And The Hits Keep Coming

What a day!

I started the morning too early, with a headache and not enough sleep, but I can't say anything because Steve got even less sleep than I did. Next up this morning was a brief engine failure while flying along at 2000' with a student. It wasn't bad; I only had time to shove in the mixture and glance at gauges and start thinking about fields below me when it was running again. (It wasn't a normal fuel issue-it didn't cough or sputter, it just...died.) Weird. Obviously that was enough of a flight lesson right there, and I brought it home flying over one grass strip to the next until I got back to home base, with no further ado. I'm not even sure how to describe the rest of the day. A checkride that started off with the student not having any of his endorsements. Another type of checkride that was probably on, then off, then back on, then back off, then shouldn't have been back off but is now by george. A place calling the airport manager honked off, who has another guy tell me, I tell Steve, Steve deals with honked off guy, and there goes another several hours. Meanwhile, Steve's doing phone calls, arranging things that fall through, arranging other things that work out, and putting out fires left and right, with more popping up non-stop. Because of that, he couldn't fly with his day full of students, so I left lunch early and drove to Sheridan, where I met with his three students, getting home finally around 8 p.m. It was around 8 p.m. that I found out about the last thing of the day falling through. And this doesn't even touch on Steve's day very much. Not the best day in the world, not the worst day in the world, just...a day, I guess. On to the next. :)

Hump Day

Flights starting 9 a.m., ending an hour early at 8 p.m. for me, and Steve probably won't make it home until 10 p.m. I just ordered Chinese for dinner, before they closed, so I can pretend like the vegetables are healthy food. We won't talk about the cream cheese in the crab rangoon. ;)

I know that there are some folks who read this who are less than fond of hearing about plane crashes, for obvious reasons, so I generally don't talk about them; but this one is different and note-worthy. A few days ago, a doctor who ran a little airport up by Ft. Wayne took off in a Bonanza and went IFR to his vacation home in Michigan. His wife, his son, and two dogs were on board. They had bad weather, diverted, and he tried to shoot an instrument approach into an airport that was reporting 300' below the minimum altitude to get in, when other airports within 20 miles had perfectly good weather. He crashed into a garage, and was killed, along with his wife and one dog. His teenage son and the other dog survived. Now, for the rest of the story. This was his second plane crash in a Bonanza. The first was about ten years prior, coming home from that same place to Indiana with his first wife, his two sons, and his daughter. The weather was IFR, he shot an approach, the weather was too bad for him to get in, so he went missed approach, and before he could get back in to try again to land, he ran out of fuel and crashed short of the runway. They survived the crash, and he threw his oldest son, who was in front with him, out the door to save his life. His wife, his younger son and younger daughter perished, trapped in the post-crash fire. Do you have the picture? This young man survived a plane crash at age 8 that killed his mom, sister and brother. He has now survived a plane crash at age 18 that killed his father and his step mom. Both crashes due to something stupid his father did. He is the sole surviving member out of his six member family. I can't think of much more horrifying than this scenario, and I want to meet up with this pilot in the next life and beat him soundly about the head and shoulders. He took out his entire family in typical doctor/Bonanza terrible decisions. After the first time, I almost can't believe he didn't at least take it to heart and make better decisions. I've goofed up in an airplane too-most pilots who do much of any flying do. But you LEARN from it. He didn't, and it cost him not only his own life, but the lives of everyone he loves but one, and that one will never be the same. Just...horrid.

On to something else that infuriated me---the 95 year old wheelchair-bound woman with Leukemia who had to take her adult diaper off for the TSA who were concerned she might be holding a bomb in there. While I have to admit to a juvenile snicker at the obvious joke there, the truth is, if some TSA goon tried to force my 95-year-old mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, or lady I don't even know in line in front of me to take off her diaper and show them she wasn't a terrorist, somebody would have to come bail me out of jail. Not. Happening. The poor lady herself wasn't all that bothered by it, which some folks say means we shouldn't be bothered by it either. She was just glad to be allowed on the plane home. Baloney. This is wrong. I don't even want to hear about terrorists who mask themselves as 95 year old women. This woman was accompanied by her family, who could prove who they were, that she was with them, etc. To force her to do that is so far beyond the pale for what this country should be, it just makes me furious. What is wrong with people?? :(

Well, Kaylee is enjoying relaxing for a few days here before her next big summer adventure of Holiday World and Time With the Cherry Family. Maybe they can whip her into shape for us? ;) And of course this Saturday is our airshow at Kokomo. Steve is running around like the Energizer Bunny on steroids, and we're all pretty busy. Richard is doing well after his procedure, and the cats are itching to get outside and play. I guess that's life in this family!

Spoiler

I flew a lot today and it was windy but nice out, the end. :)

Kaylee and I did go up for a quick flight. I had to move a 172 back to its hangar anyway, and if you have to move it, might as well do a takeoff and landing. She couldn't reach the rudders today, so I did the taxi/takeoff, but then she did the flying around, and flew us all the way down to final right above the end of the runway. There was a crosswind, and she couldn't see over the dash, so she was holding her airspeed with her pitch almost dead on, even in the gusts, and was holding a straight and level descent to the runway with peripheral vision and the attitude indicator. I was sort of impressed. She does a great job when she focuses and tries. When we got over the grass and I had the rudder in for her and she had the aileron in, we got hit with a gust and she lost it there, I grabbed it and landed it, and she said that people were going to laugh at us for looking crazy. Nobody laughed, at least not to our faces. ;) She did say she wanted to fly the Citabria, not the 172. Spoiled girl or smart girl? Maybe both!

Pleasant Hill Camp

So, last Sunday we loaded up the 172RG and flew Kaylee to MFD (Mansfield, OH) for camp. It was an IFR flight most of the way, and we turned up the music and enjoyed the flight. Our rental car was waiting for us, and we wandered our way in the middle of nowhere, Ohio, trying to find the camp. My Mapquest directions led us to an alley in the middle of town, which was not where we wanted to go. Fortunately we had our Droid phones and the address, and using Google Maps we followed Those directions the rest of the way there, successfully. This was a little too successful, actually, because we ended up being 2 hours early. As we pulled up to the camp, Kaylee was SO excited. She had her new luggage and a whole lot of expectations--enough expectations that we were a little worried about how the reality would match up to the expectations. When she got her first glimpse of the place, it was hilly, in the woods, and very rustic looking with a nice big new wooden cabin on a hill, and she gasped and said "Oh, it's even better than I imagined! This is PERFECT!" We got a chance to walk around and check the place out, and we walked down to the lake through a path of tall pine trees, walked up to all the cabins with toilets and showers in them, walked all around the facilities and checked it out, and the whole time Kaylee was just super excited. In line to check in, she was sought out by a counselor, a young girl who engaged her right away, asking questions, eager and excited to be there too. They worked really hard to make sure that all the kids there were welcomed, noticed, made to feel at home. As soon as we got checked in and sent to her cabin, "Brown", she was invited to be bunkmates by the other girl already there, and she was off and running. I helped her make her bed, she gave us a hug goodbye, we walked out the door, and then we waited for Tuesday and Thursday to see camp photos. :)

So Kaylee's experiences were great. She had 10 cabin-mates and two counselors in her cabin with her, Mango and Oakley. All the counselors had nicknames they went by, a great sense of camaraderie, had all had training for the camp experience, were all young people, etc. They were energetic, eager, good examples, etc., and that was one thing they pushed on their advertisements, was quality leadership. They were right--Kaylee loved it and the counselors all seemed to really care about the kids.

