The Eve

It's the last day of 2010 and the last day of the decade, too. It was 62 degrees and breezy and sunny, and I enjoyed taking out Lon's Low Rider black truck, cranking down the window and up the volume and cruising down a windy road among the hills and woods for a little while before making my way to a nearby Target for some last-minute shopping. Did you know they don't make "Belated Merry Christmas!" cards? ;)

We had a big ole breakfast of sausage biscuits & gravy, scrambled eggs, bacon, OJ and cinnamon rolls which held us off until dinner, where we went into town and ate at the cafe/diner where Morgan works. Fortunately her Uncle Steve did not remember to try to completely embarrass her in front of her coworkers...

We held Christmas this afternoon, opening presents and taking photos and having fun.I even got the obligatory "group in front of the tree" pictures, even though everyone is getting so "old"! Al is 20, Mo is 18, Tan is 14 and Ra is 13. Unreal!

The ladies sans me all went to get their nails done, a fun family Christmas tradition. :) I was invited, of course, but I am the lone nail picker/biter of the group, and during busy or stressful times my fingers get pretty ugly, and that's where they are right now-ugly. So I declined to let some poor nail worker be forced into dealing with my nails.

We watched the ball drop, hung out, several folks hit the hot tub, and I read a new book. A good way to end one year and start the next. :)

A Few More Details

Kaylee is a major night owl. Since she's been on vacation from school, she's been staying awake too late and sleeping in the next morning. So the other day it was getting silly late, so I went to get her. She wouldn't really wake up. So I went back in about 30 minutes later and literally dragged her out of bed. I took a shower, and when I got out, she was back in bed. So the third time I came back to her room, I was carrying an ice cube with me, which I deposited down her pants. She came up out of that bed shrieking like a vampire that hit a sun beam, chasing me down with evil in her eye and an ice cube in her hand. She chased me across the house, and I was laughing so hard I couldn't hardly breathe. She was unsuccessful in her attempt to pay me back, but she was at least up and out of bed for good. ;)

Our trip yesterday was uneventful, if not looong. We had a tough headwind, even down at 4000', and I mostly watched our groundspeed crawl by at 100 knots. Sheepers. It also was raining for awhile, and night, and a little IFR. Kaylee decided she had to go to the restroom, which she was decidedly out of luck on, so to distract her I would turn on the landing light. In the darkness, the landing light makes the rain look like streaks of flowing light. It's purty. :) When we got to the airport, I just landed straight in on the runway, even though it was a quartering tailwind, just to avoid having to add five minutes to our time by doing a normal pattern. I shut down the plane, and Kaylee was out of the back seat dancing around on the tarmac until I said "Don't wait for me-just go!" She was gone for the building and we had finally arrived...

I learned this morning that we had missed an earthquake. Apparently there was a 3.8 to 4.2 magnitude earthquake that was centered 15 miles to the ESE of Kokomo. Huh! As far as I know there wasn't any damage to anything, as I've just heard of bouncing frosted flakes in bowls and guys in showers feeling the earth move under their feet and one tower controller who got a bit of a ride in the tower, but other than that, it seems to have been a non-event. Interesting, though!

Steve and Cathy went shopping and running errands, Kaylee and crew played games all day, I sat a lot and worked on some computer stuff, and the hot tub got some action today too. Ahhh. :)

Short and Sweet

Our modem pooped out on us yesterday, so while I could keep up on reading email off my phone, I wasn't in the mood to peck out a blog entry with it...

We flew down to Tennessee today for Christmas Round II with the Cherry family, and Richard & Ann who drove up from Florida. Of course Kaylee is in Cousin Heaven, and we are looking forward to the 60 degree temps and sunshine... :)

Roar

Grandma & Grandpa went home today after lunch, which didn't make Kaylee overly happy, but she did pretty well when it was actually time to go. :) We had a great Christmas, a fun, relaxing, over-eating time, and I'm glad they could make it up. Kaylee wore out her Grandma, and herself to boot!

I took today and did some catching up on errands and getting ready to head out on a trip. I also made one extra trip today--to get new glasses. Ever since my glasses fell off my necklace somewhere around the Saratoga hangar to never be seen again, I've been wearing glasses from a prescription ago with only one arm. I finally decided I was never going to see my good glasses again, I was out of disposable contacts, and I needed a real pair of glasses, so I sucked it up and went in and got another pair. I'm actually glad I did, too. I can see! And the doctor took his time shaping them to my face, meaning they actually FIT me, too, quite comfortably. I almost don't even know they're there. I asked him if everyone has a crooked face (I have one ear higher than the other) and he laughed and said yes, just about everybody has a crooked face. Good to know. ;) I'm pleased! And yes, I will try not to lose or break these.

While I was there picking out my new frames, a process I detest, by the way, I found some that Kaylee agreed didn't make me look like too much of a doofus, and while they were getting them ready, I looked around at some of the expensive name brand options. I actually burst out laughing when I picked up a pair of glasses that had NO frame, just two ear pieces attached to the lenses and a couple of nose pieces, completely flimsy, and cost $225! You have got to be kidding me!! They were charging you over $200 just for the honor of NOT even having any frames, plus the cost of the lenses! Unreal. Then there was a pair of thick clear plastic frames that when I put them on looked exactly like Safety Goggles, or unfogged aviation foggles. $275. And they looked like factory worker safety gear. My perfectly good no name normal looking wire frame glasses? $49. Thankyouverymuch. How dumb.

When I got home, I decided to work on another project that's been a problem for several months. My necklace has gotten hair caught in it by the clasp, from my long hair, and it's wound up in there almost like a dreadlock. When I went skydiving, I had to duct tape the necklace to my chest because I couldn't unclasp it any more. So today I took an Exacto knife to it to free up the clasp, and finally got it off for the first time in months. I then had the brilliant idea to soak the clasp in Draino to try to get the dreadlock off of there. It worked to a degree, but not completely. So next I soaked it in Nair. And then I took a knife to it again. And finally my necklace is clear and clean, re-polished in a good jewelry cleaner, and back on my neck, where I will try to catch any such hair attacks earlier. ;)

I caught up on some SMA things today, caught up on laundry, caught up on some emails, caught up on errands and banking and a little billing, and feel pretty good about the day. I even cut my hair and took care of some leftovers for dinner tonight. Hear me roar. ;)

The Day After

Everyone got some much needed rest, sleeping in well past normal. Once the gang was all vertical, we fixed another breakfast of epic proportion. Steve made ham and cheese omelets, scrambled eggs (for me & Kaylee), I made crispy bacon and big doughy cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting...yum.

Steve and Ernie hit the airport and guy-shopping circuit, while Mom, Kaylee and I went to the mall to use up some gift certificates. We got some good smelling things, stopped at the photo booth and did a group shot, I picked up some supplies at Target, and Kaylee got her nails painted Colts blue with white strips at the nail place there. Her nails look awesome, by the way. We hit a haircut for Grandma next, and then it was time for the Colts game, so we came home, fixed up a batch of special coffee and a bunch of snacks, and watched the Colts win again.

Mom & Kaylee have been playing the rest of the evening, while the rest of us watched "Salt" with Angelina Jolie. I have to say, it wasn't what I expected, and I thought it was pretty good. We all liked it, anyway. :)

A little tv, a little playing, a little more eating, and a goodnight was had by all.

See, the pictures even say we're perfect angels. ;)

Merry Christmas

Kaylee had such a hard time falling asleep last night! She pulled all her covers off her bed and made up a nest for herself on the floor by her door, in the hopes of catching St. Nick. At 1:30 a.m. I still wasn't sure she was quite asleep in there...

