Because.

I think I might have to get one of these. :D

I have this below photo as my large desktop photo right now.  Why?  Because before my desktop was just black, and I've seen enough black, brown, white and grey all around me for awhile.  I want something to remind me of enjoying myself, of open cockpits and warm breezes and the smell and sound of a radial.

I was going through all my photos looking for specific angels of specific warbird shots for a project the other day, and going through all my photos from beginning to end made me smile and melancholy both.  Shots of tiny Kaylee and Jamie out at the airport in front of the Pizza Hut plane and the Baron, of Nathan helping me strap into the Gnat and the big cheesy grin I shot the camera behind his head, the Mustang, Lord, the Mustang.  Kaylee in the Mustang, Steve in the Mustang in formation with me in the Aerostar, me in the Mustang, both back and front, Nathan in the Mustang, the Mustang at airshows, in the hangar with the sun hitting it, in formation with the Six a couple of times, yadda yadda.  Pictures of the T-6 at Huntington being built up, of us sitting in it in pieces as they worked on it, first test flight photos.  The Gathering, Mail Call, Indy 500.  The Twin Beech that Ty didn't get a ride in. Just...tons.

I took one of those goofy Facebook quizzes about what career you should have done.  It asked seemingly innocuous questions like what trilogy you like, which social networking site you prefer, what genre of books you like, what you would do with extra money, etc.  For me it said: "You got: Astronaut. You are an explorer. You are curious about the world around you and the way it works. You look at things closely, and often with a different perspective than everyone else. You’re quite unique, lucky you. Other occupations: researcher, teacher."  Ironic, since I did get a NASA application for astronaut when I was a teenager, until I found out my vision would take care of that idea.  And I'm currently a teacher, just not of children, so I guess that kind of counts as right too.  Of course, in hindsight, I'm also highly claustrophobic, so space suits and tight capsules would never, ever work for me, and most astronauts spent their entire career at a desk doing sciency and mathy and physicsy things, not actually going into space, and that wouldn't work for me either.  So I'm glad I didn't pursue that one.  ;)

Kaylee had her "advanced acting class" tonight, and then she went over to a friend's house to practice her saxophone with their quartet that they are doing for a state competition thing next weekend.  This weekend we were going to try to do a few things, but the weather nixed that.  I think I'm going to take an allergy pill and sleep until 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Because it's going to snow.

Because I have nothing going on.

Because I feel like it.

Because I can.

Plodding On

THIS was such a sad, poignant story.  For a re-cap, an 8-year-old boy is in a trailer with his family, sleeping.  He wakes up and the trailer is on fire.  He gets six other people awake and out of the house safely, and then realizes his grandfather, whom he was very close to, was still inside.  His aunt tried to stop him, but he ran back into the badly burning trailer to try to save his grandfather, who was disabled.  He was found a few feet from his grandfather.  Another article had said he was found on the bed with his grandfather.  There was no way he could have gotten his grandpa into a wheelchair and out of there...  Still, he died trying to save his grandpa, and he was buried as an honorary firefighter, with over 100 firefighters coming to his service.  Eight years old...

Nothing of import to report over here.  Just worked on a few things, went a few places, did a few chores, spent another day...

Warmth

Steve and I enjoyed "Star Trek: Into Darkness" last night while everybody else got their blood pressure up by watching the State of the Union address.  I've heard all about the "important things that were said and done".  I didn't miss out on a thing.

Kaylee went to school today!  It was on a two-hour delay, but it was school.  I haven't seen her yet so I'm not sure how it went or how much homework they gave her, but I bet this make up work (or time) isn't going to be fun for them coming up.

I felt fairly accomplished today.  The trip to St. Louis and back was fine, nothing exciting, which is good.  But on the way I finally re-figured out how to work the audio panel, make it so that we could hear the aux music and a few other things, so that was good.  I got the POH out and did a little more reading, and then after I dropped my passengers off at Kokomo, I went back up and did a few things.  Three instrument approaches using autopilot, single engine, stalls (not single engine stalls ;)), used the "Go Around" button (I actually kind of like that--I've had that on other planes and didn't used it.  Control freak. But it's nice as long as you don't forget to add your power in, which I would hope people wouldn't do.)  These are things I did right out of the gate when I first flew the plane, but I hadn't done some of it since, so I did her again.  In the 340, when it stalls in a basic power off, the horn is screaming for a long time, the plane gets mushy, it wallows around, and then it decides to kind of drop.  Yadda yadda, ho hum.  In the Aerostar, there is no horn, and it's just flying along, it's flying, it's flying, it's...not flying.  Boom.  Nice snappy break. :)

I enjoyed however long it took me to do that this afternoon.  It's the first time I've flown by myself, and first time doing something other than flying either with a student or straight and level on my way to somewhere in a really long time.

Even if I did have to get up early and go out in the freezing dark and cold.  I've even been wearing my furry hat with ear flaps.  Now isn't that attractive??  :D

Still Coming

Should I start posting when Kaylee actually does have school again instead of every day that she doesn't?  Okay, then in case I won't say anything about today.  ;)

Do I have to post about the weather again?  Shoot, I do.  Last night the actual temps got to something like -16F.  Coldest temps on record here in something like 30 years.  They were warning everyone about their pipes freezing.  Steve built this house, and he built it to protect the pipes from outside walls, so our house didn't come anywhere close to having issues with that.  He did have to shovel some more snow today, and that one was a bit bigger of a job, but he wanted to keep on top of it because we have a boat load more coming.  That 8-12" I mentioned yesterday?  A couple of places are now claiming we could end up with as much as 2 feet of snow total by the end of two more systems moving in.  I didn't put that as 2' in case anybody mistook that for 2".  Two Feet.  Yep.  If I wanted to live in Wisconsin/Minnesota, I'd have moved back there.  When it's warmer in Alaska and the North Pole than where you are currently living, something's wrong...

Apparently it took 24 hours for my body to catch up to the fall.  This afternoon it feels like a hundred and...er, some...pounds hit the right side of my body swung at me from about a 5 foot height.  Hmm.  I wonder why.  ;)  Gave myself a little whiplash too.  See, I told you jogging was bad for your health!  I could have broken something!  ;)

I saw a quote on NCIS: LA that made me smile.  They were showing a clip about "playing it cool" and how that's the preferred way to handle yourself.  "G" said: "I prefer to play it aloof.  That's the anti-social version of cool."  Heh.  I'm guilty of that sometimes.

There's a meme going around with Marilyn Monroe's quote about how if you can't handle her at her worst, you don't deserve her at her best.  I can't stand that meme, never have been able to.  Women use that as if it's mystical and romantic and wonderful for them to be witchy and selfish and nasty/mean to their men, but then they'll be great and nice too, and that's okay.  Meanwhile, if men are selfish and mean and snappy at women, THAT's not acceptable.  They should immediately ditch that guy and find one who "treats them right."  Well, guess what?  Respect is a two way street.  Women don't have any more of a right to be a snot than men do.  So when I read this article today, it made me nod and grin and want to pass it on.  It's not just about that, it's also about another favorite topic of mine--participation awards and kids.  There's just not much about this article I don't like.  Some of you will enjoy.  HERE. 

The President will be giving his "State of the Union" address tonight.  I'll skip that, and the talking heads afterwards, because if anything of note is said, I will see the applicable video clip 400 times posted on Facebook or on the news or on nightly TV shows or... I think a nice movie during that time would be better for me. 

Besides, early bedtime tonight, early flight tomorrow. 

I won't even mention how cold and dark it will be.

Oops.

Monday

Wait for it--school was canceled today again, shocking as that is!  And it probably will be tomorrow, too, this time because of brutal temps, which are fine except for kids getting picked up or dropped off at bus stops in the country, or concerns about vehicles breaking down in these temps and having stranded families out in it.  They get the roads clear and the temps plummet, the temps rise and it snows and blows some more and blocks up the roads, they get the roads clear and the temps plummet again, etc ad nauseum.  So this will be... 5 and a half weeks that the kids have been out of school with only two part-time days in there that they were able to go back.  And counting.