All the girls were woken up at 7:20, and Kaylee was consistently the last one out of bed. Sometimes she would run so late that she wouldn't get her bed made properly. That's Kaylee! They always had these huge breakfasts, which she loved, and then they would do drama activities, preparing for skits for later that evening. Afternoon activities were the cool ones. Swimming, a giant slip-n-slide down a hill, canoeing, a zip line, horse riding, archery, sports, challenges, vertical climbing wall, all manner of very cool things to do. Evening was a drama skit the girls put on, singing, devotions, camp fires, smores, etc. Singing was a huge part of the week. They had a song for everything, from getting mail from home to marching to bed time to worship to...well, just everything. Kaylee came back with a bunch of songs she loves to sing, still. Lights out was early, but they worked the kids hard enough that even my night owl went ahead and crashed out.

She said that the only things she didn't like were: being timed to only get a 5-minute shower each night, having to get up so early, not having some noise like a fan to sleep by in the cabin at night, and the SPIDERS. Apparently the woods is full of daddy long legs. Who knew. ;) She said next time she is bringing her own gallon jugs of spider killer stuff to hose down everywhere she goes. Heh.

This time when Steve and I flew back to Ohio to go get her, we were right on time, borderline late. Rental car was waiting, we hopped in and got there just ten minutes early, which is pushing it when you're coming from a state away, but it worked. They had a closing ceremony, and led the kids past the window and into the room where they had all the parents sitting and waiting and watching a slideshow video of photos taken from the whole week. We could see Kaylee walking by outside with her friend, laughing and animated and smiling, and it was obvious she had had a great time. Then it was time for final awards. Her cabin came in 2nd place out of all the cabins, only five points away from first place. She was a little disgusted not to have won the big Flag Award for the week. Next she won an "Award of Awesomeness" for sports, believe it or not. The counselor who read it off said that she hadn't even played most of the sports that they did that week (like soccer, mountain boarding, basketball, etc), but she jumped in with gusto, tried them all and hard, and was one of the only girls there who would/could compete against the boys. Yeah, big shock, right? ;)

Kaylee loved the horse ride, through the beautiful hills and woods, and loved that they let the kids have control over it. She wasn't fond of wearing the helmet, but I don't blame the camp for that one! On the zip line, she got a little freaked out and actually started to climb up it a little. But she loved it at the same time, and had lots of glowing things to say. The slip-n-slide was one of her favorite things to do all around. The swimming, well, that was one of her minor disappointments. The camp had the kids all swim from one side of the ropes to another, and they would hand out red wristbands to kids who had to stay in the shallow end, yellow wristbands to kids who could jump off the dock into the deep end but had to swim right back to the shallow end, and green bands to the kids who could stay in the deep end. The swim counselors there gave Kaylee a red band and said she wasn't good enough to go in the deep end, and she was really bothered by that considering her new found confidence and ability in swimming. Come to find out, every girl in her cabin got a red band, and the camp was basically extremely conservative about letting kids go in the deep area of the lake. Really, not sure I blame them for that one, either. You're responsible for 91 kids that week, in a pretty big lake. If we were there, we'd let her jump off the dock and swim in the deep area if she wanted to, and she'd be just fine, but we would also be solely focused on her while she was out there, not on her and a herd of other kids her age. At the end of the week, when swimming was done, Kaylee insisted they remove her "Band of Shame". All the kids in her cabin started calling the red bands the "Bands of Shame" too. She was really, really disgusted by that, but...that's life, you know? :)

When it was time for us to go, they were having a hot dog social, but Kaylee decided she wanted to eat at Steak-n-Shake instead, because she no longer likes hot dogs. Her friends were wrapped up in their families, so we just headed out to go eat our own dinner. It was there we ran into a warbird friend and his two sons. In the middle of nowhere, Ohio, at a Steak-n-Shake. The odds of that are...wow. Anyway, after we ate, we loaded up the RG with her stuff, she sat up front with me and talked non-stop all the way home about her experiences, and Steve slept in the back seat and let her. Too funny.

Kaylee's been repeating the same stories, has had lots of great memories, and when Steve asked her if she wanted to go back next year, she gave an enthusiastic "Yes!" I am so grateful that her first camp experience was so positive. Those guys did a great, professional, caring job of it, making her camp debut a positive, memorable one. :) She took some photos that week, and I took some photos before and after, and you can see them up on Kaylee's Site...

Twist Knot

The one morning I gave myself to sleep in here, I got two texts bright and early to wake me up. Once I was awake, I was awake, and I was the first one out of bed in this house today. That seems wrong. :) We spent the day at home as a family, working on some house chores, projects and cleaning.

I guess I needed a little time. I read a chick book about lifelong friendships, and actually a couple of parts got to me, mostly about grief. I also liked the line that went:

"You get older and you learn there is one sentence, just four words long, and if you can say it to yourself, it offers more comfort than almost any other. It goes like this... 'At least I tried.'" Followed by the quote "When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them." by Evelyn Waugh. The book was about friendship, four best friends and their lives, and one of them reminded me an awful lot of me. It was supposed to be a fluff piece to read, but I actually liked it.

I still found myself a little wound up, and I needed to do something about it. As I posted elsewhere, every once in awhile a person just needs wrung out. While hard exercise would be the healthiest option, it's not one that's going to work for me right now. Doing something to wring me out on the backroads with the Corvette or motorcycle wouldn't be smart of me; too risky. So I took up the T-6, which is always good for a workout. Before I left the house, Kaylee wrote on my hand and had me write the same thing on hers. I was looking at it before I fired up the airplane, and I thought it was an excellent reminder.
I went up to 6500'/7500' and spent the next hour doing aerobatics above a cloud layer. I worked at it pretty hard, and after an hour I could feel it in my head a little even though my stomach was fine. I wasn't really done yet, but an object had fallen out of the "glove compartment" and onto the floor, and I didn't want to go upside down again and risk 1) getting smacked in the head with it, 2) breaking the canopy with it, 3) breaking IT, 4), having it wedge somewhere very bad, or 5) losing it to the deepest areas of the Leviathan's belly. Let me just say, I did check and make sure the glove compartment was shut before I started. There happened to be a maneuver that provided enough...oomph...to pop it open and release the contents. Okay, fine, I confess. I landed and had to get the grabber out to recover two papers, my cell phone and my camera. But I got them. Losing another cell phone to the T-6 would not have gone over well. Nevertheless, I felt better. When I put everything away, locked up the hangars and drove off, my hair was a snarled disaster, I'd broken a fingernail, I'd bloodied up my index finger on something, scraped my knee, and gotten all hot and sweaty...and I hadn't felt that good in awhile. Every once in awhile you get a knot in you, and it's nice to find a way to loosen it up.

(Obligatory photo of self in airplane, no different than any other photo of self in airplane, and yet the urge presents itself anyway. Proof, I guess. What can I say?)

Back to Ohio

We got home late last night, and were up and at them pretty early this morning. Steve had flights starting at 7 a.m., and wasn't done until almost 7 p.m. I headed out to the airport around 9 a.m., and also finished up around 7 p.m. Kaylee hung out at Kokomo and played all day with the kids, riding bikes and wearing herself out. Not an ideal first day back from camp, with us both working all day, but that's the way it works sometimes. We are not working tomorrow, not at an airport, anyway.

