Ramping Up

Somehow I have managed to not have any students this week.  Two of my guys are off with the cross-country instructor right now, and two others are off on vacation, while another is out of the state helping a friend and yet another won't be hitting it hard until after Oshkosh.  So for a few days here I find myself with some extra time for once!

Of course time is worse than space--if you have it, something will come to fill it up.  Right now, that something is Oshkosh prep.  It's not just about Oshkosh itself, but about getting everything ready so that you can be away from home for 10 days without things imploding while you're gone.  We are a pretty self-contained business, so people can schedule their own airplanes, fill up with gas, schedule an instructor who will be there, pay their bill online, buy pilot supplies by themselves; all these things people can do without us sitting there.  But still, it takes planning to have the fuel, fuel account, aircraft maintenance, etc. all set up and ready to go run on its own for awhile.  You also have to take care of getting things ready for the house, pets, bills, Kaylee's activities, etc.  Last but not least you have to pack up everything you own that you're taking to Oshkosh with you and get it all organized and ready to go for 10 days.  This process has started with me doing laundry on every piece of clothing we own.  ;)

I took Kaylee to lunch with me today, and afterwards she ran a round of errands with me, because she wanted to stop at the store with me and get some milk.  So after lunch I take her to a bank, where I get two pieces of paper notarized.  Next I drag her to the post office, where I overnight express my CFI renewal paperwork, and mail off another tax thing or two.  There is a line for this one too.  I pick up the mail at the PO Box, go through it and then go to the other bank and make several deposits, after which we run out to Glenndale so I can drop off some stuff to Steve.  From there we go to the grocery store, and after the store we have to haul it all in and put it all away.  By now it's 3 p.m., and Kaylee says "I am no longer looking forward to getting my driver's license, because I can see it now. You and Daddy are going to have me running all over doing this stuff."  I said "Yeah, but at least you'll be able to drive yourself and you won't have to go with us everywhere."  Then I said "What, don't you think errands are fun and exciting?"  I got an eyeroll for that one.  Then I said "See why sometimes after doing stuff like that for a day it's nice to just sit down and put your feet up and chill out for awhile?"  She said "Yeah".  She probably won't ever go run errands with me again, but at least she knows I'm not out having a grand time while I'm doing it.  ;)

On the way to Tae Kwon Do today, I pulled into the right hand lane when we got closer, and Kaylee said "Mom, do NOT pull into the Japanese restaurant parking lot."  I said "Why would I do that?"  She said "Well, Daddy did it, and it looked like you were looking at it."  Made me laugh, because the Japanese restaurant DOES look a lot like her TKD building, and more than once I've eyeballed it only to keep rolling past it.

We were sitting at a stop light, when "Black Betty" came on the radio.  Instantly both our heads started moving, and I looked over at the car next to us, where two black women were sitting with their windows rolled down, and I said to Kaylee "Whatever you do, don't start singing this song really loudly right now."  She looked confused, looked over, and burst out laughing.  She decided they might not appreciate that.

Now that my CFI stuff is done and on its way to Florida so that I can continue to be an instructor after all, I have three more days to get everything else around here caught up and ready, and I have lots to do.  No rest for the wicked, you know.  ;)