I would write more, but I am typing with two fingers and I'm sleepy!
We met the cat lady this morning, and she will be taking care of the cats while we are gone. We left the house around 10:30, and I drove us to Tennessee. We stopped at the Corvette Museum and looked around, and that was very well done. We saw where the sinkhole opened up and ate several cars. The hole was really deep--they left one part of it visible through plexiglass so you could look way down. Creepy. We went through the tour, and ate at the Corvette Cafe there before heading back out for Franklin. I hit some nasty traffic on the way to and around Nashville. We weren't fully stopped, but pretty close. Maybe 15-20 mph travel, and we lost about an hour. Kaylee napped, and I stared at a long string of tail lights for a very long time.
When we arrived, all of us went to dinner at "The Boat House", with live music. I had rare Ahi Tuna, oysters, lobster bites, and it was all very tasty.
We're headed to bed shortly. Here's to the end of 2015!
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Tenderloin Tuesday
Well, that's what it was at Grindstone Charley's today anyway. I didn't have one, because, you know, too many cookies and in particular too much Japanese last night. I was so full last night I was miserable. No good. So I had my little half salad and for once it totally filled me up, too. For dinner I had leftover chicken, potatoes and corn, and it was just as good the third time around as it was the first. We've finished off everything but gravy and some of the chicken, so not bad at all.
We've decided a bit on the spur of the moment to leave town, if the cat-sitting lady comes through okay tomorrow. We are meeting with a person tomorrow morning who will come feed, water, do litter boxes and change the pee pad for the cats so we can actually go somewhere overnight. Trapped by cats, of all things. Anyway, if she's good to go, we're going to head down to Tennessee to pick up Steve's mom, and spend a couple days while we are there. We're actually going to DRIVE, too. Kaylee doesn't want to, which I think is funny. But the Aerostar isn't available, and I've already used the 340 too much for personal stuff this year and don't want to take it for 3-4 days here. The 172RG isn't a great winter traveling airplane unless your weather is clear, and we would be getting the four of us and all our baggage into the 4-seat airplane, which would not exactly be comfortable for the backseaters in particular. So, we'll drive. And we'll maybe stop at the Corvette Museum on the way down, and go over to the fancy hotel in Nashville and look around at all they've got going on (ice slides, snow tubing, sculptures, whatever is over there we'll just check it out). It'll be nice!
After lunch Steve and I hit a couple errands, then went to the theater to watch Star Wars VII in 3D. This 3D was definitely way better than the last 3D experience I had. The glasses aren't red and blue any more, and the viewing is kind of overly dramatic at some things, but the movie blended in pretty well, and I enjoyed it. It did still leave me feeling like it could make me queasy if I did a bunch of it, somehow, but it didn't. Not too far into it I didn't notice the 3D effect as much, it just became part of the movie, and I liked it. I have to admit, we both left the theater confused, but in my case it was because I thought this was the LAST Star Wars, and it obviously was left on a big cliff-hangar, with no closure. Goes to show I didn't pay attention to the prequels much. That's why I went to see this one in the theater, because I thought it was the last one. Oh well, I did enjoy it. Steve said he had expected a little more out of it, but I liked it fine. There were lasers and explosions and deaths and fight scenes and reuniting people (you just have to love Harrison Ford, I'm sorry!) and it was about what could be done, in my mind. I liked it, glad I went.
Tonight it's time to pack up and get ready. I've enjoyed our Christmas, and I'm looking forward to New Year's too. :)
We've decided a bit on the spur of the moment to leave town, if the cat-sitting lady comes through okay tomorrow. We are meeting with a person tomorrow morning who will come feed, water, do litter boxes and change the pee pad for the cats so we can actually go somewhere overnight. Trapped by cats, of all things. Anyway, if she's good to go, we're going to head down to Tennessee to pick up Steve's mom, and spend a couple days while we are there. We're actually going to DRIVE, too. Kaylee doesn't want to, which I think is funny. But the Aerostar isn't available, and I've already used the 340 too much for personal stuff this year and don't want to take it for 3-4 days here. The 172RG isn't a great winter traveling airplane unless your weather is clear, and we would be getting the four of us and all our baggage into the 4-seat airplane, which would not exactly be comfortable for the backseaters in particular. So, we'll drive. And we'll maybe stop at the Corvette Museum on the way down, and go over to the fancy hotel in Nashville and look around at all they've got going on (ice slides, snow tubing, sculptures, whatever is over there we'll just check it out). It'll be nice!