I had a long IFR cross-country today, to Sandusky, OH, over to Put-in-Bay, and back home. 4.2. It was pretty weather for a flight, mostly VFR, though we did get to hit an occasional cloud on the way out. Landed back at Kokomo, jumped in the Jeep and made it over to Glenndale to fly the Cub for an hour with a student. Got out of there and drove back to Kokomo, then met Steve, Nathan and the kids for dinner at Applebees. We didn't really get in and home until 9 p.m., and a lot of things didn't go according to plan today, which made for a long day, particularly after being out so late last night and getting started so early this morning. I found myself a little wound up, and even the Cub ride with the door and window hanging open didn't get rid of it. I felt like something a little more aggressive might help. I'd tried unsuccessfully to reach several different people, and when I couldn't get hold of any of them, I decided I'd go to where I thought they were, and whether they were or were not there, figured I'd take the T-6 up for a quick refresher. Nathan flew the Mustang and the T-6 today, successfully buttoned back up and ready to go, and that seemed like something that would do well for me to work out this mood. But then I got the dinner plan call, so turned around and met the gang at the restaurant instead.

That reminds me though. You know one of my pet peeves? If somebody doesn't answer me when I communicate to them, whether it be email, text, phone, or face. I don't mean like tonight, as those were extenuating circumstances from dead batteries to no signals to traveling, etc. But in general. When I text someone and ask them to do something, and they never respond, then you don't know if they got it or not, can do it or not, etc. You're then left wondering if you should ask them if they got it, or if they'll just take care of it. Some of the line guys at Kokomo are bad about that. I call on the radio and ask for the fuel truck, and half the time they don't answer...so I wait, and usually they show up. But if they'd just say "be right there", it would be much more polite and helpful, because sometimes they don't hear, and you don't want to stand out there for 15 minutes only to find out you still have to re-call. All someone has to do in a text is say "ok". Or in an email, say "got it", or over the radio "be right there". Instead, it seems to be the common thing to do anymore to just not answer at all. That is just...not good manners, in my opinion. Or I'm getting old and out of touch, which is also entirely possible.

I still have to talk about Kaylee's camp experience, as she told it to us. But again, tonight it's too late and I am too sleepy to get into it. I did download all her photos at least though. She took my little camera with her, and she got some even of herself. She really did have a good time, and she's had lots of fun stories to share. :) Maybe tomorrow I'll get the pictures online and some of her stories...

Camp Return

It's 11 p.m. and we just got home and settled in. It was a busy day, and there's lots to tell about Kaylee's camp experience, but I'm TIRED, and I have to get up and do a lot more flying tomorrow, too, so I'm going to go to bed!

Suffice it to say that Kaylee hasn't stopped talking about camp since we picked her up 6 1/2 hours ago.

She had fun. ;)

Cloud Magic

Per life as usual, what was planned for the day was not close to what actually happened. I was supposed to be up and on my way to Pittsburg, PA by 6:30 a.m., for a photo shoot out there and an instrument lesson on the way. That trip was canceled due to not-great-weather, which would have made for not-great-photos, and a big ole TFR right where we were supposed to be going. So instead, I had several students lined up. But the weather here was not that great either, so I ended up canceling the VFR students I had. Of course it was one of those rare, perfect summer IFR Training days, where you're in the clouds throughout the entire approach, but will still break out around 900', without thunderstorm activity nearby for once, and this gives a new IFR student tons of cloud time while still having a little time to prepare to land without being too rushed. I called up as many people as I could who would be interested in getting some actual IFR cloud time, and went from there. It's always fun taking folks into the clouds for the first few times. It can be an eye-opening experience, when they can't see the ground out the side of their peripheral vision, when there is no cheating, and they can't tell by feel whether they are turning or straight or not, and there's no getting out of it, just working through it. It was great practice today.

Kaylee's camp posted another 66 photos on their website, but unfortunately I can only find her in one group photo at the flag raising first thing in the morning. They showed kids horseback riding, wall climbing, zip lining, all manner of fun activities, and the weather was great there today, so I'm betting she had a lot of fun today. She's also eating a whole lot better than she does here. You should see their menus! Huge meals full of mostly healthy, tasty food. Ham, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, sweet tea, that was tonight along with some other stuff I can't think of off hand. She may not want to come home after all!

Steve and I went to McDoogal's Irish Pub for dinner tonight. You have to be 21 to enter there, and since Kaylee always joins us when we eat out, we decided to go somewhere she couldn't and enjoy the ambiance/food. I had fried mashed potato balls, dipped in a cheese sauce, and it tastes better than it sounds. ;)

On to tomorrow, an IFR trip to Ohio to pick Kaylee up from camp and hopefully hear lots of great stories about her week!

Skybound

Wind and weather. I did other work things today besides flying, until 6 p.m., at which point I was up in the RG doing holds, hold entries and missed approach procedures while Steve was up in the 172 working on primary stuff with a new guy. It was still a bit breezy, gusting to the upper 20s, with little rain showers that passed by around us but never actually got us, but good enough to go. I got done and down, lowered the hangar door and drove right over to Nathan's hangar, and the power was off. I tried to reset some circuit breakers, no luck, went to another hangar and the power was off there, too. So I went to leave the airport, and the gate was locked shut, and the power was off. There was no open gate. I was stuck in the airport. I knew there was a way to open the gates, but I didn't know how or if it was possible if there was no power at all, so I had to call the "after hours" number at 9 p.m. and have the guy on the phone tell me how to get out of the airport. It was kind of funny, really. As I was driving out, there was a huge rainbow, a double rainbow in fact, right by the airport. It was beautiful...huge, and made me smile. God's promise...
Today is the 12th anniversary of Devon's death. The rainbow seemed a fitting end to the day.

Stormy

I flew three times today. It was good and muggy again, and the last flight of the day lasted a whole .7 before I had to call it for impending thunderstorms. We were practicing VOR holds on various radials, and our last go-around, he was under the hood and I was watching the storm approach. Finally, even though we were supposed to go outbound for about a minute and 20 seconds, I had him turn in early, cross over the VOR, take off the hood and bring us in for a landing. At that point the winds were a 50 degree crosswind at 30 gusting to 42 knots, and there were two of our airplanes coming in to land. We are dedicated, I tell you, dedicated. :) We got the planes in and put away in the breeze, and watched it rain while I signed the logbook and such.

Kaylee's camp posted some pictures up of the kids, so Steve and I looked through, finding pictures that had Kaylee in them, and trying to determine how she looked like she's doing. They'll post more pictures Thursday evening. The blog said that the kids made their own food out in the woods around the fire, and had smores for dessert, and the rain held off most of the day for them. Pancakes for breakfast, which will please her. ;)

It's a busy week-if the weather holds out I have three flights again tomorrow over a 12 hour period, then Thursday a flight to Ohio early in the morning for a photo thing, then back to do flight lessons until 9 p.m. Friday we go get Kaylee, so back to Ohio. Not a lot of time to relax, but hey...

Here's our happy camper. :)

Rainy Day

It rained and it rained and it rained. This canceled my morning flight (and my afternoon one, too), which meant I could have slept in and enjoyed the quiet, darkness and sounds of the storm, but unfortunately once I woke up to check the weather to see about the flights, I couldn't get back to sleep. Oh well.

When I got up, Steve was on the camp website, checking out what Kaylee would be doing right then, and checking out the weather for the day over there. Heh. He also found that they have a Facebook page, and that was kind of neat because they posted what the kids were having for breakfast, that they got to do outdoor activities in the morning but did indoor "rainy weather" activities in the afternoon, and tomorrow at 8 p.m. they're posting some pictures of the kids. We found where you can send an email or a care package to the kids, so Steve sent an email so far. You can only send one email per person per week, so I'll wait until mid-week to send one, but it has to be there by Wednesday night since they hand the last emails out Thursday at lunch, and we pick her up Friday...