I woke up to Steve and Kaylee standing by my bedside singing Christmas carols loudly wearing festive hats. :) It didn't take long to start tearing into presents, and didn't take long before we had a pile of paper detritus on the floor, and a cat in the middle of the fray. As the presents wound down, there was one thing left to do--see if Kaylee's guitar fit in her new guitar stand. So she unzipped her guitar case to get her guitar, and instead of finding her acoustic guitar, she found a new electric guitar, which had been her big Christmas request. She'd been trying not to be disappointed that she didn't see a big guitar-shaped box under the tree, and hadn't said a word, but she was pretty excited to see the guitar, too. ;) Steve hooked it up to her new amp, and away she went. Any time it gets quiet in here, she's gone up there and played around with the new electric guitar. Steve tuned the guitars to the piano and did a little bit of jam action with Kaylee too.

We had eggs and pancakes and fruit and juice for breakfast and did ham and corn and scalloped potatoes and rolls and salad for dinner, while munching on pumpkin cream cheese roll and all other manner of foods. I haven't been hungry in days. My refrigerator is crammed full, as is my pantry. Life is good. ;)

Everybody around here played war with the two tanks. You remote control drive around these tanks, shooting at each other with lasers, and the third time you hit the other tank, the tank smokes and the little dude inside gets blown out of the tank. It's too funny. Loud, but funny. :) I had a headache, and just laid down right there on the couch while a war was going on, and I actually fell asleep in the midst of the tank war right by me.

Later we broke out the Kinectimals and Kinect Adventures, and after that we broke out the Wii games too. Kaylee and Grandma got some good exercise in today! I'm betting everyone sleeps well tonight and somebody might be sore tomorrow, too. :)

Once we got rid of our headaches, we had a really nice day. I got pictures up on Kaylee's site thus far. A wonderful, blessed, Merry Christmas to our family and friends!

Twas the Night Before...

I woke up at 6 this morning to make sure Deenie was safe, went back to bed for a couple hours, then wandered out and started the morning off a little slow. Steve and Ernie went out and ran some errands and did a little work, and Nathan, Jamie and Gwenie stopped over with gifts from Tipton Santa. We had a group lunch at Applebees, and when Dale commented that it wasn't nearly as crowded as he thought it would be, I said "Most normal folks are probably at home with their families on Christmas Eve." We decided we were out with family on Christmas Eve, literal and figurative alike. :)

After I dropped Mom & Kaylee off, Steve and Ernie went back and did more guy running around things, and I went shopping. I had some more food to get, and some supplies, and oh yes, Christmas presents! By the time I got to the mall, I was tired but still in good spirits, so I decided not to wear my iPod inside for once this year. I was good to go until one small store, standing in a line with 20 people, all crowded around, nowhere to go, tall shelves all around, cacophony of noise, and I broke out into a sweat. Right about then the lady in front of me left the line to get her granddaughter, the person at the counter was done, and I got to go up and get checked out and be done. Whew. Anyway, missions accomplished! Four stores plus the mall later, I was done. And my feet hurt!

I made up a batch of Christmas cookies, which Kaylee & Mom helped cut out and decorate, and we fixed a nice dinner with really juicy chicken breasts in a sesame ginger marinade, rolls, veggies, salad, and homemade pumpkin bread later.

We then watched "It's A Wonderful Life". Now, I'm usually the one harassing my mom about that movie, but everyone else was being such buggers about it that I couldn't help but be on her side. :) As I told Kaylee when she was picking too hard on George's human fallacies, hey, it's a good movie about a good man in a bad situation who got the help he needed when he needed it because he'd always been the help others needed when they needed it. (However, it was a long movie, too!)

Chasing the kid up front, Steve and I wrapped gifts. I wonder if she knows that most normal families have that done long before Christmas at 10 p.m. Nahhh. She always gets a thrill out of watching me carrying the finished pile out to the tree. :)

Kaylee put her two best cookies out on a plate along with some egg nog (that she almost didn't want to part with), and a letter to Santa along with a blank piece of paper that says "Respond". Heh! I'll go take a picture of that to post later...

For now it's past midnight and we still have some prep to do and a kid who will not fall asleep! She haaaad to get my Night Owl gene. ;)

Success!

I woke up bright and early again this morning to check the weather, and this time, while still marginal, it seemed maybe doable. I had a guy flying down from somewhere up north who was spending the day with me at Glenndale. He wanted to get his tailwheel endorsement in, so he was flying in to do as much as he could in one day out of the Champ at Glenndale with me. Of course Glenndale has about 5" of snow on it, but that was going to be okay for the Champ, just a little chilly. But at 7 a.m. he texted me to let me know he wasn't happy with the weather, and he wasn't going to come down today after all. This meant that I was free to go with my student to Muncie on his Private Pilot checkride.

My student and I made it over to Muncie, I dropped him into the jaws of the FAA examiner, and I went to have lunch at Kacy J's restaurant there on the field, with a new book to read. It doesn't matter how good or ready you know someone is, when they are on their checkride, I'm still nervous about it. It's such a momentous occasion, and they've worked so hard, and you want them to pass almost as badly as they want to pass. From my vantage point in the restaurant, I could see when he went out to the plane to preflight it, which meant that he'd passed the oral exam. (Which I wasn't concerned about at all. Knowledge is something you don't "goof up on" that much if you know it as well as he did.) I also got to watch him start up, take off, leave, and then come back and do a couple takeoffs and landings. It was a fast checkride, less than an hour in the air, and as he was walking back up to the building with the examiner, he sent me a text, "I am now a Private Pilot". Awesome! We've crammed so hard to get this done ASAP, and it's such a relief to have it over and done with. One guy, checked off. Two more to go, hopefully.

We got back down at Kokomo, and he called his wife to come be his first passenger as a pilot, while I ran to the store to pick up food for the holidays. I'm still not quite done, but at least I have most of what we need. I got in the door, got the groceries put away, and Kaylee spent the next 45 minutes sitting on the couch up front staring out the window, waiting for GRANDMA & GRANDPA TO ARRIVE! Yes, I shouted. So did she. ;)

Kaylee held watch by the front door, Mom & Ernie made it in around 6:15, we had dinner, and Kaylee showed them how the Kinect worked, we did a little Rock Band for awhile, wore Grandma and Kaylee both out, and now I think me and my stuffy nose are headed to bed too!

A most successful day, I'd say. :)

Whew

Well, I woke up at 4:30 a.m., worrying about the weather for a checkride today. Sure enough, it was IFR, and it waffled back and forth all day long, making you sit and stare at it all morning long, only to have to finally cancel for good just before lunch. Then you watch and wait for it to clear off enough to go up and do a little more practice. Finally around 3 p.m. we mostly had VFR conditions, so we went up and did another two hours of pretty hard practice. It was one of those days where the AWOS may say the visibility was okay, but looking out the window sure didn't make it look any good. Good to go, just need Mother Nature to cooperate for tomorrow, please!

I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to do any last-minute Christmas shopping, and I've got a full day Thursday and probably Friday, too. Well, I'll have to find time in here somewhere!

On the yikes front, I've had a stuffy nose at night and in the morning for days, since I cleaned the house really, and I half figured all the dust I got rid of plugged up my sinuses for a few days. But today I woke up sneezing my head off, nose completely blocked off, and I've been sneezing and stuffy all day long. This is not a good time to get sick, so I'm hoping it's just allergies...I've got too much to do here, man...

