an hour's flight this morning, but other than that it was a quiet day in aviation-land, which is unusual for such a beautiful day! It was 86 degrees here today, which is pretty strange for October, but I'm not complaining.

Kaylee's school did a cookie fundraiser through "Blondie's", and after school today we baked up a dozen of them. Blondie's makes a mean cookie, I must say. Also, Kaylee's school is doing a Dan's Fish Fry fundraiser in a couple weeks. Her school is in a financial deficit, and they are trying to do fundraisers before raising the tuition on families. If anyone around here wants a ticket to a fish fry being held Friday, October 29, between 3:30 and 7:30 p.m., let me know. I'll have tickets until the 18th, and then they'll be available at the door. :) They will have bouncy rides for the kids, hayrides, face painting, and games. Tickets are $8 each for adults, $6 for kids, and preschoolers and under are free, and it's being held at Morning Star Church, in their big annex building on the north side of the parking lot. "Dan's" is famous around here for his fish and his tenderloins. Very good stuff. :)

Kids

Kaylee just got back after running next door to show her grandparents her attire for the evening, which consisted of her black pants, my bra, and on top of that a red shirt of mine, tied off to the side. She was pretty pleased with herself...particularly when I was chasing her around the house to try to get my delicates back. ;) Goofball!

She also helped us a bit out at the airport today. I had a flight in the T-6 with a young man. It was his first time in any kind of airplane, and this ride was a gift to him. He had a little sister with him, and Kaylee helped keep her entertained and kept her from doing a few things she shouldn't in the hangar, when nobody else was focusing on her. The young gent started off nervous, but by the time we came down, he was doing some of the flying, asking questions about how things worked, and letting me know that when he grows up, he's going to be a pilot. I hope so. :) He had me sign his t-shirt with a black marker. I couldn't think of anything pithy fast enough, so I just signed it. He's the second person recently who asked me to sign something as a memory after a flight in the T-6, so I think I'll have to come up with something quick to use besides just my name. I know some folks who sign "Blue Skies" and their name, but that's not me. Hmmm.....have to think about that. Anyway, he was a very polite young man, and we both enjoyed the flight. :)

Kaylee drove the family up to the terminal building on the golf cart so they could watch us take off, fly over, and later on, land. She did a good job talking with the family, driving them around carefully, watching over the little girl, and all in all she was a part of it today. She did well. Later she started asking me questions.

"How old was I when I first flew in an airplane?"
You weren't even born yet when you first flew in an airplane.

"Mom, I mean after I was born how old was I."
I'm not sure, probably under 2 months old.

"Wow, that's little! What was the first airplane I ever flew in?"
I don't know for sure, but the Seneca is a good guess.

"What's the Seneca?"
You know, you used to call it the "Zoom" plane.

"Why did I call it that?"
Because I used to do low passes in it and you thought it was cool when it would zoom by.
"I still think it's cool, Mom. It's been a long time since I did a low pass with you... And I remember the Seneca now. It was in that other big hangar. I miss that plane."

"Hey, Mom, for me, little airplanes aren't really all that exciting. I mean, I like them and all, but they're not like 'Oh WOW! An AIRPLANE!' But for a lot of kids, and a lot of people, they ARE pretty cool, aren't they."

I think she's starting to see, through the eyes of other people, that her experiences aren't exactly the norm. :)

Airplanes and Automobiles

We got up pretty early this morning, with a goal in mind. Kaylee was a little tough to wake up and get out the door, but at last we were on our way to Kokomo. Steve got the T-6 and Baron pulled out, I got the planes preflighted and the 6 fueled up and set up with Nathan's stuff, and when he got there, I took Kaylee, Jamie & Gwenie with me, flew to Sheridan to pick up AE, and headed down to Seymour, IN for their fly-in "Airport Awareness Day". Nathan and Steve arrived shortly afterward in the T-6. As soon as my engines were shut off, I look out, and there is Charlie B. with a golf cart. There's one golf cart on the field, and Charlie's manning it. Too funny, if you know Charlie. ;) We had a really nice breakfast of eggs, biscuits and gravy, sausage and juice for only $4.00, and we hung out. The PV-2 Harpoon was there as well, and some Stearmans. They were giving rides in the Stearman, regular planes and the helicopter, and the rides seemed to be pretty steady the whole time we were there.