Camping, Day One

Today was the day Kaylee was to Go Off To Camp. We stayed up until pretty late packing bags and getting ready, and knew that we'd have to leave by 11:30 for a 4 1/2 hour drive if we couldn't fly. If we could fly, we'd be there in just over an hour flight plus a 20-minute drive. Let's see, almost 10 hour round trip drive, or a 2 hour round trip flight (with a total hour drive)? Hmm. Except when we woke up this morning, it was to a wad of weather. Steve and I both spent a good hour watching it, getting a feel for what it was doing and what it should do. Kaylee was so excited to get there, she was Not excited at the thought of driving. She even bemoaned not having the Baron to get there faster. :) The weather was close, but it looked good enough, so away we went. I got current on hand flying in IFR at least, and it was a nice enough flight. We left early in order to beat out the worst of the weather, so we arrived almost 2 hours early, got our rental car, loaded up and wandered around a bit looking for the camp. It's a really pretty area over in Ohio, rolling hills, lots of trees, out in the middle of nowhere. Kaylee asked me "What does 'boondocks' mean, Mommy?" after I commented on how far from civilization the camp is. :) That's a good thing by the way, it's very nice out there.

We looked around the camp before we left. Kaylee's cabin slept 10 kids, and unlike cabins when I was a kid, hers had a shower and a toilet right there in the cabin. And AIR conditioning! Old window unit air conditioning, but still. She has it easy. ;) It's a very woodsy, hilly area, and when we pulled up to it, she was so excited she kept saying "This is awesome! This is even better than I imagined!" The camp counselors are chosen to be outgoing, helpful, excited and good role models, and the several I met today really did exude that kind of personality. One came up to Kaylee in line and just initiated a conversation with her, put her at ease, asked her questions, was just really helpful, and the counselor who is in her cabin talked about how she couldn't wait for this week, helped Kaylee figure out what to do, and was just very friendly. One of the guy counselors asked her if she was excited about this week, and she piped up with a big "Oh yes, I am!" She has such high expectations of camp...I really really hope she has a great time. The first day looked like a success. When we got to her cabin, she was told to choose a bunk, and she just couldn't figure out what she wanted. The other girl already in there, 11 months older than Kaylee, leaned over and said "You can come in here with me if you want". Kaylee said "Okay, sure!" and she was off and running. I helped her make her bed, she put her bags in there, and Steve and I left her there with a hug and a "have fun". She said "Oh, I will, you don't have to worry about that!"

So, we drove off, found somewhere to stop, eat, file a flight plan, check the weather for our return trip home, and talk about the camp and our impressions. Our impressions were almost all really good, the food was much needed, and the weather for the trip home was, well, doable. There was a line of strong thunderstorms that kept firing up right by our airport and extended in a line north and east of us--we could hear the thunder at the airport, and we got sprinkled on a bit, but it was just far enough away that we could get out safely, so we did. Turned up the tunes, Steve took a bit of a nap, and we wandered our way back to Indiana. It's funny how much noise one person makes in a house--it's much more than her proportional 1/3 share. ;) Hope she's having a blast. Actually, right now I hope she's sleeping. ;) Pictures up here!

Saturday

Twas a bit of a busy morning. I was supposed to have flights all day until 3 p.m., Steve until 4:30, but circumstances intervened. Instead we went out to Kokomo, but it took awhile to get there. I got a lot of stuff ready for Kaylee's camp, doing her laundry, getting lists ready, arranging a rental car, printing off approaches, checking weather for the flight, getting directions in case we had to drive (weather doesn't look great), all that good stuff. When we left the house, we were just going to pick up some burgers to grill and go out, but 90 minutes later we were still running around trying to accomplish it. We went to four stores looking for a tool needed out there, and at Sam's Club we ran into an old airport friend and of course had too stop and sit and chat at the food court there with him for awhile. Finally we made it out there at 1:45 or so, fired up the grill and had big juicy Sam's Club burgers, chips, desserts, etc. while the kids played.

Tonight we had an ice cream social at Glenndale. Several ultralights and experimentals flew in, and it was a pretty good turn-out. AE brought his homemade vanilla, which I must say for vanilla is very tasty. Normally I'm a complicated ice cream kind of girl--you know, chunks of stuff, nuts, chocolate, lots of ingredients. But his vanilla is very rich and flavorful. Good stuff. I took the Citabria up for awhile, and ran it through a rain shower to blow off some bugs, dust and dirt. It worked pretty well, as I went through some decent rainfall (VFR of course), but when I came back I did a couple takeoffs and landings, during which I watched the bugs splatting back on the windshield again. Darned grass strips. :) It's still better than it was, though...

Richard is doing well today, healing up and resting up. Many thanks to Joe for stopping out pretty late last night and again this morning to check on him, change the dressing, and make sure he was doing okay.

Tonight we packed for camp. Steve said he wasn't sure what house he was in because I used a checklist and packed in a very organized fashion, unlike how I normally pack, which is just throw it all in within 5 minutes and figure it'll work out. ;) Kaylee helped of course, being her event. Packing for a week of many different conditions when you even have to pack your own bedding and towels too is hard to do concisely. I don't really remember having this much stuff when I went to camp, but maybe I did...I just want to make sure we don't forget anything important. Camp can be scary enough as a new person without realizing you forgot your swimsuit or something. :O

I saw something on Good Morning America that I actually tried, and it worked. See, I can't paint my own fingernails. I just can't do that and stay in the "lines", which is not a surprise since I can't draw a straight, non-slanted line even with a ruler, either. So either I spend the time and $6 (plus tip) to go someplace and let them paint them for me, or I do it myself and it looks like a kindergartner did it. Considering I haven't had actual fingernails in this lifetime, it hasn't really a very big concern. Until my tooth chipped and I had to quit biting them and now they're long and I can't figure out how to function well with them. A few things are a problem, including contacts. How do people put in contacts with giant nails? *sigh* So anyway, I saw on GMA that there are these strips you can stick on your nails and they end up looking like a manicured paint job. I found some today, tried it out, and I'll be doggoned if it didn't work. No sloppy paint on the sides of my fingers, no glops or uneven surfaces. They look like I had them done. Being challenged, it took me longer than it took the lady on GMA to demonstrate it, but I did manage to get it done, and I like them. I think even I can handle that, and supposedly it lasts just as long...

Flying, food, family and fingernails. What else is there? ;)

Friday

Shoot, that insipid Rebecca Black song is stuck in my head now. *sigh*

Congratulations Kaylee! Last year she completed Red Cross Level Three for swim. This year I put her in Level Four, and they combined two levels, and whatever you passed, you passed. She passed Level Four AND Level Five! Her instructor said that Level Six is mostly doing laps, building stamina, honing technique for middle school swim team, etc., so we're pretty much done with lessons. Not that she couldn't get better, but our goal of getting some experience, confidence and training in the water is being met pretty well. :)

I had a flight this morning right after Kaylee's last swim class, and we got done just as it was getting good and steamy outside. Kaylee was with me at Glenndale, and had come in her swimsuit (with a change of clothes) having left right from class. Her brand new suit had ripped at the shoulders. Her brand new not cheap swimsuit, might I add. Kaylee's comment, based on her sewing classes lately, was "They must not have backstitched this properly!" So I was going to see if Judy would be available to fix the suit, but didn't hold much hope since Kaylee needed it by Sunday when we left for camp. I was surprised when we got to lunch, and Judy was there with Maggie & Hannah (yay for Kaylee!). I was even more surprised when I asked her about the suit and she said she happened to have a sewing machine in her car and could fix it right now. Not too many folks have sewing machines in their vehicle, ready to go. :) So, Kaylee's suit is fixed, and backstitched properly I am quite sure, thanks to Judy! Kind of a funny set of circumstances. Kaylee happens to be wearing her swimsuit when I bring her to Glenndale when Judy happens to come out too, which doesn't happen often, hauling a sewing machine with thread on it with her, the day a swimsuit rips and Kaylee wears it anyway...

