Thursday

Originally Kaylee wanted to be Katniss from the Hunger Games for Halloween.  She dressed up that way for a school party, and I ordered the rest of the "real" outfit online--early, even!  On the entire internet I could only find the thing in adult sizes, so I got Adult XS, which upon measuring her, seemed like should fit.  It got here, and she didn't like it, and it didn't fit her well, so I sent it back.  I was about to get another when she said she changed her mind, and wanted to be Isis, an Egyptian goddess.  Okay.  So we went to the Halloween store in town, where we found the costume--which only came in adult sizes.  Please insert my yearly rant here about how Messed Up it is that you can get any costume--mostly inappropriate ones--for adults, and have a hard time finding a variety of decent costumes for KIDS.  For Halloween. Anyway, she loved the gown she found, even though it's too big for her, and that's what she went with for Halloween.  She started off as a bow and arrow carrying fighter and ended up in an Egyptian goddess dress and gold hair piece. Somehow neither one surprises me.  ;)

The flight in the 172 this morning was bumpy and breezy.  They closed the runway into the wind, leaving everyone with a 50-60 degree crosswind gusting up over 25 knots, which was a good challenge for folks.  I flew for 1.2, had a quick lunch, and then headed to Sheridan to give an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check) to the chief pilot of a competitor's flight school; he also flies King Airs and a C-414 for a local business.  Their insurance company approved me or Steve to provide his annual checkout as opposed to him having to go to a three day course (like I used for the C-340), so that's what I did, in the C-414. I'd flown that exact C-414 before, many years ago, but what was kind of funny about it was that back when I flew it, I sat down in it and felt like it was a very large airplane with a lot of stuff going on.  Today I climbed in it, looked around, and...it was a lot smaller than I remembered.  ;)

Kaylee is on Fall Break right now, and she got to start off the break by sleeping in.  I woke her up this morning to let her know I was leaving to go to work, and she she couldn't even open her mouth to say goodbye.  It was cute.  She later got to continue her break by going down to Noblesville and spending tonight and tomorrow night with a friend, and that excited her greatly.  I forgot to tell her to behave, but hopefully by now she knows that without me telling her. Right?   Surely...

The quotes that came to my inbox today were all about fear:

You are frightened of everything. You call it caution. You call it common sense. You call it practicality. You call it playing the odds, but that's only because you're afraid to call it by its real name, and its real name is fear.
~Mick Farren

The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out ... and do it.
~Susan Jeffers

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
~Nelson Mandela
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Kaylee loves to cuddle, in the mornings, and in the evenings, and tonight I wouldn't mind having her here lying on my shoulder with her arm around me, this time for Me.  Tonight one of "my" SMA families is in trouble.  In this last week, three SMA children have died, two of them who were otherwise healthy and fine and doing well, whose hearts then just stopped out of the blue.  Two days ago a little girl named Tabitha was taken to the hospital in distress.  Several years ago her mom & dad lost Tabitha's big sister, Taleah, to SMA.  Taleah was 4 years old, and Tabitha is 5 now, and has been fighting hard these last two days, going in and out of consciousness.  Her mom posted this today: "I told her that as long as she wants to fight, we are right by her side supporting her, but if she decides she is done, we will be right by her side in that choice as well. We are doing our best to let her lead the way, this is her life, her body and her choice. I love her so much."   The mom and dad went home to try to get some rest, and left grandma to stay with their daughter...and were only home for about an hour when they were called to come back because Tabs is failing.  I've known this family for over ten years, known them through the lives of two daughters with SMA, and tonight they are likely losing their second little girl.  It makes me so angry. This picture was posted of Monica hugging her unresponsive daughter.  Look at it.  I don't suggest you talk to me about any more political bickering right now...