Tuesday's Time

Yesterday I attempted both exercise (I now have a pulled muscle in my lower back for that effort) ;) and chocolate, and neither improved my mood in the least. But after lunch today I went up and played safety pilot in the Cheyenne for several instrument approaches, and it's hard for me to stay in a bad mood after flying on a warm, sunny day. ;)

Kaylee said that she wanted a shamrock shake from McDonald's, and I told her it was too late, I was already home. She said "No fair!" I said "Yeah, well, you know Rule #1: Life isn't fair." She sputtered "Well, it SHOULD be." She didn't like it when I grinned at her and said "I have now come full circle in life, and I'm quite sure that your grandma is laughing her head off somewhere."

Steam

I am so stinking angry right now. All day I have been inwardly fuming, through flights and lunch with friends, math homework and dinner, my mind always goes back to this, and there is no question, I am Honked. I am angry enough that when I came unexpectedly upon one of the persons, the ONLY reason I did not stick my finger in his face and back him into a hangar wall was because there were three other people nearby and it's poor business practice and poor social etiquette to start yelling at someone in public. My anger is more cumulative than just today's action, but when somebody you've worked with a lot, done a lot for, helped out as much as possible, when they turn around and try to basically steal from you, get away with whatever they can, use you and even flat out stab you in the back, whether it's because they're stupid, immature, or simply self-centered, it's obviously infuriating. And this type of thing hasn't just happened once, with one person, but over and over, and it's usually the same age group. Two of the persons, after taking everything they could get out of us to further themselves and their goals, left us in the lurch on a couple of things in a pretty big way, and then proceeded to have the gall to ask to build up their twin time for free by going on trips with me. One I politely said no to. The other is just lucky he didn't ask me in person. I have had it.
In a weak attempt to lighten the mood, Kaylee's doing fine, Steve's off at a meeting, we're staying busy, the poor T-6 looks bare, I took a student cross-country flight to Monticello today, yadda yadda pass the Tylenol and maybe a blood pressure pill. I've felt my blood pressure breaking 100 all day. ;)

Back to Monday

Ever since my 9 a.m. every morning flight student has moved on, I've been able to cheat in the mornings. I'll get Kaylee up at 6:15 or so, get her breakfast going and get her wrapped up comfortably in her blanket at the table, and then I go lie back down. She gets herself completely ready for school on her own, and when she's done she will come into my room and lie down with me and snuggle until it's time to leave for school. Some mornings we'll lay there and talk for awhile, and some mornings she'll pass right back out on me, and I do too, until Steve comes in and says it's time to go. It's a nice way to spend a few minutes in the morning, and it's motivation for her to get ready quickly, because the faster she gets ready the longer she gets to go cuddle. She won't always want to do that, I know, maybe not even for much longer at all, but for now, it's sweet, and we both enjoy it. :)

It's a quiet flight week for me. I only have I think two student flights scheduled and no trips. Well, two trips to Muncie and back, but that doesn't exactly count. ;) Steve, on the other hand, has just been buried in some more computer work, so he's been up late working and starting in early and trying to catch up and keep up with what he needs to get done, along with everything else. This morning he was on the phone for so long trying to get a problem worked out that his arm muscle cramped up when he went to put the phone down. Considering how much he's usually on the phone anyway, that's pretty impressive!

So we'd been having this issue with not being able to get the altitude preselect to work in the C-340. The guy who flew the plane up to us from Florida couldn't get it to work, the guy who checked me out in the plane couldn't, the manual didn't say, I tried everything I could think of, and nothing. We found out we may have to get replacement cards from Garmin that didn't come with the plane in order to update a bunch of stuff that might then make it work, there could be a problem with the connection, which was really common for that, all sorts of stuff. We took the plane to Muncie for some avionics work, and when the bill came in it basically said "tested the preselect altitude feature by hitting the VS and ALT buttons simultaneously. Altitude preselect tested okay both climbing and descending." Huh.

In a related note, this afternoon I took up the 340, with Steve and our new guy, Larry. While I was up, I tested the altitude preselect, and whaddya know, it's miraculously started working. They fixed it! I texted the owner and said "Just tested the autopilot, and the preselect works just great now. Muncie adjusted the thermonuclear coupling on the port side, and magically that did it. (That would be the loose nut sitting in the pilot's seat.) ;)" You know, all they woulda had to do is TELL me how it worked, smart alecks...

I am glad it works though. :)

As I was taxiing out to go take off, it occurred to me that it was really windy, gusty, and probably fairly turbulent up there. So I warned Larry that it was going to be a bumpy ride, and asked if he was okay with that. Steve asked if he'd ever been in a small plane before, and he had...once. I didn't stay up long, and kept asking if he was doing okay back there, and fortunately he did fine. Coming in to land I ended up with a 60 degree crosswind gusting to 32 knots, and Steve offered to take the landing for me so he could show me how it should be done, but when I offered it to him then, he said the only way I'd ever learn how to do it myself is to do it myself. Whatta guy. ;)

I made it to the store for the first time in awhile. Even Kaylee was scrounging around whining "There's nothing to eeeeeeat around here!" She eats Goldfish all the time, so this time I swapped them out with "Whole Grain" goldfish. She opens the box, eats one and says "Hey! These don't taste the same!" Reads around the box, and says "HEY! These are WHOLE GRAIN!" Busted. I told her we had a whole box of them and she was gonna eat them. I tried some, and actually they were fine, just not as cheesy. She'll get used to them if she doesn't mentally block herself with it...

Watch this, full screen...the link to a full screen is HERE, or if you just won't, here's an embedded version. :) Loved it. Then and now, the men and the machines... There's a shot close to the end, of the Aeroshell team inverted, coming down the back side of a maneuver, and one of the guys just slides right up into a slot like he was on a rail. Makes my eyebrows go up, anyway. I wish I could get that smooth just going right side up. :)

Saturday

The morning I can sleep in uninterrupted and I wake up at 7:45. Not cool. ;)

About twenty of us met up in town to eat dinner tonight at Martino's. We were there for three hours, and I ate way too much food, which meant when I finally got home, my body was using so much effort to digest that I couldn't keep my brain lit. ;) I had to take a nap, and I was asleep for almost 2 hours, waking up at 11 pm. Now that's not a good plan at all.

Tomorrow looked sunny, clear and warm, so I was going to toss Steve in the front of the T-6 (or he toss me in the back, whichever you prefer), and we were going to go up for just a little bit before the plane gets taken down for a little while, and get a couple TOLS in for practice. Unfortunately the warm and sunny forecast also added breezy, giving us a 40 degree crosswind at 25 gusting to 35 knots, at times with a 15 knot gust factor. That was not exactly what I had in mind. Ah well, the best laid plans of mice and pilots... :)

Unwind

Happy Friday!

It was a quiet day, with weather too bad to do much but hang out. That's fine with me. Since we'd just finished billing and I didn't feel like entering the next batch of time sheets yet, I decided to keep right on hanging out and doing nothing important.

