Weekend

I should catch up, but it's 1 a.m. and I've been sick and it's bed time.

Friday I was a waste, I slept in late, made it up in time for lunch, was okay at lunch, and then crashed pretty hard, so much so that I had a hard time getting myself home.  I slept on the couch for awhile until it was time to pick Kaylee up from school, then slept on the couch some more until it was time to take her to her voice lesson.  I ran from there to the airport to run up the 340 after its oil change and vacuum pump replacement to make sure it would be ready for the next morning's flight, and then picked her up, took her to a friend's house, and then went back to the couch.  I picked her up at 10:30 p.m., and then had a hard time getting to sleep.  Of course.  I was awake a lot of the night, restless too, and then the alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. and was really not ready to get up and fly to St. Louis.

But...it worked out.  I wasn't great, but I was good enough, and the storms that were possible for the morning just didn't happen, which is even better.  A new student of ours came along this time.  He's 16, and he's had four flight lessons.  I flew us there, and then on the way home, after we took off, I gave it to him to fly.  Remember, student pilot with four lessons.  He flew us all the way home, mostly in IFR, kept us in the altitude limits, kept us pretty well on track, did the level off and hand flew for an hour, and occasionally took photos or video with his other hand while he was doing it.  We get back to Kokomo, which is reporting clear below 12,000', and it wasn't at all, so we had to shoot an RNAV approach in.  He was doing fine so I decided to let him try, and had him hand fly the approach.  It was raining just before we got there.  He's descending in actual IFR, and this stinker shoots the approach and doesn't lose it.  I did the radios, I told him what to do, he didn't know why he was doing anything exactly, and I managed the power, but still, he followed the precision approach needles all the way down, then brought it in for a landing.  I didn't have to touch the actual yoke or rudders once.  That's so annoying when other people make stuff look so easy.  My fourth flight lesson did NOT have me doing so well I could shoot a GPS approach in actual IFR in a twin.  I don't think I like him much!  ;)  He seems to be a really nice kid...

Today was our Poker Run.  It was overcast and a bit drippy now and then, and for the third year in a row it was pretty much a wash-out for weather.  So Steve and AE are talking about making the Poker Run a two week event next year, where they get together afterwards for lunch/dinner, to turn in their cards, etc., instead of banking it all on one day that keeps getting weathered out in the Spring.

Kaylee's Spring band concert was this evening.  Kaylee's sax broke during the first song, so when it ended, she had to get a replacement sax handed to her, on stage.  Then the band director got up and said that this song featured a solo by Kaylee Stants.  She was handed someone else's instrument, with different feeling buttons and such, and then was highlighted as the solo artist for the song.  And she handled it like a champ.  She ran a series of notes on the new sax, gave it a thumbs-up, and they were off.  She did a great job on her solo, and afterwards she stood and gave a gentle bow to the audience.  Steve wanted to yell out at her, but decided she wouldn't appreciate that.  I had to get up and move, because during that song she'd moved, and I couldn't see her, and I couldn't have that.  So I bothered other people, but I recorded her playing, and took photos of her up there anyway, because I'm the Mom and that's my girl and you can't stop me.  ;)

There was a Senior there for the high school band who was highlighted, and he came out to play a special piece that the director said was very difficult.  It sounded difficult.  While he was playing, I glanced over, and Steve was doing sax fingering with his left hand, perfectly on beat to what the kid was playing.  After it was over, he leaned over and said "I played that exact piece.  I remember every note.  Oh, and I played it as a Freshman."  At the end of the evening, the director mentioned the Seniors and all their prospective majors.  This kid was triple majoring in Math, Physics, and something else like Mechanical Engineering (that wasn't it, but something hard).  I leaned over to Steve and said "You may have played that piece as a Freshman, but he's got you beat there."  Steve leans back over and says "He hasn't actually DONE it yet."  ;)

Today was also Devon's 17th birthday, of course.  It hit me while I was flying with the kid this morning that he was a year younger than our son would be.  Kinda threw me a little, as I can't really picture Devon like that very well.  And yet I can.  Hard to describe.  But I thought of him a lot today.

Tonight, while Steve was finishing up some things at the airport after the band concert, Kaylee and I sat in the living room and just talked, like for almost 3 hours, about all sorts of things.  Things she had thought she was weird for feeling or doing or thinking, only to find out that she wasn't the only one.  It was a good conversation.  When it was time to go to bed, she asked me to come in and talk to her some more in there, so I did.  Until she started poking me in the back to find the sensitive spot back there, and then I was out of there.  ;)  She's a really good kid...we're lucky to be her parents.

On that note, it's really late, and I'm really beat.  I have photos, but they'll have to wait...