Prep

Today has been a prep day for a student's checkride. We were supposed to fly, but things like ice pellets and freezing rain and 500 foot ceilings made that a very bad idea. So instead he went over all his oral prep with Steve and Joe, I went through his logbook and made sure all the endorsements were in and correct and signed him off, and throughout the day we've gone over the flight plan for his plotted cross-country, his application online, a little weight and balance and just a bunch of prep work. As I've said, being an instructor is part teacher, part therapist, part friend, part drill sergeant, but the bottom line is that your instructor wants you to pass almost as badly as you do. :)

Kaylee did great on her guitar lesson today, and her instructor Eric jammed along with her on his electric guitar, which she loved. Today was her first day of school freedom, and she spent it playing on the computer, reading, and playing the Kinect Wii games, which at least involves jumping, running, stretching, kicking, etc. She's waiting for OUR holiday to begin too, but we are really busy right now! Soon, though. Soon. :)

Another Day In

Today was Kaylee's last day of school, and she is officially on Christmas Break now. :) They had a Christmas Party, for which I managed to not forget anything. The kids wore pajamas and fuzzy slippers (and brought real shoes too), had a book gift exchange, which I managed to get bought and wrapped, a nice party, which I brought two gallons of punch and cups for, and had a really nice day. Kaylee got home and immediately jumped on the Xbox and played two Kinect games until she wore herself out. A little time on the computer, and a little time watching the season finale of "Sing Off" with us, and she's had a very nice end-of-school-until-next-year day. :)

I had a checkride prep flight this morning, landed, ran through a drive through and got out to Glenndale a little late for the next flight, which was a cross-country. I was hoping to send them solo after our flight, but the weather was just not as friendly as I'd like for an initial cross-country on your own, so we just did the dual flight and decided that was good...

Tonight is the full lunar eclipse, around 2:40 a.m. It being overcast out there prevents me from being tempted to go watch it. :) We are in the midst of another Winter Storm Warning. Ice, sleet, freezing rain, and snow, up to 3" of snow and possibly up to an inch of ice (yikes). If Kaylee was in school, she wouldn't be in school in the morning anyway, I'm guessing. Unfortunately the weather is killing my guys' checkride prep flight for tomorrow, and his ride is Wednesday...fortunately we did get two flights in anyway and meet the requirements. I'm hoping we'll be able to get a flight in the morning before his checkride too...

Domestic goddess

It took most of the day, but Kaylee and I cleaned the house from top to bottom, literally. Well, mostly me, but she did the bathtubs, sinks, and bathroom floors, which isn't bad for a 9-year-old! Steve put up Christmas lights outside for the first time in ages, and I actually even dusted. Everything. I know, Mom, I didn't have to dust on your account, and maybe in a few days here it will be dusty again, but for today, this house is sparkling from floors to vents to ceilings. It's nice! It's a little irritating that it's cleaner than when we had a cleaning lady. The point of a cleaning lady is for them to do a better job than you would do, and get paid for it. Oh well, it also goes to show that if you want a job done right... ;)

Steve had a student, and all I had was a trip to the store to get punch and a book for Kaylee's school Christmas party tomorrow, a day in which she is also to wear pajamas. I dunno, that was cute in Kindergarten, but at what point does wearing pajamas to school start feeling a little weird? Of course she's in full pink sparkly flannel snowflakes, so hey...

Her homework is done, the house is almost spotless, the book is wrapped, the punch is purchased, the laundry is done, chores are complete, allowance is distributed, house has Christmas lights, Steve bought Kaylee's main Christmas present today, and all in all, we're almost getting close to being prepared for Christmas...in 6 days. :O

While Steve was out and about, he stopped at Glenndale and picked up a present that had been left for us there. We decided to open it a little early, and when Kaylee saw what it was, she shrieked so loud that Steve told her to stop yelling in his ear. It was a Kinect for the XBox 360, with two games to play, and she spent about two hours tonight playing the "adventures" and "animals" games. This stuff is pretty wild. No external controllers are necessary, because you ARE the controller. It follows your motions, and you choose what you want to do with your hands...when you want your character to jump, you jump. To play dead with your pet cheetah, you lie on the ground with your arms and legs up, and your cheetah drops "dead" on the screen. Meanwhile, there is also a camera in there, as it's taking random photos of you, which it shows you at the end of each task. This stuff is something. And to think I just strung a bunch of wooden clothes pins together and drew faces on them and considered that "interactive" as a kid. :O Thank you to Justin G. for the gift--we practically had to wrestle Kaylee to get our TV back at the end of the night. ;) She loves it, and we think it's pretty cool too! It's not terrible to play with games while your daughter is in school, is it? ;)

We have a few more things to do before Christmas vacation, mostly involving shopping for food and gifts (yikes), and I have a guy scheduled for a checkride on Wednesday, with bad weather forecasted for our last day of prep on Tuesday. Thursday I've got a guy flying in from about an hour away to do his tailwheel endorsement with me in the Champ out of Glenndale. Here's hoping the thing will start, stay running, and that we won't get dumped on with too much snow before then...lots going on still, and it's the end of December. That's a good thing. :)

(Oh, and by the way, go Colts, who won decisively today, keeping themselves in the running, even if the main receiver got another concussion, and here's hoping Tom Brady and the Patriots LOSE...)

Just Another Workday

I was out at Glenndale by my usual 9 a.m. time, and a new-to-me student and I went up to work on mastering that pesky flare and landing. First she asked if we could fly by at Indian Hills, so we did, saying hello to Ty, Chuck, and I think Jim was down there. We flew for 1.7, which is a pretty long lesson for somebody, but it was productive, we got a good amount accompished. We finished up after 11, tucked everything back away, and she gave me a homemade loaf of pumpkin bread with chocolate chunks in it (YUM) for a Christmas present for Steve and I, as apparently Steve had whined about not getting bread when she gave a loaf to Ty. Steve's good at that, I think. ;)

I drove out of there, hit McD's and went right on to Kokomo Airport, where I flew for 3.1 with someone doing checkride prep. We did it all. Emergencies, hood, timed turns, magnetic turns, unusual attitudes, ground reference maneuvers, flight maneuvers, all the various takeoffs and landings, about the only thing we didn't do is spin the airplane (nor are we going to.) ;) We've got two more flights scheduled before the checkride, so here's hoping that the weather will hold out and let us get it, and the checkride, in.

While I was flying, Steve went to the viewing of the father of one of our guys at the airport. I was sorry not to get to go and give my respects myself, but glad Steve could make it for us.

It was a busy one-good thing we had a high ten degrees below freezing with windchills around zero, huh? Yes, I wore my "long janes" again! And a t-shirt under my sweatshirt under my coat, with gloves, and boots, and I may gain an entire clothing size that way, but I stayed warm enough.

Glenndale has a covering of snow over it now, a couple inches thick. So every day before I take off on that runway, I drive my Jeep down it to make sure that nothing has drifted up. There's nothing like cruising down the runway picking up speed and plowing into a drift you didn't know was there. So I run down, see how deep the tracks are, make sure of the drifts, all the way from the runway to the taxiway to just in front of the hangar. In fact there is a big old drift between the buildings and in front of the fuel pump, so those are two places to avoid, but other than that we're good to go. People actually get to a do sort of real soft field takeoff and landing now, and that's good practice and usually kind of fun for people to do something a little different like that. You get to talk about snow ops and frozen brakes and all sorts of fun things. The tricky thing about Glenndale for folks is finding it in the winter. Most of our ground references for the runway disappear in the snow. The lakes freeze and snow over, the quarries, all of it is just harder to spot until you're right on it, and the runway is just a white field surrounded by...white fields. Me, I spent too much time helping a couple people in particular find the runway, so I have no problem that way now, but it IS a little tricky to spot, particularly to newcomers. :)

I scheduled myself off for tomorrow, so I plan on relaxing the rest of the evening here and hopefully most of tomorrow, along with a little in-house work and a couple of errands that I should have run today. Oh well. ;)

Stars

The other night when I was doing the night flying with a student, we were up for just over three hours, and in that three-hour period of time, I saw four "shooting stars". The second one was so bright and appeared so "close" that for a second I thought it was airplane traffic. It burned so bright that I just stared at it until it was gone. Four in one short time period...it was pretty neat.