While I was at it, watching a little TV and catching up online, I decided to put up some photos from yesterday with the Mustang. Jon took those, and Justin took the below two last Nov. It feels a little narcissistic to put up a bunch of pictures of yourself, but...I like having them, and it's not really for anybody else; it's a special snapshot into a small window of life. I have something where I can forever be 39 and sitting in the front of a running P-51. :)

Speaking of 39, some folks have asked what I'll do for my 40th, and I'm thinking it's the same thing we did for Steve's 50th. Go out to dinner and say "Hey, Happy Birthday!" ;) Winter is a hard time of year to do much that involves travel or cost, and that's just life. :)

And speaking of travel, Chuck, we'll miss you this week! Don't get dysentary, and I hope your captain isn't a new Italian hire. Don't forget your floatie, your single dollar bills and your Tylenol PMs. Most of all, have fun. ;)

Mustang and Quayle

I'd had this particularly dark, ugly dream last night that left me feeling all weird and draggy when I woke up, so I was moving kind of slow this morning. It was supposed to be rainy anyway today, I guessed my student wasn't going to be able to go, and I figured the morning plan of running up the Mustang wouldn't make it either--don't want to do that in the rain and have to wipe her all down. :) But once I started feeling human again, I checked out the radar, and it just wasn't moving that fast. I figured I had about an hour and a half before it got to the airport. I can do that. ;)

Jon started pulling airplanes out of the way while I drove out there, and after one last quick check of the radar to make sure the rain hadn't filled in or speeded up on me, we pulled out the 51 and chocked it. I was sort of expecting it to not want to start, because the Six had been a little unhappy; it took a moment to think about firing, but once it did, it ran perfectly smoothly. Music.

It took a while to get up to temperature, but once it did I decided to run it up out on the ramp...I could say I did that so I wouldn't blast the hangars behind me. Wouldn't want to do that, right? Would you buy that? ;) Steve Cusick took the below little clip with his iPhone of me heading out there.



I was going to be all mature for once, but the truth is, that thing is still just daggone impressive to sit behind, even on the ground. I have a hard time putting it into words sometimes I guess. Anyway, we got the planes all put away and were driving out of the airport to lunch when the first sprinkles started hitting the windshield of the car. Right on time... Jon took some photos, said he'd send them to me late tonight, and I have one from AE too, so I may stick some up.

Kaylee had a field trip today, was gone all day to go to Dan Quayle's Museum up in Huntington, IN. The "Vice Presidential Learning Center", to be precise. :) I'm not sure what they did all day, but I know part of it had to do with the Constitution. Kaylee got to play a "state" for something they were teaching the kids, and they got to go to the "Sunken Gardens" as well. She had a blast and was all hyped up when she got off the bus today, bouncing off the walls. They made it back to the school with just enough time to goof around, had no homework tonight, and thanks to planning ahead, she did homework last night that wasn't due until Friday, so tonight she's free and clear for once, and quite happy about it!

Now, if Steve got a lot done and had a good day too, we'll have had a Family Trifecta of a Fun Day. :)

Briefly

The original plans for the day were replaced with better plans for the day. Steve, Chuck, Nathan and I went over to the Cincinnati area in the Cheyenne, paying Gumby a visit and um, being supportive. Things are looking good...nice shop. On the way home, we happened to be over Muncie right at lunch time, so of course we needed to stop and nourish ourselves from the hard work of the day thus far.

I'd gotten less than 4 hours of sleep last night, so I was dragging most of the day, until finally I was able to fall asleep for an hour or so at home while Kaylee did her math homework. The plan is to get to sleep earlier tonight so that 6 a.m. wakeup call won't come quite so early.

Oh, for the moms out there, the equipment failure on the St. Louis trip was really not that bad. I still had basic instrumentation to keep the shiny side up, the right altitude and such. I just thought it was really ironic, all those TV screens in there going blank at once, the odds of that with all the redundancy in the airplane and such. It was a busy time to decide to poop out on me, and just...ironic. But yes, it's going to the avionics shop next week for a few things, including to figure out what happened there and hopefully prevent a future occurrence. :)

It was a really nice day again for late February. If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have had another fun thing or two to do. But why do I get the feeling that we are not out of this winter, which hasn't even really hit, yet? :/

Wonky Times Two

One flying segment, one Kaylee segment. In chronological order, flying comes first.

The weather today was nicer than it was supposed to be, but it was still cloudy and blustery, making it a nice, slow flight over to St. Louis (it's all a matter of perspective, but slow for that plane, anyway.) I dropped off one fellow, who had a great time on the flight, taking video of the take off and landing and taking random photos of the clouds and the Arch when we got close. I was on the ground about half an hour, and when my return passenger arrived, we got set up to leave. Clearance delivery gave me something weird, then after I read it all back and started looking for it, they told me they had the wrong thing, and gave me a more normal departure, but even that they messed up, telling me to go to Decatur, which is "Alpha Xray Charlie". Except AXC is Adders, not Decatur. If I hadn't been there before, I'd have been a little confused, but I knew what they wanted even if they didn't. ;) Anyway, I took off, they did their usual routing me around, keeping me low thing, and then they told me to intercept a leg of the departure with my current heading and continue the departure as given. Fine. I then hear a "ding" over the headset, and the system says "Terrain System Unavailable". Okay. Next thing I see is "No GPS Position" on the G500 screens, both left and right. The synthetic vision went away, the groundspeed got a red "x" over it. I look over at the G530W, and it says "No GPS Position". So I look over at the 430--and it says "No GPS Position". It's pointless, but I look over at the Aspen, and of course it's got nothing either. The Avidyne has no navigation either. Naturally--when the two GPSs go down, everything attached to them go down. At this time I'm climbing up an altitude I'm only 1000' away from, they switched my frequency, I'm trying to intercept a leg I can no longer see, and it happens to be windy, bumpy, and of course IMC. 'Cause this wouldn't want to happen when it's VFR and quiet up at altitude or something, right? ;) I pulled out my iPad, went ahead and set the autopilot up on "heading" bug, but I'd been routed around and wasn't on anything in particular, so intercepting an imaginary line from where I was took a second, and I wasn't very far away so I needed to get it pretty quickly. I found the nearest VOR, got the frequency for that and plugged it into the 530, and then as I was getting ready to let ATC know I'd need to change the way I was navigating, it all came back, and it stayed on the rest of the flight. Good times. ;) Coming back into Kokomo we got blown around and rained on and had to shoot the VOR approach in because the ILS was down. Some 30 knot ground winds made for a nice blustery approach up at 2500' at whatever the winds were up there, and finally we were down, wet but early thanks to a booking tailwind that had me at almost 260 knots for awhile there, and the passenger slept through most of it, and best of all, the XM tunes worked the entire time, both ways, just fine. ;)

By the time the plane was put up, I made it home just in time to tell Steve about it, since it's going back for avionics anyway and now we have something else for them to look into, and then Kaylee and I loaded up and went back to her school for a Willy Wonka Party.

