The declutter rampage has continued a little bit. Steve has kept looking through, organizing and tossing various things. I think right now it's old baking pans from the kitchen area. It's always good to give away or throw away things that are just taking up space for no good reason. It makes a person feel lighter in a few ways, I think.
Speaking of lighter, Steve made cinnamon rolls for breakfast this morning, just to use them up. That's not really on my "I don't want to eat badly after Thanksgiving" plan, but they were tasty anyway. I do have things here I need to eat up before they go bad or get wasted--pies, rolls, biscuits, opened chips, many things that I try to eat now and then in small quantities that I sort of need to eat all at once in bigger quantities. I actually lost weight over Thanksgiving itself, but I may end up gaining some in the aftermath! You can't walk enough on a treadmill to balance out all those bread products at once. ;) Oh well, I'm going to enjoy what I can and try to keep from going too crazy on it, balance it out as much as possible...
This morning I got to revisit something a little unpleasant from my youth. I was getting ready to take a shower, when my nose just turned on like a faucet--big ole bloody nose. (Steve can skip this paragraph). I used to get them quite frequently, and sometimes it was from the super dry, cold Wisconsin air, but I also got them at other warmer, moister times and places, and they were a lot of times related to stress, too. Other than that, I don't know, maybe the blood vessels just got weaker too in there, who knows. Well, it's not dry here right now, and I'm not stressed out right now, in fact it would be hard to be more relaxed than sleeping in late after having spent the day before not doing much of anything but reading a new book. ;) Whatever it was, it was pretty aggressive. You can't use anything to staunch it, you just have to let it do its thing, and hang over a toilet or sink or trash can. This one lasted 20 minutes, and I am obviously older than I used to be, because in the past the 20 minute ones didn't bother me, it was just the 45 minute ones that made me light headed. It's been three hours, and I've eaten and drank, and I'm still having trouble getting that taste out. Makes me queasy. Reminds me of the days when the nurses would force me to tilt my head back during an episode, and oh it would make me so sick. I was only a kid but even I knew that was a stupid idea on how to handle a severe bloody nose. That's when I quit telling adults when I'd have a bloody nose, so they wouldn't make me do that any more. I'd just disappear for half an hour to an hour and take care of it myself. Years later they changed their mind on having people do that. No kidding, folks, about time! I bet what happened is that somebody in authority finally had their own bad bloody nose and decided that forcing it all into your stomach wasn't helpful after all. ;)
Kaylee needs a Gingerbread Girl costume. The teacher suggested Oriental Trading. I went there, and ordered it, but it had no sizing information and no reviews. So I did a little hunting around on the site, and it had two other boy costumes, and they had one or two reviews, which said they were too small for their 9 year olds. Hum. So I also ordered the one adult Gingerbread Costume, which is shown being worn by a grown man. It looks like our two choices are tiny child or grown man, but neither shows sizing info at all. So, we'll get them here and hope for the best, that at least one of them will work. This is for a choir concert in which Kaylee has a part. I'm sure she'd much rather have the cuter Gingerbread girl costume, but I just hope something fits.
Well, time to work on some more laundry, eat some more food, watch a little more football, and get ready to try to kick everything back in gear tomorrow.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Friday, November 28, 2014
Thanks
I'm the last one awake, which is normally the case, but probably won't be for much longer, considering Kaylee is also a night owl--and 29 years younger than I am. :) One symptom of me getting older may be that caffeine didn't used to keep me up. Tonight I had a coffee drink and am still awake at 3 a.m. Now, either caffeine is starting to affect me more, or...more likely, come to think of it, the fact is that I don't hardly drink any soft drinks any more and thus probably have lost my tolerance for it. Either way, it's 3 a.m. and I'm pretty wide awake here! At least I got to finish a new James Patterson novel.
It's been enjoyable having everybody here. We don't get to see the Cherry family a whole lot, and we don't get to see my Mom & Ernie a whole lot, so it's been neat. Kaylee went with her girl cousins to Target/the mall and Starbucks last night. They left at 11 p.m. and got home just after 1 a.m. It's still a little hard to believe the oldest cousins are 24 and 22, that by the time my Mom was 24, she was widowed and had a 5 year old daughter, that by the time I was 24, I had been a pilot for a few years and was newly married. And now they're that age, and Kaylee is less than 10 years behind them, and that's just...something. I'm grateful she has all of them in her life too.
Tonight Mom, Ernie, Steve, Kaylee and I went to Marion to look at their walkway of lights. It's a bit of a drive out there, and the address I got from their website took us downtown and no lights around. So I went to their Facebook page, which had a different address. That one worked, except it took us to the END of the display, not the beginning. Steve wandered around for a little while, but eventually he hunted down where the thing started, and by then, in a much bright Christmas Spirit struggling to stay that way, we finally made it. We all decided it was fine, but we had seen better displays. :o But...I can sit on the couch any time, but I'd never seen the display I'd heard about each year, and you never know until you go check it out. So I didn't mind going at all. It's not like we didn't enjoy the company we were with, and there was nothing on TV anyway, so hey. ;)
There was one display from the Marion Fly-In, an old bi-plane and a car. They did a nice job with that one. They also had a Corvette that looked pretty good, and it's a clever idea to do the 12 Days of Christmas like that too. They had a walkway and a gift shop, but it was 20 some degrees outside, so walking was NOT on anybody's agenda for today. Well, there were a few hardy folks walking, but nobody in our car was that nuts. I mean interested.
I usually feel pretty darned thankful for things, and I don't think people should wait for one day a year to remember what they are thankful for any more than they should wait for one 'heart' day a year to tell their significant others that they love and appreciate them. I know that life isn't perfect, that there are always things that could be better, but we have a safe home, a happy and loving family, friends who care about us and we for them, I have a job I still really enjoy doing (except when it's sub-freezing ;)), and we have...enough. The thing that would bother me if I let myself dwell on it is that life is always changing, and what is bad won't stay bad, but what is good can't always stay either. We're always given different challenges, and I've seen enough of them to be a little afraid of that, of the other shoe dropping, afraid it will be a big one. But something else I've come to feel peace about is that whatever comes about in life, I think there's a purpose, even if I don't know what it is right away. What seems bad can have good rise from it...if you let it. I wouldn't be where and who I am today without several things that I wouldn't have chosen for myself. You also can't live life paralyzed by the "what could be"s. So I am thankful for what we have been blessed with.
Since that is too serious to end on, today was Black Friday, and while I didn't shop (heaven forbid), I did take one quick flight. This was an aerial photography flight, where a young pilot I taught several years ago but who hadn't flown in over a year came back, and brought his company photographer and friend along in the back seat to take photos of his company's property, equipment, fields, etc. This photographer was the same one who had gone with us in the RG out to Ohio and Pennsylvania to shoot photos of coal power plants. He'd thrown up 7 or 8 times that day. Mostly dry-heaving after awhile until we stopped for lunch and he decided eating Arby's was a good plan (it wasn't). Well, as soon as I saw him, I made sure I had multiple sic sacs on board, and off we went. He did okay for awhile, and then he started getting quiet and pale. I turned the heat off, and opened my air vents, which of course are taped off because it's below freezing out there these days. We had to open the window to take the photos, so he got a good dose of cold air a few times there. He asked to be dropped off in the air, and then got quieter. We made it back to Kokomo in time, and he survived, and I declared any Black Friday in which nobody vomits on me to be a successful one!
On that note, it's a quarter to four, and it's a good thing I can (hopefully) sleep in tomorrow!
It's been enjoyable having everybody here. We don't get to see the Cherry family a whole lot, and we don't get to see my Mom & Ernie a whole lot, so it's been neat. Kaylee went with her girl cousins to Target/the mall and Starbucks last night. They left at 11 p.m. and got home just after 1 a.m. It's still a little hard to believe the oldest cousins are 24 and 22, that by the time my Mom was 24, she was widowed and had a 5 year old daughter, that by the time I was 24, I had been a pilot for a few years and was newly married. And now they're that age, and Kaylee is less than 10 years behind them, and that's just...something. I'm grateful she has all of them in her life too.
Tonight Mom, Ernie, Steve, Kaylee and I went to Marion to look at their walkway of lights. It's a bit of a drive out there, and the address I got from their website took us downtown and no lights around. So I went to their Facebook page, which had a different address. That one worked, except it took us to the END of the display, not the beginning. Steve wandered around for a little while, but eventually he hunted down where the thing started, and by then, in a much bright Christmas Spirit struggling to stay that way, we finally made it. We all decided it was fine, but we had seen better displays. :o But...I can sit on the couch any time, but I'd never seen the display I'd heard about each year, and you never know until you go check it out. So I didn't mind going at all. It's not like we didn't enjoy the company we were with, and there was nothing on TV anyway, so hey. ;)
There was one display from the Marion Fly-In, an old bi-plane and a car. They did a nice job with that one. They also had a Corvette that looked pretty good, and it's a clever idea to do the 12 Days of Christmas like that too. They had a walkway and a gift shop, but it was 20 some degrees outside, so walking was NOT on anybody's agenda for today. Well, there were a few hardy folks walking, but nobody in our car was that nuts. I mean interested.
I usually feel pretty darned thankful for things, and I don't think people should wait for one day a year to remember what they are thankful for any more than they should wait for one 'heart' day a year to tell their significant others that they love and appreciate them. I know that life isn't perfect, that there are always things that could be better, but we have a safe home, a happy and loving family, friends who care about us and we for them, I have a job I still really enjoy doing (except when it's sub-freezing ;)), and we have...enough. The thing that would bother me if I let myself dwell on it is that life is always changing, and what is bad won't stay bad, but what is good can't always stay either. We're always given different challenges, and I've seen enough of them to be a little afraid of that, of the other shoe dropping, afraid it will be a big one. But something else I've come to feel peace about is that whatever comes about in life, I think there's a purpose, even if I don't know what it is right away. What seems bad can have good rise from it...if you let it. I wouldn't be where and who I am today without several things that I wouldn't have chosen for myself. You also can't live life paralyzed by the "what could be"s. So I am thankful for what we have been blessed with.
Since that is too serious to end on, today was Black Friday, and while I didn't shop (heaven forbid), I did take one quick flight. This was an aerial photography flight, where a young pilot I taught several years ago but who hadn't flown in over a year came back, and brought his company photographer and friend along in the back seat to take photos of his company's property, equipment, fields, etc. This photographer was the same one who had gone with us in the RG out to Ohio and Pennsylvania to shoot photos of coal power plants. He'd thrown up 7 or 8 times that day. Mostly dry-heaving after awhile until we stopped for lunch and he decided eating Arby's was a good plan (it wasn't). Well, as soon as I saw him, I made sure I had multiple sic sacs on board, and off we went. He did okay for awhile, and then he started getting quiet and pale. I turned the heat off, and opened my air vents, which of course are taped off because it's below freezing out there these days. We had to open the window to take the photos, so he got a good dose of cold air a few times there. He asked to be dropped off in the air, and then got quieter. We made it back to Kokomo in time, and he survived, and I declared any Black Friday in which nobody vomits on me to be a successful one!
On that note, it's a quarter to four, and it's a good thing I can (hopefully) sleep in tomorrow!
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Project Mode
The family is here! Everyone arrived within about 2 hours of each other. But before they got here, we just had a few things to straighten up first. Steve decided he wanted Kaylee to straighten up her closets and put stuff where it belongs, but this job was a serious thing to start in on the day you have company coming. So I decided to help her, and if we're going to do it, go all out and do it. So I took everything out of both of her closets, and we started from scratch. Do you want to throw this away, give it to someone else, save it somewhere else for posterity, or keep it out. That went for every piece of clothing in her closet (we got rid of two more bags of clothes) as well as her stuff (we threw away one trash bag worth of stuff and gave away a bunch of toys that were too young for her now to someone who will appreciate it all a lot. We had a HUGE mess in the middle of her floor. We finally got it finished up shortly after Grandma and Grandpa Chiles arrived. Her room is quite in order now, and I don't want her to mess it up. ;)
The Cherries arrive a couple of hours later, and we made up these pizzas we had all bought for Kaylee's school fundraiser. They were...okay. But they were cheap and we got rid of them tonight. ;) We also had salad and celery with cream cheese just to put a vegetable out there too, you know.