After we ate I went up in the Champ with Jim, who lost his wife yesterday. It may seem counter-intuitive to someone that a person would want to go flying the day after their wife passed away, but I understand. Sometimes you just need to think about something else, you need distraction, and flying is good for that on multiple levels. We had a nice flight for about 1.2, talked a little bit about everything, visited several airports, including landing at Converse airport, which has a north/south strip now that I hadn't seen or landed at before. We fixed that, and came on in for a landing there. You don't want to wander too far off the two "runways", as there is debris, but the runway-like things themselves are in good shape. We had a nice flight before coming back down to reality.

Richard's procedure went well, and they stopped and had a steak on the way home, for lunch. There then was a bit of a complication with the site and the dressing when he got home, but we had a nurse friend come check things out and take care of it, we are keeping an eye on things overnight, and he's resting as comfortably as you can when you have to sleep sitting upright in a chair. :)

Tomorrow is another full day--unless it storms...

Thursday Thoughts

Today was part of Kaylee's testing day for swimming. I know they were supposed to do a few more things on the test than they got done today, so I'm not sure what they're going to do with that, but they did freestyle across the pool and backstroke. Kaylee did a really good job on her backstroke, even keeping it straight all the way across the pool this time. I guess we'll find out the rest tomorrow.

Richard is having "minor" surgery tomorrow, so our prayers go with him, and with Ann who isn't feeling very well today.

Kaylee finished up three sewing projects today thanks to Judy and the helpers at Trinity Church. She's pretty proud of them, a pillow case with her name sewn on it ("that was Harder than you think, Mom"), a 4th of July tote bag, and a stadium seat cushion. She thinks it's pretty cool to have things that she made with her own hands, and it is. It's also not a common art any more, and sure not one I possess, so I'm glad she's had the chance the last two years to be able to do these projects. Thank you Judy and ladies. :)

I did a little hoodwork and VOR tracking with one fellow this afternoon, then did an IFR flight to Bloomington (old stomping ground of Steve's) this evening, making it home around 9:30 p.m. It was a nice evening for a flight, and we had a good time. For early afternoon I worked on billing and emails and errands and housework and being Mom. You know, the usual suspects. Steve had flights until 9:30 or so as well. It's been really busy around here lately. No complaints, it just has.

To end on, today one of our Glenndale folks is grieving tonight. Jim Wright's wife of 50 years, Lolly, passed away today. She was unquestionably the light of his life, and he made no apologies or question of that. She had a very aggressive and fast-moving cancer, which took her today. He has been grieving since the diagnosis, and is now trying to imagine life without her by his side. Our hearts and prayers go to him and his family, but mostly, him...

Hump Day

Originally the day was pretty full. Kaylee's swim lessons, I had an instrument instructional flight to Bloomington, back for lunch, right off to another pre-cross-country flight, back in time to pick up something for camp, then taking Kaylee to VBS. As usual, the day didn't go as planned. :) I woke up to the rumble of thunder and the sound of rain. Kaylee's swim lesson was canceled, so I let her sleep in. I looked at the radar to see if my morning flight had a chance of going in the rain, but it wasn't just rain, it was storms, which ruled me out for the morning, and instead of getting going and getting some work done, I by George went back to bed too. I didn't fall back asleep real heavily, but I laid there drowsily, half out, listening to the sounds of the storm, and relaxed. It was great. When I finally got up, Kaylee was asleep on the couch cuddled up with a stuffed animal and a blanket and Steve was gone, it was still raining and dark, and that was one of the most relaxing, refreshing mornings I've had in awhile. I think I needed that, because it certainly improved my outlook on life, which wasn't bad to begin with, but was made even better none-the-less. :)

Kaylee and I went Bible shopping today. It was time for her to get a Bible of her own, so I took her to the Christian Book Store. They no longer just have black, white, brown, dark grey, dark blue and dark burgundy. They have everything under the sun including lime green with tulips, and all manner of editions. She wanted NIV because that's what Awanas uses, so good enough for me. She then chose a lovely two-toned pink leather cover with brown trim Bible that looks like a lady's pocketbook, and we are having her name embossed on it, which we'll get back tomorrow. She is pleased, and that pleases me.

Kaylee had another night of VBS tonight. It's about half an hour away from here, so I've driven about 2 hours to take her there, come home, go get her and come home again. She's enjoyed herself, and I didn't mind the time to run errands on the way there and back.

As I get ready to go back to bed, I'm again listening to it rain. I always did love the sound of a good storm. :)

"Risk is the price you pay for opportunity."
~Tom Selleck on "Blue Bloods"

My Life In Five Words

*Grin*

Head First

I flew a lot the last two days, through to 9 p.m. tonight. I'm pretty tired, and my head hurts, so I'm going to skip the recital of what I did and just put up Kaylee's day. Mom likes that better anyway. ;)

Kaylee went to swim lessons today, and they wanted them to do a "shallow dive". Kaylee, who wasn't hugely fond of ducking her head under water, was not someone I thought would get into diving very well. *I* can't dive properly and I was a fish. Kaylee's first dive was pretty much right on. She did four dives, was the only one in the group who got it today, and the last dive she did had lifeguards on the wall, not just her own coach, clapping for her. She was pretty proud of herself, and Steve (who was a lifeguard in another life) called himself a proud papa, too. I was at the airport so I didn't see it, but I heard about it from both of them. So, way to go, Kaylee! :)

Kaylee has also enjoyed the last two days, being able to spend time with her friend K. K lives out in the country by the Kokomo airport, has a big trampoline and dogs and a "really cool" tree house, and the girls have a good time playing for hours at a time outside, which I like for some exercise. Kaylee loves to jump on G's trampoline too. She asked if she could get one for our house, but I don't think there's good room for that here. :) Anyway, today I took her out there around 2 p.m. and she hung out until Vacation Bible School started at 6. The girls went to VBS, which wasn't over until almost 9 p.m. I had a flight until 9 p.m. anyway, so after I got done I went out to the farmhouse and picked her up, jumping on the trampoline and having fun. I didn't even begrudge her a sweet iced tea after all that time outside. ;)

On to tomorrow...

Irony

It took me a little effort to convince a young man and his two parents that he was going to be safe with me in the Cub, even though my name wasn't Ty. ;) When they walked in and I introduced myself, it was obvious by the look on their face that there was an issue. Apparently they thought he was going with Ty, and they really weren't comfortable at all at the idea that it would be me, instead. The first thing the young man said was "There's a girl name A who is going to be taking lessons--maybe you're supposed to fly with her." I smiled and said that I actually was going to fly with her, tomorrow, but today I was scheduled to fly with you. The dad said "But Ty has a lot of experience. Do you have any experience?" I was dying to say "no, not really, I usually send the Cub people to Ty because it's so danged uncomfortable in there", but somehow humor didn't seem to be the appropriate response to their concern. ;) So I listed my qualifications, and the dad said "You don't look that old" to which the only response is "thank you". This young man and I go fly after I shoehorn my way into the front seat after handpropping the plane while someone who has never been in an airplane in his life is holding the brakes for me (no, that's not scary at all), and we have a good time. He does well, and I even have him do the landing, which he does fine with as well. When we get out, dad says that he was fine as long as he could see us, but as soon as we flew out of sight, he and his wife got scared, and then his wife saw smoke, and they were trying to convince themselves that we hadn't crashed. I told him the standard line, I've been doing this for a long time now, have an excellent safety record (I'm still here, right?), and that I want to come home to my family from every flight just as much as he wants his son to come back from every flight safely. He then asked for my name again, and when I gave it, he asked if Steve was my dad then. I said no, he's my husband, and this guy looks me up and down again and says "You REALLY don't look old enough." Again, the only response I can come up with is "Thank you." I think. ;)

Meanwhile, Steve has a Discovery Flight today too, and he wanted to show the guy the T-6 and Mustang, only to find that he'd left behind his hangar keys. But wait! We have a spare key. He goes to get the hidden spare key, only to find that it's locked away, and he needs the same key that he is looking to get in order to get into the area where the spare key to get into the hangar is located. Irony. ;)

Steve stopped and got us some ribs, potatoes, and corn for tonight that he cooked out on the grill. He then made garlic toast out of hot dog buns, and I'll be darned if it wasn't good too. :) Homemade food on the grill sure beats take out any day of the week. We ended the evening sitting out by a fire in the back yard, letting the cats play, talking and hanging out until it got dark and almost cold. It felt really good to me after these long days of severe heat and humidity. I'll take the cool!