After lunch Steve and I hit a couple errands, then went to the theater to watch Star Wars VII in 3D. This 3D was definitely way better than the last 3D experience I had. The glasses aren't red and blue any more, and the viewing is kind of overly dramatic at some things, but the movie blended in pretty well, and I enjoyed it. It did still leave me feeling like it could make me queasy if I did a bunch of it, somehow, but it didn't. Not too far into it I didn't notice the 3D effect as much, it just became part of the movie, and I liked it. I have to admit, we both left the theater confused, but in my case it was because I thought this was the LAST Star Wars, and it obviously was left on a big cliff-hangar, with no closure. Goes to show I didn't pay attention to the prequels much. That's why I went to see this one in the theater, because I thought it was the last one. Oh well, I did enjoy it. Steve said he had expected a little more out of it, but I liked it fine. There were lasers and explosions and deaths and fight scenes and reuniting people (you just have to love Harrison Ford, I'm sorry!) and it was about what could be done, in my mind. I liked it, glad I went.
Tonight it's time to pack up and get ready. I've enjoyed our Christmas, and I'm looking forward to New Year's too. :)
Monday, December 28, 2015
Pictorial
It's Monday, and instead of battling ice, storms, IFR, and extra freaky strong headwinds, I'm at home in comfortable pants and a t-shirt, running Kaylee around to her various activities, then pausing for two hours while she climbed up on my lap and passed out and I couldn't go anywhere or do anything. ;)
First up she had a saxophone practice, with a quartet who is going to the ISSMA contest coming up. The other three kids in the quartet have or used to have this coach as their sax instructor. Kaylee is the only one who has never had a formal lesson. She also has only practiced a couple of times. Steve practiced with her last night, and within a couple of times she had it. She wasn't perfect, but she had it. He keeps shaking his head and saying "She is GIFTED. She doesn't even know it, won't believe me. I went to college on a scholarship for sax and she's better than I was. And she doesn't believe it, doesn't want much to do with it." The guy the kids played for today was an instructor who knew Steve back in the day, but he didn't recognize or pay attention to Kaylee's last name, which is probably a good thing, as there would be less pressure. She said that the practice went well, and she got a compliment out of him, which is pretty rare, and she had a few things he helped her with, which is good, and that all in all they sounded pretty good. Particularly since it's only the second time they've ever played together. ;)
Tonight she has a DI meeting. So while she was at this meeting, I decided to have Japanese. Since I couldn't be having fresh seafood in Mississippi, I decided to have the next best thing in Kokomo. I called in and got put on hold for 15 minutes before I hung up. For the next 30 minutes I tried calling back and got a busy signal. Finally I got through, got my food ordered, and was able to eat it before I had to turn around and pick up Kaylee.
Since I'm behind on photos, here are a few that I have from the last week or so.
First up she had a saxophone practice, with a quartet who is going to the ISSMA contest coming up. The other three kids in the quartet have or used to have this coach as their sax instructor. Kaylee is the only one who has never had a formal lesson. She also has only practiced a couple of times. Steve practiced with her last night, and within a couple of times she had it. She wasn't perfect, but she had it. He keeps shaking his head and saying "She is GIFTED. She doesn't even know it, won't believe me. I went to college on a scholarship for sax and she's better than I was. And she doesn't believe it, doesn't want much to do with it." The guy the kids played for today was an instructor who knew Steve back in the day, but he didn't recognize or pay attention to Kaylee's last name, which is probably a good thing, as there would be less pressure. She said that the practice went well, and she got a compliment out of him, which is pretty rare, and she had a few things he helped her with, which is good, and that all in all they sounded pretty good. Particularly since it's only the second time they've ever played together. ;)
Tonight she has a DI meeting. So while she was at this meeting, I decided to have Japanese. Since I couldn't be having fresh seafood in Mississippi, I decided to have the next best thing in Kokomo. I called in and got put on hold for 15 minutes before I hung up. For the next 30 minutes I tried calling back and got a busy signal. Finally I got through, got my food ordered, and was able to eat it before I had to turn around and pick up Kaylee.
Since I'm behind on photos, here are a few that I have from the last week or so.
Lon messing with his flashlight on Steve's face.
Playing Clue
Frosting Wars
Oh Christmas Tree...
Our little sign at the small light display in Greentown
The little helicopter in Spanish-flag-colors for some reason. :)
I'm holding my hand up here as if I'm holding a picture of Morgan too
Roadie gets her stocking
Dulcie gets hers
They seem pleased. ;)
This photo is deformed, but most of the pictures are on their camera, I forgot to snag them. :)
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Catching Up
I think five days may be a record for me on not updating my blog.