Good day, great to see everybody, and looking forward to tomorrow. :)
The Cherries arrive a couple of hours later, and we made up these pizzas we had all bought for Kaylee's school fundraiser. They were...okay. But they were cheap and we got rid of them tonight. ;) We also had salad and celery with cream cheese just to put a vegetable out there too, you know.
Good day, great to see everybody, and looking forward to tomorrow. :)
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Flames
Well, isn't Ferguson a real cluster? I probably got a little too uptight about it--there's nothing I can do, and normally current events don't rile me up all that much. This one did, mostly because I know that officer's life as he knows it is over too, he was defending himself and did his job, the evidence was really clear, justice WAS served, but he'll never be able to be a police officer again most likely, and the people's reactions...stealing from, looting and destroying THEIR OWN COMMUNITY, their own stores, mostly minority owned who didn't do anything wrong...they are taking it as an opportunity to get what they want with an excuse of being angry at "injustice", which wasn't injustice. What they're really doing is acting like the thugs and animals that they don't want everybody else to think they are. Well, you show your character when things don't go your way. Buck up, buttercups. And Sharpton ought to be in jail. Martin Luther King Jr. must be rolling over in his grave at what Sharpton and Jackson have done to race relations. Okay. I think I'm done. Time to let that one go. I already used people's reactions to this as a tool on knowing who to get off of my news feed on Facebook. I unfriended about 6 people who posted things about poor innocent Michael Brown and how there was "no justice" and "No justice, no peace", which, hello, isn't that a good chunk of the problem? Anyway, like I said, I stewed over that longer today than I normally stew on about anything, and there's nothing I can do about it, so time to let them stew on it and me move forth with my own life, and a happy and blessed Thanksgiving weekend with loved ones, in peace. :)
We are officially on vacation here! No students or trips Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at least. Mom and Ernie, Lon and Cathy and the kids and Richard and Ann and Steve and Kaylee and I, we are looking forward to this weekend! It didn't feel like vacation until about midnight here, but I think it's slowly settling in. I may have to stay up late and finish actually getting relaxed before tomorrow gets here.
We are officially on vacation here! No students or trips Wednesday, Thursday or Friday at least. Mom and Ernie, Lon and Cathy and the kids and Richard and Ann and Steve and Kaylee and I, we are looking forward to this weekend! It didn't feel like vacation until about midnight here, but I think it's slowly settling in. I may have to stay up late and finish actually getting relaxed before tomorrow gets here.
Monday, November 24, 2014
Bang
Winter came back with a vengeance today, with temps dropping 20 degrees over the day, and the winds gusting up over 43 knots. It was overcast, grey, windy, cold, and just...nasty. Fortunately I didn't have to go on a trip today. I've never canceled them for winds yet, and we've taken a few trips with winds in the 40s over the years, but that doesn't mean it's any fun.
As I was getting into my vehicle after lunch, the wind swung the door, and I caught it and spun towards it, and I'm not sure if I hit it or it hit me, but one way or the other I ended up with the edge of the Explorer door smacking me right in the forehead over my left eye. Hard. My vision went black for a second, and when I could see again I was facing the opposite way from what I last remembered facing, and I could still see little silver sparkles in my vision for a second or two. They're actually pretty, by the way. In case you're wondering, that really hurt. I ended up with a decent-sized knot, and a small-ish (so far) bruise. I put an ice pack on it for awhile. I was granted an instant headache, but fortunately it mostly faded over about 45 minutes' time, and I didn't take any painkillers, as I didn't want to mask the symptoms if it became a problem. I also got a little queasy for awhile, later, but that's gone too now. I can't lift my eyebrows properly without pain, but that doesn't matter in anything other than realizing how much I use my eyebrows in my typical conversational facial expressions. ;) So it was a good knock, but I generally have a pretty thick head, so no sweat. Maybe it knocked some sense into me! (Just thought I'd say that before anybody else did).
Kaylee had a field trip for school today. They went to the Indiana Repertory Theater down in Indianapolis to watch a professional play performance of "A Christmas Carol". The school requested that the children dress up appropriately for theater, which meant slacks and a dress shirt for the boys, skirts or dress slacks for the girls. Kaylee wore a dress, and looked quite lovely might I add. I thought it was neat that the school was helping the kids understand a little more about the culture of professional plays, and had them dress it up a little for it. You know, showing them a time for a little appropriate couth/class/culture. :)
While they were in Indy, the school took these kids on a shopping trip at Circle Center Mall. Dear heavens above, taking a group of Junior Highers to the mall in late November?? Do you know how busy the stores are already getting? Ack. But Kaylee found a little black dress that she bought for $13 that she could wear to her school's Christmas Dance. She found a white one she liked better, but she was $4 short for it. It was $20. These were actual semi-formal, knee-length dresses. Unreal! We were supposed to go shopping soon for a dress for her to wear, as she's already worn her other dress to several other events, but I don't know that we'd have found one for $13 here! You go girl.
Supposedly the decision on Ferguson is supposed to be coming out soon here. Why do I get the feeling that if there's any good tv on tonight I'll have to watch it later On Demand because we'll be stuck watching the news involuntarily when the rioting starts in Missouri? Why do I believe that even if the police officer were convicted, like they want, that there would still be rioting? Hopefully not, and hopefully this is a big non-event for everyone living there. I'm going to quit there.
Hey: 1. The weather came in with a bang. 2. I got in a good head bang. 3. Kaylee was dressed up banging. 4. Kaylee found a bang-up deal. 5. Bang Bang Flash Bang in Missouri. I'm done now. Sorry.
As I was getting into my vehicle after lunch, the wind swung the door, and I caught it and spun towards it, and I'm not sure if I hit it or it hit me, but one way or the other I ended up with the edge of the Explorer door smacking me right in the forehead over my left eye. Hard. My vision went black for a second, and when I could see again I was facing the opposite way from what I last remembered facing, and I could still see little silver sparkles in my vision for a second or two. They're actually pretty, by the way. In case you're wondering, that really hurt. I ended up with a decent-sized knot, and a small-ish (so far) bruise. I put an ice pack on it for awhile. I was granted an instant headache, but fortunately it mostly faded over about 45 minutes' time, and I didn't take any painkillers, as I didn't want to mask the symptoms if it became a problem. I also got a little queasy for awhile, later, but that's gone too now. I can't lift my eyebrows properly without pain, but that doesn't matter in anything other than realizing how much I use my eyebrows in my typical conversational facial expressions. ;) So it was a good knock, but I generally have a pretty thick head, so no sweat. Maybe it knocked some sense into me! (Just thought I'd say that before anybody else did).
Kaylee had a field trip for school today. They went to the Indiana Repertory Theater down in Indianapolis to watch a professional play performance of "A Christmas Carol". The school requested that the children dress up appropriately for theater, which meant slacks and a dress shirt for the boys, skirts or dress slacks for the girls. Kaylee wore a dress, and looked quite lovely might I add. I thought it was neat that the school was helping the kids understand a little more about the culture of professional plays, and had them dress it up a little for it. You know, showing them a time for a little appropriate couth/class/culture. :)
While they were in Indy, the school took these kids on a shopping trip at Circle Center Mall. Dear heavens above, taking a group of Junior Highers to the mall in late November?? Do you know how busy the stores are already getting? Ack. But Kaylee found a little black dress that she bought for $13 that she could wear to her school's Christmas Dance. She found a white one she liked better, but she was $4 short for it. It was $20. These were actual semi-formal, knee-length dresses. Unreal! We were supposed to go shopping soon for a dress for her to wear, as she's already worn her other dress to several other events, but I don't know that we'd have found one for $13 here! You go girl.
Supposedly the decision on Ferguson is supposed to be coming out soon here. Why do I get the feeling that if there's any good tv on tonight I'll have to watch it later On Demand because we'll be stuck watching the news involuntarily when the rioting starts in Missouri? Why do I believe that even if the police officer were convicted, like they want, that there would still be rioting? Hopefully not, and hopefully this is a big non-event for everyone living there. I'm going to quit there.
Hey: 1. The weather came in with a bang. 2. I got in a good head bang. 3. Kaylee was dressed up banging. 4. Kaylee found a bang-up deal. 5. Bang Bang Flash Bang in Missouri. I'm done now. Sorry.
You can sort of see the knot on my head up there.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Random Hoo-Ha
I am eating a piece of cake with Anne Frank's face on it. There really is something kind of wrong with that.
Steve is working on putting the windows up on his Mom and Dad's deck next door, so they have a way to be outside more even when it's bad cold outside. We all need a little extra daylight during the winter months! It's been a fair amount of work, because his handy man disappeared and isn't returning his calls, so he's been doing it himself. The bad news is, you need a good handy man. The good news is, Steve built houses himself anyway--he can handle the work, he just doesn't feel like it. But at least he's capable of it, and in this case he'll know it was done the way he wanted it done in the first place.
These weather forecasters...yesterday it was originally supposed to rain all day. It didn't. Sunday was supposed to be winds over 50 mph. It isn't. It's fine. We could have flown either day. But no, we had other plans because the weather was supposed to be bad anyway. And then these same people want to tell me all about how this entire winter season is going to go. They can't even get SATURDAY right, and they want to tell me about the weather from now until March? We'll see what Monday--and March--brings when it gets here.
Kaylee's still got all A's except for a B+ in Social Studies. She has until mid-December to bring it back up, which should be doable. And not let anything else drop, which is harder. She's going to school today to help them clean up after the play. It's a mandatory gig, but she'll enjoy it anyway, just because being around her friends and doing things always winds her up. She's more extrovert than introvert in that regard.
Speaking of Kaylee, I have to say, I'm still glad for her growing up years. She gets along with just about everybody. The "cool kids" like her fine, but she doesn't really hang out with them. The "smart kids" like her. The "acting club" kids, the "quiet kids"...she doesn't have any enemies. She has one boy she doesn't like because of how he treats everyone, and a girl she says is mean but who doesn't bother her any, but in general she gets along just fine with just about everybody. I am doubtful she'll ever know what a gift that is.
SMA has been a bit on my mind lately. Recently a 13-year-old boy named Colin passed away. He was in his car with his family, his older brother with SMA, two parents, and at least one nurse. They were out on an excursion, which they do all the time, and he plugged, and crashed, and died, right there while his family tried to save him, as they had done scores of times before, and couldn't. They just buried him this week. I've known him since before he was born, when they found out he had SMA too. His brother shares Kaylee's birthday (three years older). Another little girl with SMA is 3 months older than Kaylee, so she's 13 right now too. She is profoundly weak, and is cared for around the clock by her mom, in her room at home. Her mountain to climb, her fear, is being able to lie with her head turned to the right. She chokes sometimes when her head is that way, so it scares her, and she has to get the courage to let her mom position her that way for her own good. Her mom has to do emergency trach change-outs fairly often...two in a row the other day. The mom has to unplug her from the vent, pull out the trach tube from the hole in her throat, replace the piece that goes into the hole in her throat, suction and bag her, and reconnect her to the vent, and fast. If her mom didn't do that, the girl would die right then and there. They do it all the time. Oxygen levels dropping, turning blue, choking, emergency medicine in a little girl's bedroom, and it's common-place. My 13 year old girl is going to plays and tennis and working on her straight As, and that mom hasn't left her daughter's room for more than a few minutes at a time in years. She can't even shower easily. The little girl can't talk, mostly communicates with noises and facial expressions. But do you know what these parents say about all this? They search online for the fun things to do. They dress up the kids for holidays, and find ways that they can participate even if they can't leave the room. They joke around amongst themselves. They reach out and help other families who are struggling and "really" have it rough, unlike them. They improvise when they can't get the supplies they need. They fight, but they don't complain, at least not in public. They always express their gratitude, see the humor in the little things. This is a perspective I need hit with now and then, and there are a lot of other people who could use being hit with it too. Life isn't about being mad because you got the wrong size turkey for the holidays or the cleaning lady didn't come and now you'll have a messy house or have to clean it yourself. Life is being thankful my daughter can be a smart aleck and play a Jewish girl from 1942 on stage and that I have to get on her to pick up her own stuff...and she can. We're healthy, all of us, and happy, and have a safe home to come back to, safe in all the ways you can think of. The mom of the other 13 year old girl always counts her blessings in public too. The one thing she doesn't say, but I know drifts through her mind sometimes, is that there are only a few of the generation of kids who made it to 13 still with us today, and that if Colin could be fine one moment and gone the next, so could her daughter. It's her biggest fear, the one she won't give words to, because she doesn't want to give it any substance. This I know, without question. So for her, and Colin, and a hundred other children you haven't met but I have, one way or another, be thankful, and grateful, and aware of the gifts you have been given, even knowing you have your own crosses to bear.