It was a nice day...

Love and Marriage

Kaylee has been on an informational kick about husbands and dating lately. The conversations this entails are always enlightening and entertaining.

She let me know today that if she was dating someone, and they started acting funny and distant around her, that it was probably a signal that they were going to break up with her, so she was going to break up with them first. I told her that she should only break up with someone if they were not the right person for her, or if they were treating her badly. She got this disgusted voice and said "Mooooom. If he's acting funny, if he's avoiding me and stuff, he is going to break up with me, and if he's going to break up with me he's OBVIOUSLY not the right one for me, and I'M going to dump HIM first." Hard to argue with that logic.

She also decided that "I'm not going to marry the first guy I date, because there are too many fish in the sea and the first one isn't the right one so I'll throw him back. I'll break up with several guys before I find the right one because you won't know who is right if you don't go out with several different ones." Now, I know where she got this. We've discussed how much she likes to take what's in front of her right now instead of waiting for what is best, whether it be clothing, or luggage, or what-have-you, and I've told her that she should keep that about herself in mind and not just fall for the first guy she dates. However, now I'm having to tell her that she shouldn't come up with an arbitrary rule like "I'll refuse to really like the first guy I date." My friend Angie met her husband as a teenager, he was the only "boy" she ever dated, and they've been happily married for almost 20 years, with 9 kids! You never know and you shouldn't close your mind off to possibilities. Of course Kay being Kay, she came back with "Yeah, but it's probably not going to happen that way." Well, no, it's probably not.

Next we had a conversation about divorce. She saw a commercial for a Dr. Phil show where a woman had lost over a hundred pounds and her husband publicly said he found her loose skin from the weight loss disgusting, that he found her really unattractive now. Kaylee was horrified at the commercial and said that she'd never stay with someone who was that cruel to her. She makes you come up with specific scenarios, which can be difficult, because life isn't black and white. I told her I hoped she knew most of all that it's good to want to change, to grow, to be a better person, but that those changes should be because of who SHE wants to be, not who someone else wants her to be. Man I wish you could really know that when you're young.

But boy, lately she's been very focused on dating, marriage, divorce, etc. I'd rather she talk about it with us than just live off of what she sees "around", and she sure makes you think about what to say and how to say it!

"Home" Day

Yesterday the Cub needed flown to Kokomo so Jon could repair the tailwheel. The tailwheel had a couple of issues, making for a little bit of difficulty taxiing, but more interesting landings on concrete. When I went to take it over, it looked pretty well out of fuel to me, which meant another trip to the fuel pump. Chuck, who must have read about my previous pulling the Cub to the fuel pump experience, or saw my red face afterwards, or both, had a much better idea. He put a tow strap on the Cub and hooked it to the golf cart and towed it to the pump. Now that worked...

My surprise childhood friend from yesterday made me smile today too when she said that "the fact that you fly planes doesn't surprise me a bit. I expected to be reading some of your Pulitzer winning novels by now, but you are still young and have plenty of time to get around to that." I used to write, all the time. I wanted to write a novel, and I had a bunch of them started, a lot of chapters of various stories from Westerns to Sci Fi to Christian Fiction to horror to short stories of how to get rid of your freckles once and for all. ;) The problem was, I read enough books to know when what I was reading is a good book and when it is not a good book, and when I would read my own writing, I would know it was not a good book. "It" wasn't there, whatever that undefinable "it" factor is. I could/can write a great letter, or do a great research paper, or an editorial piece, or any kind of informational thing, so that's basically where I quit trying to write the Great American Novel. Maybe some day I'll be able to write a book-I even have some things in an outline for one-but I wouldn't hold my breath on 1) me ever getting it done or 2) anybody ever reading it if I do. ;)

I had two flights scheduled for today, but both canceled right before I was supposed to go. This was really a blessing, because I actually got to be Mom today. I have so many things I haven't been able to get done because either I've been running around, flying, or...pooped, and Kaylee has just been patient. So aside from all the personal and household things that I did all day, I got a lot of work stuff done too, while still being able to have a good day with Kaylee. Her grandparents took her to swimming this morning, where she won two contests in a row--one was for the best cannonball into the water, and the other was she swam the farthest across the deep end of the pool. She was pretty proud of that! Plus, she was supposed to be in Level Four, but her swim class is Level Four and Five kids combined, and apparently she's doing the Level Five stuff, and her instructor said that at the end they'd test, and she could theoretically pass Level Five, too. She really likes that idea, too!

Kaylee is doing sewing lessons at a nearby church, led by Judy and several volunteer ladies. She is working on a tote bag project, and a stadium-seat cushion. When I came in to pick her up today, Kaylee was working the sewing machine, pulling out her project, snipping the thread, etc. It's a neat thing the ladies are doing for the kids, and a good thing to be exposed to and learn a bit about.

There is a little ice cream place on the main road by our house, and we have never stopped in there--so today I fixed that. Kay and I were sitting outside at the little table watching traffic going by eating our ice cream and enjoying a little time together. From there it was time to work. ;) I took her to Wal-Mart where we looked for luggage for her as well as a few clothing necessities. We found almost nothing, so I took us to Meijer next. Jackpot. Kaylee found matching luggage that, as she put it "has some pizzazz and is something I like without being too kiddish." We found the last of the clothes she needed for her camping experience, some of which she is wearing right now because she likes it so much, and she had a lot of fun picking stuff out. There is still a fair amount of paperwork I need to do tonight, but hey, The Main Missions for the day: Accomplished. :)

Blast from the Past

I got an email today that I almost deleted as spam, but it was so strange and so familiar that I read it about three times before the pieces all fell into place. All it said was:

"I suddenly have the urge to watch The Shining and eat a tombstone pizza, Doritos and Mountain Dew with an old friend."

The years I lived in Wisconsin, I had a sort of friend. During the week at school, I knew better than to try to hang out with her too much, because she was cool and I wasn't. (Of the kids in my class, I was 3rd from the bottom on the totem poll, higher only than the tiny young man with 11 siblings who smelled every day like the pigs his family raised, and the tall geeky young man whose father was a tall geeky teacher there. Those two boys are probably both highly successful men today, as they were both quite smart, and back then, they were very kind, too.) Anyway, during the week my interactions with this friend had to be limited, but Sundays were mine. She lived on a farm, and a lot of times on a Sunday, after we went to church together, I'd go over to her house and we'd play out on the farm, doing all the fun things that kids used to be able to do on farms in the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin in the 80s. No adult who actually knew where you were or what you were doing, walking on railroads, swimming in ponds, climbing trees, building forts, playing in barns filled with hay (and God knows what critters), just all manner of great fun things. I spent the night over there more than a few times too, probably during the summer, I don't remember that, and there was one other tradition we used to have: movies. We'd get junk food and watch "Night of the Living Dead" or "The Shining" or "Grease", over and over and over. We knew all the words to all of those movies, and honestly, I still know all the words in the last two movies there. It stuck. One of our traditions was watching "The Shining" every Halloween, eating a Tombstone pizza and Doritos and drinking Mt. Dew and staying up half the night pretending like neither one of us was bothered by the movie when we both were...particularly out in a dark farmhouse in the middle of nowhere with trees creaking all over the place. ;) We always had a good time and got along great when it was just the two of us, and I actually have some pretty funny memories from that time. That and one of her sisters worked at a state facility for the mentally disabled, the more violent ones, and she always had some jaw-dropping stories to share. ;)

Hearing from a girl I last hung out with when I was 13 years old, before I moved to Nebraska, hearing from her out of the blue in a note with no explanation, and still knowing who it was, even though it was signed with her married last name and not the name I knew her by, well, that was something different for the day...