The school set up this Willy Wonka party, and it was a cute idea. You had to have a "Golden Ticket" to get in, and a woman at the door collected all the kids' laminated golden tickets. They had about a dozen stations set up with games all related to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" stuff. They had Violet's station where you had to blow a bubble with bubble gum and you'd get candy, Augustus Gloop's station where you ate a donut hanging off of a string without using your hands, etc. There was "lickable wallpaper", sheets of candy dots on the wall that you could lick and eat a dot. My favorite was a chocolate fountain, and each kid got a plate with little marshmallows, pineapple and pretzels on it, and a toothpick, and they were able to dip all their stuff into the chocolate fountain. There was a balloon popping station, and inside each balloon was a paper that said "good egg" or "bad egg" (aka Veruca), and if you got good egg you got red licorice and bad egg got you black licorice. You could shoot at a "tv" screen with a soft dart gun (ala Mike Teavee), there were several craft tables, and then Kaylee's favorite, there was a belching contest. Yep. The other kids would drink Sprite in order to get some carbeuration and bubbles with which to belch, but Kaylee didn't need to. Even with the other kids drinking soda, she still beat them with her self-made burp. The contest was for longest burp. There you go, I taught her a skill that she could use to impress her friends and win a lollypop at a Willy Wonka party. We're all so proud. ;)

Watching her try to eat that donut without her hands was really funny--her face kept getting redder and redder as she started laughing harder and harder, but finally she got it. Then popping the ballon--she tried stomping on it to no avail, so she sat on it and tried bouncing up and down on it, but they'd left plenty of room in there, didn't blow them up very much, so as she would bounce on it, the balloon would warp out underneath her and form this long skinny squash-looking shape, and we were both laughing our heads off. She had fun with a friend, and with me, and it was an hour and a half well spent. The only thing I thought could have been improved on was that at the end, the adults left the "lickable wallpaper" and chocolate fountain unsupervised. That is never a good plan. Kids were supposed to pick a dot and do that, but some started licking a whole bunch of them, which is gross, and some kids started eating out of the chocolate fountain, sticking food they'd half eaten in there to get more chocolate, their fingers, etc., and that's just disgusting. It was at the end of the evening that the adults left the stations, and we were already done, fortunately, but that was kinda nasty. ;) Otherwise, it was a neat idea, a fun family thing for the kids to be able to do on a Tuesday night out of the blue. They also ran the movie, but Kaylee had homework to do (which she's still working on at 10:30 pm), so we came on home. She had a great time though. :)

Here are a few photos. The first one is of the F-18 that landed at Evansville the other day-I just got the photo downloaded. The rest are from tonight. Busy day...

Mondays Aren't Always Bad

For Kaylee's last day off here on Presidents' Day, she slept in so late I walked into her room, flipped on the light, smothered her with kisses and told her to get her lazy butt up. :)

We had a pretty large gathering of Indian Hills and Glenndale folks at lunch today, then went our own ways. Steve went to go do some work, some of the guys went off to work on putting an airplane back together, some went to work, some had errands to run. I went out to Kokomo, where Jon & Cusick (easier than saying Steve C) helped me pull out the C-340, the Cheyenne, and the T-6. The Six needed to be run up, and it actually did need that--it took a few minutes to settle in and run smoothly and warm up completely. After this, the standard rule applies--if you're going to go to all that effort to pull it out and start it up, you might as well take it up. I wasn't up very long; it ran great, felt like home.

We went over to Frankfort and met up with a friend, had dinner at a new place, ate too much, and had an enjoyable evening.

The nice day is over; tomorrow it's back to work in the rain, clouds and wind, to St. Louis...

Yawn

For a long time, years, since Devon, I haven't dreamed. Well, technically I dreamed, since they say everyone does, I just didn't usually remember them. Lately I have been having the constant, weird, vivid dreams like I used to have from childhood on through Devon, that feel like I'm dreaming all night long, and when I wake up I remember them, they're really weird, I'm still tired even after sleeping a lot, and my jaw aches, apparently from clenching my teeth. Some are nightmares, most are just...weird. None are tied into anything I've watched or read lately. It's like a switch came back on. I'm not sure I appreciate it. At first it was a novelty since it's been a good 12 years since I remembered dreams other than the rare one here and there. It's not a novelty any more-I'm just tired. ;) I slept in until almost 11 am this morning, which isn't like me any more, but even after I got up I was dragging, felt like I'd been up all night fighting a battle.

Tomorrow is a vacation day for Kaylee, and I haven't heard that I'm supposed to be flying to St. Louis tomorrow, either. So I'm not sure what all is on the table for tomorrow, but at least I don't have to get up at 6 a.m.. ;)

Another Year...

I needed to get my 2nd Class Medical renewed, so after Glenndale's Fried Chicken Friday lunch, I took off in the Suburban and headed to Indianapolis. I was visiting a medical examiner that I hadn't been to since 2003. He's a very old gentlman, with a German accent, a real sweetheart. and he not only remembered me, he'd kept a thank you note that I'd written him on behalf of Kaylee when she was 2 years old and he'd given her a white teddy bear when she came to his office with me. Like I said, he's a real gentleman and sweetheart.

One of the first things he had me do was weigh in, and he had his assistant do the honors. It's one of those old scales with the slider you move until it balances. I saw what number she put it on, and she started sliding, and I laughed and said "You're going to need to start higher than that." So she keeps going, and then says "Wow! No way! You don't LOOK like you weigh nearly that much!" I see she has that great German bedside manner. :D I started laughing, I couldn't help it--you can either take that as an insult or a complement. No need to be insulted that somebody thinks you look good for what you weigh. ;) In my defense, I was wearing two layers of shirt/sweatshirt, heavy boot shoes, and I'd just come from a large lunch...that ought to account for 1.5 pounds, right? ;) It was funny.

A bit later, the doctor wanted me to squeeze his hand as hard as I could. He shouldn't put it that way, because I started to give him a big ole squeeze, and I have strong hands. I stopped early when I realized he didn't actually mean as hard as you could. He also had me push and pull against him with my arms, legs, etc. He turned to his assistant, who was in the room the whole time to make sure nothing untoward happened, and said "this is a tough lady". Oops. At least I didn't knock him over.