Steve is working on putting the windows up on his Mom and Dad's deck next door, so they have a way to be outside more even when it's bad cold outside. We all need a little extra daylight during the winter months! It's been a fair amount of work, because his handy man disappeared and isn't returning his calls, so he's been doing it himself. The bad news is, you need a good handy man. The good news is, Steve built houses himself anyway--he can handle the work, he just doesn't feel like it. But at least he's capable of it, and in this case he'll know it was done the way he wanted it done in the first place.
These weather forecasters...yesterday it was originally supposed to rain all day. It didn't. Sunday was supposed to be winds over 50 mph. It isn't. It's fine. We could have flown either day. But no, we had other plans because the weather was supposed to be bad anyway. And then these same people want to tell me all about how this entire winter season is going to go. They can't even get SATURDAY right, and they want to tell me about the weather from now until March? We'll see what Monday--and March--brings when it gets here.
Kaylee's still got all A's except for a B+ in Social Studies. She has until mid-December to bring it back up, which should be doable. And not let anything else drop, which is harder. She's going to school today to help them clean up after the play. It's a mandatory gig, but she'll enjoy it anyway, just because being around her friends and doing things always winds her up. She's more extrovert than introvert in that regard.
Speaking of Kaylee, I have to say, I'm still glad for her growing up years. She gets along with just about everybody. The "cool kids" like her fine, but she doesn't really hang out with them. The "smart kids" like her. The "acting club" kids, the "quiet kids"...she doesn't have any enemies. She has one boy she doesn't like because of how he treats everyone, and a girl she says is mean but who doesn't bother her any, but in general she gets along just fine with just about everybody. I am doubtful she'll ever know what a gift that is.
SMA has been a bit on my mind lately. Recently a 13-year-old boy named Colin passed away. He was in his car with his family, his older brother with SMA, two parents, and at least one nurse. They were out on an excursion, which they do all the time, and he plugged, and crashed, and died, right there while his family tried to save him, as they had done scores of times before, and couldn't. They just buried him this week. I've known him since before he was born, when they found out he had SMA too. His brother shares Kaylee's birthday (three years older). Another little girl with SMA is 3 months older than Kaylee, so she's 13 right now too. She is profoundly weak, and is cared for around the clock by her mom, in her room at home. Her mountain to climb, her fear, is being able to lie with her head turned to the right. She chokes sometimes when her head is that way, so it scares her, and she has to get the courage to let her mom position her that way for her own good. Her mom has to do emergency trach change-outs fairly often...two in a row the other day. The mom has to unplug her from the vent, pull out the trach tube from the hole in her throat, replace the piece that goes into the hole in her throat, suction and bag her, and reconnect her to the vent, and fast. If her mom didn't do that, the girl would die right then and there. They do it all the time. Oxygen levels dropping, turning blue, choking, emergency medicine in a little girl's bedroom, and it's common-place. My 13 year old girl is going to plays and tennis and working on her straight As, and that mom hasn't left her daughter's room for more than a few minutes at a time in years. She can't even shower easily. The little girl can't talk, mostly communicates with noises and facial expressions. But do you know what these parents say about all this? They search online for the fun things to do. They dress up the kids for holidays, and find ways that they can participate even if they can't leave the room. They joke around amongst themselves. They reach out and help other families who are struggling and "really" have it rough, unlike them. They improvise when they can't get the supplies they need. They fight, but they don't complain, at least not in public. They always express their gratitude, see the humor in the little things. This is a perspective I need hit with now and then, and there are a lot of other people who could use being hit with it too. Life isn't about being mad because you got the wrong size turkey for the holidays or the cleaning lady didn't come and now you'll have a messy house or have to clean it yourself. Life is being thankful my daughter can be a smart aleck and play a Jewish girl from 1942 on stage and that I have to get on her to pick up her own stuff...and she can. We're healthy, all of us, and happy, and have a safe home to come back to, safe in all the ways you can think of. The mom of the other 13 year old girl always counts her blessings in public too. The one thing she doesn't say, but I know drifts through her mind sometimes, is that there are only a few of the generation of kids who made it to 13 still with us today, and that if Colin could be fine one moment and gone the next, so could her daughter. It's her biggest fear, the one she won't give words to, because she doesn't want to give it any substance. This I know, without question. So for her, and Colin, and a hundred other children you haven't met but I have, one way or another, be thankful, and grateful, and aware of the gifts you have been given, even knowing you have your own crosses to bear.
Saturday, November 22, 2014
Anne Frank and Me
Friday was the first decent weather day we'd had in ages, so I had two flights to take. One was a checkout in the 172 that lasted a whole .6, and the other was a trip to Monticello to circle around someone's cabin and check it out from the air. It was nice to get back in the air after the weather this last week.
Today were the two performances for Kaylee's school play "Anne Frank and Me". I'm going to tell you more than you might want to know about it, so if so, skip to the next paragraph. :) Basically the story starts with a group of typical highschoolers who were assigned "The Diary of Anne Frank" in school. They keep arguing amongst themselves about how so and so's parents have told them that the Holocaust wasn't real, that it was overblown, that the Nazis were blamed for people dying of natural causes, that WWII soldiers who described mass murders were like fish stories, they just got bigger over time, that it was a hoax, that Anne Frank might not even have been a real person and the diary might be a fake, etc. The more they argued about it, the angrier both Steve and I were getting (though we didn't know it until later when we talked about it). The highschoolers were typical kids, going to a dance, interested in boys, etc. The main character got her heart broken at a school dance, and ran outside to go home, and was hit by a car. When she wakes up, she's in Paris, France in 1942 wearing a yellow star. She thinks it's a dream or the Twilight Zone, but she can't seem to wake up, and she spends the next two years there. Her father is a well-respected doctor, her family weren't "foreign Jews", and they all believed they'd be fine as long as they followed the rules. It started out pretty light hearted, playing, with Christian friends who helped bring them food. Her friends started disappearing even though they weren't "foreign Jews" either. Her dad joined the Resistance. They went into hiding in an attic. Her boyfriend ended up turning them in to the Nazis, who took them to a concentration camp (which they had all been told was a "work camp" this whole time) via cattle car. This is where Kaylee came in. Her part was small. She was a young Jewish girl, curled up on the floor of a cattle car, alone, and scared, and crying. When they got to the camp, Kaylee and the other characters were rounded up and herded into a shower room, where gas came down from the ceiling, and the girls died on stage there. Pretty serious stuff. The play ended after the main character, who met Anne Frank in the cattle car and remembered her story, died in the gas chamber, and woke back up in 2012 with her family and friends by her side in the hospital bed. She told them that Anne Frank was real, that the Holocaust was real, because she had been there, spent time there, and God was watching in sorrow, and she was a witness to history. Kind of intense, actually. There weren't a lot of cast members to this play, and most of the cast members who got parts were high schoolers, so Kaylee was fortunate to get a part even if it wasn't big. I'm glad she was in the play. The kids did a really good job taking on such a serious topic. You really got sucked into it, as it started off typical goofy high school stuff and ended up about as serious as it gets.
Steve and I went to her 3 p.m. opening show together, then I went out, got her after-party snacks, and I went back by myself for the last show at 7 p.m., with my camera. Unfortunately, during her parts, the lights are very low to fit the scene, so I couldn't really get good photos of her part. I did get a few blurry-ish ones, and I got her curtain call bow, at least. Yes, I had to go to both performances. Every kid ought to have at least someone out there just for them, right? :) I do enjoy watching her light up afterwards--she is so engaged and happy and excited and just lit up after these plays. And then there's a little crash when it's over. It sure is her "thing" right now though. She really loves it.
Today were the two performances for Kaylee's school play "Anne Frank and Me". I'm going to tell you more than you might want to know about it, so if so, skip to the next paragraph. :) Basically the story starts with a group of typical highschoolers who were assigned "The Diary of Anne Frank" in school. They keep arguing amongst themselves about how so and so's parents have told them that the Holocaust wasn't real, that it was overblown, that the Nazis were blamed for people dying of natural causes, that WWII soldiers who described mass murders were like fish stories, they just got bigger over time, that it was a hoax, that Anne Frank might not even have been a real person and the diary might be a fake, etc. The more they argued about it, the angrier both Steve and I were getting (though we didn't know it until later when we talked about it). The highschoolers were typical kids, going to a dance, interested in boys, etc. The main character got her heart broken at a school dance, and ran outside to go home, and was hit by a car. When she wakes up, she's in Paris, France in 1942 wearing a yellow star. She thinks it's a dream or the Twilight Zone, but she can't seem to wake up, and she spends the next two years there. Her father is a well-respected doctor, her family weren't "foreign Jews", and they all believed they'd be fine as long as they followed the rules. It started out pretty light hearted, playing, with Christian friends who helped bring them food. Her friends started disappearing even though they weren't "foreign Jews" either. Her dad joined the Resistance. They went into hiding in an attic. Her boyfriend ended up turning them in to the Nazis, who took them to a concentration camp (which they had all been told was a "work camp" this whole time) via cattle car. This is where Kaylee came in. Her part was small. She was a young Jewish girl, curled up on the floor of a cattle car, alone, and scared, and crying. When they got to the camp, Kaylee and the other characters were rounded up and herded into a shower room, where gas came down from the ceiling, and the girls died on stage there. Pretty serious stuff. The play ended after the main character, who met Anne Frank in the cattle car and remembered her story, died in the gas chamber, and woke back up in 2012 with her family and friends by her side in the hospital bed. She told them that Anne Frank was real, that the Holocaust was real, because she had been there, spent time there, and God was watching in sorrow, and she was a witness to history. Kind of intense, actually. There weren't a lot of cast members to this play, and most of the cast members who got parts were high schoolers, so Kaylee was fortunate to get a part even if it wasn't big. I'm glad she was in the play. The kids did a really good job taking on such a serious topic. You really got sucked into it, as it started off typical goofy high school stuff and ended up about as serious as it gets.
Steve and I went to her 3 p.m. opening show together, then I went out, got her after-party snacks, and I went back by myself for the last show at 7 p.m., with my camera. Unfortunately, during her parts, the lights are very low to fit the scene, so I couldn't really get good photos of her part. I did get a few blurry-ish ones, and I got her curtain call bow, at least. Yes, I had to go to both performances. Every kid ought to have at least someone out there just for them, right? :) I do enjoy watching her light up afterwards--she is so engaged and happy and excited and just lit up after these plays. And then there's a little crash when it's over. It sure is her "thing" right now though. She really loves it.
First, this was the group of kids who played hooky and went to the Hunger Games marathon Thursday.
Kaylee with her friend G.
Now, on to the play--Kaylee crying on the stage
A group of girls heading into the gas chamber
The Jewish girls on Curtain Call, for their bows.
Love a real smile.
I was spotted out there in the audience with my camera. :)
Much of the cast.
Anne Frank, and Jewish Walk-on Girls #1 and 2. Nice job, ladies!
Thursday, November 20, 2014
No Snow
The last day or so the temps warmed up over freezing, which at least melted the snow off the roads. Today it was back in the 20s, and it was still windy, for about a week straight now with winds over 25 knots, killing off most flying. That's okay, because I didn't much feel like flying when it was 12 degrees with winds blowing 25-30 knots anyway. Apparently, this weekend it's supposed to warm back up, and with it will come almost non-stop rain, and on Sunday, winds over 50 mph. Greeeeat.