Well Steamed

This winter we had record-breaking cold snaps and snow/ice for long periods of time. Now at the end of May/beginning of June, we are having record-breaking heat waves. The day of our Sheridan Air show, it was the hottest it had been on that day since 1911. I don't know what the heat index was, but the actual temp was something like 97 or 98. The last few days have been just as bad.

"The Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued a high ozone level warning for today for parts of central and southern Indiana, making it the second day in a row. Temperatures in the 90s and almost no wind cause emissions from cars and other air pollution to be more of a problem. Smog Watch, a state-managed tool for assessing air quality, classified Howard County and south through Indiana as “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The heat index Tuesday reached into the mid- and upper-90s in the Kokomo area. The weather service on Tuesday declared today’s temperatures to be high enough to warrant a hazardous weather outlook. “It’s going to be miserable,” Hendrickson said. “The biggest thing is people should avoid working hard outside and drink plenty of liquids and wear light clothing and try not to get too hot.”

Try not to get too hot. Brilliant. Yesterday when I pushed the Cub from the hangar to the fuel pump, even with another guy helping, I felt like I was going to stroke out by the time we got there. I could not catch my breath and my heart was pounding like a jackhammer. I went to the freezer at the office, put my hands on the frost/ice inside, put my hands on my neck, and still didn't cool off. It's so hot and muggy that it feels like there is water, not oxygen, in the air sometimes. You take one flight in an enclosed cockpit where the temps are good and solidly in the 100s, with minimal air flow, and you need to go home and shower. My first flight was at 10 a.m. after I took Kaylee to her swim lesson, and I got done with my last flight at 9 p.m. tonight, and my clothes and I were, well, steamed. There's no cooling off in the car on the way to anywhere, because the air conditioning doesn't work (to be fixed soon) and the windows down, which is a must, just blasts in hot traffic air. Staying hydrated is a trick, but if you stay hydrated you sweat even worse, which is of course your body doing what it's supposed to in order to keep you cool, but isn't overly fun. Not staying hydrated is obviously not an option, for safety. I carry a water bottle with me. (Which reminds me, I need to get more water bottles). It is frankly miserable. Particularly considering how very much I have always hated being hot, have been sensitive to being hot, and this passed "hot" quite some distance ago. Some folks will have one flight, maybe two in a week, and know how hot it is and how sweaty they are after their flight, and be glad to be done for the day. Doing it several times a day for a whole day, every day but Sunday...can be a challenge.

These days are also crazy right now. Mine went: Kaylee to swim lesson and back, flight lesson at Glenndale until 11:30, lunch, errands, work on billing, run to Greentown (so glad the car was so quickly fixed!), get home, go to Kokomo to do a test flight on an airplane after it had 4 cylinders replaced, fly to Sheridan, then do almost 2 hours of instruction, ending up with the plane in the hangar and me on my way home at 9 p.m. Stop for dinner, do dishes and laundry, snuggle with Kaylee, finish off the accounting part of billing, and make blog entry at 12:31 to try to be in bed by 1 a.m. and start off all over again tomorrow morning with flights starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m., with temps forecasting 95, not including heat index. Maybe I'll take a thermometer with me in the cockpit tomorrow and see what it says. Thermometer does not seem like the right word since I'm not taking my own temperature, though maybe I should, but I can't come up with the right word right now, if that isn't right. And I don't care. ;)

I'm not grumpy somehow, even though I may sound that way, but I AM tired. And hot. Did I mention hot? ;)

Day of Many Colors

This is how I started my day. Not bad, huh? It did start a little early, but it was Kaylee's first day of swim lessons, Level Four. She had fun and did well with the maneuvers they had her do today.

From swim lessons I took her shopping. She is need of several things for her upcoming camp experience. One thing she needs is her own luggage, or at least one suitcase or bag that isn't a Princess bag (or MY bag). So I looked at those while we were at the store, only to find a price tag of $179 for the smaller bag. Yeah, looking elsewhere and mooooving on. The hard part for me is being faced with a wall of clothing choices, all separate stuff, and you try to find the right shirt to go with the right pants in the right size and the right style. While we were in the changing area, a mom came in with her two daughters, both older than Kaylee. The one daughter, about 12, was whining non-stop, and the mom just started yelling at her over strange things like not liking how she had her hair and insisting she wear a scrunchy. About five minutes of non-stop unpleasantness and Kaylee opened the door to her changing room, leaned out and looked at me, and whispered "SERIOUSLY??" with this look on her face that, well, reminded me of me. I started laughing, couldn't help it, and she whispered "I am SO glad you don't talk to me like that." We got out of there as fast as we could, in the middle of the girl saying "I like them BOTH" and her mom saying "You can't HAVE both" for the 3rd time each. Whew, shopping is tough! That was harder work than what came next.

I had over 2.5 hours in the Cub this afternoon, and we went up and did all the usual tailwheel stuff. 3-point and wheel landings on grass, then over to Kokomo to do them on concrete, along with some crosswind from both the left and right, too. I looked around at some of the little grass strips, but the winds weren't right to do a couple of them and the ground was wet on a couple others, so I left them for another day. We left the doors wide open and after the workout in the pattern we did some flying around at 500' or so and enjoyed for a few minutes. Tailwheel endorsement isn't much about flying the plane, it's all about the ground. Taxi, takeoff roll and landing roll. So once in awhile it's nice to relax and get out and just fly, too. I've said it before and I'll say it again though, the front seat of that Cub is the most uncomfortable airplane seat I have ever been in. Ever. No leg room, I can use the rudders or the brakes but not both, can't get full aileron travel and use a rudder or a brake at the same time, can only hold your feet in a very limited couple of positions, all your weight is on your tailbone because of how you have to sit, and whomever is flying has their feet rubbing around on your thighs/butt the entire time. It's nice enough for the fellow in the back seat, with enough room, but to instruct in, well, it sort of stinks. It's a trick watching Ty fold up into that front seat at 6'4" or so. For me, it's not height, it's width. ;) (And long enough legs to have to fold up a little too.)

I landed just in time to run home and change out of my sweaty clothes and try to clean up enough to be respectable for a school board meeting that lasted until 8 p.m.