One hundred and seven years ago today, Wilbur and Orville took to the sky, briefly, for the first time. My how far we've come! Thanks guys--I wouldn't be here without you. :)

I had a flight this morning in a 172. I was trying to re-solo a guy, but the winds and the clouds and the visibility just would not cooperate. So we scudded under the clouds and worked on crosswind landings, literally watching the snow plows move off the runway as we turned final each time, and I ended the day by pulling his engine in the pattern and having him bring it in to land without power, just for the practice and the fun of it. It wasn't an ideal day to fly by any means, with visibilities that went from barely legal to great and back down, to clouds that came down into our pattern then back up, with snow showers and crosswinds blowing snow across the runway, but sometimes the not-ideal days are the best learning days...

Some folks were making comments about how much Kaylee looks like me, so I pulled up my old school photos too. My Fourth Grade photo is...not good. Big glasses, snarly teeth, a vacant expression on my face, and not-great-hair all combine to make me look fairly...sad. But my Third Grade photo, well, you can see for yourself. What stands out to me is how bright, and vibrant, and confident Kaylee looks in her photo. She has the Stants cheeks and dimples and chin, and a lot of me and my mom as well. Personality-wise, she's a lot like I am now, but nothing like what I was when I was her age. And I think you can even see it in the pictures. Look at the eyes... It's kind of wild!

Fourth Grade Kaylee

The Break

I could claim that I spent the day flying and thus working, but I'd be half lying. I dropped Kaylee off at school, ran out to Kokomo Airport, hopped in the front of the Cheyenne and flew to Florida with Nathan, Chuck, and Jon. We had a ferocious tailwind on the way down, giving us a groundspeed of 427 knots at 33,000'. At one point Chuck on his phone GPS said we were only 5 mph away from 500 mph, so we hit some, er, turbulence, and it caused us to descend a little bit and hit 506 mph. A new record. ;)

When we landed in Stuart, Florida, we had to laugh, because everyone there was walking around in long sleeves and big coats and talking about how cold it was, and I had stripped off my coat and sweatshirt and was walking around in a t-shirt soaking up the beautiful, magnificent, wonderful sunshine.

Somebody brought up eating at Applebees as a joke, I revolted, and we ended up at Longhorn Steakhouse where I had shrimp and crab and it was really good. We picked up Nathan's mom and headed back to the airport for a Much slower flight home. Still we made 260 knots or so, which is better than I'd do in anything else.

We got home to -6 degrees Celsius temps and just in front of our next winter storm warning. We're supposed to get more ice and sleet and snow tonight through 7 a.m. tomorrow, and I will remember the sunshine and palm trees and warm breezes and seafood fondly for a while to come. It ended up being about 6 hours total of flight time, a good flight, a good day, and not a whole lot of work, I have to admit.

I made it home in time to pick up Kaylee from Awanas, where she got kneed in the head during game time again. She's been hurt several times now. I'm glad that at least she's not gunshy about playing hard, anyway!

Steve stayed here and soloed a student today, among lots of other work...

I took some photos today, which you can see at the bottom of this page. On to cold temps and nasty winters. *sigh*

Icy Flying Jingle Bells

It was a busy one. Drop the girl off at school at 8:20 a.m., go out to Glenndale, run up and down the runway in the Jeep to make sure there aren't any sneaky drifts on it, let the young male student shovel the snow drift away from the hangar door for me, and go fly in the single-digit temperatures with a nice crosswind. Come in to land, go to lunch, go back to Glenndale for an afternoon flight in the low double digit temperatures. Land a little late, pick up girl from after care at school, bring her home, get her ready, then take her to guitar lessons. While she's there, fill up on gas in the Jeep, run and pick up dinner, pick her up and take her home. Stuff down a sandwich pretty quickly, then go out to Kokomo in order to do 3.1 hours of night flying in the Frigid cold. Get home around 10:20 p.m. for the night.

Meanwhile, Kaylee had a great day! Today her school had a talent contest. She took her guitar and was planning on playing Jingle Bells. Neither Steve nor I admitted it to her, but we were both nervous for her, because she doesn't have the song down cold, and this is a pretty public appearance in front of all her peers. So when I picked her up from after care today, and she said "Guess what happened to me today, Mommy?" I almost squeezed my eyes shut. But she was grinning, and she said "I came in first place! I won the talent show contest! I was Act #1 and the judge went over his notes, and then said 'The winner is, Act 1!'" She said she couldn't believe it, and she won a big, 4-5" tall glittery snowflake ornament which is now hanging on our tree and looking most lovely. She said she was so nervous at first that she didn't start playing for a few seconds, and she was the first one up out of everyone, too, which meant the ball started rolling with her. A little pressure there. Finally she played it, and she said she "messed up" a chord or two, and that some people in the audience snickered. And then she blew that off and said "yeah, but if I'd have handed them my guitar and asked them to play ME a song, then we'd see how well they did." She also said that the judge was himself a guitar player, so she was afraid that he'd point out everything she did wrong. Instead he asked her how long she'd been playing, and when she said about two months, he said he was impressed with how well she was doing. When she later went to guitar lessons, she told her instructor, and he wrote up on the big board "Congratulations to Kaylee who won a talent contest on her guitar with Jingle Bells!", where it will stay all week. So she was really excited today, and pleased, and we were pretty happy for her too. :)

I found my "Long Janes", and man, what a difference. It was so cold tonight that it actually hurt on my face and bit through my clothes, but the long johns kept everything reasonable. My only problem is that I feel claustrophobic in all those layers of clothes, but when you're out from morning until well after dark, not freezing to death trumps feeling trapped in your own clothing. It's hard to believe how busy we are right now at the end of December. We had Ty, me and Scott all flying this morning, Steve had flights this afternoon and he's booked up tomorrow, I'm booked up all day Thursday again, etc. Now if the weather will just hold out, I've got two guys trying to prep for a checkride right now and I'd sure like to be able to finish them off soon here, and there are several more working hard towards their certificates even in this frigid cold...

Laid-Back

Around midnight last night, the internet was reporting that Kaylee's school had a 2-hour delay. So I didn't even set the alarm until 9, and we both slept in just fine! I assessed her when she got up, and she was still coughing kind of deep, no fever, throat a little sore. I asked her how she felt, and she was really honest, said she didn't really feel like going to school, but that she probably wouldn't anyway and was probably okay. I decided to keep her home for one more day anyway, just to make sure she got enough rest and wasn't actually sick. She would have only gotten about half a day in anyway, and I had nothing on my schedule, and I wanted her to rest up just a bit more and hopefully not contaminate anybody else at school. So we had sort of another Saturday around here.

I left for awhile to go to lunch with the group and run a couple quick errands, and when I got back, Kaylee and I played Rock Band for a couple hours. Steve got home somewhere in there and joined in for a few, and we finished that in time to watch "Sing Off". Music music tonight, I guess. ;)

Oh Christmas Tree...

Let the Festivities Continue

The rain last night turned to snow today, so we've stayed home and watched it blow around while we decorated the tree and house for Christmas. I made up these giant Christmas mugs filled with hot chocolate, Kaylee turned on the Christmas tunes, Steve put up the lights and the star, and Kaylee and I put up all the ornaments, bows, etc.