He said I had the blood pressure of a child, but I thought it was high. It was 108/60. I know what it was-I'd just eaten and drank a lot. That always raises my blood pressure up over the 100 mark. ;)

I didn't wear my contacts to this, just had my glasses with me. He remembered me from before when I had 20/20 vision, and didn't believe me when I said my eyes weren't as good any more. So I get up to read the chart, and I actually can still read the 20/20 line (which you have to do for 2nd Class) with both eyes. Then I do my left eye, and I'll be darned, I can still see the 20/20 line there too. We get to my right eye, and it isn't happening. I say "Nope, but that's why I brought my glasses." He practically begged me to try again, to concentrate hard, to focus. I did this, saw a letter or two, he said "keep going!" So I sighed and recited the line from memory. Near vision was the same. I was fine with both and left, but right...no. But my memory hasn't failed yet, and by that time he was all excited for me. So he removed the "glasses required" restriction off my medical today. I am a bad girl. Particularly since I'm going to be wearing contacts anyway. At least I can still see 20/20 with both eyes, so even if I didn't wear glasses, as long as nothing pokes out my left eye, I'd still be in decent shape. ;)

I got this medical when I was 39 11/12ths, because as long as you're under 40 years old, your 3rd Class Medical is good for 5 years. Once you turn 40, any 3rd Class Medical you get after that is only valid for 2 years. However, the 2nd Class Medical, which I have to have in order to get paid for flying in other than instruction, things like flying for MBros, and if I were to be given fuel for flying at a little air show or something, is only good for one year. This stinks, because here I have an option to have a valid medical until I'm 45 years old. But instead, I have to "risk" it every year to get that 2nd Class. Not that I feel like I have much to worry about yet. No medications, no health issues, low blood pressure...the biggest problem looming is having to get the glasses restriction put back on. ;) But still, honestly, I don't know any decent pilot who likes single point of failure situations in aviation, and the medical is exactly that. My entire livelihood and future hangs on that one piece of paper. I hate that, even though nothing's wrong yet. Maybe I'll get to be one of those 90 year old women still instructing and pulling out a little taildragger on a nice spring day to go for a relaxing low and slow flight. I can hope. :)

This evening Steve took Kaylee and me out to eat at Pastarrific for a delayed Valentine's Day dinner, because the actual V-Day around here has every restaurant packed out with about a 2-hour waiting list most of the time. Nah. So we waited for a nice evening to ourselves when it wouldn't be so crowded. I got this thing that Nathan & Tre introduced me to, Chef Jack's Seafood thingy. They don't have it on the menu any more with the flaky crust on top like a seafood pot pie, but the chef made it for me that way anyway, and it is killer. I only ate half of it, and saved the second half for later. Steve always eats my leftovers, and usually that's good, but this time I wrote "Leave Laura's Leftovers aLone" on my takeout box. ;)

I'm glad the weekend is here--I don't have any hard and fast plans, and Kaylee is out of school on Monday too. I'm going to enjoy relaxing a bit and spending the usual weekend day picking up the house, then see what trouble I can get myself into...

Thursday Things

I'm sitting here in Evansville, and just watched an F-18 do an overhead break and come in for a landing. Nice. If it wasn't such a grey, scuddy day, it would have felt like summer for a minute there. :). He came in to park at the same FBO I am at, and I was hoping they'd park him next to me for a nice photo op, but alas, his plane's across the ramp.

The trip today was a bit last-minute, and the plane was over at Muncie getting avionics worked on. Not really a problem, was able to have them stop what they were doing, and the plan was to pick it up this morning, go back to Kokomo, eat lunch, then go to Evansville. It was supposed to be IFR, but decent IFR of 700 and 3. It lied. The whole morning it was foggy, less than 1/4 mile and 200', so Chuck drove me over to Muncie via a new ground route I hadn't previously seen, ;), I waited over there for awhile, and finally took off when the weather said I had 400' and 2 miles. It lied again...by the time I got to Kokomo, it was 250' and a mile or so. But I was just grateful it was above minimums (and that the minimums had just been lowered below 300' again recently), because I did not want to have to go back to Muncie and miss this flight, which Had to be in Evansville by a certain time or forget it. I hand flew it for the practice, and I still can't get over how easy it is with glass. People should not learn on this stuff and then go try to do it with steam gauges in actual at first. The autopilot chases it a little and usually stays a dot off-course, but it'll get you there. I let George the autopilot do the ILS into KEVV after I hand flew the ILS into KOKK. Mine was better. :D

When we landed at Evansville, I was getting ready to shut down, and my passenger started to head for the door. I said "Just a second; they are getting out the red carpet to put by the door." He paused, stared, and said "How am I supposed to act with that? Do they know I haul poop for a living? Can my wife come see this?" Cracked me up...

The F-18 pilot was walking back towards his plane, but on the other side of the fence was a man calling out to him, so he went over to him, talked to him for a few minutes, and handed him a sticker or badge. They were talking through an 8' tall chain link fence with triple strands of barbed wire on top of it, reached through and shook hands, and it was kind of a neat picture. The pilot almost makes it to his airplane, then he gets called over to a place along the fence farther away where there are three adults and three children. He again stops to talk to all of them, hand out stuff and shake hands through the fence before he gets in his F-18 and heads off to S. Dakota. It was kind of neat to see. I spoke to him for a few minutes; he was a very nice man, older than the usual fighter jocks, and a good ambassador.

Our flight home was uneventful, the skies were clearing back home finally, and he made it there in perfect time for his meeting and home in perfect time for his next meeting, something he flat out could not have done either with airlines or a car. And aviation wins another round. :)

Kaylee is working on a homework assignment which asked whether or not kids think they should do chores. She told me she chose that she thinks kids should do chores, partly because she thinks everyone else will say that they shouldn't have to. That's my difficult girl. ;) She also had to come up with four reasons why, write a paragraph about each reason, then end with a conclusion and a "call to action". So she wrote (on her own) that kids should do chores because it teaches them responsibility, it teaches them how to care for a house properly for some day when they do it on their own, that it is fair because they are a member of the family who needs to help out as well, and that sometimes they can get paid for chores which helps them learn how to handle money better too, and if they learn to handle money responsibly when they are young, it will help them be better at handling money when they grow up. I thought that was pretty good!

Well, today was supposed to be a day off, and instead I was on a flying job from 10 a.m. through to about 6 p.m., but it ended up being a nice three flights, good day, productive, and one of the enjoyable trip days. Plus it was clear blue sky and warm sun above 3500', which sure beat the gray scud down here. ;)

Strange

Kaylee came home from school in an excellent mood, having only 3 math problems left to do and lots of chocolate to eat.

Sitting in the living room, Kaylee said one of her classmates today said that she really liked Chris Brown. Kaylee said "You like a guy who thought it was all manly to beat up his girlfriend?" The friend said "Oh well. He was probably drunk." Kaylee's response was "Like that makes it okay!" Yikes... I'm with Miranda Lambert who publicly said she couldn't figure out why Hollywood and the music industry was pretending like he was a great guy and that it never happened. There are young women who are "tweeting" things like "He can hit me anytime, I'd do anything to be with him!" Ugh!! I said to Kaylee "PLEASE have more self respect than that", and she rolled her eyes and said "Do you REALLY think I'd let someone get away with that?" I don't think so, but it's easier to say than do. And man, the conversations you have to have with your kids when they are still children. Here she is having conversations about domestic abuse in school with another girl who thinks it's no big deal. Did I say "Ugh" yet? Parenting stuff is way scarier than about anything else I can think of. What a bunch of landmines are out there!