There hasn't been any flying, both because I marked myself off for the holiday, and because the weather has stunk. I was supposed to take an overnight trip to Mississippi tomorrow, but we're getting almost a quarter of an inch of ice accumulation in the morning, and 100% chance of heavy rain, with thunderstorms down there, and there just wasn't any good way out. When I heard the sleet/freezing rain, that was the end of working with that. There goes two days of pay and a bunch of free seafood, but so goes it.
The Cherries came up and spent a quick two days with us, and took Ann home with them. We had a big brunch, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, the whole ball of wax. Mom and Ernie came up and spent several days with us too, and I think we all ate a little too well. Ham and potatoes and veggies and big brunches and chicken recipes and all. The cheesy broccoli chicken was better than the one we had the other night. All the left overs are nice, haven't had to cook or make fast food runs, but oh so much food!
The kids made Christmas cookies, Kaylee and Mom and I played Catopoly (Yes, Monopoly with cat stuff), we watched some movies, we hung out, we ran out for a little while and hit a store and Starbucks, we slept in, we opened presents twice, we ate too much, we had a peaceful, restful, happy Christmas.
The Cherry family left and took Ann with them to spend some time down in Tennessee, and we'll be heading down to pick her up sometime coming up. :) Kaylee had a sax practice yesterday and has another one tomorrow, then has a DI meeting in the evening. She's got stuff to do even though she's on Christmas Break.
Mom and Ernie were kept up all night by a poltergeist who was banging on their wall so hard it rattled the room. The next morning Ernie found that it was a gate outside banging right on the wall by their closet. Not too funny when it goes on all night.
I have some photos but can't get them up at the moment, so they will have to wait.
It was a good Christmas, and we are a blessed family.
There hasn't been any flying, both because I marked myself off for the holiday, and because the weather has stunk. I was supposed to take an overnight trip to Mississippi tomorrow, but we're getting almost a quarter of an inch of ice accumulation in the morning, and 100% chance of heavy rain, with thunderstorms down there, and there just wasn't any good way out. When I heard the sleet/freezing rain, that was the end of working with that. There goes two days of pay and a bunch of free seafood, but so goes it.
The Cherries came up and spent a quick two days with us, and took Ann home with them. We had a big brunch, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit, the whole ball of wax. Mom and Ernie came up and spent several days with us too, and I think we all ate a little too well. Ham and potatoes and veggies and big brunches and chicken recipes and all. The cheesy broccoli chicken was better than the one we had the other night. All the left overs are nice, haven't had to cook or make fast food runs, but oh so much food!
The kids made Christmas cookies, Kaylee and Mom and I played Catopoly (Yes, Monopoly with cat stuff), we watched some movies, we hung out, we ran out for a little while and hit a store and Starbucks, we slept in, we opened presents twice, we ate too much, we had a peaceful, restful, happy Christmas.
The Cherry family left and took Ann with them to spend some time down in Tennessee, and we'll be heading down to pick her up sometime coming up. :) Kaylee had a sax practice yesterday and has another one tomorrow, then has a DI meeting in the evening. She's got stuff to do even though she's on Christmas Break.
Mom and Ernie were kept up all night by a poltergeist who was banging on their wall so hard it rattled the room. The next morning Ernie found that it was a gate outside banging right on the wall by their closet. Not too funny when it goes on all night.
I have some photos but can't get them up at the moment, so they will have to wait.