This morning it was around zero, so I decided that I'd better go start my car and let it warm up for a few minutes before I left the house.  Right after I got out of the shower, I slipped on some shoes and just ran outside to start the car. Yes, I was jogging. I was rounding the corner in the sidewalk when my foot slid out from under me.  I caught myself with my other foot for just a fraction of a second, and then it was gone, and my feet flew left while the rest of me landed to the right, hard.  I came down hard on my right side, twisted around a little, and I tried to get right up, but first my foot slid out from under me again, and then I realized I couldn't catch my breath and my legs weren't supporting my weight.  So I kneeled in the snow for about 10-15 seconds until I could feel I had it back under control.  Now my pants are wet, my arm is wet, but it's fine, I make it to the car, unlock it and grab the door while I reach in and start the engine.  My hand had fallen in the snow and was wet, and when I went to pull my hand off the door, my fingers had now frozen to the door.  I huffed some hot air on my fingers and peeled them off the door, and carefully made my way inside the house.  When I kicked my shoes off, I reached up, and my wet hair had frozen almost solid.  Isn't winter GRAND?  And don't you just wish you'd been here to see all that in person?  ;)  About 4 hours later I'm starting to feel it in a few places.  A tweaked spot in my back, and my right hip and arm. At least I didn't shatter into some brittle pieces when I hit the ground.  ;)

I don't mean to be one of those weather people, but it IS sort of what's going on around here, and ALL that's going on around here.  The forecast is calling for another 1-3" of snow on Friday, yet another 1-3" on Saturday, and another 8-12" next Tuesday.  Yeah.  Fantastic.  We currently have 4 foot snow drifts out at Kokomo Airport and temps never rising above freezing, so nothing melts, it just accumulates.  Bleh!  Oh, just now got the phone call from Kaylee's school--they're off for tomorrow too.  Color me shocked.  ;)  It kind of feels like we're in a perpetual state of vacation at home, only...not.

Taekwondo is at least "on", so Kaylee is getting out twice a week to get some exercise.  And play practice is still on at once a week.  We're going to have to come up with something more active to go do with her that isn't outdoors if this keeps up any more.  :)

Next

Steve and I both started the day not feeling all that well, so we've mostly taken it easy today.  I already got the phone call that Kaylee's school is at minimum on a two-hour delay, and may be cancelled outright again.  There are power outages around, some of her friends are without power right now, we have more "frigid" sub-zero temps and snow and wind headed our way, and winter continues.  I feel like I'm in Wisconsin in the 80s or something. 

I had some fresh ingredients to use up, so I made one of the last meals I'd bought stuff for.  It was fine, it tasted fine, but it was a whole lot of work, over an hour to fix it.  It wasn't THAT good, and I could have used boxes of stuff and gotten in done in a third of the time.  I finely chopped an onion. And celery.  And garlic.  And fresh parsley.  And portabellas.  Mmmhmm.  Like I said, it was fine, it was good, but not worth the effort.  Two wins, one draw.

We broke out Kaylee's lemon and blueberry birthday cake tonight.  We didn't want to wait so long that it went stale, and there's no chance of anyone else being around for the next several days thanks to the weather, so we just did it ourselves and enjoyed.  The candle was one that "sparked", and she wouldn't stand next to it to let me get a picture.  I finally got one and her eyes were closed.  Bugger.  The cake was really good, too.  The frosting was very rich, you didn't want all of it, but the blueberries on top were fresh and plump and together with the lemon cake it was all really good.  We give it three thumbs up.

Today I read a book called "The Book Thief".  It was a differently written and interesting take on life and death in Germany during WWII.  It was written from the perspective of Death, the collector of souls, trying to understand humans, and being captured by the unfolding of one human story line amongst all the stories--a little girl it called "the book thief".  The author uses words and phrases in ways that most people don't. Using tastes to describe sounds, using smells to describe sights.  Using phrases you just wouldn't normally put together.  It's hard to describe.  Like "I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair and surprise.  They have punctured hearts.  They have beaten lungs." Or  "It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a sweater."  and "The plane was still coughing, smoke leaking from both its lungs.  Three deep gashes were made in the earth when it crashed, its wings sawn-off arms.  No more flapping for this metallic little bird."  Or "The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring.  In some places, it was burned, with black crumbs streaked across the redness."  Anyway, interesting writing style that seems like it would be too much, but somehow isn't, to me anyway.  The story is of a little girl whose mother gives her up to another family elsewhere to save her during Nazi occupation, and just the lives of the families and how things were interlinked over the years. It's hard to describe.  The little girl has a hard life, and death watches her over the years as it helps so many people she cares about.  It tells the story of what it might like to be German during the war.  The ones who tried to help the Jews, the ones who kept quiet to save their families, the ones who went full bore into it, everyone just trying to survive.  Like I said, interesting read...left a bit of a mark.

Here are Kaylee's birthday cake photos, minus the one head on with her eyes closed.  ;)

Blowing

Guess what?  It was cold today.  And it "snowed and blowed" a little more too.  We canceled Kaylee's birthday flight because of today's weather, and canceled getting her friends together for lunch because of it too.  Most counties around us are in "travel emergency" status.  Our county isn't, but a lot of the roads aren't great, so we just called it all off.  We have a lovely lemon cake that we want to share with some folks to help celebrate her birthday before the cake gets stale.  :(

Steve went out to the airport to help Nathan fix the Aerostar's heater, which ended up being a bigger project than either of them wished for it to be, but in the end they got things worked out for the most part.

Kaylee and I went out to Steve's cousin's house and hung out for the afternoon.  After a bit his cousin Dave broke out some weapons, and we took turns on them.  Kaylee and I just fired the SKS.  They had a target set up on a tree down there, and everybody took turns at it.  Kaylee did well with handling the gun.  Keeping her finger off the trigger until she was ready to fire, keeping it pointed down range, not jerking the trigger, etc.  She didn't hit the target, but I think after watching and talking to her a little, I may know what she was doing, and if we can get some one-on-one time for her to really be able to practice, she'll have it.  Me, I haven't fired an SKS or anything like it in years.  But, I still got it.  I hit the target close to center, and never missed.  Of course I quit after just a few shots, because after I was running that kind of record I didn't want to ruin it.  ;)  Hey, I found out what I needed to know, which was that even with contacts in (I've never gone shooting with corrective lenses or glasses in/on before), I could still hit what I was aiming at.  ;)  I do need to get more practice in though, get more fluid and speed up my time in between shots.  I think some of us are going out to AE's to go shooting whenever it warms up, so that'll be good...

I only took a couple pictures of Kaylee, and I was just on my cell phone camera, so I couldn't see that I'd caught her blinking/moving her head before she looked back up and steadied and took the shot, so it's not the best looking photo, but you get the general idea anyway.  :)

First, here she is with her beautiful flowers from Grandma Chiles...

And then here she is with her cousin getting her set up...the target is on the tree to the far right.

Last but not least, getting ready to take her next shot...

Southern Lights

It was another "up at 5 a.m." day.  Unfortunately I had to miss Aunt Ruth's funeral because I had a trip.  I did at least get to see several family members who came from all over to be able to be here for the services though.

The temperature was brutal this morning, -5F for the regular temp, plus the windchill on top of that.  I wore wool socks over my other socks, and the long coat, and the fuzzy hat that Tre gave me, and big gloves, and some boots, but in temps like that the wind just cuts through you and the air feels like it's burning your nose and lungs when you breathe.  I hate winter.  Thankfully, Gumby is in a heated hangar.  I can do the preflight carefully in the total warmth instead of rushing around going "Yep, it looks like it's in one piece, let's GO!"  We load up the plane in the hangar, get everything ready, then open the door, shove the airplane outside, close the door, run out there, hop in, shut the door and light it up as fast as possible.