Flew for .6 this afternoon, pushing the plane away right when the cold rain started to fall. We made it just in time to keep from getting very wet. :) Tonight we may get a few little thunderstorms. Again, very weird weather, going from snow yesterday to cold rain today to thunderstorms tonight. In February. My student today said that my affliction was catching. I said "What do you mean?" and she said "I now agree with you that February is the worst, longest month out of the whole year. I don't know how that is, but it IS." Yup. (Actually, this year hasn't been bad. But still...)

Pink

This morning when Kaylee got to the breakfast table, she found a Valentine's Day glass with hearts filled with strawberry milk, a fuzzy bear holding a heart, and some chocolates for Valentine's Day. It made her smile on an early Tuesday morning, which makes me smile. :)

I scheduled myself to see "Red Tails" this Thursday, only to end up with a business trip instead. I have a student flight tomorrow during it, and I'm going out of town on Friday, too. I wonder if the movie will even still be in the theaters by next week. I hope so, and if so I'll watch it Tuesday or Wednesday (another trip Monday or Tuesday), but if not I'll just end up watching it at home off of Zune or something. Big theater would be better for Merlin noises, but...sometimes ya do what you can do.

I talked to a gent today who is new to T-6 flying and wants to get his FAST card; he went to the Elkhart formation "clinic" and couldn't even hardly get anybody to let him ride in their back seat, let alone get any training in. He spent the whole time on the ground watching the experienced guys go fly together. He was dismayed. Color me shocked. ;) Anyway, he's not from very far away, and we plan to get together to do a little flying when the weather gets better. Another T-6 nearby could be handy regardless of what I do or don't do with NATA.

Hope you all had a nice manufactured holiday determining you must express your undying love today. I mean, "Happy Valentine's Day!" ;)

Monday

I was right--as soon as Kaylee got her hands on Iris, she didn't want to let go. She loves asking that thing the silliest questions. It's one way to keep her entertained for a long period of time. ;)

Kaylee's school has an online system by which we can see her grades, every single day, on every single quiz, homework assignment, and test, that same day. You can also pull up the school calendar, every homework assignment they are given, every disciplinary action, and you can get email alerts sent to you if they get below a certain grade on anything. This all is awful handy as a parent, as it allows you to keep up and not wait for report cards to know where your kid stands, be able to help them out where they seem to be faltering, etc. By the same token, Steve and I both agree we'd have hated to have that as kids. Of course for many years, my mom was the secretary to the principal of my school, so there wasn't anything I could hide anyway. ;)

This morning I ran the 340 over to Muncie to get some avionics work done on it. I'm looking forward to that--being able to have the altitude preselect work, having the NEXRAD show up on the screen, and a laundry list of other items too. The other important one to me, the music interrupt, Kenny said Garmin didn't allow that option, so it may not be a legal/certifiable change for him to make. Which just means I may start going VFR more often so I can turn the radio off. Yep, it bugs me that much. It's pointless to have it at all when you can never hear more than a few notes in a row of any given song. Yes, I'm done complaining for now, Steve. ;)

Anyway, none of our airplanes were available to come get me at Muncie, so Chuck and Sam drove over to Muncie to come get me. I think that may only be the second time I've ever driven to or from Muncie in all the years I've lived here. :) It was a beautiful day, cold but pretty, and like I always say, I can handle cold as long as the sun is at least shining!

After lunch I took a student on a dual cross-country to Crawfordsville for 1.7. There's a lot going on in a cross-country, lots to remember and figure out the first few times. Folks that are used to going from A to B can forget that, but it can be overwhelming at first. I kind of enjoy taking students on cross-countries, because it's often the first time they've ever left our little Kokomo/Glenndale area in all their flight training thus far, and it's something new, different and exciting for them. It also pushes their landings, because the runways are different widths and lengths and look different to them, the runway directions and numbers are different, everything is different, they don't have their "markers" for the pattern; it's just good practice. I think more than 3 hours dual and 5 hours solo should be required, well, not required, we don't need more rules, but done anyway, because most people who get their license within the minimums of that aren't real comfortable doing much of anything but local flying. They do one/two short cross-country(ies), one long cross-country, and after two/three solo cross-countries they're supposed to be good enough at taking trips to go forth as Private Pilots, load up their families and go somewhere far away. Eh.

I ended up taking a big ole nap this afternoon and I'm still sleepy tonight. So I'm going to take the hint from myself and get some more sleep. :)

Hints of Spring-to-be

Apparently February is when people start poking their heads up out of the ice and start planning on their Spring aviation activities. In the last few days, all in a row, we've been contacted about the Bonanza formation clinic, the Doolitle Reunion photo ship thing, and today the Indy Air Show. It's nice--it's a breath of fresh air when it was single-digits cold today. :)

The Bonanza fella had asked me to join them, was disappointed that I couldn't, and I can't help but smile at the irony that there is a formation group that asks me to participate and would like to send me to Texas for their formation card, but I don't have a plane to fly with them; whereas the plane I do have to fly formation in, I don't have the group. Sort of funny. :) Well, usually the Bonanza guys come in March or early April, and this year it'll be a little later than that, but hopefully the weather will hold out for them this time, since we've had trouble with Spring rains and low ceilings the last couple years. I look forward to having them back here. Good guys.

Kaylee and I made Valentine's Day cupcakes today, white with red spinkles in the batter and pink frosting with red and white heart sprinkles to put on top. They're pretty tasty, too. ;) She and Steve played guitar for awhile today too, and we did a little housekeeping and chore action. A little more to do tonight, and on to the work week...

Iris

I downloaded "Iris" to my Droid yesterday, on a whim. If you've seen commercials for "Siri", that's the iPhone version of the lady that answers all your questions and talks to you off your phone. Iris is the beta Droid version of Siri. It took me until this morning in the shower to realize that Iris is Siri backwards. I'm bright like that. ;) Steve asked me last night how much longer I was going to talk to my phone. She needs a smoother, better voice, but other than that, it's actually pretty cool. It'll find the nearest anything using Google maps, so when I said "What's the nearest restaurant" while sitting in my house, it pulled up the Wendy's, and provided directions. It's not perfect yet. When I asked it "Where can I go to learn to fly", it said "Can't you do that from where you live?" If you ask "Where's the nearest airport", THAT it can do. :) Iris will spout back any facts on music, why the sky is blue, what was voted the best vodka, and most anything else you can think of to ask. What it doesn't know, it comes up with a sarcastic or funny comment for. So, I've been having a little fun with Iris. Kaylee will freak out when I show it to her. I may never get my phone back. ;)

Break

We made it! It's Friday, every trip went off almost spotlessly, the plane performed well, the weather ranged from good enough to really good, nothing super challenging, and everybody's happy. I flew so much that my lower back ached when I'd get home and even my Bose headset was making my head hurt. That was something like 11 hours flight time from Wednesday 10:30 a.m. through to Thursday at 9 p.m. Not a record, but a lot. A couple of these were important flights, the kind that once you say you can make it, you need to try to make it as long as it doesn't cross your safety lines, and if it does cross your safety lines and you have to cancel after you said you could do it, it's not a good thing. Better than putting yourself and others in harm's way, of course, though. Those can be a little more tense, but fortunately it all just came together really well. Now it's Friday night and I'm kicked back, nothing on the schedule for a day or two here, and relaaaaaxing. :)

Kaylee is at a sleepover tonight, which she was excited to do. Since she was gone, we went with a friend out to McDoogal's, which you have to be 21 to go into (even though the bar area is actually more hidden there than it is at Applebees). Irish food, and I had a shepherd's pie that was really good, and leftovers for later.