There is a little museum on the field there, and we checked that out. We also checked out a hangar where they are rebuilding a couple of planes. We left while a pilot was telling a guy who had just soloed for the first time last week a bunch of things that made it difficult for us to keep a straight face. Like the fact that he couldn't slow his airplane down below 80 knots on final because of the downdrafts and tailwind. And so forth. My favorite was his advice to the newly soloed pilot to go out and do downwind landings because otherwise if he had an engine out, he'd stall out and crash and die because he wouldn't be used to flying by the airspeed indicator. I actually know what he's trying to say...but still. Whew. We joked that he'd been reading the book Nathan's writing and is just passing on the wisdom within. ;)

There was a "Fear Fair" haunted house at the field too, and it actually was creepy. They'd told us that the lights would be on and that nobody would be jumping out at the kids, that it wouldn't get scary until later. So the kids really wanted to go check it out. The lights weren't on after all, and Kaylee and Gwenie didn't like the darkness with the "glowy" red lights. Kaylee has always had a thing about red lights and the dark, and she was worried she would end up having nightmares tonight (which is actually a reasonable concern with her). So the girls ditched the inside part of it and just went on a well-lit outdoor trail thing. Kaylee insists she'd like another crack at it, but only if I go and hold her hand next time.

A giant loaded baked potato for lunch, the kids played around, the adults chatted, Nathan gave a friend a T-6 ride, and I loaded up the kids and AE and headed back to Sheridan. On the way, the kids wanted to do "floaties", and AE wasn't opposed, so I did a couple of them. At one point Kaylee's shoe floated up in the air (as did she) and she ended up sitting back down on it, which had her in hysterical laughter. I dropped off AE, got back to Kokomo, put away the Baron, opened up the T-6 hangar, and Nathan & Steve made it back in good time. It was a pretty day. Smooth, warm, sunny. All of us got a little sunburn, which is kind of funny for October, but that's okay. One last burst of sun for the season, maybe...

We stayed at Kokomo for a few hours, talking, Nathan working on the Cub, the kids running around in the sun some more, and then Steve ended up having a computer job he had to go take care of, and it was already getting late, so I took Kaylee and we came on home.

A few hours later, Steve calls me, and I can tell by his voice something's off, but when I asked about the computer job, he said it was fine. The rest of the story was that he'd come very close to having a pretty serious accident on the way home. The Oldsmobile actually got airborne, all four wheels off the ground, he departed the road into a field, and came a little too close to a guy wire and pole. While he was headed towards it, he felt fairly sure this wouldn't end well. But when he made it back onto the road, and stopped and looked around, both he and miraculously the car were both almost completely unharmed. He had a prayer of thanks to his guardian angel who worked overtime tonight...

Ramblings

I was stood up on my flight this morning, but that ended up okay because I was able to go home and get all the billing in the mail finally.

Steve picked Kaylee up from school today, and surprised her by taking her back to the music store. There are two in town, and she picked the smaller, more intimate one. Steve signed her up for guitar lessons, and she picked out the acoustic guitar she's going to start with. She had her choice of black, red/blue, and regular wood grain, and she chose the wood grain. He tuned it up right there and sent her home with a soft case, picks, and her new guitar. She was so excited she couldn't sit still, and she couldn't wait to show people. Her instructor spent his time actually talking to HER, not Steve, and she connected with him pretty well. He even asked her what she wanted in an instructor, and paid attention to her answers. As my mom and I were saying today, kids aren't stupid, they're just younger, and Kaylee appreciates it when people actually talk to her like she's a human being with a brain too. Hopefully she'll enjoy learning how to play a little music, and as a bonus for me, a guitar is less irritating than a recorder. ;)