It was a VFR flight at least, making the actual flight itself uneventful, which I'll take.  We flew into Arthur, Alabama first.  We landed at 7:59 a.m.  They were supposed to be open at 8 a.m.  As of 8:04 nobody had shown up to open the FBO building, so I just went with D and his guy out to the treatment project they are looking at doing there.  It was about 17 degrees down there, and sunny, which felt almost warm in comparison to what we just came from.  We were there about an hour, and then we launched for Laurel, Mississippi.  This was a nice airport in the middle of a really not nice area.  The sign on the airport door had a "No Weapons Allowed" thing, and another sign said they wanted your credit card before they would fuel up your airplane.  I took the courtesy pick-up truck into "town" to get lunch, and Siri had suggested I drive 26 miles away.  I know now why.  You could eat at Hardees, or you could eat where everyone else did, at the Shell gas station, with fried foods inside there.  I drove down the main street there, and I had gone two blocks when I drove off the map.  The buildings were painted bright colors a long time ago, and they were now falling down and falling apart.  There were thick bars on every window.  "No guns allowed" signs on every business door I saw.  Multiple cameras inside anywhere I went.  There were a couple of businesses that had yards--and they were fenced in, one with razor wire rolled across the top, and one with several strands of barbed wire.  I passed a sign that said "Welcome to Ward 7", and it did feel a little bit like Hunger Games or something.  The one that really got me was a sign at a community area that said "Laurel Gun Show, Feb. 8 & 9", and then within a few feet in every direction were three giant signs that all said "NO WEAPONS ALLOWED".  Well, now, that's going to be a bit of a trick, isn't it??  I told D about it when he got back, and he said that they'd been following the GPS when it told them to turn right, which they did, into a dead end.  At the end of the dead end were three rough looking guys sitting on chairs they had pulled out of a car, around a barrel with a big fire in it, drinking beer.  It was 10 in the morning.   Really rough area, and everywhere I went I was stared at very suspiciously.  So what did I have for lunch?  I went to a business that had paint peeling off the walls, bars over all the windows and 8 cameras inside, and I had myself a shrimp po boy sandwich under several watchful eyes.  And it was a really good sandwich, too.  This town will be a place I'll most likely be going back to multiple times, as they have a job to do there now.  I haven't seen such a hard-hit area in person in a long time...

While I was at the airport there, one of the FBO guys came out to talk to me about the Aerostar.  He asked if I was the pilot, and I said yes, and he said "Good for you!", said he thought it was a great plane, but that he thinks it sometimes got a "bad rap" as a difficult to handle airplane.  I said I didn't think it got a bad rap itself, just some of its pilots who let it get slow on them.  He then told me a story about a local that I have to repeat here.  This guy learned to fly in an Archer.  He got 300 hours, and then went out and bought an Aerostar.  Right away he overloaded it and came in to land too slow, and wrecked it on the runway.  He and his 5 passengers and their baggage all survived.  He bought Aerostar #2, and shortly thereafter landed it halfway down a 3000' long runway.  Apparently he'd worked through that whole "don't get slow" thing and resolved that to mean "fly it at the speed of stink".  So he blew off the end of the runway and wrecked it, too, still surviving fine.  So he bought Aerostar #3.  Had an engine failure cruising around, got to an airport to land, and was so flustered with the whole thing that he didn't put his gear down.  Buggered up that one.  He is currently shopping for Aerostar #4. I wanted to ask his name but I didn't.

Our third stop for the day was in Guntersville, Alabama.  It's a neat little airport right on the water, with a sort of short runway (it's all relative, but 3200' one direction, 2500' the other direction due to obstacles).  I was still shutting down the plane when a line guy came running out.  I barely had the top door open and he was saying "I hope you know you're flying in the world's coolest piston twin airplane!"  He was drooling all over Gumby, said it as the most awesome airplane ever, he used to wrench on one, he never thought he'd see another down this way, he wanted to take it for a spin, etc.  I've been really surprised that at almost every airport I've landed at in Gumby, somebody has said something about it, and not even because it's painted like FrankenGumby at the moment.  Most places where I take the 340, people comment on what a pretty plane it is.  So far most places I've taken Gumby, people have commented on what an awesome airplane Aerostars are, and I've heard a lot of stories already.  I can't think of any other airplanes I've ever flown in that got that many comments, other than the T-6 of course, or maybe the logo on the Pizza Hut plane where people kept wanting me to deliver.  ;)

Guntersville is having their one runway shut down and a bigger, longer runway put up at a different angle.  We have the project there to drain the lagoon unhandily in the middle of the area where they want the runway to be, so I'll be going in there a lot coming up.  They have a short field, water right off the one end, and only one instrument approach, a non-precision GPS circling approach that only goes down to 1000' AGL, so it'll be more weather dependent than some other places we go, but it's a nice little old-style airport with some nice folks.  They also have a big fish tank in there with big fish, three turtles, and a crawfish that escaped a boil, all red when they found it alive on the ground, so they figured it deserved a chance to live and stuck it in the fish tank.  Big old dirty tank filled with stuff and two baby turtles living just fine in it.  Buggers.

D got a big kick out of pulling one over on me at Guntersville though.  When we went to leave, all the people there were lined up against the window watching us.  I had the parking brake on because we were on a slight incline and they had no chocks.  So after I get it running, I go to taxi out, and go nowhere.  Doh.  Parking brake.  I release that, add power, and still no go.  Huh.  I add more power, it's not going, I pull back the power and look at the parking brake handle in confusion--I'd felt it release, I know it was off--and D starts laughing his head off.  He was over there holding the brakes and was tempted to let go right when I was adding the power in, but couldn't bring himself to do it.  So I finally get going, but it had been a tight parking space, so my nosewheel wasn't straight, and I didn't get it turned over far enough before trying to move, so now I'm jerking my way out of there for a few seconds, and he's laughing harder.  I laughed and said "Those guys are all at the window watching--I'm not coming back here."  He said "Oh yes you are, we got this job."  Oh well.  ;)

I watched the sun rise and I watched the sun set.  It was a dark flight home, very windy, and once we hit Indiana, bumpy.  Over Indy we hit enough turbulence that was bad enough that I powered back and slowed down, even though we were trying to beat in some upcoming snow that was just on the other side of Grissom.  The winds had calmed down to 30 something knots when we got there.  Snow was blowing across the runway at a slight angle, and the taxiways had drifts up over a lot of them, some of them too deep to go through, so it was good I had wing clearance to go around at the time.  It would have made a neat vide, I think, the landing in the dark with the white snow blowing across the runway/taxiway/ramps in the bright lights of the airplane.

It was sad that when we landed it was 24 degrees warmer than when we had left...and it was only 19F out there.  ;)

When I got home, Steve's three cousins were on the deck with him, so that was good that we got to see them a bit.  I was kind of beat, so I went to bed early and called it a day.  From the time I left the house until the time I got back was 15 hours, dark to dark, and the roads were drifted over and piled up too.  I was glad to be home.

Flying over Indy at dawn.

 

Laurel, MS with the gun show sign on the left and one of the no weapons allowed signs on the right. 

Guntersville, AL FBO building.  Lots of character.  :)

 

Right now the only runway that exists is the short one with the approach right over the water. Pretty area, with hills a little farther out in the pattern.

 

Flying home at sunset, which looks identical to the sunset, somewhere down south.

Thirteen

So today our girl turned 13 years old and entered teenager-hood.  I waned to write something nice and thoughtful about it, but I think I used that up elsewhere.  That and I haven't had time to just sit and think since then.  :) 

We woke her up with a lemon square with a candle and singing, and they canceled school again for the occasion of her birthday.  I had written her a letter from both of us that I gave her before her gifts, and I sat in here and watched her reading her letter, sitting up at the counter, hair all mussed up from sleep, sun shining in on her, our teenager.  The letter just told her some things we thought it was important for kids entering the teenage years to know or be reminded of.