Oh, another first yesterday--at one point I ended up with 84 knot winds up at my altitude. Maybe we've been in those kinds of winds in the Cheyenne, but if so I don't think I knew it specifically, so this was the first time I was flying along in something myself and looked down and saw I had an 84 knot crosswind. Wish I'd have been heading east--I'd have gotten 300 knot groundspeeds. I'd like to see that.

I put up a few pictures from the end of January and the beginning of February, nothing super exciting, just airplane shots. I see so many pretty sunrises/sunsets, moon and clouds, and haven't been able to stop taking pictures of them yet.

I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the last several days, up too early, falling asleep too late even when I tried. Last night I was so tired I couldn't go to sleep (I'm not sure how that works, but it's like you turn a corner and get a second wind and you're just UP), so when I woke up this morning I did not feel very good. I was coughing, my nose felt stuffy, my throat felt scratchy, and I remembered I hadn't been recuperated from my former head cold thing all that long, and the last thing I needed was to get too run down and get sick again. So I took one for the team and went back to bed after I got Kaylee up and going for school. ;) In all seriousness though, I slept like a stone, and I didn't wake up again until past 10 a.m., and when I got up again, I felt pretty good. A good rest will do ya wonders. :)

To end my evening, an aviation photographer I've worked with a few times now has asked me to go over to Ohio in April in the T-6 and be a photo ship again. For the Doolittle Raiders Reunion. Where there will be 25 B-25s in mass formation. For the record, that makes my fingertips tingle and my eyes twinkle. A lot.

Heh.

Firsts

Today had several firsts, even if this is the second post in the same day. ;)

When I was on the ramp in Bessemer, Alabama, a guy walked up and was asking questions about the 340. He said he used to fly. I answered questions about the airplane, then asked what he used to fly. He listed about four fighters, and then said "Ended in F-16s, after 27 years of service." Another gent said this guy had been shot at at Vietnam, and then the veteran said "But I've never flown GA." I jokingly said I'd never had customer service so bad as to have been shot at for it yet, but there's a first time for everything, and he gave me a grin. But you never know who you're going to run into on a GA ramp...

I took the 340 up to the flight levels for the first time today. And no, I did not forget to hook up the oxygen mask, reset the altimeter in either direction, set the pressurization properly on the way up and down, or use the word "Flight Level" once on the radio just for the fun of it. The plane handled just fine up there, so next time I have a nice long haul I'll go on up a few more thousand feet.

I also plugged in a fellow's laptop into the back, so he could hear a dvd through his headset and not be bothered by me up front with the XM radio on. In other words, I tried out the audio in there, and other than the XM signal not working properly, everything else was golden. At one point ATC told me to descend at 2000 fpm or greater for traffic. The autopilot doesn't even have a setting for descending more than 1500 fpm--it refused. So I got to disconnect it, to the (loud beeping) disconnect alarm, push over to 2000 fpm descent with the (two different, one screechy) altitude alarms going off...I felt like I was sitting in a nuclear sub and somebody needed to be saying "DIVE DIVE DIVE". Sometimes little things amuse me. ;)

As soon as I landed, I jumped in the Jeep and drove to Kaylee's school, where the Science Fair was going on. It was pretty busy--the 5th graders had one room, the 6th graders had a main entryway, and the gym was taken over by a robotics thing that sounded pretty cool. The kids were awarded either a grand trophy and a trip to the Ball State University Science Fair, First, Second or Third place. Kaylee's got a "first place" designation, so she did well. :) WHEW. So, our first Science Fair concluded successfully!

Kaylee went home with me, and when we passed the school's outdoor track, she said "I had to run 1/4 mile on that today. We have to do it first thing in the morning." Fifth graders have gym for the FIRST class of their day, and have to start their day and gym class with a jog on the outdoor track in February. :O She doesn't know it, but she got my instant sympathy for that one. That STINKS!!!!!!!

On the less pleasant end of things, Gayle's surgery went all right, but the results weren't what they expected. The doctors had thought they probably contained the cancer and got it with surgery, and she was going to have radiation in order to be sure. But they tested two of her lymph nodes, and one of them was affected, meaning the cancer could have moved into other areas of the body. She now has to have chemo as well as radiation. This is particularly frightening for her because her father passed away of cancer after a really bad experience with chemo that did a real number on him. So...I'm sure she would appreciate any prayers.

Well, Kaylee's relieved to have her workload down, Steve's relieved to have his workload at home down, it's coming up on Friday and maybe a weekend off, and my last long flight is done for the week, and it went perfectly; the timing, the comfort, the weather, perfect. Since flights are rarely perfect, I'll take it! I think we're all almost able to relax. Soon. :)

Recap

Boy, do I have a bit of catching up to do, or what?

Kaylee has been working hard on her science fair project, got her experiment done, and she did all the work on setting it up, writing out each individual page, formatting them (I helped a couple times to explain how), printing, etc. I guess Justin helped her with the graphs for her data, which was really nice, and Steve had the hardest job of all--keeping it all progressing appropriately. I ran to Hobby Lobby and spent over an hour there trying to find something that would work for her experiment, only to bring home the wrong thing, and have to go back there the next morning before my flight to return them. I hate wasting my time like that; it's so inefficient and irritating. But I have nobody to blame but myself for picking up something that wouldn't work. *sigh* Anyway, as of 11:30 last night, the project was done, board was set up and ready to be taken to school this morning. Whew.