On a politically incorrect note, there's been a lot going around in "celebrity world" about the rash of four or five known teens who committed suicide after being bashed for being gay. It is sparking outrage from multiple celebs and the news, with lots of public service announcements, new helpful organizations, and video support messages from everyone who is anyone, because these teens were so bullied over being gay that they felt the only way out was to take their own life; how wrong it is to bully someone because they are gay. I agree. It is wrong to torture someone for that-or any-reason. You know, any time anyone takes their own life, it is a pretty tragic thing, particularly for teens, who have their whole lives ahead of them. But here's the thing-- teen suicide is rampant. Over one million people commit suicide every year. It is a leading cause of death among teenagers and adults under 35, and is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. And it is not somehow a bigger, more important problem if they are bullied because they are gay. Teens are bullied into suicide every single day. Is it better if they are bullied because they are nerds? Or bullied because they are shy? Or bullied because they have a physical difference from the other kids? Are the 30.611 teens who committed suicide one year because they were humiliated in school, too shy to stand up for themselves, have buck teeth, or can't get a friend for the 4 years they are in high school and feel like it is truly the end of the world any less tragic, less important, less worthy of all that celebrity outrage? How...hypocritical. I know some people like to jump on the politically correct bandwagon of the month, but how about a little thinking of your own? How do you think it makes the mother of the young man who was teased to death because of his inability to get a date feel? Maybe like if he'd been teased to death for being gay, it would have meant something more? Would have been more tragic to the world? Might have gotten their child's face on the news too, gotten a sound blurb from Ellen and a spot on a FaceBook memorial page? BULLYING is what is wrong, not the exact, unimportant factoid that the insecure, unhappy people who choose to hurt others decided to focus on as a "reason" for their bullying. Anyway.

The flight tonight at Sheridan was lovely. Calm winds, great big giant sun setting, hot air balloons floating around by Exec, it was very relaxing...and I am glad the weekend is here, even if I'm not going to be sitting at home relaxing for any of it. :)

Technology

This was the first morning in a couple of weeks that I didn't have to get up and head out to the airport right after I dropped Kaylee off from school. I kind of liked that! I still worked, I just did it at home until lunch time. Billing, mostly.

At 3:30, I took off in the C-172RG to head over to Muncie to give a lesson. We stayed in the pattern for awhile, then went off to work on instrument approaches. And for a lesson on why it's important to have a good foundation and not just follow the magenta GPS line, our Garmin 530 WAAS took a dive. The com quit working, the GPS couldn't find its position, it was displaying a page full of problems. It was useless. So it was time to go back to the basics, use the second radio and just shoot a good old fashioned ILS approach without a GPS. Can't identify that intersection that way any more. Have to start at the VOR. No pretty picture to look at, no WAAS telling you when to turn and drawing the track for you. I'm actually kind of liking this, but of course I'm the only one. ;) So while we're adapting to that, coming down final on the ILS, the glideslope doesn't come in on #2. Time to adapt again and just shoot a localizer approach. It made for a pretty good lesson, actually. Next time I want somebody to practice a basic approach without all the gizmos going and they say "Yeah, right, what are the odds of losing a perfectly good GPS", well, now I have ammo. ;) This could have happened in hard IFR. Would be good to know that the GPS is a handy tool and not the only tool a pilot is relying on...

So tonight I had my first on-line Formation Clinic ground school. John S. is hosting, and there are three of us trainees in the class. He's doing it through an online meeting, where you call in and log into a website, and your computer screen shows what he is doing on his screen. So he's got a PowerPoint presentation and a pdf document and we're going over the material remotely this way. Gotta love technology. :) We went for about an hour and a half tonight and made it through Chapter One. There are Six Chapters and four Appendix, and Chapter 1 is the easy chapter. ;) This is the Red Star groundschool, which is a lot more involved than the ABS (Baron/Bonanza) or the NATA (T-6) groundschools, but it's good to be thorough... Weather and life permitting, there will be a formation clinic nearby in November to work on the flying portion of things.

Steve and I woke up Kaylee every couple of hours last night to check on her. We went to bed around 1, Steve woke her up at 3, I woke her up at 5, and then I got her up at 7:30 or so. When I got her up this morning for good, she said "I thought you were going to wake me up last night!" I said "we did wake you up last night." She had no memory of it, which I guess is a good thing since we obviously didn't disturb her rest too awful much. ;) The bruise on her head isn't as bad looking as I expected it to be, but it's definitely a good-sized bonk. It hurt her to open her mouth or stretch her face much at all, so I gave her a little Tylenol for the first time, now knowing it wouldn't be masking a concussion pain or something. She's seemed fine ever since...