One of the problems with a real tree is that decorating the tree ends up feeling like you've been stabbed to death by a million needles by the end of the exercise. But it smells very nice, and it looks nice, and it was fun to go pick out and get too. :)

I also caught up Kaylee's photos from November and December on her site, including our tree choosing and decorating adventures.

Unfortunately, Kaylee woke up with a sore throat, a deep cough, a runny nose and a headache. Most telling for her, she also has no appetite, didn't want pancakes for breakfast, didn't eat her burger for lunch, and the only things she's eaten today are a cheese cracker thing, a few red hots, part of a vanilla shake and some chicken flavored Ramen noodles. She didn't even want any hot chocolate with Cool Whip on it. That tells ya something. But she's still been a trooper, insisting she isn't sick, helping decorate the tree as much as any of us, doing her homework, a little cleaning, etc. Right now she's lying down on the couch eating her noodles and stating in a very calm voice "Man, I can't breathe at all." Poor girl. :(

Of course I woke up with her in bed with me this morning, all over me. She's been hanging on Steve, too. She's gotten really mad, because this time I wouldn't let her kiss me or get in my face (once I was awake). Usually when she's sick she really gets cuddly and in your face, but I always get sick too, and I don't want to get sick and she's old enough to start understanding that. Well, maybe. Like I said, she wasn't real fond of being told to not stick her face in my face. ;) Of course I woke up last night with a completely stuffed over nose too, and have been sleeping more than normal too, but I've been letting myself do that, trying to give my body enough rest to hopefully fend off this stuff. Steve's not feeling himself either, but none of us are actually sick. So far. Hopefully it can stay that way.

Steve did have to make one run out to get lights. We pulled out our tree lights, and only one out of every four bulbs would light. We've had those lights for something like 15 years, so they've lasted a very long time! After he got back from the store with lunch and lights, we found some other colored lights that we bought last year. Oops. The tree looks lovely, however. :)

I'm just watching the School Delays list for tomorrow, seeing what the local schools are going to do with this weather. So far schools from counties south of us have chimed in with delays, but nobody in our county has blinked just yet. Kaylee may or may not go to school anyway, depending on how she's doing tonight and tomorrow, but if we have a snow day, then I won't have to worry about her missing work and such.

Onward to watching the lights twinkle on the tree and the snow blow by out the window as we rest up...

Let the Festivities Begin

If ever you want to get a real Christmas tree, involving kids or grandkids, we have just the place. They are called "Cruise In Trees", and they are super nice people who offer a fun Christmas tree experience at a price that can't possibly stay this low for long. You can see all the photos up on Kaylee's site.

When you arrive, you are met by several guys in overalls and a big friendly dog. They'll put you up in a wagon pulled by a tractor, and take you on a little drive around on a path through the woods until you get to a clearing filled with live Christmas trees of all shapes, sizes, heights, fullness, and types. You tell them what size you're looking for and they will drop you off in that area, leaving you free to wander through the rows of trees until you find your tree. You tag your tree, and then another gent will come cut the tree down for you if you don't want to cut it down yourself. We decided that either me or Kaylee with a hand saw was a bad idea, and Steve didn't feel the need to crawl around on the ground and do it himself, either. It took this gentleman about 15 seconds to saw through it, after which he loaded up the tree on a trailer and drove it back up to the main buildings in order to shake it out, wrap it in netting, and put it on our Jeep. Meanwhile, our tractor/trailer came back and let us hop on to take us back to a building where they offered free hot chocolate or hot cider to warm you back up. When it was all said and done, Steve tightened the tree down with our own tow straps, though they offered string if you needed it, we paid them, and we were on our way to a tasty breakfast. The grand total cost for this fun adventure? Thirty dollars. For two rides, a 7' tall real tree, cut, shaken, wrapped, drinks, all of it, $30.

The people who run the farm planted their first trees nine years ago, and this is the first year they opened it up for business. They are good folks, who told us that they dedicated their land to God, and if the business was going to "go", great, and if not, they'd still have Christmas trees for life for their friends and family, and a beautiful pine forest to look at. There's also a sense of humor there. Where we were dropped off, there was this pathetic looking straggly little tree, with a few branches on the bottom that died off to a sad little stick up at the top with wispy sort-of branches here and there. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw it? "Aww, it's a Charlie Brown tree." It had a tag on it, so I went up closer to read it, and guess what it said?

I love that. ;)

We had debated between a big brunch first and then tree hunting, or tree hunting and then brunch. We chose tree-hunting first, and it was a good thing. As Steve was putting the finishing touches on tightening down the tree, it started raining a sleety, ice pellet-style mix that would Not have been a whole lot of fun to tromp around in. We drove back into town in the rain, stopping at Omelletti's for a big ole hot chocolate with cool whip and chocolate sprinkles and some real breakfast foods that we didn't have to cook for ourselves.

Now, today is also our airport Christmas party. Tree hunting in the morning is Not the best way to prepare one's long hair for an evening out, so I had it all pulled up and tucked away as best I could. But after our morning, and with the knowledge that I'm fighting some kind of bug off, I was so sleepy that I came home and went right back to bed. For like two hours. So now let's add bed head to the equation. ;) Steve and Kaylee woke me up in time for us to take our tree, which we had been drying out in the garage, and set it up in the stand before we headed to the party. So we got our little banana looking tree lined up, tightened down, looking straight, cut the netting, out it fluffed, and...it looked crooked. And that's where things go wrong. One little movement here or there, and suddenly the tree won't stop tipping over towards me. It took us something like 40 minutes of me holding up the tree and Steve maneuvering and tightening things down below before I could finally let go and hope it stayed vertical. Now we're running late on time to when we said we'd head out, so I got dressed, didn't like the shirt I was going to wear, put on another one, which was a little chilly with spaghetti straps, threw a teal fitted dress jacket over it, a pair of earrings and the high heeled boots that last year made my feet numb for days afterward (that didn't this year because I put those gel thingies in there, and Wow what a difference!), waited for Steve to figure out what he was putting on, and away we went, and I don't think you could even tell my hair had been tromping through the woods and being napped on. ;) Deciding what to wear ahead of time would be smarter, but hey. ;) As we drove past our front window, we craned our necks around to see if our tree was still vertical. Yep. *whew*

We took Kaylee to Nathan's house, where they'd hired a babysitter ("PLEASE do not call it a baby sitter, guys!" says Kaylee. "I am almost 10 years old. How about a 'teen-sitter'?") hung around for awhile, then all drove together over to Mike & Pam Wild's house for the annual Christmas shindig. We got to see/talk to just about everyone, and the only thing that gets me in trouble is when someone comes up to me and starts talking, assuming I know them. If they give me some clues I can usually figure it out, but sometimes, man, I have no idea. One gent I had flown with on one checkout flight several months ago comes in all dressed up, no hat, I don't even recognize his face, but when he started talking, he said "Don't you remember me?" Errr. :O I finally got it figured out in time. We had fun, and this year since the Wilds were hosting several different parties, they made this one exclusively for the local pilot communities, so I even knew most of the folks to some degree or other. :)

After we picked up Kaylee, who also had enjoyed her evening with a baby(er, teen)sitter that actually played with them, didn't just 'monitor' them, we were happy to drive back up into our driveway and still see the tree standing upright where we'd left it.

Let the festivities begin. ;)

You Spin Me Right Round

Yesterday, the young man who brought the Skycatcher over as the demo pilot came up to me and said that I'd scared him in an airplane, which surprised me, as scaring people isn't my (usual) MO in flying. Come to find out, I'd done his spin training with him, back about 7 years ago or so. :) I didn't remember that at all, but as I told him, I have a terrible memory for who I've flown with, particularly if it was just a lesson here or there. Too many faces. And if I DO remember somebody I only flew with a time or two, it's usually not a good thing. ;) Kind of funny though.