It was a good Christmas, and we are a blessed family.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Winter Solstice
I woke Kaylee up this morning by waving an open container of hot McDonald's pancakes under her nose. She woke up with a smile, which is unusual for my not-so-morning girl. :)
For some dumb reason, back when I scheduled my second and other "female visit" doctor appointment of the year, I made it for 8:30 a.m. My thought at the time was that after I got up to get Kaylee to school, I'd just stay up and go out there. Of course we're all on Christmas Vacation, so Nobody but ME had to get up at 7 a.m. this morning! That was just not wise. ;) It also went very quickly, and I got a bunch of blood work done, sugar, thyroid, cholesterol, etc. That reminds me, I need to find my online information so I can pull up my test results, which should be up by now. (This is a sort of handy feature of modern medicine). The nurse practitioner today asked me if they'd done blood work on me recently, and I said no, and she pulled up my records and said "Oh, you haven't been here since 2005. I guess not!" We were in the middle of this exam, and she had asked me several questions about my job, flying, etc., and she had already told me her dad was a pilot, and finally, at this point, she says "It's been about twenty years, my dad was with a friend in an airplane and they went down in a field by Muncie." I said "No way! Noel Buckner and Don McCann?" She said "Yes, you knew them?" I said I did, and she said she was Noel's daughter. I asked if she knew Steve and she did, and then she started laughing and said I should take a picture of Steve's face when I told him who was, well, she was more blunt, but I'll say "my nurse practitioner for the day". Because this isn't tense and awkward enough, so let's make sure it's somebody who I sort of know in a round-about way. ;)
They did my blood pressure there, and it was high again, only I think it's baloney, because I actually wasn't that stressed out when they took it, and she took it over my sweatshirt and t-shirt, and had it around my arm for a whole two seconds before ripping it off and proclaiming what it was. I hadn't eaten or drank anything for the blood work, and I KNOW when my blood pressure is low, I can feel it, and it was. I think the lady doing it just rushed and didn't care. Because it's still in the "normal" range I didn't put up a fuss, but it's still not the right way to go about it.
Kaylee spent yesterday cleaning the house, and she got the whole kitchen floor mopped better than it's been done the entire time we had a hired hand doing it. She pulled muscles in her abs and back doing it too, as she's sore today. We determined that was a sad testament to her physical fitness. ;) I helped her out on techniques for cleaning various things, and then I did my share of work too. I ended up with something like 6000 steps just from walking around the house.
Today she is working on her room, and I went food shopping. This took a couple trips to two different places to get what we wanted, and it took me a couple of hours total, but I ended up with things like biscuits and gravy supplies, Christmas dinner foods, snacks and snacks, brunch stuff, Christmas cookie supplies including two bags of red hots...I may have to run and get a few small things that I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of, but for now we are lookin' good for eats.
It's the Winter Solstice, the first official day of Winter, the shortest day of the year. It's Christmas and rainy with 50 degrees. Weird, but I'm not really complaining. It's dark outside at 5:20, and that I sort of am complaining about, but I am really glad that from now on the days will just start getting longer again. I can live with that. :)
For some dumb reason, back when I scheduled my second and other "female visit" doctor appointment of the year, I made it for 8:30 a.m. My thought at the time was that after I got up to get Kaylee to school, I'd just stay up and go out there. Of course we're all on Christmas Vacation, so Nobody but ME had to get up at 7 a.m. this morning! That was just not wise. ;) It also went very quickly, and I got a bunch of blood work done, sugar, thyroid, cholesterol, etc. That reminds me, I need to find my online information so I can pull up my test results, which should be up by now. (This is a sort of handy feature of modern medicine). The nurse practitioner today asked me if they'd done blood work on me recently, and I said no, and she pulled up my records and said "Oh, you haven't been here since 2005. I guess not!" We were in the middle of this exam, and she had asked me several questions about my job, flying, etc., and she had already told me her dad was a pilot, and finally, at this point, she says "It's been about twenty years, my dad was with a friend in an airplane and they went down in a field by Muncie." I said "No way! Noel Buckner and Don McCann?" She said "Yes, you knew them?" I said I did, and she said she was Noel's daughter. I asked if she knew Steve and she did, and then she started laughing and said I should take a picture of Steve's face when I told him who was, well, she was more blunt, but I'll say "my nurse practitioner for the day". Because this isn't tense and awkward enough, so let's make sure it's somebody who I sort of know in a round-about way. ;)
They did my blood pressure there, and it was high again, only I think it's baloney, because I actually wasn't that stressed out when they took it, and she took it over my sweatshirt and t-shirt, and had it around my arm for a whole two seconds before ripping it off and proclaiming what it was. I hadn't eaten or drank anything for the blood work, and I KNOW when my blood pressure is low, I can feel it, and it was. I think the lady doing it just rushed and didn't care. Because it's still in the "normal" range I didn't put up a fuss, but it's still not the right way to go about it.
Kaylee spent yesterday cleaning the house, and she got the whole kitchen floor mopped better than it's been done the entire time we had a hired hand doing it. She pulled muscles in her abs and back doing it too, as she's sore today. We determined that was a sad testament to her physical fitness. ;) I helped her out on techniques for cleaning various things, and then I did my share of work too. I ended up with something like 6000 steps just from walking around the house.