She didn't want to come to lunch with us at Grindstone Charley's, so she stayed home, and I let her know that there would be one, maybe two delivery people coming to the house some time today.  I told her I didn't want her to answer the door, but I wanted her to know they were coming and legit so she wouldn't get worried when someone started knocking on our door.  In the old days that wasn't an issue, but Nobody knocks on our door any more, not even the recruiters for the 7th Day Adventists.  ;)  Anyway, we were at lunch when we started getting a series of running texts from Kaylee. And I quote.

Someone knocked at the door so I'm eating my cereal on the floor.
I wonder if they left yet.
I going to see.
A van in driveway.
Flower van, me hide in room.
They are going to knock on front door.
They knocked.
I hiding
I left my cereal in the kitchen tho. :(
I hope it's not on the floor bc that would be suspicious.
They still haven't left...
Creepy
Creepy creepy
I don't see anyone but the car hasn't left yet unless I missed a giant red van with flowers
Wait nevermind they left.  :)
Yes it's flowers!
(insert photo snapped of beautiful flowers)
Cool!
They beautiful!

She's just being a goof, making sure we were kept appraised of every running thought in her head during the Big Event of Flower Delivery.  Goofball. 

Kaylee had a play thing she needed to go to, as it was just her and three others that are working together on these scenes, and if one doesn't make it it goofs up everyone.  I had a parent job too, sorting and organizing t-shirt orders and money, which I did while she practiced. It was zero degrees outside, and night, and butt cold with wind chills, just brutal.  Aunt Cathy and Uncle Lon made it in town for Aunt Ruth's viewing and funeral, and Aunt Cathy, me and Kaylee were doing snapchats back and forth, just being goofy.

It was an unusual birthday for her.  She didn't get the school hoopla, she didn't get a ton of home hoopla, and her birthday party had to be postponed for weather and who knows when that will get better or if people will still be able to do it then.  But I have this giant pretty lemon blueberry birthday cake we need to share with someone, and sing, and eat.  Every kid deserves a birthday cake.  I wish it would have worked out to have her birthday event be more mainstream and normal, but, well, not much in our family is normal, and I guess that's just the way it goes.  She seems okay with it thus far.

I do wish a wonderful, happy 13 to a pretty great kid, though.  :)

Tick Tock

Man it's nasty out there.  Nasty.  NAS-TY.  We're looking at windchills 25 below zero again, highs in the single digits, high winds, and yet more snow.  It won't quit spitting snow and blowing all over everything again.  It's bitter, hurts your nose and lungs when you breathe.  I'm supposed to fly to three places in Alabama on Friday.  Up here it'll be like 5 degrees, and down there it'll be 29-35 degrees, and it's amazing that it'll be 20-30 degrees warmer down there and will still be right at freezing.  That's nuts.  Some time Friday night it's calling for wind gusts over 40 mph and more snowfall.  That should be fun to land in. Saturday they are calling for blizzard like conditions.  There goes Kaylee's birthday flight too...

This morning Kaylee had a two-hour delay because of frigid temperatures.  She will tomorrow, as well, but at least she's finally back in school.  They are making up for it by piling on the homework, too.

I woke up with a bad headache at 4 something this morning, finally kicked it around 10:45 a.m., and ran around after lunch getting some things for Kaylee's birthday. It was busy from lunch on...normal errands, birthday errands, pick up the kid, take her to Taekwondo, pick her back up, fix dinner, clean up from dinner, yadda yadda yadda.  NOW I'm just eating an Oreo, drinking unsweet iced tea, and watching "Revolution".  That'll work.

Dinner tonight, for those of you fascinated to know, was a lovely shrimp linguini.  I got fresh (well, fresh in Indiana) shrimp and sautéed them with garlic, olive oil, and basil, tossed in the linguini with some lemon juice, salt and pepper, and cherry tomatoes.  It was actually pretty tasty.  Shopping for the ingredients took a whole lot longer than fixing and eating it put together did.  No leftovers of this one.  Am I going to post everything I fix?  I hope not.  That's annoying when people do that.

Au Natural

Another day of no school thanks to Mother Nature, and we just heard that this weather pattern isn't really supposed to break until mid-February, including bitter cold sub-zero wind chills and frequent snow activity.  Poor Kaylee's going to be stuck in school until mid-June at this rate. And below-freezing temps with no breaks until mid-February?  Have I ever mentioned how much I hate winter?

We had a student who wanted to fly today.  It was 9 degrees with a windchill of -2, but the sun was shining.  The hangars had mostly been cleared out, and the student was willing to finish shoveling out in front of the door so we could go.  He showed up in shorts.  Crazy young kid.  My hands were burning after being outside for just a few minutes, my legs radiated cold for hours afterwards, and this guy's in shorts.  He brought his brother along to sit in the back seat and take some photos and videos.  We were just doing second-lesson stuff, which is straight and level, turns, climbs, descents, turning climbs and descents, and I threw in the first round of slow flight.  Then we flew over his house and school so they could get some photos of that too.  He had fun, had a good lesson.  This was a day I had to remind myself that he was excited, because I wasn't too excited to go out today.  But those days you fake it to start with, and unless you're a jerk or having a really, really bad day, you end up getting in the groove and having fun too.  It's hard to not enjoy yourself when the person you're with is enjoying himself.

This morning for breakfast I made Kaylee and I a healthy smoothie.  Banana, avocado, honey, cocoa, almond milk, ice.  Not bad, not bad at all.  Chocolate banana flavored shake isn't a bad way to start the day.  ;)  I have enough stuff for one more; I just bought enough to give it a try, just in case.  For dinner I went with a simple pot roast, but one thing after another meant I didn't get it into the crock pot in a timely manner, and it wasn't ready until after 8 pm. It ended up being pretty good though.  Kaylee smelled me searing it in the pan before I put it in the crockpot, and smelled it cooking in the crockpot, and kept saying how gross it smelled and asked to have something else.  I said no, she was going to eat this for dinner with the rest of us. She ate it and came back for seconds, said she really liked it, so we'll count that one a win.  I already know the fish I'm going to fix later this week won't be as well received.  ;)

It looks like the weather is going to stink for Saturday when we're supposed to fly Kaylee and some of her friends to a birthday lunch.  I told her about it and warned her we might have to push it back by a week.  She thought her friends might think that was weird because they don't understand how this aviation stuff goes, she said.  But I told her that IS how this aviation stuff goes, and her birthday is in January in Indiana, so...we will see...

Pause

Today Kaylee was scheduled off of school for MLK Day.  Then after all the snow days over Christmas, they decided to go to school today after all for a snow make-up day.  Then it snowed again and the back roads were cruddy, so they cancelled school after all at the last minute today.  I didn't mind at all, I slept in and enjoyed.  ;)

So, I decided to try cooking a few things this week.  (Oh, shut up.  We eat too much take-out and fast food and processed food.)  So I thought I'd just come up with two, three recipes for the upcoming week, "quick and easy" healthy and tasty recipes with real food.  But even the quick and easy recipes had me at the grocery store for well over an hour trying to find ingredients I don't usually buy.  I got kind of frustrated at one point, hunting down things like capers, which I never did find.  It took forever.  It also wasn't overly cheap buying fresh ingredients.  I didn't know what some things were or where to find them.  I told myself that it would get easier as I did it, that in the future I'd be more familiar with where to find some of this stuff.  One thing called for "Almond Milk".  It's not in the dairy aisle with the rest of the milk.  It's in the organic section.  And in the organic section, there are, no lie, two rows full of different types of Almond Milk.  What the HECK.  How am I supposed to know whether I should get the low sugar, original, no fat, mixed with coconut oil, etc. brand of almond milk?!  Ugh.  Jamie Oliver's "15 minute recipes" don't include the 1 hour plus at the store, for the record.  I need an app where you can punch in something like "arugula" and have it tell me to go to Aisle 3, Row 2, on the right, two shelves down.  That would be great, thanks.  But finally I found most of the ingredients, and over $140 later (vs. $1.00 a box for mac and cheese or $30 for enough pizza for the family and left-overs), I was out the door. (Okay, that also included other things we needed, not just that food).   Tomorrow I'll fix something and see how it goes.  I'm not sure about this.  But when Kaylee was a baby through toddler I had her eating so healthy, a great foundation, and now she eats too much junk. I'll see if I can start small and at least do something a little better for the family.  Don't hold your breath though.  This is a real pain in the butt and requires more planning than I am usually capable of doing.  Only being responsible for a little tween trying to grow healthy and strong would make me even bother. ;)

Kaylee's birthday is Thursday (13 years old!  I have a TEENAGER!), and Friday is Aunt Ruth's funeral.  Several family members are able to come up for the services, which is good, to say goodbye to a wonderful lady.  I'm so thankful that Richard and Ann were able to be with her at the end.