As I've jokingly said, "Ice Pilots, OKK" today. The first flight of the day there, the plows were still out working on the runways, taxiways, and ramps. There wasn't a ton of snow, but there was a lot of thin ice and a little bit of snow, which isn't great. It was, however, a good lesson on winter operations, brake usage, wind, keeping an airplane straight on touchdown, etc. We went to do the run-up, stopped, held the brakes, added the power for the run-up, and instantly started sliding right around sideways. Heh. "Into the wind, plenty of room in front of you, rolling run-up" it is. ;) The sad part was, the landings really clicked in today, the winds were dead smack down the runway, and the guy probably could have soloed, but there was no way I was getting out with those runway conditions even if he was doing well. It was also amazing that 27 degrees felt balmy. It did. I almost felt warm. That's what a few days of flying around in single digit temps will do for you. :O The runway will probably all melt off nicely by this afternoon too...temps are supposed to get up around 36, and it is a sunny day. Not that I'm complaining, but it would have been nice to be cleared off earlier...

Jon took the big flag down from the back of Nathan's hangar-it had started falling down, and is just dusty/dirty as all get-out, so we took it down all the way, folded it properly, and I brought it home to try to wash, knowing full well that it may just fall apart. I sure hope not. It is currently on the spin cycle from its third washing cycle, on gentle, using baby detergent, in cold, and the water is still black. I'm just going to keep gently washing it until the water is at least light brown, gently take it out and see if it held up. So far I can't even tell it has been washed...

I ran around after getting Kaylee and did an hour's worth of errands. She wasn't too thrilled with that, but a Frosty helped keep things civil back there. ;) We ended up going to Outback for dinner with Nathan & Tre and the kids, where we ran into our insurance agent and our friends the Aldridges, and we got a fantastic meal out of it. Home for a little R&R, including Godiva, and not a bad way to end a busy day!

Catching the Sky

I searched for my long johns today, and couldn't find them. I also didn't end up flying (much) today, so I stayed warm enough to keep me happy, anyway. Instead I cranked out quite a bit of paperwork, housework, workwork and errandwork. Got a lot done, too. My 1:30 flight was canceled, so I brought lunch out to everyone at the hangar and we waited for the new Cessna Skycatcher to arrive at the airport. The Skycatcher is the new LSA (Light Sport Aircraft) version of what looks like a C-150/152. Considering a C-150/152 is my least favorite airplane of all time, I wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to get into the Skycatcher, which looked like a newer but wimpier version of a 152, but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Chuck and I together sitting in a 150, we can barely get the doors shut, can't move the yoke all the way one way or the other without it being blocked by our knees, and one of you has to put your arm behind the other. It's known as a "3-arm airplane", because that's as many arms as can be up front at once. It's horrid. But in the Skycatcher, we could sit there in big, bulky winter coats, door shut, and we weren't even touching. It's wider than a C-172. Steve let me take it up for the test flight with the demo guy, and again I was a little surprised. It's responsive and light on the controls, and has a sort of stick instead of a yoke, which I prefer anyway, and also opens up more apparent room inside. Big bubble windows make for a nice view. Of course it only has a 100hp engine and only goes 120 knots, but it's a light sport airplane and that's all it's supposed to do. :) Not bad, not bad at all. Give me nosewheel steering and some form of backup instruments because one electrical failure takes out every piece of information you have in the plane as it is now, and that would be better. The Lightning was more fun, the Jabaru was more weird, and I'd like to try the Piper Sport next. Or a Cirrus. I've still never flown a Cirrus. But these Skycatchers are $113,000 base price, and you can do a WHOLE lot of Cub/Champ/Chief Light Sport flying for $113,000...

Here's Steve sitting in the Skycatcher, checking out the panel in the warm hangar.

Kaylee had a good day at school, did well on her grades, and didn't even complain about having to go out to the airport afterward for a couple hours. Right now we're watching "Prep and Landing", a Disney movie about elves, Kaylee has Deenie out watching too so she can watch her friends, and I have the Colts game online going quietly so I can see if they can finally turn this streak around and beat the Titans. (And they did. Finally! Sorry Cherry family. ;))

Brrrrrr

I didn't really sleep last night from 4 a.m. on, meaning I got about 4 hours sleep. For most of the day I was a little too busy and way too cold to be sleepy, though. I had a lesson at 9 a.m. at Glenndale, but when I went to leave, I couldn't find my keys. Ten minutes later I found them, dangling in the ignition of my Jeep, securely locked in. I go to the place where we keep spare keys, and found a spare key for every vehicle we own and some we don't anymore...but not the Jeep. The extra keys for the Jeep were on Steve's keychain, and he was on a flight out at Kokomo. After a little bit of pondering, I decided it was way too cold to ride the motorcycle, so gave Chuck a call and asked if he minded being a Taxi. Of course he did not, and I found myself at Glenndale only about 15 minutes late. Then I find out the heat hadn't been put on the airplane last night. It was bru-ha-ha cold last night and this morning, so we put the heat on high and gave it about 30 minutes to try to at least get it reasonably unfrozen in there. Finally, almost an hour later, we were able to take off and get an hour of takeoffs and landings in. We landed and my next student was already there waiting. Another preflight later, we were on our way for a cross-country to Portland and back. With the heat on full and the sun shining in, wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and heavy jacket, I was only partially shaking with cold. Somebody had shoved a barf bag in the opening of the vent in the back seat, which was really classy looking, but did keep the breeze down in the plane. But nothing can stop the seepage of icy cold through the window. It was about 9 degrees this morning. When we got back from our cross-country, Chuck had gone to lunch with the guys and brought me back a hamburger, to save the day. :) I ate, then my last guy came about an hour later, and we got in an hour of checkride prep, getting close to sunset. I needed to put fuel in the plane most likely, but I'd already fueled it up once that day, and I was tired, and cold, and needed to get home so I could get Kaylee to Awanas on time. Chuck had to bring me home too. :) Steve had run home and unlocked the Jeep for me at least, so I could do my thing when I got home. After I dropped Kaylee off, I went around and ran the errands I didn't get a chance to do today, post office, gas station, returning a movie, etc., and I was just thrilled to get out in the cold over and over and over. It takes 10 minutes to warm up the Jeep driving around. This means that when I take Kaylee to Awanas, the Jeep is freezing all the way there and is just getting warm when I pull back in the driveway. Yes, I will probably start going out in the cold and running it a few minutes before I leave from now on. ;)

When I picked up Kaylee, I brought her a hot chocolate and drove her through the "City of Lights" in the park. I had been planning on that anyway, but it ended up being a nice thing that I did, because while she was at Awanas, a girl she'd always been friends with had kicked her beanbag she was sitting on, told her to "get out", and when Kaylee didn't move, the girl took a hold of some hair on top of her head, twisted it, and yanked out a fair-sized chunk of hair out of her head. Kaylee was so hurt, not just that her head hurt, but that it was someone she'd always considered a friend who did it. She said this girl gets picked on sometimes, that Kaylee always found her to be a nice, friendly girl, so befriended her because a lot of the other kids didn't, and then to be treated that way by her...it really made her so sad; I've seen her mad at people who said things (like the other day), but I haven't seen her so...down...in quite awhile. I stopped the car and asked her if she'd like me to go back and talk to the girl, but she said no. I asked if she'd told the leaders, and she said no. She told the girl that she'd really hurt her, the girl didn't apologize, Kaylee decided not to make a scene about it and walked away, holding back the tears until I got there. *sigh* :( Anyway, the hot chocolate and the Christmas lights did cheer her up a good deal, dried the tears, and like most kids, she's rebounded fine, enjoying talking to her cousins and her grandma before bed here. She's really excited about going to get a real Christmas tree coming up soon too, and about Deenie the Elf being with her again. Being a kid is a roller coaster sometimes!