Today she is working on her room, and I went food shopping. This took a couple trips to two different places to get what we wanted, and it took me a couple of hours total, but I ended up with things like biscuits and gravy supplies, Christmas dinner foods, snacks and snacks, brunch stuff, Christmas cookie supplies including two bags of red hots...I may have to run and get a few small things that I wasn't sure if I'd have enough of, but for now we are lookin' good for eats.
It's the Winter Solstice, the first official day of Winter, the shortest day of the year. It's Christmas and rainy with 50 degrees. Weird, but I'm not really complaining. It's dark outside at 5:20, and that I sort of am complaining about, but I am really glad that from now on the days will just start getting longer again. I can live with that. :)
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Sunday
I have a parenting complaint. It's not a big thing in the scheme of life, but I'm the mom so it bothered me.
Kaylee had a Christmas party at a church youth group tonight. So we went shopping and she picked out a snow globe, a giant Hershey kiss and something else to put in a bag as an anonymous gift, as everyone was supposed to bring. This is a youth group where she is still fairly new and really only has one friend in the group so far, though she's gotten along fine. It was a White Elephant exchange, where you pick a gift and then someone can steal a gift, etc. One girl said she didn't know which one to get, so Kaylee's friend there, Em, asked Kaylee "What did you bring?" So Kaylee told her, and Em said to the girl, "Hey, take the gingerbread bag!" The girl picks up the bag, and Kaylee, like all of us, is anticipating someone thinking it's nice or neat. The girl looks in, throws the bag to the floor, and says "I don't WANT something to EAT. And I already have enough crap in my room!" The girl then steals Kaylee's blanket gift, as she can per the rules, and gives her the gift she had...which means Kaylee got her own gift back. Her friend saw what happened, so swapped out some fuzzy socks for the snow globe at least. It kind of hurt Kaylee's feelings, and it was such a poor display of maturity and plain old manners. It makes me mad. If nothing else, at least Kaylee knows why we never allowed her to display anything but gratitude for a gift she was given whether she wanted it or not. But this is a high school girl, not a 4-year-old, and she threw a temper tantrum after being given a gift in good faith. This is why I don't work with other people's kids, because if I was a leader at that youth group I don't think I could stop myself from turning that into a learning lesson for the little...darling. She could get her own gift back and leave after apologizing and listening to a lecture on gratitude, attitude, Godliness (since we ARE at CHURCH here), and manners. Maybe that's not very Christian of ME, either, but it sounds fair to me if she isn't repentant about her actions or attitude. She can go "grace" some other group with her lovely presence if she doesn't like being guided on how better to act when someone gives you something at Christmas. I told Kaylee things like this bother me more than they probably bother her, but one good thing is that her friend Em tried to make it right by helping swap out one of the gifts, and she loves the fuzzy socks. She did otherwise enjoy the three hours there, that just put a damper on it, as you can imagine. Like I said, I know it's not a big deal in the big picture. I just am a little protective there I guess. I'll let her go to Europe in a few months here, even with all the unrest, I let her climb to the top of the monkey bar structure when she was 18 months old, in dress shoes, I let her walk around in the winter without a coat if she says she's not cold (I was there once), I let her stay up too late even if I know she'll be tired sometimes, I'll let her skydive when she's 14 years old when you're supposed to be 18, and there are risks involved in everything; I'm not over-protective of much of anything...except other people's bad behavior toward her, apparently. I can't take that. It does make me grateful for her, though, that I know she would never act that way towards another kid, that she's not so selfish and self-centered and spoiled that she would do something like that. I would be SO much more disappointed if I found out my daughter was the one in question, that would be really painful, because honestly, by the time they're 15 years old, are you going to change them any more? Odds probably aren't great...
So anyway, that's my whine for the day. Sorry. ;)
Steve got up our Christmas lights outside, and repaired our dehumidifier, and I put up a few things inside the house, and Kaylee got all her gifts wrapped and looking good and under the tree. I washed bedding and basically we're going to try to get our act together in the next day or two. :)
I think we've all been thinking about Richard a lot lately. I wish he could be here with us for Christmas this year. He always really enjoyed being around all the family, and picking out gifts for the grandkids to choose from. He will be in our minds and hearts.
