End

The last seven days have not been high points in life, starting with the death of the turtles; but Kaylee's doing fine now, at least. If you have to start dealing with death, I'd say learning the coping skills for grief off of four turtles is better than off of something bigger, like her kitties, or worse. After this, it's all kind of the same, just on a bigger scale. Sounds irreverent, but tis true. Devon's birthday is Wednesday, and he'd be fourteen years old. I can't tell you how weird that feels, although my 11-year-old daughter already acts older than 14 some days. :) But it's kind of funny how some of the anniversary days like that sneak up on you, and you wonder what else is 'off', and then it occurs to you what it is. The body or subconscious knows before the conscious mind does, I guess.

I didn't sleep well last night, and had a lesson in the Champ at 8:30 this morning. I texted them and asked if we could push back to 9:30, because I didn't really want to feel that yucky while teaching landings, but they didn't get back to me, so I got up, got ready, had a shower and some caffeine and went out to Glenndale. An hour later I asked if we were still on, and they'd forgotten about the lesson altogether. That's a bad thing in one regard--it was a calm, clear day, perfect for takeoff and landing practice. But I didn't mind so much in another regard. I wouldn't want anyone to feel bad, but...I didn't mind not flying this morning. I was ready, and good by then, but I still didn't mind. After lunch I went around the pattern with a guy in the 172 getting ready to go on his first solo cross-country, just to make sure he was on his game. No problem, so I gave him my standard spiel and sent him off. Part of my standard spiel has changed over the years, and now includes the words "Text me when you land there and when you land back at OKK. I am your mother and your flight plan. Text your mother and let her know you arrived safely." First solos almost never make me nervous, but solo cross-countries can make me a tad nervous with some folks because there are so many factors in play for a fledgling. :)

When I got back, I laid down on the couch, just in time for Kaylee to get home from school and come cuddle with me. We promptly both fell asleep, but she had thrown her arm and leg over me and was snoring right in my face, which woke me up and made it so I couldn't sleep any more. But it was awfully cute. As Steve said, there probably isn't a whole lot of time left where she'll want to do something like that.

Okay, I need some sleep. The rest of the week is quite busy as well; the weather looks almost perfect and the schedule is full, all the way through to possibly me flying to Terre Haute this weekend for a formation thing. Maybe...