Yesterday Kaylee called me when I was in the air and left a message that said she missed me and wanted to talk to me about something. When I called her, she asked me about a problem she had, and we talked about it for a few minutes, and then she paused and said "Where ARE you, anyway?" I said "I'm in Kansas." Pause. "KANSAS? Why??" Hey, there's nothing wrong with Kansas--I happen to like it! It's just kind of funny-you'd think she'd be used to me being other places by now. ;)

That's the end of the Kaylee stories for now, so the rest is "blah blah airplane stuff". You've been warned. ;)

We had a breezy IFR flight to Kansas. I tried a couple altitudes looking for the least offensive head winds, but finally we made it. Their AWOS was calling for 3500' and 10 miles, so we said we'd do the visual. And then we got down to 2500' and there was still scud below us, so I had to go all the way around and shoot a GPS approach in. I could see the ground, that's what was irritating. But it just wasn't good enough... Anyway, when we landed, I saw a blue and white Citabria on the ramp, and I said "That plane's here for me." D laughed, and I said "No, really. I'm going to meet up with a couple folks here." He went off and did his thing, and I flew a lady pilot named Diana over to a nearby airport to meet up with another lady pilot named Kim, and we had a BBQ lunch at a little hole in the wall restaurant right on the field there. By the time we got done eating and I got Diana back to her plane, I'd gotten a call that we were going to be heading out a little earlier, so there went my plan to try to head over to Eureka next. But I may end up in the same place again in the future here, and if so, I'll have a perfectly valid reason to go over and see if I can get a ride from the airport to see some family members. :)

The flight home was gorgeous. First, that offensive head wind turned into a real unoffensive tailwind. Unfortunately I had to stop in St. Louis to pick up a guy, otherwise I'd have gone way up there (well, as way up as I can go in that one), and cruised. We were doing 240 or better ground speed at 17000' where we were. Anyway, yes, stop in St. Louis, then back to Kokomo. We were flying above a layer of clouds, and watched the full moon rise up out of it, starting off red, then orange, then finally that brilliant almost fire white. It was shining so brightly off the clouds that it lit everything up like the sun-but you could still see the starts in the sky above. It was so lovely, and I really wished my camera would take a photo that would do that justice. But...no chance.

We made it home around 8:30 pm, and the line guy had come out special to fuel me up right away because the trip the next morning would be before they were open. It took that poor fella forever to fuel up that airplane! I mean, more than half an hour. I leaned in to D and said "You know, if you squeeze the handle, the fuel comes out faster." Of all the times to be slow...it's dark, it's cold, and I'm tired an wanna go home! But once he got the huge job done, we put it away, and I went home to plan for the morning's trip, get stuff together, and help a little bit on securing the pages on the poster board for the science fair project. When we finally went to bed, I hit the pillow and was out. That doesn't happen too often. ;)

My alarm was set to go off at 4:50 a.m. Around 5:10 a.m. I heard something from far away, woke up and realized I'd been sleeping through my alarm for the last 20 minutes. THAT doesn't happen, ever. Fortunately I did wake up, got ready and out the door on time. :O It was supposed to be a little scuddy this morning, but it was beautiful. The air was smooth; off to my right was that full moon, again above a thin layer of clouds, but farther away (looking) than last night, and off to my left was the sunrise. I had music going, no radio traffic, no bad weather, beautiful scenery, a nice groundspeed and a warm heater on a February morning. What more could a girl ask for?

I'll tell you what more a girl could ask for. A courtesy car. ;) Did you know this airport doesn't have a courtesy car, no restaurant on field? *sigh* Fortunately I stocked the 340 again with more snacks, so I don't have to buy vending machine snacks when I've got my own peanuts, peanut M&Ms, cheese crackers, peanut butter crackers, etc. But I was looking forward to a good breakfast; now it's going to be 5:30-6 pm before I get any "real" food. But at least I have something to eat and drink, it's not just as fancy as I was in the mood for. :)

Well, that catches me up. I'm sitting in a conference room with my iPad, wireless keyboard and phone, listening to music and catching up on a few things. What I should go do is take a nap--if I can...

Back in the Saddle

Man, I don't know what happened last night, but I tried to go to bed around 1 a.m., and my pulse was just racing like somebody slipped Speed in my iced tea. I wasn't wound up, sick, uncomfortable, stressed or anything, but my heartrate was just very fast and I was Awake. I finally gave up at 2:30 a.m. and just got up, came out to the living room and fired up the computer where I watched the season/series finale of "Chuck" by the glow of the monitor and took a little Tylenol PM. Finally around 4 a.m. I was ready, and crawled into bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. Fortunately I didn't have to get up early today. I slept in past 9, didn't wander out of bed until even later than that, which helped.

The rest of the day was pretty much non-stop after that. I had to do some banking things, pay some bills, ship out some stuff, then met up with the guys for lunch on the north end of town before loading up my guy and student and flying off to St. Louis. It was a nice, smooth, uneventful flight and day--after the 1/4 mile and fog burned off. I like the nice flights at reasonable hours of short duration and pretty weather. :)

As soon as I got back to Kokomo I had another student flight, but that one canceled, so I spent a little ground time with them, then went out to pick up some food on my way to a school board meeting. I sat in the parking lot with my iPod in place, the sun shining in my face, eyes closed, listening to music, just to take a few minutes of silence to relax. Time for a school board meeting; we were in there about 2 and a half hours, and about an hour into it, I ran out of gas. I got home somewhere around 8:45 p.m. finally; kind of a long day for my first day back to productivity, but not bad.

Steve had a trip today too, to Ohio, and Gumby flew for the first time today too. Gumby Rises and Goes Forth to be Improved Upon. :)

IF things go as planned, I'll actually have four flights out of five days this work week. Two to St. Louis, one to Alabama and one to Kansas. Pittsburg, Kansas--somewhere close to Chanute I guess. Kind of close to some family if I had some time on the ground and a way to drive to visit them. I don't know either how much time I'll have or if I'd have a way to get anywhere, but it's a thought...

Super!

The Giants take it away from the Patriots, and Laura goes to sleep with a smile. Having said that, I heard another interview with Brady today, and he was actually humble and honest about a couple things. Could be he's just getting smarter about interviews, or it could be he's wising up all around a little, but for now I'm still quite happy that a Manning brother was able to take the Superbowl ring and MVP award too, and happier yet that Pretty Boy Brady ate it. ;) Indy did a great job hosting the game, and hopefully will be able to host another Superbowl one of these years, and maybe I'll even get to go to one some day. :)

It would have been nice to be able to go hang out with some friends for the game, but I have a busy week with three trips in it and I'm still recuperating from this stupid head cold, and my stamina is kind of low, so we stayed home today. But that was good too. We got quite a few household things caught up, and I could sit around in comfy pants and yell at the TV and eat pizza and cheese/meat/crackers. Kaylee would make fun of me a couple times, but I don't care, that's the fun of being at home where they already accept that you're crazy. ;)

On a more serious note, tomorrow Dad's wife Gayle is going through surgery to remove cancer. Doctors are optimistic that it's not large, and a bone scan doesn't seem to show any spread of the cancer yet. They'll know more once they get in there and remove a lymph node and test it. But she's obviously nervous and has radiation treatments and possibly chemo, depending on what they find.

Kaylee's got four days to finish her Science Fair project. Lots to do, lots to do. :O

Well, it's late, time to finish up a few things and get ready for tomorrow.