Kaylee had a Christmas party at a church youth group tonight. So we went shopping and she picked out a snow globe, a giant Hershey kiss and something else to put in a bag as an anonymous gift, as everyone was supposed to bring. This is a youth group where she is still fairly new and really only has one friend in the group so far, though she's gotten along fine. It was a White Elephant exchange, where you pick a gift and then someone can steal a gift, etc. One girl said she didn't know which one to get, so Kaylee's friend there, Em, asked Kaylee "What did you bring?" So Kaylee told her, and Em said to the girl, "Hey, take the gingerbread bag!" The girl picks up the bag, and Kaylee, like all of us, is anticipating someone thinking it's nice or neat. The girl looks in, throws the bag to the floor, and says "I don't WANT something to EAT. And I already have enough crap in my room!" The girl then steals Kaylee's blanket gift, as she can per the rules, and gives her the gift she had...which means Kaylee got her own gift back. Her friend saw what happened, so swapped out some fuzzy socks for the snow globe at least. It kind of hurt Kaylee's feelings, and it was such a poor display of maturity and plain old manners. It makes me mad. If nothing else, at least Kaylee knows why we never allowed her to display anything but gratitude for a gift she was given whether she wanted it or not. But this is a high school girl, not a 4-year-old, and she threw a temper tantrum after being given a gift in good faith. This is why I don't work with other people's kids, because if I was a leader at that youth group I don't think I could stop myself from turning that into a learning lesson for the little...darling. She could get her own gift back and leave after apologizing and listening to a lecture on gratitude, attitude, Godliness (since we ARE at CHURCH here), and manners. Maybe that's not very Christian of ME, either, but it sounds fair to me if she isn't repentant about her actions or attitude. She can go "grace" some other group with her lovely presence if she doesn't like being guided on how better to act when someone gives you something at Christmas. I told Kaylee things like this bother me more than they probably bother her, but one good thing is that her friend Em tried to make it right by helping swap out one of the gifts, and she loves the fuzzy socks. She did otherwise enjoy the three hours there, that just put a damper on it, as you can imagine. Like I said, I know it's not a big deal in the big picture. I just am a little protective there I guess. I'll let her go to Europe in a few months here, even with all the unrest, I let her climb to the top of the monkey bar structure when she was 18 months old, in dress shoes, I let her walk around in the winter without a coat if she says she's not cold (I was there once), I let her stay up too late even if I know she'll be tired sometimes, I'll let her skydive when she's 14 years old when you're supposed to be 18, and there are risks involved in everything; I'm not over-protective of much of anything...except other people's bad behavior toward her, apparently. I can't take that. It does make me grateful for her, though, that I know she would never act that way towards another kid, that she's not so selfish and self-centered and spoiled that she would do something like that. I would be SO much more disappointed if I found out my daughter was the one in question, that would be really painful, because honestly, by the time they're 15 years old, are you going to change them any more? Odds probably aren't great...
So anyway, that's my whine for the day. Sorry. ;)
Steve got up our Christmas lights outside, and repaired our dehumidifier, and I put up a few things inside the house, and Kaylee got all her gifts wrapped and looking good and under the tree. I washed bedding and basically we're going to try to get our act together in the next day or two. :)
I think we've all been thinking about Richard a lot lately. I wish he could be here with us for Christmas this year. He always really enjoyed being around all the family, and picking out gifts for the grandkids to choose from. He will be in our minds and hearts.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Saturday
It was 19 degrees out when I left the house this morning to do a Discovery Flight in the 172. It was also pretty windy, around 19 knots or so, which means it felt like, yes, about zero degrees. The sun was shining so there was that, but still, that's just not right. We did the Discovery Flight, and I went to put the 172 away by myself, and I almost couldn't get it pushed into the hangar. Either I need to gain weight back in order to have more mass to push better, or we need to look at the brakes in there as they may be sticking. I've never not been able to get an airplane put away before unless it was uphill and icy, and I pulled some muscles and had real difficulty getting it done. Maybe I just need to hit the weights.
Next up I had a primary student, and we did ground reference maneuvers and slips, and it was the perfect day for it because of the winds we had. We didn't stay up long because he doesn't like turbulence yet, but we got done what we needed to get done.
The rest of the day, Nathan and Steve worked on taking apart an engine on Gumby, and it's amazing how much work that is. I really would not enjoy being responsible for doing that. Well, not for putting one together in particular. I'd probably zone out and forget where I was and forget to connect things that are important to connect that you might not know are not connected until something happened.