Steve and I ran around town today a bit, he was looking for some specific things at Lowes and Menards, we got our Jeep back from the maintenance guy, and since Kaylee was gone all day (another story), and there was no flying, we sort of had the day to ourselves, like a vacation. We were cruising along on the back roads, enjoying the quiet companionship, chatting about this and that, and then I said something like "Man, I have a piece of chicken stuck in my tooth." Steve starts laughing, and I ask what's so funny, and he says "Here I am thinking about how nice it is to spend some time with my lovely wife, enjoying the day, enjoying her company, and she pipes up with 'Man, I have a piece of chicken stuck in my tooth.'" Timing is everything, I guess. ;)
We let Kaylee do something today that we've only ever let her do one other time, and that time we had a good reason. In 2007 we took her out of school for several days and took her to Ohio for the Final Gathering of Mustangs and Legends. It was quite the experience, for all of us, including her. She was like in 2nd grade at the time too, so it's not like she missed a lot at school, but she did her homework in Nathan's bus and spent the rest of the time helping us all with the Mustang. Today we had no such noble things going on. The mom of a friend of hers asked me if Kaylee could come with them today to a Hunger Games Movie Marathon. It started at 2 p.m. and went until 10 p.m., ending with the grand opening of the newest movie. She had to leave school after a half day in order to go, as did four other kids with this Mom. Kaylee missed Band and Choir and Play Practice, so nothing major, but still, it felt a little off to let her play hooky. But we did. And she went. And she had a good time. You only live once, or so I hear, so you might as well have an occasional interesting experience.
I made Adobe chicken tonight, one of the Wildtree meals. I added my own brown, wild rice and quinoa mix to it. Flavorful, healthy, the chicken was juicy after being marinated so long. Steve and I liked it.
Steve and I ran around town today a bit, he was looking for some specific things at Lowes and Menards, we got our Jeep back from the maintenance guy, and since Kaylee was gone all day (another story), and there was no flying, we sort of had the day to ourselves, like a vacation. We were cruising along on the back roads, enjoying the quiet companionship, chatting about this and that, and then I said something like "Man, I have a piece of chicken stuck in my tooth." Steve starts laughing, and I ask what's so funny, and he says "Here I am thinking about how nice it is to spend some time with my lovely wife, enjoying the day, enjoying her company, and she pipes up with 'Man, I have a piece of chicken stuck in my tooth.'" Timing is everything, I guess. ;)
We let Kaylee do something today that we've only ever let her do one other time, and that time we had a good reason. In 2007 we took her out of school for several days and took her to Ohio for the Final Gathering of Mustangs and Legends. It was quite the experience, for all of us, including her. She was like in 2nd grade at the time too, so it's not like she missed a lot at school, but she did her homework in Nathan's bus and spent the rest of the time helping us all with the Mustang. Today we had no such noble things going on. The mom of a friend of hers asked me if Kaylee could come with them today to a Hunger Games Movie Marathon. It started at 2 p.m. and went until 10 p.m., ending with the grand opening of the newest movie. She had to leave school after a half day in order to go, as did four other kids with this Mom. Kaylee missed Band and Choir and Play Practice, so nothing major, but still, it felt a little off to let her play hooky. But we did. And she went. And she had a good time. You only live once, or so I hear, so you might as well have an occasional interesting experience.
I made Adobe chicken tonight, one of the Wildtree meals. I added my own brown, wild rice and quinoa mix to it. Flavorful, healthy, the chicken was juicy after being marinated so long. Steve and I liked it.
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Snow...Aw, Forget it...
We still have high winds, cold temps, blowing snow, and icy roads. No flying today either, or tomorrow. It should start warming up for a few days after that though, so we'll see how that goes then.
The first thing I was supposed to do today was go to the dentist at 11 a.m. I was sitting in my chair two days ago when a piece of a tooth just crumbled. What on earth?! And it was in the front of my mouth on the top! Ack. It left a really sharp edge, and I needed him to file it down, smooth it out. It was a tiny piece, not noticeable visually, but you don't need a jaggedy corner on a tooth. I got there at 10:50 a.m. and by 11:50 a.m. they still hadn't seen me. So I told her I had to go. I'm not missing lunch. They told me to come back at 2. Right next to the door is a plaque saying if you don't show up for your appointment they are charging you $25.00. I wanted to charge them $25.00 for making me sit there for no reason for an hour, then come back and do it again later, which I did. This time I just had to wait 15 minutes or so before they got me in. The dentist himself is an old college friend of Steve's, and I like him, he's a nice guy. He smoothed out my tooth, and then I said "Why did my tooth crumble??" He handed me a mirror, and showed me how my teeth fit together, and where I had deep grooves forming on some of my upper teeth, and informed me that I have been badly grinding my teeth while I sleep. I used to do that as a kid, didn't think I'd been doing it for ages, but apparently I have, and it's hurting my teeth. I have now had two teeth on that same side crack apart in a small way, fortunately nothing visibly bad, but still. So, this will never do. So guess who got to eat a mouth full of paste today while he made molds of my teeth so that I could wear a MOUTH GUARD while I sleep to stop the grinding and protect me from completely ruining my teeth? Lovely! Ugh! But...I asked for it. I asked for something for it because I don't want to have to have dentures by 45 or something for something I can't control while I'm asleep. :o
Yesterday while I was pulling John's truck out of the snow, I ended up with mud splattering on my Explorer. Today the temperatures rose high enough that the car wash place was open, so I drove through to clean off the mud. I was halfway through the car wash when it occurred to me that I was holding my breath, pushed back against my seat, and looking hard out the left side of my window trying to see something, until the cloths flapped against the side window too, and then I stared at my gauges in the car, like I was IMC in an airplane or something. Claustrophobia in a car wash. Sheesh.
For dinner I am fixing meatloaf. There are two things surprising about that sentence, but the biggest is the word "meatloaf". We'll see how it tastes. Kaylee is suspicious and says it looks like I killed a cow and slapped it in a pile into the oven. I can't say that I disagree all that much. Steve is probably nervous, because he likes meatloaf but I have never, ever made it, because I don't like meatloaf, so...he's hoping it's good and so am I. ;)
(Time lapse later...it was a little dry, and not his Mom's meatloaf, but I could eat it too, and it was fine, not outstanding, but not bad either. A ringing endorsement? ;))
Kaylee has play practice this week every evening until 9:30 pm, which makes it hard for her to get homework done. She came in asking us something about her math homework tonight, and without context it was too hard to figure out. Steve made some lame comment about the problem, and she said "If you're joking, haha very funny. If you're not, give that back to me, I'm obviously on my own." She was on her own. ;)
Oh! Kaylee acting story. So she is Walk-on Jewish Girl #2, right? Apparently, she is shoved onto the stage pretty hard, and she falls to the ground and starts crying. The first day they practiced this, the Nazi guy asked her if it was okay if he really pushed her, hard. She said sure. So she said he shoved her really hard, and she hit the stage with a really hard and loud THUD. She said she then started crying, like she was supposed to. The director said "Stop stop for a minute!" Then she asked Kaylee "Are you okay??" Kaylee said she looked up and said "Yeeeees, I'm SUPPOSED to be crying right now, right?" She did a good enough job acting that she was hurt that the teacher actually thought she was. The teacher told them to tame it down and not throw her so hard from now on. Heh. Well, there ya go, kid, nice job!
The first thing I was supposed to do today was go to the dentist at 11 a.m. I was sitting in my chair two days ago when a piece of a tooth just crumbled. What on earth?! And it was in the front of my mouth on the top! Ack. It left a really sharp edge, and I needed him to file it down, smooth it out. It was a tiny piece, not noticeable visually, but you don't need a jaggedy corner on a tooth. I got there at 10:50 a.m. and by 11:50 a.m. they still hadn't seen me. So I told her I had to go. I'm not missing lunch. They told me to come back at 2. Right next to the door is a plaque saying if you don't show up for your appointment they are charging you $25.00. I wanted to charge them $25.00 for making me sit there for no reason for an hour, then come back and do it again later, which I did. This time I just had to wait 15 minutes or so before they got me in. The dentist himself is an old college friend of Steve's, and I like him, he's a nice guy. He smoothed out my tooth, and then I said "Why did my tooth crumble??" He handed me a mirror, and showed me how my teeth fit together, and where I had deep grooves forming on some of my upper teeth, and informed me that I have been badly grinding my teeth while I sleep. I used to do that as a kid, didn't think I'd been doing it for ages, but apparently I have, and it's hurting my teeth. I have now had two teeth on that same side crack apart in a small way, fortunately nothing visibly bad, but still. So, this will never do. So guess who got to eat a mouth full of paste today while he made molds of my teeth so that I could wear a MOUTH GUARD while I sleep to stop the grinding and protect me from completely ruining my teeth? Lovely! Ugh! But...I asked for it. I asked for something for it because I don't want to have to have dentures by 45 or something for something I can't control while I'm asleep. :o
Yesterday while I was pulling John's truck out of the snow, I ended up with mud splattering on my Explorer. Today the temperatures rose high enough that the car wash place was open, so I drove through to clean off the mud. I was halfway through the car wash when it occurred to me that I was holding my breath, pushed back against my seat, and looking hard out the left side of my window trying to see something, until the cloths flapped against the side window too, and then I stared at my gauges in the car, like I was IMC in an airplane or something. Claustrophobia in a car wash. Sheesh.
For dinner I am fixing meatloaf. There are two things surprising about that sentence, but the biggest is the word "meatloaf". We'll see how it tastes. Kaylee is suspicious and says it looks like I killed a cow and slapped it in a pile into the oven. I can't say that I disagree all that much. Steve is probably nervous, because he likes meatloaf but I have never, ever made it, because I don't like meatloaf, so...he's hoping it's good and so am I. ;)
(Time lapse later...it was a little dry, and not his Mom's meatloaf, but I could eat it too, and it was fine, not outstanding, but not bad either. A ringing endorsement? ;))
Kaylee has play practice this week every evening until 9:30 pm, which makes it hard for her to get homework done. She came in asking us something about her math homework tonight, and without context it was too hard to figure out. Steve made some lame comment about the problem, and she said "If you're joking, haha very funny. If you're not, give that back to me, I'm obviously on my own." She was on her own. ;)
Oh! Kaylee acting story. So she is Walk-on Jewish Girl #2, right? Apparently, she is shoved onto the stage pretty hard, and she falls to the ground and starts crying. The first day they practiced this, the Nazi guy asked her if it was okay if he really pushed her, hard. She said sure. So she said he shoved her really hard, and she hit the stage with a really hard and loud THUD. She said she then started crying, like she was supposed to. The director said "Stop stop for a minute!" Then she asked Kaylee "Are you okay??" Kaylee said she looked up and said "Yeeeees, I'm SUPPOSED to be crying right now, right?" She did a good enough job acting that she was hurt that the teacher actually thought she was. The teacher told them to tame it down and not throw her so hard from now on. Heh. Well, there ya go, kid, nice job!
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Snow Still Blows
It was just a typical day of running around. Steve took the Suburban to get its tires aligned, I picked him up there, we drove to Greentown to bring Kaylee food since she was going to be there all day for a play practice, stopped at Kokomo to pick up an airplane part, went back to pick up the Suburban, yadda yadda. At 5 o'clock I headed down to Sheridan, driving because of the weather, and even driving it wasn't that nice. The wind was blowing the snow around like crazy, and the roads are all icy, especially the north/south back roads. I stayed on US 31 as long as I could. We had a CAF meeting, and I was there until 9, left there and picked up Kaylee at her play practice at 9:45 pm, and made it home.
My adventure was that one of the guys got his truck stuck at Sheridan as we were leaving, drove off the driveway there. I found a rope inside, and he attached our vehicles together, and I pulled him out and back onto the driveway. That took one sentence to type, but took us about 30 minutes to accomplish. It was 13 degrees F, not sure what the wind chill was, but not good. I was in tennis shoes and had no hat or gloves, so I got chilled pretty fast. But I got him out. Go me. :)
Three shots of the airport beacon at Sheridan with my Explorer there. Nice looking weather around there, huh?
My adventure was that one of the guys got his truck stuck at Sheridan as we were leaving, drove off the driveway there. I found a rope inside, and he attached our vehicles together, and I pulled him out and back onto the driveway. That took one sentence to type, but took us about 30 minutes to accomplish. It was 13 degrees F, not sure what the wind chill was, but not good. I was in tennis shoes and had no hat or gloves, so I got chilled pretty fast. But I got him out. Go me. :)
Three shots of the airport beacon at Sheridan with my Explorer there. Nice looking weather around there, huh?
Green and white at the same time...
White!
Green!