Slowly Accelerating

It was good to get out and about today for awhile. Steve blew out the exhaust in the Oldsmobile, so he wanted to drive it to the mechanic, and I was the chase car. We stopped at Kokomo Airport for a few hours, and then my steam started running out. Of course, when we got home, it was Steve who took the several-hour-long nap, not me. :) What we had wasn't anything but head pressure/sinus problems and fatigue. No fever, no vomiting, nothing like that, but it still wiped us out. After I woke up from a nap yesterday afternoon, that's when I felt the corner turn, and after a slow start today I felt pretty good...until about 5 pm. So I think we'll need to work on stamina here, but otherwise we're doing pretty well. :)

I enjoy reading pilot forums and facebook when I have time. It can be educational, and entertaining. It can also be really irritating. My biggest reminder to myself is usually "Stay Out Of It". So, I don't engage in the political crud that seems to permeate facebook in particular, and I don't usually jump in on "sides" on flying arguments either. I get so sick of the full left and full right rhetoric that gets spouted out back and forth, everybody on transmit, nobody on receive. It does nothing, proves nothing, changes nothing. It's just two groups of people shouting each other down with bigger, nastier comments, for...nothing. It's pointless, and mind-sucking. And as for flying, there are in general two types of pilots out there, and at best the one type thinks the other is wrong, and at worst they think they are incompetent, dangerous or yahoos. I'll tell you what, reading the opinions each group has of the other has pretty much made me less interested in taking other pilots I don't know well up for pleasure rides. No matter what you do it's wrong to somebody. Since I'm willing to slip with flaps in a Cessna, land in a crosswind that exceeds the demonstrated component of 15-17 knots, and not use a printed pre-landing checklist, I would most likely be considered a hazard to flying to the 'other'group. Good to know. And anyone who feels that way is more than welcome to do us both a favor and stay out of my cockpit...

Oh, I got my eyebrows ripped out for the first time in ages today. I think any man who thinks he is big and strong ought to go get something waxed and get back to me. ;)

Better

Today did it-one last day of sleeping, drinking water, staying in and even eating soup. I turned a corner this afternoon, and feel pretty good. Still stuffy, but at least decent. I was supposed to fly to St. Louis today, and I was prepared to get it done and have Steve go as a safety pilot, but as of this morning I was still not doing real well, and fortunately Nathan took it instead, and Steve went along as in-flight entertainment and Official Button Pusher and Tester-Outer-of-Thingies. A successful mission was accomplished by all three of us. :)

Wander

I've spent the last couple of days sick, and it's both a bad time and bad timing. Plans to go down to Super Bowl Village and check things out are gone, since I haven't even been able to leave the house for a few days here, let alone expend that kind of energy. Kaylee was dying to do that zipline, and so was I, but that would have been tough anyway since it's a 5-hour-wait line to get on. I would like to be able to take her down and check out the Super Bowl hoopla though-it's not like this happens very often. *sigh*

The Super Bowl stuff is all over the TV and news. Celebrities have hit town, airports are getting busy with fly-in traffic, and there is a whole load of activities going on down there. I have to say, Indianapolis and whoever is in charge of setting this stuff up has done a truly excellent job as hosts. I'm impressed. :)

I did just see an interview where Tom Brady had nothing but nice things to say about Peyton Manning, and sounded nothing but positive and almost humble. I think I heard something crack in the atmosphere at that one. Maybe he's actually growing up? I won't hold my breath yet.

Kaylee's got a Science Fair project coming due fast, and we've been too sick to do much about it. We have a start though--she has a hypothesis, a list of items needed, an experiment, and a poster board. Now she just has to fill it in. I hated these things when I was in school and it's not any better as an adult. ;)

My dad's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer this week, and has surgery coming up on Monday. Doctors are optimistic that it was caught in time to be treatable, but it will obviously be a difficult experience for her.

One thing I've done while sitting/lying here ill is read "The Hunger Games" trilogy. It's supposed to be a "young adults" series, but I'd say it works just fine for "mid-aged adults" too. Kaylee had asked me about reading it, and I'd seen a preview of the movie coming out soon, so I wanted to read it first. There isn't anything inappropriate in it, but it is fairly gritty. On the other hand, she's been reading some grittier stuff, and I certainly did at her age and I'm only a little warped, so... ;)

To keep some of you from having to look it up, basically the story is about an annual game called "Hunger Games" where two kids, a boy and a girl from each of 12 existing districts that are all that are left after America falls to civil war, are put into a large landscape (arena) and forced to fight to the death with only one survivor, whose district then gets food, money, etc. The kids are age 12-18, and it's a lottery-based drawing system. Your name gets put into the drawing once when you're 12, twice when you're 13, etc., and you can put your name in more often in exchange for more food for your family. This year, a 12-year-old frail girl is called to fight, and her older sister goes in her place to save her life, knowing her sister wouldn't survive a moment. The people in charge make it a carnival, televised, dress everyone up, parade them around, then set them loose to murder each other, all live on tv for the rest of the districts to see detail by detail, then parade around the winner again like a king/queen. Sounds creepy, but the story is about this 15-year-old sister who becomes a hero, who starts a revolution to change the world.

It was after reading this series, and recently a Dean Koontz book too, that I was reminded of something. I read everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid, but the stories I loved the most all had something in common. "Lord of the Rings", "Chronicles of Narnia", "Swiftly Tilting Planet", "Huck Finn" & "Tom Sawyer", "Island of the Blue Dolphins", and so forth. The same thing I like in Dean Koontz and often Stephen King books too, still. The heroes are kids. Kids that nobody takes seriously, kids that are scared to death but do what needs to be done anyway, because nobody else is doing it. (Okay, so hobbits aren't kids, but close enough that the premise stands. ;)) In the Koontz book I just read, a 10-year-old scrawny book worm of a kid shoved an autistic girl behind him and held a bayonet he could hardly lift in front of him to fend off a monster, knowing he was going to die, but knowing that nobody else was there to protect the girl and he couldn't just stand there and not try. His mantra was to do the hardest thing, because it was the right thing to do, and he didn't want to be like his father, who always did the easiest thing. Do you remember what it feels like to be a kid? Maybe for some people it's rainbows and unicorns, but sometimes it also feels helpless, powerless. Nobody takes you seriously, and you have no control over even the most basic things in your life. What you eat, when, what you wear, where you go, when you sleep, often times what you say, nothing. (Side note: Reason #3 I didn't try to make it in the military, as much as I respect it.) As a kid, I lived vicariously through the scared, normal children who went through the wardrobe and become courageous kings and queens, fighting mighty battles. The Harry Potter series falls into that formula, and so does this Hunger Games series. Courage can be contagious. What can I say--I'm 39 and I still root for the underdog. :)

I guess that's about all I'm going to be up. My head is all blocked up ON medication right now. Ugh. Oh. I had to pick up Kaylee from school today, and it was the first time I've left the house. I was still not feeling well at all, but my Jeep was out of gas so I had to stop at the gas station. As I was filling the tank, I heard Kaylee scream from inside the car. I turned and looked at her, and she screamed again "BLUE ONE!" at the top of her lungs. I finally understood her, and she was pointing at the nose of a slug bug that was hidden around the corner. It made me smile, and from inside the car she screamed "HA! I FINALLY MADE YOU SMILE!" Made me feel bad that it has obviously been a few days since I felt like smiling, and made me warm and fuzzy that she was trying to make me smile. :)