We have more busy days coming up and then a likely winter storm. I'm guessing we'll get the weekend off to watch it snow again. :)

Random Tuesday

Kaylee did great on her guitar lesson today. Her teacher is pleased and so is she. Kaylee wants to play "Jingle Bells" on her guitar while two of her classmates sing it, for a talent show thing at her school next Tuesday. She's nervous. I'm a little nervous because she can't put singing together with her playing smoothly just yet, and they can't practice at school. We'll try to practice at home though. Kaylee also had a boy at school today telling her that she was really ugly and the slowest runner in the school, poking at her most of the day. Now this sets me off, I have to admit. I...can't handle somebody picking on my daughter. Just can't. It makes me feel very violent and unpleasant and un-Christian-like. She was a little bummed about it, but I honestly think it bugged me more than it bugged her, and you have to realize that, as an adult. She, like everyone, has to learn how to handle this kind of thing on her own, like it or not. I ended up telling her to remember that her number one power against bullies was confidence. Show them that you don't care at all, laugh at them, tell them "whatever, you doofus", and walk away, prove that they have no power over you, and you beat them. KNOW that you are not what they say you are, and do not own or believe whatever labels they try to put on you. Blow them off and know who you are. She's getting better about that. If she can learn it by age 10-11, she'll be better off than many of the rest of us were at that age, that's for sure. (And yet I still want to go have a conversation with a 9-year-old boy.) I also told her that a lot of times, boys who like girls but aren't getting a reciprocal 'liking', tend to "pick on" those girls. She said "eeew! He's about the last person I'd like like that!" I told her that's the point. Hopefully it'll be awhile before she knows what I mean there. ;)

We had a windchill of below zero today, and yet Steve flew anyway. The planes started okay and all went well. Tomorrow is supposed to be the same, and I've got lessons scheduled from 9 a.m. solid through dark, with no breaks at all for food or anything else. I suppose that's a good thing for the most part, but lunch would be nice!

This morning Deenie the Elf was waiting for Kaylee at her breakfast bowl, which excited Kaylee to no end. She's been carrying her around all day ever since. Elf magic always wins!

Etcetera

A side clip from the trip yesterday. We had a really nice tailwind going down which helped us move at about 203 knots, even leaned out quite a bit, which is great. Still, about halfway down, the friend wondered how long it would be because she sort of needed to use the restroom. This posed two problems, fuel and time. Well, three problems--there's nothing open at that hour of the night either. I told her we still had an hour and ten minutes to go and explained there was something in the plane that could be used in an emergency, although not very dignified, and then I looked up at all the pretty stars and prayed that maybe we could get there a little faster, and in time for the lady to be with her husband before he passed. I stayed looking out at the stars for about 30 seconds or so, and then turned around and glanced at my GPS, and I kid you not, our groundspeed had just gone up to 217 knots. You can actually see this on the flight tracking page. Around 1 a.m. it’s at 197-202 knots, and shortly after that it accelerates on up to 217 and fluctuates around there the rest of the trip. Kind of interesting. :)

I put up a web page of just random airplane pictures I've taken in November and December. Some you've seen on here, some are new, none are that great, but it's kind of a visual reminder for me of some of the things I go do, I guess. :)

The Georgia Undertaking

I started writing this on the iPad, sitting in the Baron on a deserted ramp at Macon, Georgia, at 4 a.m.

We all had a nice, relaxing day at home today, er, Saturday, doing a little work, playing XBox, Kaylee played out in the new snow for a long time, etc. Kaylee's getting to where she can handle all four parts without "failing" on the music games, and Steve and I are working our way up to surviving in the harder modes. The snow was a lot of fun for her, and she was out there for well over an hour, which was great. Lots of fresh air and exercise!

Sometime around 10 p.m., in the middle our band playing, Steve got a call from a business friend. A longtime employee and friend who was down in Georgia working had just had a serious heart attack, had arrived at the hospital blue and unresponsive, was put on a vent, and the doctors didn't think he was going to make it, probably passing away very quickly. They suggested family get there as quickly as possible. So by 11:40 p.m. I was wheels-up with his wife and someone who came along to be with her. Neither of them had flown in a small plane before, but thankfully we had a fierce tailwind giving me over 200 knots groundspeed and a smooth ride above the ice and clouds, with a sky so clear above that you could see the multitude of stars, like how it looks out west. Just tons of them.

Our destination was Americus, Georgia, at what I thought was the closest airport to the hospital that still had decent approaches, just in case. What they didn't have there, though, was fuel. Neither did the other close airport. And I'd definitely need fuel. So I did a little pre-planning, and found Macon, Georgia, which is a tower-controlled field in the middle of fairly busy airspace (a TRSA, something you don't see much of anymore). Those are usually the best places to be able to find fuel, and sure enough, this one listed as having "self-serve" fuel. And they were only 10 minutes away from me. Perfect, because that would still leave me an hour's reserve of fuel, which is as low as I care to go.

While it was smooth above, when I landed in Americus I ended up having a good old fashioned crosswind with some significant turbulence--as in of all the landings I've ever made, this was the one I've ever had to work the hardest at in my memory. It Was Rough. The winds weren't that strong, only 20 according to AWOS, but the plane would drop out from under me, then shoot up, rapidly and fairly violently, wind shear or strange wind currents, and it actually took me a good portion of the runway to get it down. Those poor ladies in the back! :O Fortunately the landing itself accidentally ended up being pretty smooth, but the ride down final was a rodeo. I let them off and made sure they were on their way, then got ready for the next leg of my flight, onward to get gas. Which did not go as planned. Not the flight over, and not the refueling, either. They have one FBO there, Lowes, and Lowes said they had full service fuel during business hours, or self-service fuel, for cheaper, 24 hours a day. I read that it was south on the ramp at the end of Runway 13/31. So I went south on their ramp at the end of runway 13, and there was a fuel "stand", with two Jet A pumps, a 100LL pump, a diesel pump, and a little pump off on its own that said "self-serve", with directions on how to lift handle, etc. But this pump had no card reader and was padlocked. I taxiied all around that whole half of the airport, slowly, looking for another place, a person, anything. Nope. I shut down and thought for a minute. I looked up info on my iPad. Yep, south by Runway 13/31, fuel from Lowes. I taxiied back up to the terminal building and read the sign on their door. 24 hour available self-serve fuel. I called Steve at 4 a.m. and said "I'm stuck! I'm going to have to sleep in the Baron on the ramp until someone gets here at 6-6:30 a.m. to open up!" Steve looks up all the nearby airports and finds another one only 25 miles away that also says it has 24 hour self-serve fuel. The only problem is, I'm already at my fuel reserves and all the taxiing around didn't help. And it's night. Over a city. And at this point you're relying on a fuel totalizer because the gauges are reading pretty low, which never looks good, and hoping that the last guy that filled up the Baron really did it all the way to the top. And it burns a LOT on takeoff and climbout, not the leaned-out amount at cruise. But it's only about 15 minutes time. I should theoretically be okay, though close. "Should" isn't good enough sometimes, so I halted my little temptation there with one good solid unpleasant visual image involving gliding at night and hostile terrain, and of course Steve, who was on the phone with me, agreed. And then Steve re-read the info on the fuel, and he didn't say "south on the ramp", he said "South Ramp". That made me think, so I pulled up the airport diagram again, and whaddya know, there IS a South Ramp, and it's still at the end of Runway 13/31, just the opposite end of where I was. Surely not! So I fired back up and wandered over there, past all the normal airport stuff, into no-mans land over there, passing two other fuel pumps that I pulled up to only to find that they weren't "it", and there, tucked back in the middle of nowhere, on the opposite end of the field from the FBO that supposedly had this fuel, is a card reader and a pump. I could have kissed it. And kicked it. It took me another 15 minutes to fuel up, using my Droid flashlight to help me see what I was doing, and finally, at 4:45 a.m., 2.5 hours after I'd dropped the ladies off at Americus, I was finally on my way home.