You're welcome. ;)
Monday, November 17, 2014
Snow Blows
As we pulled into our driveway tonight, there were two bunnies sitting in the middle of the driveway. Kaylee got out of the car and tried to pet one of them, but it ran away from her much faster than it ran from my car. I had to keep creeping up on it before it would hop a few more steps. It was a stubborn little thing, didn't want to get out of the way. It's cold out there tonight, around 15 degrees F at the moment, but I am guessing they have a nice warm hidey hole to go to. Kaylee of course wants to keep them, but that's not happening. ;)
Busy, productive day today, lots of running around. Oh, and for the official count/tally, I have had my wallet or purse shipped back to me from FBOs in Georgia, Missouri and Alabama. Oh, and I picked up a credit card once in Mississippi that I left at the fuel pump one day, came back two days later and picked it up then. It seems to be the southern states. I started to say that's not so bad over 20+ years, but yeah, it is, especially since three of them have been in the last two years. I may be getting old. I am going to have a specific place to keep it, not set the wallet down on the fuel pump any more, etc. I haven't lost my car keys in ages since I started keeping them in the same spot at home every time. I'm going to do the same thing in the airplane with my wallet or purse. No more collecting states where I've left something behind...
They just said on the news that there will probably be a school delay in the morning again, because of the record low temps and slick roads. We'll see, it hasn't been called yet, but if it is, I'm okay with that. The delay doesn't count against the kids days, and I don't have to get up so early. I like that part. ;)
Sunday, November 16, 2014
First Blood
It's snowing. I'm not posting a picture of it because it's not even pretty snow, at least not now. Earlier there were big puffy flakes, and that looked nice, but the colors outside are grey, black, white and brown, and the white snow is covering up some of the black and brown. We let the cats outside for awhile. Dulcie ran out, looked at it for just a second, then ran back into the house. Roadie stayed out for a few moments before deciding it was for the birds and coming inside and shaking the snow off her fur. Right now I'm looking at it dribble thin little snow showers, and we're under a Winter Weather Advisory through Monday morning. I'm kind of wondering if Kaylee's school will have its first 2-hour delay on Monday then.
I haven't done much today. I kind of wanted a day off. Even if I had wanted to go to Indy and fly the PT, the weather today put a stop to that anyway, which was kind of a surprise as it was supposed to be nice enough today. Oh well. In the meantime I have walked less than 1000 steps so far today. That's pretty sad, but that's how it's going to be today. I watched a couple movies, I watched Denver get creamed again, I'm currently wondering why Green Bay is wearing blue, and tonight I'll watch Indy vs New England and hope it's not as bad as Denver vs New England was. That's as exciting as I plan on getting today.
Steve is working on outside projects that our handy man was supposed to do, before winter, but our handy man has disappeared, isn't returning calls, and is generally being a bit rude and unprofessional. So Steve's trying to do it himself, as the snow is already flying...
I haven't done much today. I kind of wanted a day off. Even if I had wanted to go to Indy and fly the PT, the weather today put a stop to that anyway, which was kind of a surprise as it was supposed to be nice enough today. Oh well. In the meantime I have walked less than 1000 steps so far today. That's pretty sad, but that's how it's going to be today. I watched a couple movies, I watched Denver get creamed again, I'm currently wondering why Green Bay is wearing blue, and tonight I'll watch Indy vs New England and hope it's not as bad as Denver vs New England was. That's as exciting as I plan on getting today.
Steve is working on outside projects that our handy man was supposed to do, before winter, but our handy man has disappeared, isn't returning calls, and is generally being a bit rude and unprofessional. So Steve's trying to do it himself, as the snow is already flying...
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Le Day
Steve was supposed to have a student, and otherwise help Nathan out at Kokomo. Instead, he had a bad sinus headache and spent the day at home trying to recuperate. I was supposed to fly the PT in Indy, but instead ended up taking Steve's student. His student, A, is on a time crunch, to get his Private Pilot's Certificate done before the end of I think December, when he leaves the country for two years. Today he was working on his tower controlled fields. So we went over it on the ground first, then flew over to Muncie. We did two takeoffs and landings there, until I felt he had it down pretty well, and then I had him drop me off at the ramp. While he taxied back and did his three full stop takeoffs and landings, I went into "Merks", which is the new restaurant on the field at Muncie. I got a cup of coffee and a piece of warm pecan pie with a little ice cream melting on top, and watched his takeoffs and landings from the window at the restaurant. Normally I go to the FBO, where they have a radio playing overhead, and I can listen to the radio communications, which is the point of the tower controlled fields. But I knew he'd be fine with the radios, so I went for the snack instead. I told the waitress to bring me the bill early so I could just leave whenever he was done, and I kept monitoring his progress by pulling the shades apart a bit. Eventually the waitress came over and raised the shades all the way, and winked at me, and said "We do this for all the kids." I laughed out loud, and told her she was pretty much right on, that fit. She asked if I knew anybody up in an airplane right now, and I said "Pretty much--I am an instructor and I have a student on his first tower field solo." That took her by surprise. I enjoyed my pie, and had time to enjoy a second cup of coffee before A was done and taxied back up to come get me.
On the way home, I had him put the hood on to do some hood work. When people are putting on the hood, I have the weirdest urge to mess with them. Most people, I control that urge. Some folks, depending on who they are, I don't. With A, I didn't. So as he has his headset off, head down, looking down, messing with the hood, I float him. He looks up in shock, looks out the window as I recover, and says "THAT IS SO COOL! DO THAT AGAIN!" So I make him light in his seat again, and he starts laughing and tells me to do it again. So I pull out an envelope from the glove compartment and float it up for awhile. He says "Let me hold it! Do it again!" So I floated it out of his hands. He was laughing out loud...said "Hey, you don't need to go to space to have this kind of fun!" Then we got down to the business of hood work and VOR tracking the rest of the way home. I got my jollies, anyway, and he said he'd never forget that as long as he lived, so we both had fun. ;)
Kaylee had a "Blush" event tonight, at Oakbrook Church. They are group events for certain age groups covering hot button topics in the church or Christian community. Tonight's topic was actually about sex, their bodies, and what God had to say about it. From what she said when she got home, they pretty much fell in line with what we believe as well. She was there for about 4 hours, long evening, but they make it entertaining and fun as well as informative. "Blush" does a good job with these events, in my opinion, providing solid info in an entertaining way to capture the interest and listening skills of Junior High kids, usually girls. I've been to two other "Blush" events with Kaylee, couldn't make it tonight because of work, but after the other two, I trusted what she was going to hear, and she was able to go with some friends, so that worked out well...
On the way home, I had him put the hood on to do some hood work. When people are putting on the hood, I have the weirdest urge to mess with them. Most people, I control that urge. Some folks, depending on who they are, I don't. With A, I didn't. So as he has his headset off, head down, looking down, messing with the hood, I float him. He looks up in shock, looks out the window as I recover, and says "THAT IS SO COOL! DO THAT AGAIN!" So I make him light in his seat again, and he starts laughing and tells me to do it again. So I pull out an envelope from the glove compartment and float it up for awhile. He says "Let me hold it! Do it again!" So I floated it out of his hands. He was laughing out loud...said "Hey, you don't need to go to space to have this kind of fun!" Then we got down to the business of hood work and VOR tracking the rest of the way home. I got my jollies, anyway, and he said he'd never forget that as long as he lived, so we both had fun. ;)
Kaylee had a "Blush" event tonight, at Oakbrook Church. They are group events for certain age groups covering hot button topics in the church or Christian community. Tonight's topic was actually about sex, their bodies, and what God had to say about it. From what she said when she got home, they pretty much fell in line with what we believe as well. She was there for about 4 hours, long evening, but they make it entertaining and fun as well as informative. "Blush" does a good job with these events, in my opinion, providing solid info in an entertaining way to capture the interest and listening skills of Junior High kids, usually girls. I've been to two other "Blush" events with Kaylee, couldn't make it tonight because of work, but after the other two, I trusted what she was going to hear, and she was able to go with some friends, so that worked out well...
This has nothing to do with today other than I saw it today and it cracked me up. I'm pretty sure I've seen that look on my own face.
This was me peeking out of the slats on the windows before the waitress raised the shades. I was watching my guy take off for his second trip around the patch here.
This is part of the inside of the new restaurant at Muncie, Merks, for those who haven't seen it yet.
This hawk was just sitting on the light as we went by, and he wasn't bothered at all by any of the traffic going in and out. He looked quite regal and stern sitting there. If reincarnation was true, I would want to come back as a hawk. Or an eagle. One of those two.
Nothing special, just the Kokomo Reservoir, coming in at dusk for landing...
Friday, November 14, 2014
Brr
That's all I've got to say about that.
No it's not.
It was really cold today. The wind cut through you. I parked as close as I could get to the hangars I was going to at the airport, rather than doing my usual hike from Nathan's big hangar over. To make up for it I paced in front of the TV for an hour while I watched a show, because my days of hiking from that hangar are over until it warms up around 50 or so again. I really hate shaking from the cold at the beginning and end of lessons, but I'm going to need to find a way to come to peace with the winter, because like it or not, it's here, and will be here for awhile, and I don't want to spend my whole winter unhappy and complaining and annoyed. Even if Winter has gone from my least favorite season to an almost detested time period I'd just like to skip over altogether. So. I'll be working on that. But for today, it was just really cold out there and that did not make me super happy.
I had two flights today. The first was a "Discovery Flight" with a tiny little 4 year old girl up front with me, and her very large grandma and grandpa in the back seat, of the RG. We were not exactly loaded well, but that's why I get paid the big bucks, right? ;) The little girl decided she didn't want to go, and she kept saying she was afraid of heights, but her grandparents were doing this as a special thing for her because she's always fascinated by airplanes. Eventually we got the flight in, but she never did really relax, and at one point she reached over and grabbed my right hand and just held my hand. I kept my right hand in hers, or on her leg, for the whole trip back and into the pattern, and talked to her about this and that, but once we got on the ground, she was on the phone talking to her dad about how she'd flown over their house, etc. It was one of those things she was really nervous about while she was doing it, but then she thought it was pretty cool once it was over. She's only the second child I've ever had, in all the kid flights I've ever done, where they were nervous. Usually it's the adults that are nervous, and the kids are excited and fearless, so it's rare that a kid is that uptight. I just hope she looks back on it fondly and not a negative experience. I almost refused to go, but the grandparents kept saying that she does this all the time on everything and that we should just Get Going. So with some reservations, I did. Personally I prefer to listen to how the kid himself/herself is feeling, not what other people are saying they are feeling, but she was so young, and they knew her, I didn't. When I left she was happily chatting with her dad about flying, so I think it's good. :)
I took Kaylee to her voice lesson in Greentown, and she sang for me on the way home. Her voice is gaining some quality. She also got called out in choir, her and four others, for being quiet in class but loud when singing, appropriately loud, and the teacher was showing how these five girls were basically doing the job of the whole group. That made her happy too. The other thing that made her happy was those silly cat cupcakes I got for her to take to school today for Bobunk. She passed out all but a few, and had several of them herself, and got a kick out of telling one of her male teachers "Happy Bobunk" and having him respond with "Rock On." She gave him a cupcake for it. lol
One of her friends is "in a relationship" with a young man. I made a comment about how she's had several "relationships" already, and Kaylee said "You have no idea." I asked what that meant, and she said she just meant that this young lady, who is a nice young lady, seeks a steady boyfriend and is sought out, too. The thing is, she is a nice young lady with sad eyes, and I'm more concerned about her than I am Kaylee when it comes to this stuff. I'm kind of surprised her mom is okay with her having boyfriends or "boyfriends" as young as she did (5th grade, or 10 years old). Kaylee is not allowed to date yet, but neither does she want to, at least not that she has shown any interest so far, so that's good. We're not ready for that stuff anyway. Be a kid while you can be a kid, and at least start to learn who you are as a person yourself before you try to find who you want to compliment you and be a partner with. Aka, date.
In Kaylee's play, as Jewish Walk-on Girl #2, I found out her role in this play is to be herded into cattle cars with other Jewish girls, and then herded into a gas chamber, where they all die. Wow. That's quite a play they have going--no wonder most of the actors and actresses were the older highschoolers. It IS the story of Anne Frank. I thought it would be a light-hearted version, as it had a time-travel twist, but no sir. She'll only be on stage for 5 minutes, to sing with the other girls and then die. Heavy, man.