Family & Flying

I had a trip to Alabama today, with one passenger who rode in the back seat. It was his first time in a small plane. I asked him if he was lightly terrorized yet, and he said he was nervous, but everybody kept telling him it would be great, so he was going to try to just relax and enjoy the flight. He became a convert to the positives of aviation when he landed in Alabama before 10 a.m. and got a full day of work in. :)

The sun was just coming up when I got to the airport, and it was a really pretty morning. When we took off, it was as smooth as glass up there, and we had a nice tailwind, and we got there in a little under 3 hours. Backseaters can't hear the music up front, so I turned on the XM music and had music all the way down, reminding myself not to spontaneously burst into song. ;) On the ground, I grabbed a courtesy car and ran to the Waffle House that was right on the corner of the airport. I walked in the door, and three employees looked up and said "Hi!" in very chipper voices. I sit down, and they had me fed and out the door in like 20 minutes or less, which was also impressive. You could definitely tell you were down south. The menu listed "iced tea". No choices, just tea. I ordered it, and of course it was sweet. You don't even get unsweetened iced tea down yonder! The biscuits were flat and sweet, not our normal ones up here, and they had Jimmy Buffet playing over the speakers very loudly, and several of the employees were singing along to it. Two college girls (still in pajamas by the way) were in there, and they got up and danced in the aisle for awhile. It was a downright friendly place.

I got fueled up and headed home, by myself. This time that wind that was so friendly on the way down was not so friendly on the way home. It was a rather long trip home, but since I was by myself I could stretch my legs out on both sides of the cockpit with only myself to see the un-lady-likeness, and I did. I ended up dehydrated and with a headache that took me several hours to kick, but it was a good flight none-the-less. I put up some photos from this morning...

Meanwhile, Steve took my flight students today for me, and ended up feeling really bad at the end of the night again with a tight throat, headache, etc., like he backslid back into whatever he had last week.

Steve took Kaylee to a couple of local music stores today. She has expressed interest in learning to play the guitar off and on for quite awhile now, so today he took her to the two places to look into lessons. Kaylee called me on the phone on my way home (in the car), and spent 20 minutes telling me all the details about these two places, their differences, their pros and cons. She was wound up! At both stores, the guy talking to Kaylee about guitar lessons handed her a pink guitar. She was not remotely interested in a pink guitar. I wish I could remember how she told me about that, but all I remember is laughing, and then telling her that there are lots of girls who would think a pink guitar was pretty cool. She said "Yeah, well, I'm not one of them." I told her she had to tell her grandparents about that one. Her favorite guitar? "A really nice looking black one. It was classy looking." She wants to do electric guitar, but has learned you're supposed to learn acoustic guitar first. She's ready to start. Her afternoon was topped off by ice cream at the downtown shop, where she announced to the world that she had the best daddy in the world. As Steve said, I'm sure the ice cream had noooothing to do with it. ;)

I got home just a few minutes after they did, and I was kind of beat. Steve left to take that last lesson of the day for me, and Kaylee came and snuggled with me on the couch. She was talking a mile a minute, until Steve called. We talked for quite awhile, and when I looked down, Kaylee was fast asleep on me. I hadn't gotten my Tylenol yet, or a drink, but I couldn't get up and disturb her. I just stayed there and enjoyed the snuggle until I had to wake her up to take her to Awanas.

Picking up Kaylee from Awanas, it's not a good sign when you see your daughter walking towards you with a package of ice held to her head. I didn't think much of it, until she moved the ice and I saw a no-kidding goose egg on her forehead. She and a new boy both dove for a bean bag at the same time, and smacked heads together. You KNOW that hurts. It's actually a pretty good-sized swollen goose-egg, poor kid. She didn't lose consciousness, and when we got home I checked her pupils and all seemed well. She was sleepy, but she was sleepy from the time I woke her up to go in the first place. We're going to wake her up a few times tonight to make sure she's doing okay, and I'm sure she's fine, but it's actually a big enough bonk that we're going to keep an eye on her tonight. She's going to have a doozy of a bruise there.

She tried to get out of school tomorrow because of her bruise. You can't blame a girl for trying. ;)

Fall Tuesday

We had frost on the ground this morning. That's not right! I hear it's supposed to get back up into the 70s later this week though at least. :)

I had a chilly flight at 9 a.m., ran some money to Kaylee for her book fair at school today, picked up lunch and took it out to the airport for everyone, ran errands, picked up Kaylee from school, worked on billing for about an hour before turning around and having an afternoon flight, ran more errands, got home around 7, helped Kaylee with homework, did the dinner thing, and finally settled into doing billing. Fascinating, right?