Then I'm hoping the weather is decent on the next Monday, as I am to go down to Florida with Kevin and a couple of his guys in the Aerostar, and we'll be down there until Thursday night.  Watch a warm front hit Indiana and a cold front hit Florida next week.  Hey, nope, I just looked it up.  Next week in Kokomo the HIGH for Kokomo is 9F on Tuesday and 75F in Florida.  Oh yeah.  Looks like my biggest problem (this early in the game anyway) is that Monday in Kokomo we have a 60% chance of getting another 3" of snow, and I need to be able to get out of here without getting iced over.  That's what I get for looking almost a week in advance.  I'll look again on Sunday and see what we've actually got.  ;)

I guess I'll have to get up early tomorrow, now that Kaylee's back in school, and I'll try to cook dinner safely too. Wish us luck.  ;)

My Way

Today was Laura's Day.

Well, mostly.  I did wake up before dawn from a nightmare, unable to go back to sleep, so I got up and watched a B-grade movie on my iPad, finally getting tired and going back to sleep around 9:30 a.m. and staying there until after 11.  That part wasn't great.  But the rest was.

The cable guy actually came today.  He got here around 12:30, he had to crawl up into our crawl space amongst the insulation, but he got it worked out and fixed, and the TV came on showing the pre-game footage for the Bronchos vs. the Patriots game.  If the TV wouldn't have been fixed, I might have had to show up at a friend's house or something, because that's one game I didn't want to miss.  So after four days, we finally have TV again!

Then, the game was so much fun, it would be hard to be in a bad mood watching Peyton Manning and crew beat Tom Brady and crew, and watching Tom Brady wiping tears at the end of the game.  Heh.  Wah.  That right there was worthy of calling a day good.  I just wish that had been the Supebowl, because that would have been the perfect Superbowl with the perfect conclusion to me.

I had a little shoot-out in Words with Friends with a guy who had beaten me, and badly, several times in a row, and I beat him, and well.  Sometimes it's the luck of the letters, and sometimes it's strategy, usually it's a little of both, but this was a good game, hard fought and a win that made me grin.

And then we got a text from Kaylee's school, and they are running on a two-hour delay tomorrow, Monday, thanks to road conditions in the country.  So now I even get to sleep two hours later on a Monday morning.

And I still have a little Million Dollar fudge left to snack on before bed tonight while I watch the NFC playoff game.

See?  Today was Laura's Day.

Raving

We've been having a Comcast Debacle going on over here.  Four days ago we had a working cable box and TV.  Steve went in and got a new cable box with better features.  It never would work.  He went through 6-8 phone calls, starting from scratch every time, repeating himself, they would do this or that, and tell him to wait 15 minutes or 30 minutes and call back if it still wasn't working.  Of course it never was.  So eventually one of them told him his box must be bad and to come in and swap it out for another box.  He goes back out there, drops off the 'bad' box, picks up a new one...which also doesn't work.  Another 6-8 phone calls later of doing the same thing he'd already done with the first box, repeatedly, they decide they'll have to send a service tech out, and set up the appointment for two days later, Saturday from 8-10 a.m.  Steve gets up at 7 something in the morning on Saturday, has the floors protected, the TV out and ready for them...and nobody shows up.  He calls Comcast, tells the whole story again, and they say "The service call doesn't show up in the system for today."  Another round of talking, and a 20-30 minute hold later, and the call he's on gets disconnected.  Now he's late for his Saturday lesson.  He finally has had enough and hands it over to me with the comment that he's going to go postal on somebody.  I can't believe he made it that far.  He must be getting older, wiser and more patient, because I expected him to come unglued and start yelling into the phone days ago.  Instead, I take over that job.  So I call in this morning, and right off the bat they tell me there will be an hour and 17 minute wait on hold, but they can call me back and I won't lose my place in line.  I take that option, and 30 minutes later when I'm in the bathroom (getting ready to go down to the store in person) they call back and leave a message.  Heh.  Eventually I do get through to them, and I tell the whole story all over again, in a deliberately calm but obviously not happy voice, tell them exactly what I expect them to do, etc.  They have no-one available for today, but someone is coming tomorrow.  I make them verify the appointment as showing up in the system, and tell them what I think of how this whole thing has gone, from a working box to a complete cluster. She said she was adding notes to our account to make sure the tech and whoever else knew that it was important to get this taken care of tomorrow.  I'm guessing the note she left said something like "Hey George, you have a live one here, they're a little on the crazy side, suggest you wear protection and get this thing fixed quickly if you can."

I did get some good news this morning.  The few people who read this almost all know about the 340's mechanical (Ha, I first wrote 'medical' which is pretty much accurate too) issues that came up with the engines.  The options were not cheap, and it caused some concern as to the long-term...viability...of the company continuing down an aviation path in the future.  This morning I learned they were going to stick with it, and that's a relief.  Yesterday D brought up the nice young man who had sent him his resume and offered to fly their plane for their company instead of me...for free.  And he wasn't the first young man who went to a company I was flying for and undercut me on price to try to steal my job.  Nice, huh?  What IS nice is that the companies I flew for where that happened were populated by people who found that offensive, for one thing, and for another valued their own lives enough to pay to have someone they trusted up front vs the lowest bidder. People are something else. 

It's the fourth day without a working television around here.  It's started snowing again, and we're supposed to get another 3-6" through tonight.  Have you ever read that 'diary' from a guy who moved to Minnesota?  Day One, it snowed, it's beautiful, look at everything sparkling in the sun, yadda yadda, and by Day Fourteen he's a raving lunatic?  Yeah.  That.  ;)

Friday's Following

Poor Kaylee had a bad headache all day yesterday while at school.  When she got home, I gave her two Advil and had her lay down for a nap, and it didn't go away all the way.  I waited the full time and then gave her two more Advil.  It still didn't kill it, nor did a hot shower, so I sent her to bed. When she first got home, she had that wan expression, circles under her eyes, pale, eyes look small, a look I've seen on my own face in the mirror a few times.  But she refused to ask to go to the nurse and get any medicine because she doesn't like 1) making a 'scene', 2) causing any 'problems', 3) nurses, or 4) medicine.  She had to go through choir and band practice, playing a saxophone, with a really bad headache.  When she got home, she couldn't do her homework because it hurt her head to even think.  That's when I sent her for a nap.  She was up late finally getting her homework done when it dampened down a bit, but it never really went away, which is why I was so glad she woke up this morning doing okay.  Unfortunately I think she gave it to me, because I woke up with it this morning.  ;)  It wasn't terrible though, I just took some Advil and went back to bed until after 10 a.m., and that kicked it.