Tomorrow's another work day, Steve with a student then out at the airport, and me down at Indy in the PT if we can get it started...
No it's not.
It was really cold today. The wind cut through you. I parked as close as I could get to the hangars I was going to at the airport, rather than doing my usual hike from Nathan's big hangar over. To make up for it I paced in front of the TV for an hour while I watched a show, because my days of hiking from that hangar are over until it warms up around 50 or so again. I really hate shaking from the cold at the beginning and end of lessons, but I'm going to need to find a way to come to peace with the winter, because like it or not, it's here, and will be here for awhile, and I don't want to spend my whole winter unhappy and complaining and annoyed. Even if Winter has gone from my least favorite season to an almost detested time period I'd just like to skip over altogether. So. I'll be working on that. But for today, it was just really cold out there and that did not make me super happy.
I had two flights today. The first was a "Discovery Flight" with a tiny little 4 year old girl up front with me, and her very large grandma and grandpa in the back seat, of the RG. We were not exactly loaded well, but that's why I get paid the big bucks, right? ;) The little girl decided she didn't want to go, and she kept saying she was afraid of heights, but her grandparents were doing this as a special thing for her because she's always fascinated by airplanes. Eventually we got the flight in, but she never did really relax, and at one point she reached over and grabbed my right hand and just held my hand. I kept my right hand in hers, or on her leg, for the whole trip back and into the pattern, and talked to her about this and that, but once we got on the ground, she was on the phone talking to her dad about how she'd flown over their house, etc. It was one of those things she was really nervous about while she was doing it, but then she thought it was pretty cool once it was over. She's only the second child I've ever had, in all the kid flights I've ever done, where they were nervous. Usually it's the adults that are nervous, and the kids are excited and fearless, so it's rare that a kid is that uptight. I just hope she looks back on it fondly and not a negative experience. I almost refused to go, but the grandparents kept saying that she does this all the time on everything and that we should just Get Going. So with some reservations, I did. Personally I prefer to listen to how the kid himself/herself is feeling, not what other people are saying they are feeling, but she was so young, and they knew her, I didn't. When I left she was happily chatting with her dad about flying, so I think it's good. :)
I took Kaylee to her voice lesson in Greentown, and she sang for me on the way home. Her voice is gaining some quality. She also got called out in choir, her and four others, for being quiet in class but loud when singing, appropriately loud, and the teacher was showing how these five girls were basically doing the job of the whole group. That made her happy too. The other thing that made her happy was those silly cat cupcakes I got for her to take to school today for Bobunk. She passed out all but a few, and had several of them herself, and got a kick out of telling one of her male teachers "Happy Bobunk" and having him respond with "Rock On." She gave him a cupcake for it. lol
One of her friends is "in a relationship" with a young man. I made a comment about how she's had several "relationships" already, and Kaylee said "You have no idea." I asked what that meant, and she said she just meant that this young lady, who is a nice young lady, seeks a steady boyfriend and is sought out, too. The thing is, she is a nice young lady with sad eyes, and I'm more concerned about her than I am Kaylee when it comes to this stuff. I'm kind of surprised her mom is okay with her having boyfriends or "boyfriends" as young as she did (5th grade, or 10 years old). Kaylee is not allowed to date yet, but neither does she want to, at least not that she has shown any interest so far, so that's good. We're not ready for that stuff anyway. Be a kid while you can be a kid, and at least start to learn who you are as a person yourself before you try to find who you want to compliment you and be a partner with. Aka, date.
In Kaylee's play, as Jewish Walk-on Girl #2, I found out her role in this play is to be herded into cattle cars with other Jewish girls, and then herded into a gas chamber, where they all die. Wow. That's quite a play they have going--no wonder most of the actors and actresses were the older highschoolers. It IS the story of Anne Frank. I thought it would be a light-hearted version, as it had a time-travel twist, but no sir. She'll only be on stage for 5 minutes, to sing with the other girls and then die. Heavy, man.
Tomorrow's another work day, Steve with a student then out at the airport, and me down at Indy in the PT if we can get it started...
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Alabama Slamma
It was 24 degrees Fahrenheit when I left this morning at 7. That's just wrong. I'm glad the plane is in a heated hangar, and that the toughest part is opening that big door and freezing while you pull it out, close up shop, and get in.
Today I headed to Fayette, Alabama. Watched the sun rise, of course. I had chosen my altitude to try to stay out of a particular band of ice that looked unpleasant about 2/3rds of the way there. Supposedly at 14,000' it was moderate ice, and above that it was supposed to be severe ice. I'll pass on both, so I had us at 12,000' where it was supposed to be okay, but still above the cloud deck. As we came up on the precip, we heard that there was "weather available on HIWAS" for ice pellets, rain/snow mix, etc. ahead, and ATC was asking all the pilots in the area for pilot reports on icing at their specific altitudes. A Cirrus came on and said he got moderate icing from 5-7000', which wasn't supposed to be there. A jet came on and said they got icing from 12,200' up past 17,500'. At 12,000', you know how much ice we got in the same area, which was lit up as light, medium and dark pink on our weather scope, which means light, moderate to some heavy mixed snow/rain? None. Zip. We saw a bit of precip out the window, but not one thing stuck to the airplane. D was lightly disappointed, because he wants to see ice. I was not disappointed, because I have seen all the ice I care to ever see again, other than in my drinks. That 12,000' was THE altitude to be at, apparently, and thank you. I meant to do that. I DID mean to do that, but I'll admit that was pretty lucky too. ;)
It wasn't a thick band, we broke out soon enough, and the rest of the trip was completely uneventful. The gentleman in Fayette was a sweet Southern gent, and wanted to talk and talk, and there wasn't a separate room to go to, so I got to visit for a few hours. He told me the secret place they hide the courtesy car keys outside for when the building is closed up and you might want to go into town and get a Rax burger. I love small town airport hospitality, I just do. It's also a good thing, because I happened to have left behind something important there, and will probably have to have him ship it back to me, unless we're going back down soon. I did have to self-serve fuel there though, which would be fine except it was Really cold, and I hadn't brought gloves, and it takes awhile to fill up all those tanks, and my fingers were just burning by the time I was done. Well, some were burning, some actually went numb. Man it was cold, even in Alabama, especially with the wind, but when I was done, the gentleman at the building held open the door and said "Come on in here out of the cold, young lady!" :)
The trip home was fine. We were on top of the clouds all the way back, and then had to come down through them to land. It was beautiful and sunny and bright above, and yucky and scuddy down here, spitting snow, and windy, and this time I took comparison photos--one right before we came down, and one right after we came down, just a couple of minutes apart from each other.
I had to stop at the store and pick up 36 cupcakes with kitty faces on them for Kaylee for school tomorrow. The store was Packed Out. I mean, no parking spots available, no carts available, I was bumping into and surrounded by people in there. You would think it's the day before Thanksgiving and everybody was rushing to get food. I kind of wondered if it was because it was spitting snow and cold. I mean, SOMETHING caused everybody in Kokomo to hit Kroger at the same time. I was only there for cupcakes. And toilet paper, but mostly cupcakes. What's going on, Kokomo? Surely a few snow flurries didn't send you scurrying into a panic like we're in Missouri or something, right??
Kaylee is off at play practice, Steve is off discussing painting airplanes with someone, and I am taking a few minutes with the TV off and no noise at all just relaxing for a few minutes. Spending all day chatting is hard on an introvert, you know. :) It's good to be home, I need something warm to drink and thaw out a few things!
Today I headed to Fayette, Alabama. Watched the sun rise, of course. I had chosen my altitude to try to stay out of a particular band of ice that looked unpleasant about 2/3rds of the way there. Supposedly at 14,000' it was moderate ice, and above that it was supposed to be severe ice. I'll pass on both, so I had us at 12,000' where it was supposed to be okay, but still above the cloud deck. As we came up on the precip, we heard that there was "weather available on HIWAS" for ice pellets, rain/snow mix, etc. ahead, and ATC was asking all the pilots in the area for pilot reports on icing at their specific altitudes. A Cirrus came on and said he got moderate icing from 5-7000', which wasn't supposed to be there. A jet came on and said they got icing from 12,200' up past 17,500'. At 12,000', you know how much ice we got in the same area, which was lit up as light, medium and dark pink on our weather scope, which means light, moderate to some heavy mixed snow/rain? None. Zip. We saw a bit of precip out the window, but not one thing stuck to the airplane. D was lightly disappointed, because he wants to see ice. I was not disappointed, because I have seen all the ice I care to ever see again, other than in my drinks. That 12,000' was THE altitude to be at, apparently, and thank you. I meant to do that. I DID mean to do that, but I'll admit that was pretty lucky too. ;)
It wasn't a thick band, we broke out soon enough, and the rest of the trip was completely uneventful. The gentleman in Fayette was a sweet Southern gent, and wanted to talk and talk, and there wasn't a separate room to go to, so I got to visit for a few hours. He told me the secret place they hide the courtesy car keys outside for when the building is closed up and you might want to go into town and get a Rax burger. I love small town airport hospitality, I just do. It's also a good thing, because I happened to have left behind something important there, and will probably have to have him ship it back to me, unless we're going back down soon. I did have to self-serve fuel there though, which would be fine except it was Really cold, and I hadn't brought gloves, and it takes awhile to fill up all those tanks, and my fingers were just burning by the time I was done. Well, some were burning, some actually went numb. Man it was cold, even in Alabama, especially with the wind, but when I was done, the gentleman at the building held open the door and said "Come on in here out of the cold, young lady!" :)
The trip home was fine. We were on top of the clouds all the way back, and then had to come down through them to land. It was beautiful and sunny and bright above, and yucky and scuddy down here, spitting snow, and windy, and this time I took comparison photos--one right before we came down, and one right after we came down, just a couple of minutes apart from each other.
I had to stop at the store and pick up 36 cupcakes with kitty faces on them for Kaylee for school tomorrow. The store was Packed Out. I mean, no parking spots available, no carts available, I was bumping into and surrounded by people in there. You would think it's the day before Thanksgiving and everybody was rushing to get food. I kind of wondered if it was because it was spitting snow and cold. I mean, SOMETHING caused everybody in Kokomo to hit Kroger at the same time. I was only there for cupcakes. And toilet paper, but mostly cupcakes. What's going on, Kokomo? Surely a few snow flurries didn't send you scurrying into a panic like we're in Missouri or something, right??
Kaylee is off at play practice, Steve is off discussing painting airplanes with someone, and I am taking a few minutes with the TV off and no noise at all just relaxing for a few minutes. Spending all day chatting is hard on an introvert, you know. :) It's good to be home, I need something warm to drink and thaw out a few things!
Nice and sunny and warm-looking and bright and cheerful just before our descent back into Kokomo.
And this is what it looked like on the other side of the clouds. That's US 31 under the nose, and we're headed for the runway. Lovely down here, huh??
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Early
It's only 10:30 but I'll be heading to bed shortly, because I'll be back up at 5:30 a.m. for a trip to Fayette, Alabama. Fortunately, that's south of here. Unfortunately, it's not a whole lot warmer than here. Boo! :)
Kaylee's choreography for a choir project went really well. She and her friends got together and worked on choreography for a whole group of them to a song in Nutcracker. A bunch of kids grouped up and did various things, but her group was by far the best organized and well done. She said the rest of the groups were pretty weak, and her teacher had them come back out and redo parts of theirs, including one part during a Russian dance in the song where Kaylee does a high kick over another girl's head, timed to the music. The teacher loved that, and when two kids did the waltz at the beginning, which Kaylee taught them how to do, after looking it up on YouTube and practicing with me in the kitchen. Kind of fun, she was proud of how they did, and the teacher is likely to use their choreography in their Christmas program.
No flying today, my guy canceled, so I did paperwork, errand runs, got some stuff in the mail, some bills paid, basic necessary get stuff done things. Oh, and I ordered 36 cupcakes, chocolate, with cat pictures on them, so Kaylee could take them to school Friday morning to celebrate some holiday called Bobunk that is all about cats and food. And alcohol, but she's skipping that part for obvious reasons. She got permission from her teacher to celebrate this, somehow, because she apparently got her Dad's ability to convince people of things like that, so I did my part and ordered the cupcakes. Crazy kiddo. :)
I did make it down to Sheridan tonight for dinner with a group of friends/pilots. I ended the night with a bit of blackberry cobbler. Skipped the fries and only ate half the turkey chipotle wrap, so I could enjoy the cobbler. And enjoy it I did!