There is more to the story, having to do with airspace and fuel and communications and getting clearances and the fact that there were no open terminal buildings and I was flying and/or stranded on a ramp for 8 hours and 20 minutes without facilities, but even I'm getting tired of hearing about one trip. ;) Suffice it to say, the winds that were such a help on the way down were buggers on the way home. I was getting 134 knots for awhile, which is pretty sad for that airplane. I was the only one on the frequency in the middle of the night, I had music going, and heat, and watched the sun rise above the cloud deck I was just on top of. When I got back to Kokomo, I had to shoot an instrument approach in, and Grissom wanted to make sure I knew about the ice and snow reported on the runway. Er, sure. It wasn't when I left, even though the ramp was slick, so I didn't think much of it, but once I broke out on the ILS, sure enough, I saw a white runway in front of me. Snow covering icy spots. Okay, mental note to self, don't go through all this flight just to run into trouble landing at your home base. After I touched down, Grissom asked me how the braking action was on the runway, and I said "I don't know, I haven't touched them yet!" He laughed and said "fair enough". :) I was rolling it out to the end so I didn't have to brake...the runway wasn't too bad, but the ramps were a sheet of ice in many spots. I had a little difficulty getting the airplane tugged back into the hangar on the ice, but finally, finally it was tucked away and I could come home. I made it home around 9 a.m., ate and drank for the first time in a very long time, crawled into bed around 9:30, and conked out. I made myself get up around three hours later so I'd be able to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight and not lose all of today AND tomorrow.

It was quite the adventure. The bad news was that after I landed at Americus, my phone picked up four texts, all telling me to divert to a different airport that was closer to the hospital, because he was not doing well and the doctors didn't think he was going to make it. The good news is, after I got home, I checked, and his wife DID make it there in time to be with him, and he was still hanging in there. But he'd been oxygen deprived for too long, still on a vent, and not responding, so his wife signed a DNR, and the doctors say he will code any time. This poor lady is only in her 40s-50s, and is about to lose her husband, so any prayers for her and their family would be appreciated. She's a strong lady. I didn't get to talk to her a lot, but she was a very practical, faith-filled woman who was handling this with a lot of grace and dignity.

Finally, Friday

It was really pretty today, even if it was still cold. When the sun shines and the sky is blue, it just doesn't seem as cold. :) The first flight of the day was a question mark--the hose on the heater had torn, so there wasn't any good heat on the engine, and it had gotten well below freezing last night and this morning. We pulled it out, I told the guy to give it seven shots of prime, I pulled on the carb heat, I took over the throttle so I could get some good shots in if need be, and we were started no problemo. It took awhile to warm up before we could do the run up, but at least she started! Had an interesting flight, ending up with a pretty-much spin entry a couple of times out of a power on stall. My next lesson was in the same plane doing cross-country work for the first time with someone. We had a great time, went to Rochester and back, flew right over the top of Grissom Air Reserve Base, and GUS was really busy, so we got to watch about 4 tankers sharing the airspace with us, under us, at our altitude, shooting takeoffs and landings and practicing instrument approaches. One was on Final and one was touching down right as we flew off the end of the runway. Made for a fun flight for the student who had never seen anything like that, and I always enjoy the view, too. I love it when a student has a lot of fun and is picking up something. It makes your job fun, too!

We got done in time for me to race over to Glenndale, chop apart some Gift Certificates people had wanted for the holidays, get them in envelopes and ready to go, and go hand deliver one of them that had to be there by tomorrow afternoon. I didn't trust the mail would get it there in time, so I just delivered it to their door today, just in case. Then I ran to get Kaylee at school, arriving JUST in time, and dragged her with me to the Post Office to mail the other certificate and get our mail, then on to the bank to make deposits, then on to the store because we are completely out of some necessities around here. She did her chores while I did mine (dishes and putting away groceries), and Steve walked in with my lunch/dinner. The one bad thing about today was that I missed the chili lunch at Glenndale. I only reminded Steve about six times to save me some, so he brought home the leftovers, and around 4:30 p.m. I ate for the first time since dinner last night. I was starved, and the chili, with chunks of Colby Jack Cheese melting in it, was really tasty. ;)

Kaylee is really looking forward to her weekend off, and with the weather in the forecast for the next several days, I'm thinking I get the weekend off too. Not a great thing on one hand, but I might not mind sleeping in tomorrow, I have to admit. ;) Steve has a new guy he has to meet out at the airport tomorrow, but it's not until the afternoon, so hopefully he gets to sleep in a little bit too...

Happy Weekend, and for those of you in Central Indiana, here comes our first "Winter Storm Warning"!

Long

This was one long day. I got out to the airport around 8:45 a.m. when it was a whopping 19 degrees outside, and had my first flight of the day in a 172. At least the sky was blue, but man was it cold. I got down in time to head out to lunch, then come back to the airport and plan and execute a long IFR cross-country with another fellow. We ended up going to Danville, Illinois, where we went inside and talked with Mike, the gent who restores the P-51s out there. Out of there we went to Bloomington, Indiana, and from there back home. It was night, once in awhile we'd fly through snow showers, we shot an approach at each place, and twice the airspace got particularly busy, each leg went very fast, making it a very labor-intensive flight for both the pilot and me. And cold. Once we landed back home, filled out the logbook, pushed the plane away, locked up all the hangars and headed home, I found my eyes glazing over and my whole body slumping. I was wiped. I made it home after 7 p.m., didn't get a thing I needed to get done out and about today, and tomorrow is scheduled to be just as busy past the time I'm supposed to pick Kaylee back up from school. We're making up for at least a week's worth of lost time thanks to bad weather...a lot of folks have been trying to get a lot of flights in, unsuccessfully, so you go when you can, with whomever gets on the schedule first!

Winter Hits December 1st

Do you know what this is? This is depressing, that's what this is. The ground and the sky are all the same color of wet, dirty concrete, there's nowhere to look for warmth or color, and the wind is blowing little pellets of ice into your face. At least we made it to December 1st! Time for hot chocolate with candy cane stir sticks, cool whip, warm sweaters, and getting cozy. :)

Today I'm driving around on this first day of flurries, where the road is just a hint of slick, and there's a Jeep in front of me, with decals on all four corners of the back windows, and a big one at the top center. They said things like "Bad *** girls drive bad *** toys"
and "Can't stop a girl in a Jeep", several more with expletives, and the big one front and center said "You've just been passed...by a girl". Problem was, this girl was driving like a limping turtle on the lightly dusted road. As I drove past her in my Jeep, I wanted to stick a sign in my window that said something like "No, YOU'VE just been passed...by a woman." ;)

Kaylee had Secret Santa Workshop today, where I gave her some money and she went shopping for immediate family members. The items are donated to the school, they charge $1-$4 for everything there, and the kids get to pick out what they want, buy it, wrap it, and the money goes as a fundraiser for the school. Kaylee Loves doing it, she's done it the last 3 years now, and she really really likes having a way to go shop, somewhere limited and specific, where nobody but her "elf" helper gets to see what she's picking for people. She usually does a nice job of it, too. She came home with a paper bag full of gifts for loved ones and a big smile. That's Christmas there...