I flew the Aerostar with D to St. Louis today.  It was cold and white and dreary and windy and cold and snowy and cold out there.  When we got there, Steve C. said if we got in the airplane in the hangar he'd tug us out in style.  Now there's service with a smile!  :)  Uneventful flights.  I've been doing the flying and having D do the radios for these trips with Gumby.  Normally on trips where he goes, I have him do the flying and I just act as a co-pilot, stepping in if he gets busy, plugging in a transponder code or plugging in the re-route on the GPS, for example.  He hadn't ridden along while I do the flying in a very long time--since we first got the 340 and I told him I needed to be the one getting familiar and comfortable with the airplane first before having him do it.  That's been awhile. So he enjoyed sitting right seat and watching me do all the flying work these last two trips.  Yesterday, I made two small mistakes due to it having been a long time since I'd flown the airplane, differences in how something worked vs another plane, nothing big, but he thought it was great, highly amusing.  After that trip, I'd worked through most of the rust, read through procedures, etc., so today I decided I'd give him a 'perfect' flight to chew on.  ;)  As we got closer to St. Louis, the weather went a little downhill, and it was reporting a mile and 700' overcast, and he was gloating that I'd have to shoot an instrument approach in, without the synthetic vision or glass panel.  We broke out to better weather than that, but I just kept my head down until minimums for the practice of it anyway.  He was hoping I'd wander around a little on the approach for him, but unfortunately for him I still have a lot more years on steam gauge approaches than I do glass, and so far it's still familiar turf.  ;)  Before the last landing of the day, Gumby felt like a comfortable friend again.  Tis a good airplane.

It was so dreary in Kokomo that it was nice to get on top and to an area with some breaks in the clouds for a bit, get a little sunshine before the clouds rolled back up to meet us...

Kaylee had two drama things to do today.  Her first official "Advanced Acting Class", and her first official practice for her upcoming play, "The Twelve Daughters of Hercules".  She's excited about this play, says that she and the three others she is working with have a lot of stage time, and it's humorous and fun.  She's wound up about it a little bit, and had a blast working on it tonight, even if she was tired afterwards.

Steve's Aunt Ruth just passed away, so if you can keep her husband Hank and her family, like Steve's mom, in your prayers, I know they'll appreciate it.  Aunt Ruth was a gentle, loving, Godly woman, and much loved.

Catch-Up

I guess it's been a few days, huh?  Sorry.  I know you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to know what I've been up to. ;)

Tuesday Kaylee and I went shopping.  She found a few pairs of new jeans, some new brown boots (with a little heel action), all sorts of stuff, and she came away broke and satisfied.

Wednesday I got up at 5 a.m. and flew the Aerostar with D to Roanoke, Virginia, stayed for several hours, flew on to Anderson, South Carolina, stayed there for several hours, then flew home that night.  I was supposed to go to Alabama and spend the night, but that ended up off the table and S. Carolina on it.

Roanoke is in a beautiful area.  The airport is nestled in a valley surrounded my mountains.  I really wanted to take pictures on take off back out of there, but, well, I was taking off.  That's kind of more important.  D did take a video of the takeoff, but I haven't seen it yet.  The runway we took off on had a sign that said no night takeoffs from that runway were approved, and D said he wondered what that was about, and then we lined up on the runway and both started laughing as we looked at the mountains ahead of us.  We both agreed that synthetic vision would make that a little more palatable in the dark, but otherwise, no thanks.  While we were in Virginia, I of course stole a crew car and ran around a little bit, looked around, had a huge breakfast at a local "famous" place.  Love love love the mountains...so beautiful.  I kind of wish I could live in the mountains, or by them at least.

The trip to Roanoke was pretty uneventful. The trip from Roanoke to S.C. was a little more eventful, but not bad.  The centers had suffered some kind of radar failure, and were making everybody stay up over 8000'.  The only problem was, that's where all the ice was too.  We picked some up here and there, enough to pop the boots a couple of times, enough to make me keep staring at it like it was going to grow teeth (because hey, you never know), but not enough to be a problem.

In both Roanoke and S. Carolina there was a big jet that came in and transported out two college teams.  The one in Roanoke had two pilots, one older and wiser, one younger and quite full of himself, strutting around, and it also had two "flight attendants", in black yoga pants with black boots and studded jackets, and then the brunette opened her mouth and started talking and I had to leave the room because I was trying so hard not to snort and snicker...she might as well have said "My name is Bubbles".  High pitched, more air than sound, you could see through one ear and out the other. I kept finding myself grinning to myself like a crazy person every time she said something, so I really did leave the room. The second jet was piloted by two older guys, very serious, a "tutor" who was there to help the kids keep on track academically, and an older (well, about my age) flight attendant lady who was obviously very sharp.  If you actually had an emergency in the air, she's who you'd want directing the action in the back and getting people out safely.  Anyway, I don't know what team it was, but that jet hit the ramp after I did, so it had to park farther away from the door, and right next to the Aerostar.  I took a picture for posterity.  ;)

The trip home from S. Carolina could have been interesting.  It was colder, there was a stupid line of precip that we had to go through two other times that day, but this time the ADDS icing forecast wasn't good.  We couldn't get under it--for one thing it went down below 3000', and for another we had to be at 8000' anyway for the mountain crossing, which was right where the weather was.  We couldn't get above it, because we'd have needed to be over 13,000', which the Aerostar isn't equipped to do without bringing some portable oxygen along.  According to the forecast, we couldn't go around it, either.  It was a solid band of up to moderate ice being forecasted, through multiple states.  The probability charts were saying over 75-85% chance of it happening.  The only saving grace was that it wasn't wide.  And radar had gaps in the actual precip, but the forecast didn't reflect that, so you couldn't really be sure it wasn't also just a bunch of juicy clouds.  That sure happens too.  And there were no tops reports for that area, either.  I just wasn't very happy about the whole thing.  But it was such a narrow band, and I thought maybe I could navigate the visible part at least, and if all else fails, land at one of the airports nearby but out of the weather and wait.  It was clear on both sides.  Fortunately all went as planned, I deviated around a bit and we only picked up a little bit of ice. It was pretty, seeing the snow sparkling like diamonds in the flashing strobe lights and streaming in the landing lights like "warp drive" off of Star Wars.  I never have been able to get a good picture of that yet.  Some day.  It was good to be home.  I didn't get to sleep until after 1:30 a.m., and I'd been up since 5 a.m., so it was a long day.

This morning I woke up early, went back to sleep, and didn't wake up until 10:30, which is pretty bad, but I guess I needed it.  The weather turned unpleasant again, the world went white, it snowed another inch or better, the winds picked up, things drifted around again, we saw several cars that slid off the roads just on our way home from lunch, and it's just another unpleasant winter day.

Our TV hasn't been working since yesterday.  Steve swapped out our cable box with a better one...except it didn't work.  So today he swapped it out with another box, and brought it home, and...it's not working either.  He's made about 7 or 8 phone calls to the 'help' center, where he starts over every time with a new person, who has him do the same things, and none of them work.  So tonight he finally set up a service call, and they're going to send a tech out to our house to hopefully fix whatever the problem is.  When is this call?  Saturday, 8 a.m.  I will be in my room with the door closed and locked and fast asleep.  In the meantime, we haven't had TV.  I caught up on the shows we missed last night on my iPad today, but it is very quiet in the house without a TV on at all.  We joked that we had to, like, actually have conversations and stuff!  ;)

Well, tomorrow if I can get out, I'm going to run to St. Louis with D in the Aerostar again, but first I have to make sure the weather and the hangar/ramp will cooperate.  Tonight I keep looking at the weather forecasts and I can't get a feel one way or the other.  It's just not talking to me.  So, I'll look in the morning and see what we've actually got...

On top of the clouds on the way to Roanoke

 

This isn't an interesting shot, I just thought the prop artifact was kind of cool.

 

Virginia

 

Cruising over the lower mountains.

 

Driving into town, this tunnel goes under the runway.

 

It's good that I don't live in an area where there are tunnels.  I don't like tunnels. Just sayin'.

 

Gumby on the ramp at Roanoke

 

Gumby on the ramp with the big boy college team jet in S. Carolina.

Monday the 13th

Somehow "Monday the 13th" seems scarier than "Friday the 13th". 