I sat in the Cheyenne for awhile with the POH and went over a couple things. I've found that these days, instead of just reading front to back on something, I retain better when I do one system at a time first, then go back and over view. So Nathan explained part of the engine that I hadn't been able to find online yesterday, and I went over a couple other things, and I'll sit and chew on those for awhile before moving on. So far I've hit the gear system/emergency, engine out info, fuel/crossfeed system, and the pressurization system. Only 5000 things to go. ;)
We don't have all our Christmas presents, we don't have anyone to take care of the cats, we don't know what we're doing, and I don't feel very Christmassy yet even though it's only 5 days away. Christmas is kind of hard. Also, today is Dec. 19th, and in the month of December, so far 18 SMA kids that we know of have died. About one a day. Eighteen families who will have to go through Christmas freshly without their children. It's been a tough year, actually, with a huge amount of losses. But also the drug trials have started coming up with some amazing results for babies who get put on it asap. As in, Type 1 children who can stand on their own, which is unheard of. This is an experimental drug trial, so the families who are not on the trial are screaming to be given a chance at it, because...their children are going to die anyway, why not let them try too, regardless of the risk? But that's not how the FDA works, and it moves very slowly. Frustrating to many families, and the older the child gets and the more cells die, the less effective the treatment will be for them. I can't imagine how hard it would be to stare at your child getting weaker every day and know there was something out there that might help. You'd want to go on a rampage and steal some of that stuff or something. Anyway.
It's only 10:30 but I feel like going to bed. Might not be a bad plan. Tomorrow I'm planning on sleeping in and not doing much but house work and reading, thank you!
Next up I had a primary student, and we did ground reference maneuvers and slips, and it was the perfect day for it because of the winds we had. We didn't stay up long because he doesn't like turbulence yet, but we got done what we needed to get done.
The rest of the day, Nathan and Steve worked on taking apart an engine on Gumby, and it's amazing how much work that is. I really would not enjoy being responsible for doing that. Well, not for putting one together in particular. I'd probably zone out and forget where I was and forget to connect things that are important to connect that you might not know are not connected until something happened.
I sat in the Cheyenne for awhile with the POH and went over a couple things. I've found that these days, instead of just reading front to back on something, I retain better when I do one system at a time first, then go back and over view. So Nathan explained part of the engine that I hadn't been able to find online yesterday, and I went over a couple other things, and I'll sit and chew on those for awhile before moving on. So far I've hit the gear system/emergency, engine out info, fuel/crossfeed system, and the pressurization system. Only 5000 things to go. ;)
We don't have all our Christmas presents, we don't have anyone to take care of the cats, we don't know what we're doing, and I don't feel very Christmassy yet even though it's only 5 days away. Christmas is kind of hard. Also, today is Dec. 19th, and in the month of December, so far 18 SMA kids that we know of have died. About one a day. Eighteen families who will have to go through Christmas freshly without their children. It's been a tough year, actually, with a huge amount of losses. But also the drug trials have started coming up with some amazing results for babies who get put on it asap. As in, Type 1 children who can stand on their own, which is unheard of. This is an experimental drug trial, so the families who are not on the trial are screaming to be given a chance at it, because...their children are going to die anyway, why not let them try too, regardless of the risk? But that's not how the FDA works, and it moves very slowly. Frustrating to many families, and the older the child gets and the more cells die, the less effective the treatment will be for them. I can't imagine how hard it would be to stare at your child getting weaker every day and know there was something out there that might help. You'd want to go on a rampage and steal some of that stuff or something. Anyway.
It's only 10:30 but I feel like going to bed. Might not be a bad plan. Tomorrow I'm planning on sleeping in and not doing much but house work and reading, thank you!
Friday, December 18, 2015
Vitamin A(ltitude)
Poor Kaylee was up until around 1:45 in the morning doing work for her Biology class. She had to look up and hand write out into a notebook 300 biology terms and their definitions. She had to be back up at 6:20 a.m. They are in Finals Week. She had three finals today on top of having to do that. I thought that was rather mean. But when I picked her up today, she was excited to inform me that she got an A+ on her Biology final, an A on her choir final, and she was mad that it wasn't an A+, an A+ on her Geometry final, and she's not sure what she got yet in English or Health. Oh and Band was an A+ as well. An A+ in her school is 98% and above. She is striving to get all A+s on her report card, not just As, but that probably won't happen. The All As she has, though, and has had all year. You go girl. Proud of the hard work she is putting in even with the other stuff she has to do.