That was a couple of different hats to wear for one day. :)

Tipped

Our resident Runway Checker at Glenndale, Jim, sent out an email today that Glenndale was flooded, so I sent a message out to the whole club about it. Within a few minutes I got a response back from Darren, who runs Sheridan Airport, that's had me kind of laughing off and on throughout the day. Basically he said "The runways are fine, but due to yesterday's winds, be on the lookout for tipped-over toilets all over the ramp, taxiways and runways. The toilet-cleanup crew will be coming to pick up the mess within 24 hours." He also said it's not a pretty picture, but probably not as bad of a picture as I was imagining. Probably not, because the picture I'm imagining is really funny. I posted that on Facebook, and a guy wrote back with how that would look in METAR form, which made me laugh some more. ‎

052335Z AUTO 04004KT 10SM CLR 26/17 A3007 RMK TLTS BLWN OVR CRP EVRYWR

And the poor Ramp Guys thought they had a cruddy job standing out in the heat on the ramp all day baking in the sun. How'd you like to be THAT clean-up crew? ;)

Sheridan Air Show 2011

It was hard getting going this morning since I only got 4 hours of sleep. When I woke up this morning around 5, I just couldn't get back to sleep, which isn't a great way to start a busy day, or much of a cranky mood lifter, but hey, you rolls your dice and you plays your game. :)

Steve left for Sheridan pretty early, and I followed along with Kaylee about 2 hours later. The T-6 is down for annual, so I drove the Jeep down. It Was Hot. It wasn't just kind of hot, it was Holy Cow HOT. Just like last year. It was so hot you had a hard time breathing and keeping hydrated. This year I stayed inside most of the time, wore sunscreen, and I Still got a lot of sun. The ramp was pretty well filled up with airplanes all the way through noon, and then several of them did a mass exodus in order to get out before the airspace closed down for the show.

The show itself was not exactly smooth as butter. We were late getting going, there were mechanical issues, timing issues, canceled acts and time-fillers that didn't end up working out all that well, including one motorcycle guy who didn't have brakes on his motorcycle and drove out onto the runway while I was coming in to land (it wasn't close, don't worry). But it was an otherwise safe event, and most of the general public didn't know the difference on a lot of it anyway. :)

My part was to take the RG and take Greg over to Indy Exec so he could pick up the jet for the show, then come on in and land at some point during the Stearman's routine, whenever Air Boss (Steve) gave me the all clear. During the briefing, the announcer was getting everyone's names and info down, and he included me in the show. The thought is really funny--"And now, ladies and gentlemen, in the Mighty Cessna 172RG, we have Laura Stants!" :) I sneaked out during a Pitts routine and sneaked back in after a Stearman routine...

After the show, when the airport was packed up and put away and everyone had been debriefed, Steve, Kaylee, me and AE decided to go into town and celebrate the end of a long, busy day with air conditioning, a cold beverage, and food. There's a steakhouse in Sheridan that's new, and on the sign it says "Best little steakhouse in Indiana". They may very well be right. That was really, really good stuff.

We had all driven separately, so I was on my way home in the Jeep this evening, with my windows rolled down (because my air conditioning doesn't work), and it was so muggy and stifling hot that you almost couldn't catch a breath. Nothing was moving. Off in the distance I could see the sky was getting darker, and all of a sudden the wind came Blasting in my window, cool and smelling like rain, so hard that my Jeep swerved. I tipped my head back and almost closed my eyes it felt so good on my hot sweaty head. :) As I got closer and closer to Kokomo, the lightning show started up, and looking ahead I had the thought "I wouldn't care to try that in an airplane." I was on Hwy 31 when suddenly the sky opened. Rain was driven so hard sideways I had to shut my windows and I had to fight my Jeep to stay straight. I turned off onto the back roads to get home, and now the wind gusts were upwards of 50 mph according to the radio, and at one point the rain came down in such a sheet that I couldn't see. I slowed way down, and was startled when a tree branch with a bunch of leaves went right in front of my windshield. Then came the hail. While I was trying to drive, my phone went off and I saw it was Steve. I answered quickly, just in case it was important, and it was Kaylee telling me they'd stopped at a gas station because of the hail, and telling me to be careful. I told her that to be careful I needed to concentrate on driving, not talking. ;) Coming up our street, a neighbor's tree had fallen across the road, blocking access, so I had to drive around the block and come in the other direction. Big ole tree. That had to be the worst storm I've driven in for a very long time. I hope the Jeep doesn't have hail damage...

Long day, busy day, hot day, done day!

Cranky

I think I officially met my end-of-patience. I am cranky. Had a pretty good day, but am cranky anyway, which just means I need a little space and quiet to recenter. :)

I flew in the Champ for another two hours on a nice weather day, which is always enjoyable. We had ham and some "good things to go with that" for Glenndale lunch today, after which I went to Kokomo for a flight in the 172 for an hour. I swear it took the guy longer to fuel up the 172 afterwards than it took for us to go fly. ;) From there on out it was a race to try to get things done before they closed. I have been too busy to be be able to do my usual work stuff, which means I'm behind and things are sort of piling up, and I'm not available to do them during normal work hours when things are open. So after my Kokomo flight, I took the Citabria around quickly to various grass strips to give myself a 20-minute break, then cracked down on work. I made it to Kaylee's swim lessons place and got her signed up 15 minutes before they closed on the last available time at the last available day to do it. I ran over to the computer store and got a computer picked up for Steve 10 minutes before they closed for the day. I sent off emails, texts, and made phone calls about plans for tomorrow's air show. The house looked like a disaster area, so I cleaned up cat throw-up, did dishes, and laundry, and straightened. I entered time sheets for May billing for the airport, which I should get out Right Now. But won't. And yadda yadda yadda. *sigh*

Poor Kaylee. She's being so patient.

Tomorrow is our Sheridan Airport Car/Air Show. Show cars arriving starting 9 a.m., air show starts at 1 p.m. Giddy-up.

Quickie

Flew in the Champ for 2 hours this morning, and with the cooler temps and the open window and the non-howling winds, it was a much more pleasant day of flying. :) After lunch I had about an hour in the 172 in the pattern, then over to the RG to do a little complex and airplane checkout stuff for another 1.7. It doesn't sound like much, but almost 5 hours of flight time plus all the pre and post stuff keeps you going from 9 a.m. until I was pulling in at 6:30 p.m. I'm tired today!

On my way home I stopped at the pool and picked up info on swim lessons for Kaylee. Of course tomorrow is the last day of registration for the first session of swimming. It poses a problem as I'm really busy instructing this summer, too, and the lessons take up every morning for two weeks. We'll have to see.

Kaylee enjoyed going to a sewing class with Judy and Maggie twice this week, using the sewing machines, practicing various stitches, controlling it, etc. It's sure a good skill for her to get some practice with. :)

Dragging Around

Today was a taildragger day. It was supposed to be a nice day, blue skies and light winds. Well, it got half of it right anyway--the sky was blue. ;) We had a fairly nice morning to start with, winds were a direct crosswind but they were only at 7 knots. I still had us take the Champ over to Indian Hills where it was pretty much down the runway to do the first handful of takeoffs and landings. Round two after we got some gas was after lunch, and that was the end of Mother Nature being very nice. Winds were 270-280 at 17 gusting up to 21-24 knots, which isn't insignificant in the Champ, let alone when it's a direct crosswind. So we took off out of Glenndale and headed back to Indian Hills for a few more into the wind, then tried Kokomo to start in on some concrete takeoffs and landings, but that was just not worth it for anybody's Day One of tailwheel training. Coming back into Glenndale was fun too. :) I had somebody else scheduled for their first flight ever, and it was supposed to be in the Champ about 90 minutes afterwards, so I called and canceled them. Today's winds were tricky enough for an existing tailwheel pilot, let alone a student tailwheel pilot, but for a complete newbie it would have been a pointless exercise...so I called it a day.

That's when I learned that today was the last day of school for the Tipton crew, so there was a celebratory dinner at Outback. I ordered my steak medium rare like always, and like almost always it was overdone. But this time it was so well done I couldn't even hardly chew it. So this time I sent it back. Even though I hadn't gotten my food by the time everyone else was already done, if we were going to pay for a steak, I at least wanted to enjoy it. I did get an extra potato to bring home out of it, and I got extra little lobster tails too, and THOSE were delicious.

It was another hot one today, and bumpy too, but in the Champ you can fly around with the window open. Win. ;)