Kaylee did pretty well for getting up before noon for the first time in 3 weeks.  I sent her to school with a plastic fork and a Tupperware container with a small piece of the cake we made yesterday.  Steve took her to the bus, and on the way he mentioned that she seemed pretty cheerful.  She said "I have cake, dad."  As soon as she got on the bus, she ate her cake, and was quite happy about it.  So I sent my tween back to school loaded with sugar.  You're welcome, school.  ;)

My morning flight canceled, he didn't like the winds.  This worked for me because I didn't have cake for breakfast and I didn't sleep well the night before.

I helped Kaylee with her math homework, successfully even, then had to type up notes, format a document and write up something for my school board meeting tonight, then go to the meeting which lasted for over 2 hours, discussing such fun things as finances and pricing schedules.  I got home around 8:30-9 pm, enjoyed Blacklist, caught up on the internets, and hopefully will get some sleep here...

And thus concludes fascinating Monday the 13th.

Work Day

In our business, it doesn't matter what day of the week it is, it matters what the weather is.  So while Sunday is usually our day off, this week it happens to be about the only nice flying day we've had or may have for awhile.

I was standing in the shower this morning, getting ready to go out to the airport, with shampoo in my hair, when the lightbulb went out and it became pitch black in there.  There are no windows in our bathroom, so it's just...black.  I said "Hey!", first, because I initially thought Kaylee came in and flipped it off.  But then I remembered two things: 1) she was still asleep and 2) I had locked the bathroom door.  Darn bulb. It was kind of creepy being in the shower in a little pitch black bathroom when you can't see your hand in front of your face.  Horror movies popped into my head. I decided that didn't do me any good, so I quit that, but really, there's no good reason to linger in the shower, either, you know?  ;)

Steve met with a guy and went over Commercial maneuvers on the ground for several hours.  I flew with two primary students.  One of them is getting pretty close to figuring out this landing thing.  We had a crosswind today, which he didn't really need yet, but he handled it very well.  He was excited to be up flying for the first time in several weeks, and excited that it was a bright sunny day finally.  We stayed in the pattern for 1.3, which is a long time to be doing repeated takeoffs and landings.  The second student was brand new.  He met with Steve yesterday to join the club and go over the first lesson ground stuff.  When he came walking up, he said he was really nervous and really excited.  He's wanted to fly since he was six years old, when his grandpa bought a book about airplanes and every night would read about two different airplanes before bed. So today was the big day, his first ever flight lesson.  He loved it, he gained a lot of confidence fast, and he kept talking about how amazing and beautiful and awesome it was.  That's one of the best things about instructing, that what for you is the second flight on a chilly Sunday afternoon, for someone else is the first step towards fulfilling a lifelong dream.  What could be better than that??  Steve and I were talking about how fun that is for us as instructors too.  Any CFI should remember what it felt like for their first lesson, should remember how frustrating learning how to land was, should remember the terror of the first checkride, the relief and huge sense of accomplishment upon becoming an actual pilot.  Sometimes you don't remember those things, you just think "Man, it's hot/cold/nasty, I'm tired/hungry/wanttodosomethingelse", but that's when you need to remember that for them, it's an important day, something they've been looking forward to doing, something they're trying to master, and remember when you were the student.  So even though I missed the first half of the Bronco's game (go Peyton!), I secretly asked Siri what the score was while the student was getting something in the hangar, he never knew, I was kept up to date, and we got a fantastic first flight in.  ;)

The ground is really pretty right now, with the snow melting, leaving patterns of earth vs. drifts where you can see what the winds were doing.  Everything is black and white.  Black trees, white snow, black earth, whitish sky.

Kaylee and I made a cake tonight.  She's been harassing me about making this cake for days now, so finally tonight we got it done.  Yellow cake, chocolate frosting, two round pans into one layered round cake, and she wants to eat the whole thing by herself.  This, of course, after she cleaned out the batter bowl, spoon, and eggbeaters so clean I pretty much don't need to put them in the dishwasher.  Just like every kid that has ever baked with a parent.  What stinks is when you're the parent and you have to give up most of the batter YOU still want too!  ;)

Well, tomorrow is the end of the vacation reign.  Kaylee goes back to school, we all get up early again, I have a local flight in the morning, a school board meeting in the evening, a bunch of notes to type up for that meeting before then, Taekwondo to run her to, and the days of lazing away in the living room are over for me and Kaylee.  Steve's been working already anyway, but I can't claim to have done a whole lot of anything but keep the dishes and laundry from taking over the rest of the house, staying up too late, sleeping in too late, reading books, reading the internet, and enjoying myself a great deal.  It's been delicious.

Saturday Part II

So, you might want to skip this one as it's pretty much only interesting to me.  Of course the one from earlier today isn't any better.  Sorry.  :D

I took a big 60 question personality quiz, and this time I tried to answer only as I am NOW, not as I used to be.  That was a little tough in a couple of areas, I had to stop and think a few times.  It came up pretty clearly with ISTP.  Introverted (no joke), Sensing (observant, practical), Thinking (tough, follow their minds, rational), and Prospecting (keeps options open, relaxed, reluctant to commit, seek freedom).

The first paragraph of it says: "People with the ISTP personality type form around 5% of the population and possess many interesting traits that can easily baffle outsiders. They are usually very rational and logical, but can also surprise everybody by suddenly becoming more spontaneous and enthusiastic. While most other types tend to be easily recognizable and have clearly outlined traits, this is definitely not the case with ISTPs – even people who know them well may not be able to anticipate their reaction to something."

I thought that was kind of funny, 5% of the population is like me.  But at least Harrison Ford was one of them.  That works for me.  ;)

I also thought the "Strengths and Weaknesses" were pretty good.

Strengths:
Optimistic. They rarely get stressed and prefer to go with the flow rather than plan their next steps. Good at dealing with crisis situations. ISTPs do not mind taking risks (this can also be a weakness) and can think on their feet, making snap decisions when necessary – crises do not really scare them. Very creative and practical. They have a vivid imagination. Relaxed. People with this personality type live in the present and often simply go with the flow, not worrying too much about the future. Despite being unpredictable, ISTP personalities are very good at conserving their energy and releasing it only when necessary. Both spontaneous and rational. They are able to combine spontaneity with logic, switching from one “mode” to another, depending on the situation. This makes them very flexible and versatile individuals.

Weaknesses:
Can be very stubborn. They can become very blunt and irritated if someone tries to criticize their habits, lifestyle or ideas. Private and reserved. ISTPs can be very difficult to get to know as they keep most of their thoughts and ideas to themselves, especially when it comes to private or sensitive matters. Get bored quickly. People with the ISTP personality type may find it difficult to remain focused on something for an extended amount of time, with their thoughts drifting off to more interesting things. May be insensitive. Enjoy taking risks. ISTP personalities are big risk takers and may often do that simply for the sake of having fun. Dislike commitments. ISTPs like to review their obligations on a daily basis instead of committing to something for a very long time.

In general, ISTPs tend to be very optimistic, generous and confident in their abilities – as long as they are not pushed into a corner, burdened with rules and guidelines, or asked to commit to something they are not yet ready for. Unique and mysterious traits of this personality type may never cease to amaze people close to them, but it is also possible that ISTPs themselves will be surprised by them every once in a while.

Well, as objective as a person can be towards themselves, which is always somewhat questionable, it seems pretty right on to me.  One I kind of question is Risk taking, but not a lot. It depends on what they mean.  I do enjoy activities that involve more risk than "normal" people like, and always have.  That would fit the "risk to have fun" part.  But I don't like gambling much. It feels like throwing money away for no good reason, and it's not that fun to me.  I take risks in some areas, and in others I'm very straight-laced.  I now like risks that are...mitigated?  But I didn't used to care if they were mitigated or not. I was reckless and flat out did not care.  Maturity, or a change in personality?  Doesn't get stressed easily is true...for most things.  Annoyingly so sometimes for others around me who might like me to be more concerned sometimes about some things.  There are a couple of things that do get to me, but in fairness they took awhile to build up to this point where they kind of stress me out.  I guess the disparities like that are part of the whole "not able to clearly define traits" thing.  ;)  I also wouldn't post this on a place where a lot of people I know would read it.  But here, so far, I'm pretty safe.  ;)

Anyway.  Steve's cousin sent him a list of aviation quotes.  I'd heard these before, but I like these, so I'll repost for posterity.