It was definitely a busy day at the airport though, and it was working really well for the most part. I was in a C-172 staying in the pattern for Runway 32, there were two helicopters that came in and went out, fitting themselves into the traffic flow, a Piper was practicing on the same runway we were, a couple transients fit in, and the Champ was out there with Ty, with no radio in all that traffic, doing a great job keeping his eye out and staying out of everyone's way by doing an abbreviated circuit on Runway 5 at a lower pattern altitude than everyone else on 32. That's the way an uncontrolled airport is supposed to work. Then Steve came out in the RG and joined in too, and he said after I left some doofus came bombing into the pattern, breaking in right in front of someone else, not answering people on the radio, not paying attention to where anyone was, and disrupted the entire flow. I'd love to stick a business card on people like that's windshields and offer to provide a little assistance...

The Cheyenne/Baron tug is down for maintenance at the moment, so when Nathan needed to get the Cheyenne out and over to Muncie yesterday, we borrowed a tug from a neighbor. Unfortunately his tug just didn't have the "oomph" to get under the nosewheel of the heavy Cheyenne. So I think it was Steve who had the bright idea to crawl into the back of the Cheyenne and get the nosewheel lighter. He hopped in first, and that didn't cut it, so I hopped in, and Peg hopped in, and Steve C was in there, and Jon was pulling on the tail tiedown. It wasn't quite enough, so we moved as far into the tail as possible, with me on Steve's lap way in the tail cone, Peg up on the potty seat, etc., and we all just started laughing. It was ridiculous. But you know what, it worked. Sort of. The nosewheel got light, the tug got under it, we all piled out and shut the door, Nathan went to tug it out...and it fell off the tug. Doh! As we were all monkey piling in again for one last try, the airport guys came up to save the day with a giant tug. Ah well, a little ingenuity tried to save the day. ;)

Kaylee was excited to pick out three books at her school book fair today, for only $.50 each. She's in there reading now when she's supposed to be going to sleep. I don't even mind all that much...she had run out of library books a few days ago and had "nothing to read, mom". Can't have that, now can we!

It's late, suppose I'd better get back to billing. And filing a flight plan and printing out approach plates for tomorrow's trip...

Monday

It was an interesting Monday, anyway. My first lesson of the morning had a little trouble getting off the ground. We had trouble with the pilot's side door, trouble with the baggage door, and after we took off, the oil door popped open too. We ended up having to shut down the plane twice, and apply duct tape once, before we got some takeoffs and landings in. My student fits in just fine around here though. She's an incredibly intelligent woman who has had a lot of really neat life experiences, including with NASA, and she got a kick out of the application of duct tape, as opposed to being horrified by it, which wouldn't be an unreasonable reaction for most people. ;) She was around about seven of us for less than ten minutes before deciding she loved our little "community". She really enjoyed her time with us today, and we all enjoyed having her. Nathan needed a ride back from Muncie, so I asked her to come along with me, and Steve went with Nathan. She flew a little while on the way over there, then rode up front with me on the way home while Nathan and Steve back-seated it. She's been bitten by the aviation bug pretty hard, and like I said, she fits in here juuuuust fine. ;)

The flights this morning went until lunch, so we stopped for Mexican. I had about an hour to run errands, pick up Kaylee, and then head back out to Kokomo for an afternoon flight in the 172 for crosswind landings. As the wind picked up, I had him switch runways so the wind came from the other side. As he was working it down to the runway, he said "You're enjoying this, aren't you! You were one of those kids who put bugs in other kids' school boxes and giggled when they freaked out, aren't you!" Ha. I told him I might be a prankster, but not a bully, and that yes, I liked to make sure folks I flew with could handle the plane in all sorts of not-perfect situations. :) Finished that, ran home with dinner, and took Kaylee to my school board meeting. It was a long one tonight, and I didn't get home until almost 8:30 p.m.

It's funny, I only had three flights today, but it took pretty much all day to accomplish the three lessons. The drive time there, and back, the prep time, the putting away time, the signing logbook time, etc. I was never really sitting around with nothing to do today until almost 8:30 p.m., but I only got in about 4 hours total flight time (and 2 hrs 15 min board meeting time). Ironic...

On the way to school today, Kaylee asked me if she could take electric guitar music lessons. While I paused, she continued with "Well, there aren't many 10 year old girls who play electric guitar, right? I want to do something extraordinary. Plus, then when I go visit my cousins, I can play guitar with Tanner." She wants to take karate, too. Go for it, Kaylee. :)