It's been 5 months, and as of today I hit 35 pounds lost. Lots more stamina for physical activity now, food habits seem to be doing well, feeling pretty good, not done, but good.
Well, I'd better hit the bed and try to get sleepy early here.
Kaylee's choreography for a choir project went really well. She and her friends got together and worked on choreography for a whole group of them to a song in Nutcracker. A bunch of kids grouped up and did various things, but her group was by far the best organized and well done. She said the rest of the groups were pretty weak, and her teacher had them come back out and redo parts of theirs, including one part during a Russian dance in the song where Kaylee does a high kick over another girl's head, timed to the music. The teacher loved that, and when two kids did the waltz at the beginning, which Kaylee taught them how to do, after looking it up on YouTube and practicing with me in the kitchen. Kind of fun, she was proud of how they did, and the teacher is likely to use their choreography in their Christmas program.
No flying today, my guy canceled, so I did paperwork, errand runs, got some stuff in the mail, some bills paid, basic necessary get stuff done things. Oh, and I ordered 36 cupcakes, chocolate, with cat pictures on them, so Kaylee could take them to school Friday morning to celebrate some holiday called Bobunk that is all about cats and food. And alcohol, but she's skipping that part for obvious reasons. She got permission from her teacher to celebrate this, somehow, because she apparently got her Dad's ability to convince people of things like that, so I did my part and ordered the cupcakes. Crazy kiddo. :)
I did make it down to Sheridan tonight for dinner with a group of friends/pilots. I ended the night with a bit of blackberry cobbler. Skipped the fries and only ate half the turkey chipotle wrap, so I could enjoy the cobbler. And enjoy it I did!
It's been 5 months, and as of today I hit 35 pounds lost. Lots more stamina for physical activity now, food habits seem to be doing well, feeling pretty good, not done, but good.
Well, I'd better hit the bed and try to get sleepy early here.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Challenges
Kaylee is "Jewish walk-on Girl #2" in the upcoming play, but this week the teacher is having everyone come at 6 pm for a run-through of the play. Kaylee is there for an hour and 45 minutes before it's her turn to walk on for 5 minutes and not say any lines. Then they're done. She's there every night for two hours, plus a 40 minute round trip drive, just to walk on for 5 minutes. She asked if she could show up at 7 instead, and have an hour less of sitting time. I think we'll let her do it, maybe just tell the play teacher. There's no need for her to spend that much time there without purpose.
I had three flights today, and each one had a different challenge for the student, which made it interesting for me too. First up was the gentleman who had been in the Champ with me when the tailwheel chain broke and we went screeching down the runway with the right brake all in, just stopping a not-good-thing. He came back today, and for his first time back in the tailwheel, we went up in winds 19 gusting to 25. He'd never flown in winds stronger than 10 knots before. But they were real close to down the runway, so it wasn't THAT exciting, but it was enough. After the first landing, he didn't get turned around properly, and I ended up having to get out of the airplane and swing the tailwheel around by hand so we could get turned around without taxiing into the corn field. He thought that was something, the wind forces on the tail. We only did two landings, and he was all caught up on that, but in a good way. He thought it was interesting, a good lesson.
Next up was a guy who wanted to go fly on a high wind day and work on crosswinds, had pushed me to do it on other, worse days that wouldn't have been any good at all, so today was his day. We went up in the 172 at Kokomo, and started off on a runway where we had a 30 degree crosswind. He did all right on two of those, so I moved him over to the other runway, where we had a 60 degree crosswind, gusting still up to 25 knots. Two of those landings and he called it quits, finding it more of a challenge than expected. So we went back to the other runway, with what ended up being about a 10 knot crosswind component, and did a few more there to build back up some confidence. :)
Last but not least, I had a night cross country, out of Glenndale. The forecast was calling for wind shear between 1500-2000' though, so right in the traffic pattern. The ground winds were now down to about 10-15 knots, not bad, but it was forecasting 45-50 knots at 1500-2000'. We went, and it wasn't turbulent up there for the most part, but you could really feel the wind pick up, see it shoving you across the ground. In one direction we had a ground speed of 64 knots. Coming home we had a ground speed over 140 knots, and that was above the wind sheer altitude, not quite as strong. I forgot to look while we were in that altitude range. The landings at both places were a little interesting because the winds were so strong in the pattern, then died down as you got close to the ground. It ended up being a challenge for him too.
All in all good learning experiences all around, and kept me paying attention too. :)
Today was the last warm day we'll have for at least a week, maybe the season. I enjoyed the sun, even if it did come with a bit of a breeze.
Here's Indy again tonight, nothing new over the last night shot I took of Indy, but it doesn't hurt to take a new one either...
I had three flights today, and each one had a different challenge for the student, which made it interesting for me too. First up was the gentleman who had been in the Champ with me when the tailwheel chain broke and we went screeching down the runway with the right brake all in, just stopping a not-good-thing. He came back today, and for his first time back in the tailwheel, we went up in winds 19 gusting to 25. He'd never flown in winds stronger than 10 knots before. But they were real close to down the runway, so it wasn't THAT exciting, but it was enough. After the first landing, he didn't get turned around properly, and I ended up having to get out of the airplane and swing the tailwheel around by hand so we could get turned around without taxiing into the corn field. He thought that was something, the wind forces on the tail. We only did two landings, and he was all caught up on that, but in a good way. He thought it was interesting, a good lesson.
Next up was a guy who wanted to go fly on a high wind day and work on crosswinds, had pushed me to do it on other, worse days that wouldn't have been any good at all, so today was his day. We went up in the 172 at Kokomo, and started off on a runway where we had a 30 degree crosswind. He did all right on two of those, so I moved him over to the other runway, where we had a 60 degree crosswind, gusting still up to 25 knots. Two of those landings and he called it quits, finding it more of a challenge than expected. So we went back to the other runway, with what ended up being about a 10 knot crosswind component, and did a few more there to build back up some confidence. :)
Last but not least, I had a night cross country, out of Glenndale. The forecast was calling for wind shear between 1500-2000' though, so right in the traffic pattern. The ground winds were now down to about 10-15 knots, not bad, but it was forecasting 45-50 knots at 1500-2000'. We went, and it wasn't turbulent up there for the most part, but you could really feel the wind pick up, see it shoving you across the ground. In one direction we had a ground speed of 64 knots. Coming home we had a ground speed over 140 knots, and that was above the wind sheer altitude, not quite as strong. I forgot to look while we were in that altitude range. The landings at both places were a little interesting because the winds were so strong in the pattern, then died down as you got close to the ground. It ended up being a challenge for him too.
All in all good learning experiences all around, and kept me paying attention too. :)
Today was the last warm day we'll have for at least a week, maybe the season. I enjoyed the sun, even if it did come with a bit of a breeze.
Here's Indy again tonight, nothing new over the last night shot I took of Indy, but it doesn't hurt to take a new one either...
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Weekend
Since I was going to be flying early Sunday morning, I took Saturday as my unwind day. I did a few things--went a couple places, did some housework, and met Nathan and Steve at Ruby Tuesday's for a piece of white chocolate cherry cheesecake that had more calories than most of my meals these days (who says you can't have cheesecake for dinner once in a blue moon?). I also picked up a kit to test your cholesterol levels at home. It had been awhile, so I thought it would be a good thing to check up on. Probably thanks to genetics, mine always has been and still is very low--I'm at the bottom of the chart. Steve's was fine too, and we have a blood pressure monitor too, so we can check in on a few of the bigger/more common things now and then. The only other thing I wanted to check up on was blood sugar levels, with my family history, but the kit for that didn't come with test strips, and it looks like you have to order those from a healthcare facility. Maybe. I'll double check that online today. Of course things like hypoglycemia, hypertension and high cholesterol all have the same answers: weight loss, healthier eating, and more exercise, followed up by medication if the above don't help enough. I've been hitting all three (cheesecake notwithstanding), and Steve has been too, though not as aggressively. So far the numbers are still looking good anyway, it's just good to check and make sure now and then.
This morning I was up around 7:20, which doesn't sound early to some of you but is to me for a weekend, drove out to Kokomo, flew the RG down to Indy Metro, and got in the PT-26 to do a little tailwheel and PT instructing. It was so cold, the airplane doesn't have heat on it, and it didn't feel like starting. Luckily the battery is pretty good and we eventually got her going, then sat there for about 15 minutes just warming it up enough to be able to taxi. (You can't just start taxiing cold, because sometimes you have to give it a ton of power to get going straight when the tailwheel is crooked.) The gap in the back canopy, I was sort of prepared, I had worn long johns under my jeans, two layers and a warm coat, but I forgot that the crack actually blows on my face and neck too. I had my hands inside my jacket sleeves except on takeoff and short final, and I had my coat collar up to protect my neck, but my face froze. I felt like I'd been to the dentist--I was slurring my words due to numb lips. Lol. We took a break an hour into it, and the winds picked up and the temps warmed up a little by then too, so the next round wasn't too bad for being cold, and was good practice with a little turbulence and a slight crosswind to have to work with. It was actually a nice day to fly. If the cockpit was a little warmer, it would be about perfect, and I did enjoy the flying. The only real issue I've had is that once I got that cold, it's taken me a long time to thaw. I'm sitting at home wearing a sweatshirt over my t-shirt and a blanket over my lap with a warm laptop on top of me and my extremities are still cold, and whenever I get up, I'm cold. Maybe I should have waited until Spring/Summer to lose some of this body fat. ;)
I did get to fly the RG to Metro and back all by myself today though, so that was nice too...
Kaylee has been working on choreography for a choir project, and I can hear her dancing in her room as she tries to figure it out. So far it seems like she's actually doing a pretty good job with it. She's heading to her church youth group here; I'm glad she's found a group she enjoys being with and is hopefully learning a few things from too.
This upcoming week comes with dropping temperatures. Tomorrow is nice enough at 50 degrees, but by Thursday we have a high of freezing, 32F, and a low of 22F. Ugh. This better not be a continuing trend just yet. I still have some tailwheel stuff to accomplish with a couple guys before the temps get too cold to be able to keep going...
This morning I was up around 7:20, which doesn't sound early to some of you but is to me for a weekend, drove out to Kokomo, flew the RG down to Indy Metro, and got in the PT-26 to do a little tailwheel and PT instructing. It was so cold, the airplane doesn't have heat on it, and it didn't feel like starting. Luckily the battery is pretty good and we eventually got her going, then sat there for about 15 minutes just warming it up enough to be able to taxi. (You can't just start taxiing cold, because sometimes you have to give it a ton of power to get going straight when the tailwheel is crooked.) The gap in the back canopy, I was sort of prepared, I had worn long johns under my jeans, two layers and a warm coat, but I forgot that the crack actually blows on my face and neck too. I had my hands inside my jacket sleeves except on takeoff and short final, and I had my coat collar up to protect my neck, but my face froze. I felt like I'd been to the dentist--I was slurring my words due to numb lips. Lol. We took a break an hour into it, and the winds picked up and the temps warmed up a little by then too, so the next round wasn't too bad for being cold, and was good practice with a little turbulence and a slight crosswind to have to work with. It was actually a nice day to fly. If the cockpit was a little warmer, it would be about perfect, and I did enjoy the flying. The only real issue I've had is that once I got that cold, it's taken me a long time to thaw. I'm sitting at home wearing a sweatshirt over my t-shirt and a blanket over my lap with a warm laptop on top of me and my extremities are still cold, and whenever I get up, I'm cold. Maybe I should have waited until Spring/Summer to lose some of this body fat. ;)
I did get to fly the RG to Metro and back all by myself today though, so that was nice too...
Kaylee has been working on choreography for a choir project, and I can hear her dancing in her room as she tries to figure it out. So far it seems like she's actually doing a pretty good job with it. She's heading to her church youth group here; I'm glad she's found a group she enjoys being with and is hopefully learning a few things from too.
This upcoming week comes with dropping temperatures. Tomorrow is nice enough at 50 degrees, but by Thursday we have a high of freezing, 32F, and a low of 22F. Ugh. This better not be a continuing trend just yet. I still have some tailwheel stuff to accomplish with a couple guys before the temps get too cold to be able to keep going...