Pilots are people who drive airplanes for other people who can't fly.
Passengers are people who say they fly, but really just ride.

Flying is a hard way to earn an easy living.

Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane; the pessimist, the parachute.

Death is just nature's way of telling you to watch your airspeed.

As a pilot only two bad things can happen to you (and one of them will):
a. One day you will walk out to the aircraft, knowing it is your last flight.
b. One day you will walk out to the aircraft, not knowing it is your last flight.

There are rules and there are laws:
The rules are made by men who think that they know how to fly your airplane better than you.
The laws (of physics) were ordained by God.
You can and sometimes should suspend the rules, but you can never suspend the laws.

About Rules:
a. The rules are a good place to hide if you don't have a better idea and the talent to execute it.
b. If you deviate from a rule, it must be a flawless performance (e.g., if you fly under a bridge, don't hit the bridge.)

He who demands everything that his aircraft can give him is a pilot; he who demands one iota more is a fool.

There are certain aircraft sounds that can only be heard at night and over the ocean. Most of them are scary.

You have to make up your mind about growing up and becoming a pilot. You can't do both.

Playoffs...When it Counts

Kaylee is right now out eating dinner with friends, where I am guessing she will polish off her own entire basket of chips and salsa in about 5 minutes flat.  That girl is a food monster.  :)  I started feeling bad about her dietary habits, so for dinner the other night I made her spaghetti, added a dish of orange slices, then added a plate with some cut-up celery filled with peanut butter.  Hey, it's what I had around here.  She used to eat anything, now she's getting picky, and I need to make sure she eats better than she has been, if I have any control left over that at all.  ;)

Steve is out at Kokomo, pacing, making phone calls, working on information regarding what needs to happen next with the C-340 currently in annual, after meeting with a new student, a teenager who signed up today and who I will most likely fly with tomorrow afternoon.

Side Rant: There was an article that went around Facebook in the SMA community, but I can't find it right now.  It was about a woman whose baby was in the hospital with a life-threatening illness, and she started off so irrationally angry at other people who didn't have to deal with that kind of thing and took it for granted, angry at people with healthy kids, etc.  And then she noticed that there was another baby on her son's floor whose mother almost never came to visit, and had left word she didn't want anyone else in her child's room, so the 11 month old was left alone all day and night other than when a nurse would come in to check on her.  The mom said she was horrified, and she went from "Why me" to "I'm glad it's me", because she knew that nobody would care for her sick child the way she would, and she was glad she had the opportunity to be there for her son.  Steve and I know exactly what she means.  The times we spent in the PICU with Devon...we would see the exact same thing.  But not just one baby.  MOST babies and toddlers.  These little ones would all be left alone in the hospital.  We were usually the only parents on the floor, and if there was another parent, they usually came and left quickly.  Sometimes we had to take turns, one sleeping or working and one with him, but we never, ever left him alone in there. For one thing, doctors don't come around and nurses are overwhelmed with patients, and they only come in when an alarm is going off.  If you're a parent, sitting in there, you can see what's going on before things start alarming, which is sure as heck better for your child than waiting until they can't breathe, waiting until someone gets there, then waiting until they do something about it. Pardon my language, but screw that.  If you're sitting in there, you can take care of basic needs, and prevent medical mistakes, and believe you me, they happen A Lot More Than People Think.  Also, people think that babies and toddlers won't know the difference, but that's baloney.  They may not grow up and remember it, but they are human beings too, who are now sick or hurt enough to be in an intensive care unit in a hospital, too young to understand what is happening, old enough to know that it's not good, being poked with needles and hurting and having tests run, locked constantly in an actual cage or bed with bars, and now their mom and dad and everyone and everything they know in their world is just gone.  But forget the medical end of things for a minute.  I know it's hard to see your child with tubes and wires and machines and sick.  But it's not about you, mom and dad.  It's about them.  Suck it up and BE there for them.  They have nobody but you, when you had them you took on that responsibility, and how dare you leave because it's hard for you that they are having a hard time?  I realize that some people have to work. Even both parents, and that people can't always get time off even for something like this.  I also realize that unless you live in a vacuum, you probably have some family or some friend who would be willing to go for awhile when you can't, and I know you don't work 24 hours a day.  One or two kids left to their own devices I can see, but it was really disturbing and shocking to have a whole floor of them, and not just on one hospital stay.  It was really surprising when a bunch of nurses would make comments about us always being there and how unusual and wonderful it was. It was really surprising when another nurse took us aside and said "NICE job sticking up for your son.  I've never seen a parent do that with him before" when a doctor wanted to do something we didn't want them to do.  Doctors aren't gods and nurses can't do it all for everyone all the time.  Shame on people for leaving those kids like that.  It doesn't make you a Super Parent to find a way to spend time with and try to help your sick child in the hospital.  I thought it just made you a...parent.  C'mon, people.

Now that I'm mad again, I can watch the Patriots likely beat the Colts in the playoffs, and just stay mad for the rest of the night, as it takes hours to fully play out the horror.  ;)

Quote Post

Steve and our maintenance guy went back down to the basement next door, Jason caught the bird with his bare hands, which impressed Steve, took it outside and set it free (where it probably froze to death after being in the warm basement).  So all is well there.

The temperature broke freezing today, and the main roads are melted off and fine.  Our back road still needs a lot of help, but tomorrow it will rain and be 40 degrees, and I'm guessing that'll wipe out any remaining snow troubles on these back roads.  The temps felt so warm after the sub zero days that you almost didn't feel like you needed a jacket, and it was only 35!

It's been a little quiet around here, there's not much going on to report that I can publicly post anyway, so these are just some quote things with my own bored ramblings attached.

Actually, I am kind of shy sometimes, and I am a little antisocial sometimes, but not always. It depends on what mode I'm in.  But the one that I hadn't really seen before was "Don't scold/embarrass me in public".  That's sure the truth.  I cannot stand public airing of dirty laundry or (real) fighting. Ever.  And when I'm embarrassed in public for whatever reason, I have a very hard time with that, which is why I am a terrible candidate for someone to pull a public embarrassing prank and video tape it and post it on YouTube.  People who know me know better--a lot better.  Not only would I not be amused, I would probably no longer be associated with them. I'd never trust them again. I didn't know that was an "introvert" thing, I thought it was just me, plus maybe the way I was brought up (which was also that you keep private negative things private).  Interesting.

Another quote I heard today said:
In this day and age, the opposite of "courage" is not "cowardice", it is "conformity".

I like that.  Conformity is its own, specific version of cowardice.  Sometimes it's a survival tool, sometimes it's just the easy way out.   Most of us conform to some degree or other, and not all conformity is bad.  Only the conformity that is the opposite of courage, and it's up to each of us to try to identify where that might be in our lives and whether or not we have the courage to change it.  ;) 

Ironically, a Bible verse just popped into my head as I was typing this, too.  "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God."  Romans 12:2.  Never let anybody tell you that what you learn when you're young won't stick with you. ;)  Now why can't I remember anything important from the last couple of years?!

To end on, this is a video called "Rise and Shine", a motivational video for athletes and runners.  Now I am most obviously neither an athlete nor a runner, nor do I have any desire to be a runner, at all.  But if I had any inclination towards becoming just athletic, this video would push that button.  I just enjoy the videography as well as what it has to say, even though my biggest athletic adventure is pulling an airplane out by myself, or carrying as many grocery bags at a time as I can manage into the house...