Letting the crosswind push you off course a bit...but it's a good view from the back of the PT.
Let's play the "Where Could I Land if I Had To" game. I see water...but MAN that would be cold right now. I hate water. I wonder how sturdy the roof of that building is. Probably wouldn't make the highway. There's a parking lot...the things that run through one's mind when flying along at any given point...
Friday, November 07, 2014
Kay Day
Happy Friday. I work tomorrow, so it's not really Friday, but it sounds good, anyway!
Kaylee and I volunteered at her former school's fundraiser tonight. It was a Dan's Fish Fry at the church and school. Kaylee did face painting, and I was a fish lady. For over two hours I ran back and forth from the kitchen to all the tables, serving up more all you can eat fish or chicken. I answered questions, I fetched tartar sauce, I kept everyone supplied with food, reported when the trash was full, monitored the dessert table for awhile, managed to not eat one of those huge homemade delicious cupcakes, chatted with the customers, cracked jokes, and kept busy. Kaylee did pretty well face painting...her big weakness was a flower. It looked like a tree. But otherwise she did well. ;)
We had to leave before the event was over, because we had to next go to her school's Variety Show. Several of her friends were in it, and we sat with one of her friends too. We had a good time. She introduced me to her friends and wanted to sit with me. In fact, I had figured I'd just be dropping her off so she could do it with her friends, but instead she asked me if I would please go with her. Well, of course, I'd be delighted to. :) One of her friends won the Jr. High section of the "talent show", and the girl who won best overall act, she deserved it. She played guitar and sang with a lot of soul--she sounded like somebody off of American Idol or the Voice. She was really, really good. As always the Em Cees of the event kept it moving, light-hearted, funny, etc., and everybody had a good time.
On our way home, "Crazy Train" came on the radio, and Kaylee said "I know this song." Then she looked at me and said "I know a lot of old songs thanks to you." Next up came Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls", and Kaylee said "See, I know this one too. By the way, Mom, GREAT parenting there letting your little kid listen to that song!" I insisted that Queen was a classic, but we laughed about it for awhile.
Kaylee was also talking about things that were easy for her and thinking of things that were hard for her. She said "You're usually pretty good at stuff too. What's something that you tried to do but never really got very good at?" I told her my bowling stories, and she was laughing so hard she couldn't catch her breath. She said "WHO Almost FAILS Bowling?? Even stupid people can bowl!" Yep, but that's something I just cannot master. Every time I told her another story about bowling, she was laughing harder. Good old bowling, still making people laugh years later at my inadequacies. ;)
Kaylee and I volunteered at her former school's fundraiser tonight. It was a Dan's Fish Fry at the church and school. Kaylee did face painting, and I was a fish lady. For over two hours I ran back and forth from the kitchen to all the tables, serving up more all you can eat fish or chicken. I answered questions, I fetched tartar sauce, I kept everyone supplied with food, reported when the trash was full, monitored the dessert table for awhile, managed to not eat one of those huge homemade delicious cupcakes, chatted with the customers, cracked jokes, and kept busy. Kaylee did pretty well face painting...her big weakness was a flower. It looked like a tree. But otherwise she did well. ;)
We had to leave before the event was over, because we had to next go to her school's Variety Show. Several of her friends were in it, and we sat with one of her friends too. We had a good time. She introduced me to her friends and wanted to sit with me. In fact, I had figured I'd just be dropping her off so she could do it with her friends, but instead she asked me if I would please go with her. Well, of course, I'd be delighted to. :) One of her friends won the Jr. High section of the "talent show", and the girl who won best overall act, she deserved it. She played guitar and sang with a lot of soul--she sounded like somebody off of American Idol or the Voice. She was really, really good. As always the Em Cees of the event kept it moving, light-hearted, funny, etc., and everybody had a good time.
On our way home, "Crazy Train" came on the radio, and Kaylee said "I know this song." Then she looked at me and said "I know a lot of old songs thanks to you." Next up came Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls", and Kaylee said "See, I know this one too. By the way, Mom, GREAT parenting there letting your little kid listen to that song!" I insisted that Queen was a classic, but we laughed about it for awhile.
Kaylee was also talking about things that were easy for her and thinking of things that were hard for her. She said "You're usually pretty good at stuff too. What's something that you tried to do but never really got very good at?" I told her my bowling stories, and she was laughing so hard she couldn't catch her breath. She said "WHO Almost FAILS Bowling?? Even stupid people can bowl!" Yep, but that's something I just cannot master. Every time I told her another story about bowling, she was laughing harder. Good old bowling, still making people laugh years later at my inadequacies. ;)
Thursday, November 06, 2014
Dreary
That's the day! Cold, windy, gray, it looked like...November. Yuck.
Kaylee is excited about a thing she is doing for choir. A group of her friends are getting together to do a dance and song using the Nutcracker for their upcoming Christmas choir show. She is having to come up with some of the choreography, so she is researching various dances, and is horrified that I don't know how to do the Foxtrot. I barely can do the Waltz, but at least I remembered that one. She wants to do a Russian-style dance too. It's due next week, so she's been researching a lot and working on it, and will get together with her friends Monday after school to try to put it together.
Health stuff--I'm still plugging along slowly, and I've printed off a set of exercises to start doing to tighten/tone as well. I haven't done them yet, but I did walk on the treadmill, and I'm looking at the exercises to make sure I get the form right. I'll start on them when I'm home by myself the first few times. The old 42 year old lady body worked pretty well for the first 30 pounds, but it seems to be fighting back now. That's okay, I'm stubborn too. ;)
Well, all I did today was catch up on paperwork stuff, nothing too exciting. Tomorrow I was supposed to fly the PT, but the weather is going to halt that too. At least nothing broke on me today! :)
Kaylee is excited about a thing she is doing for choir. A group of her friends are getting together to do a dance and song using the Nutcracker for their upcoming Christmas choir show. She is having to come up with some of the choreography, so she is researching various dances, and is horrified that I don't know how to do the Foxtrot. I barely can do the Waltz, but at least I remembered that one. She wants to do a Russian-style dance too. It's due next week, so she's been researching a lot and working on it, and will get together with her friends Monday after school to try to put it together.
Health stuff--I'm still plugging along slowly, and I've printed off a set of exercises to start doing to tighten/tone as well. I haven't done them yet, but I did walk on the treadmill, and I'm looking at the exercises to make sure I get the form right. I'll start on them when I'm home by myself the first few times. The old 42 year old lady body worked pretty well for the first 30 pounds, but it seems to be fighting back now. That's okay, I'm stubborn too. ;)
Well, all I did today was catch up on paperwork stuff, nothing too exciting. Tomorrow I was supposed to fly the PT, but the weather is going to halt that too. At least nothing broke on me today! :)
Wednesday, November 05, 2014
Whee
It's a good thing we had a bunch of students today, because it was a great weather day, and probably one of the last nice days we'll have for awhile. Next week's forecast is not pretty. Well, it's mostly sunny, but the highs are in the low to mid 30s with the lows in the low 20s. THAT'S not pretty.
That means I don't have much to report today but a lot of flying. The first flight of the day was a little more exciting than anticipated. We flew the Champ, did a few takeoffs and landings at Glenndale, went over to Kokomo and did some crosswind takeoffs and landings, and did one back into Glenndale. Unfortunately on the landing the chain broke on the right side of the tailwheel. The wind was pushing the tail to the right, which swings the nose to the left, which requires right rudder to correct, which I no longer had. So, that was fun.
After we put the plane away and I put the plane down for maintenance, I drove out to Kokomo and flew the 172 with a student in the pattern. Finished that and drove back to Glenndale at sunset, and then flew the night takeoffs and landings with the student I was with when we had the flat tire. This time our tires stayed inflated, and nothing else broke on me today, and we were able to complete our required night moves. He enjoyed all the night emergency stuff, the no lights, no flaps, etc. stuff. We also had a huge full moon though, meaning you could still see the runway, terrain, and panel, even with the lights off. That's sort of cheating, but sometimes you do get a moon like that, so... ;)
I got home around 8 p.m., a little worn out. Kaylee was showing me a Nutcracker dance she wants to recreate with a group for choir. Steve was down south eating out with everybody after his CFI lesson down there. And we'll see what tomorrow's weather brings.
That means I don't have much to report today but a lot of flying. The first flight of the day was a little more exciting than anticipated. We flew the Champ, did a few takeoffs and landings at Glenndale, went over to Kokomo and did some crosswind takeoffs and landings, and did one back into Glenndale. Unfortunately on the landing the chain broke on the right side of the tailwheel. The wind was pushing the tail to the right, which swings the nose to the left, which requires right rudder to correct, which I no longer had. So, that was fun.
After we put the plane away and I put the plane down for maintenance, I drove out to Kokomo and flew the 172 with a student in the pattern. Finished that and drove back to Glenndale at sunset, and then flew the night takeoffs and landings with the student I was with when we had the flat tire. This time our tires stayed inflated, and nothing else broke on me today, and we were able to complete our required night moves. He enjoyed all the night emergency stuff, the no lights, no flaps, etc. stuff. We also had a huge full moon though, meaning you could still see the runway, terrain, and panel, even with the lights off. That's sort of cheating, but sometimes you do get a moon like that, so... ;)
I got home around 8 p.m., a little worn out. Kaylee was showing me a Nutcracker dance she wants to recreate with a group for choir. Steve was down south eating out with everybody after his CFI lesson down there. And we'll see what tomorrow's weather brings.
Some days it's good your feet are already on the rudders and your hand is a quick snap away from the stick.
The source of my excitement for the day.
I'm annoyed this was blurry. It was a lovely sunset tonight.
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
Voting Day
It was cold, gray and rainy all day, but I slept so well last night that for the first time in three days I actually woke up feeling refreshed and ready to go, even with the weather. I didn't have any flights, so I did things like catch up on my logbook, housework, walk on the treadmill for a good while for the first time in several days, and of course, vote. I was voter number 350 today. There was one guy on the ballot who didn't have anyone opposing him, so he was going to be voted back in anyway, but I didn't vote for him, I just didn't vote for that spot at all. See, I had flown him around in the past, and I happened to know he was a sleezeball who would happily abuse his power to get what he wants, with no regard for what's right. So, no thanks, he'll win anyway, but I won't help him do it.
When Kaylee got home from school today, she was wiped out. She sat on my lap and we talked for awhile, and then she curled up on me and put her head on my shoulder. I said "Oh no, you can't go to sleep here." She went to sleep there. Passed out cold. After about half an hour I asked Steve to hand me my iPad and my earphones and I finished watching a show. Finally after about an hour and a half, my right arm was asleep, fingers tingling, and I woke her up. I started to wake her up right away, but, you know, she's almost 14 years old, and she doesn't hardly fit on my lap any more, and I'm sure there won't be a lot more times where I get to hold my baby while she sleeps. Don't tell her I said that. So I just relaxed and enjoyed the view. She still has cute little ears. Don't tell her I said that either. ;)
Oh, we gave her the best costume award last night, and she wasn't sure what to think about it at first as she'd been in bed, but after a few minutes she laughed and then said she would keep it forever. Just tonight she came back in with it, said she really appreciated it, that it's silly and funny and that it means a lot to her because she knows we were thinking about her and love her.
She's a good kid...
When Kaylee got home from school today, she was wiped out. She sat on my lap and we talked for awhile, and then she curled up on me and put her head on my shoulder. I said "Oh no, you can't go to sleep here." She went to sleep there. Passed out cold. After about half an hour I asked Steve to hand me my iPad and my earphones and I finished watching a show. Finally after about an hour and a half, my right arm was asleep, fingers tingling, and I woke her up. I started to wake her up right away, but, you know, she's almost 14 years old, and she doesn't hardly fit on my lap any more, and I'm sure there won't be a lot more times where I get to hold my baby while she sleeps. Don't tell her I said that. So I just relaxed and enjoyed the view. She still has cute little ears. Don't tell her I said that either. ;)
Oh, we gave her the best costume award last night, and she wasn't sure what to think about it at first as she'd been in bed, but after a few minutes she laughed and then said she would keep it forever. Just tonight she came back in with it, said she really appreciated it, that it's silly and funny and that it means a lot to her because she knows we were thinking about her and love her.
She's a good kid...
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