I stayed up with her last night in solidarity and support, and it always takes me awhile to fall asleep, so it was probably 2:30 or so before I finally conked out. After I got up at 6:20 to make sure she was up for school, I went back to sleep, and I was out solid until past 9:30. When I finally got around to looking at my phone, around 10, there was a text from Nathan that he was going to get the Cheyenne and did we want to go. Steve was working, and couldn't, and I asked "when you leaving", and he said 10-20 minutes. I threw on pants, a shirt, ran a comb through my hair, grabbed my keys and ran out the door, put some sort of makeup on in the car at stop lights on the way there, and pulled up at the airport 20 minutes later. I had just gotten there when the airplane that was going to take us to Aurora taxiied in. You couldn't plan that timing better if you tried. :)
We went over in a turbocharged C-210. It had a pretty fancy pants panel. The winds today were pretty brisk though, and heading west at 8000' to stay out of the light icing in the clouds, we were doing about 125 knots groundspeed in the thing, which is rather slow. The Cheyenne was in the hangar (thankfully not out on the ramp with the 30 knot winds and the 30 degree temps), and she's looking so purty! The interior looks like new...so nobody better pick their nose back there or anything. ;) The new blades are really sharp. They're curved, five blades, black with some silver, and when the sun hits them just right from behind, you get a double prop arc with the lightning bolt action. Pretty cool.
First they went up and did a test flight. I didn't have a headset back there, but we climbed up a ways, Nathan set it up and did a stall series, clean and dirty, I think to verify the stick shaker was working and everything was set up properly. I was a little surprised to find it stalling clean at right around 100 knots. Dirty it buffeted at 90 and broke left and stalled at 87-88 knots. That's higher than I expected, higher than the airspeed indicator says it should, but I looked it up in the POH when I got home, and that's only a few knots faster than the book numbers.
Landed after the test flight, Nathan took care of the painful part of the process (paying your bill), and then we went on home to Kokomo. We were getting almost three times the ground speed on the way home that we did on the way out. Gotta like that. ;) We went up to 19,000' and cruised home. It was nice and smooth above the cloud deck (not smooth at all below it), The winds back at Kokomo were a 50 degree crosswind gusting to 29 when we landed. Normally that's not really all that interesting, frankly, but I have to admit, it felt a little hurtly to me in there, and I wasn't the one flying. lol
The winds were so cutting with the cold temps that by the time I got in my car to go get lunch, my ears were burning and my face was numb. I turn on the radio and the song that is playing comes out right away with the line "I can't feel my face", and I laughed, and said "Hey, me neither!"
I picked up Kaylee at the bus stop after having a light lunch that included cheesecake (Oh MAN it was good but it is also going to have to pretty much count as dinner too), and we get home, pull in the driveway, and she gets a look of horror on her face. She'd left her saxophone on the bus. I had run another girl home from the bus stop before we went home already, so we were later than we would have been, too. This is a BIG problem. She has a quartet she has to practice for, and an official practice with a coach and the three other participants, and school is closed as of today for Christmas break. If we didn't get that sax back asap, she had a real problem. So I drive like I'm not on probation back to the school, wondering what time the office closes on a Friday before 2 week Christmas break since it was already an hour after school had let out, pull up to the bus in the back parking lot first just to see if she could get in in case he left it there, which I figured he wouldn't do...and the driver was still with the bus. We pulled up right when he was getting ready to leave. Again with the perfect timing today. She got her sax, we went home for real, and all was safe.
I tried to walk a few of the cheesecake calories off, so I hit the treadmill when I got home. After all, if one hasn't showered yet anyway, what difference does it make if one exercises too? ;) Now that the Cheyenne is back for sure, it probably won't be too long until we do our insurance check-out in it, so I grabbed the copy of the POH I have, set it up on the treadmill, had my iPad to the right in case I needed different entertainment, had my Starbucks coffee I'd gotten with Kaylee in the cup holder, had my phone with my ear buds in playing jamming tunes, and went to walking and reading at the same time. I think I actually process better that way, because a few things stuck better than they had before. Huh. But still, it really is a ton of information, and some of it is just very new to me. I started with the engines. I know what a Continental TSIO-520 is, for example. I know what the letters and numbers mean, and it makes sense. A Garrett TPE 331-14A, though? I know what Garrett is, but past that, you lost me. So, I figure, that doesn't really matter, it just IS, it's a 14A. 1000 hp. Cool, knew that, got that. Two-stage centrifugal compressor stage and type. Um. Three-stage axial flow turbine stage and type. Crap. Annular Combustion chamber type. I have no freaking clue what we're talking about here. And I'm on page 1. Do I need to know this? The devil and the angel popped on my shoulders. The devil says "Who cares. You don't need to know that to fly the airplane." The angel says "Yo, girlfriend, hit Google and figure it out. Learn something. It's good for you to understand. It weakens you as a pilot to not know your machine well." I figure since the devil already won that whole cheesecake exchange earlier, I'd better listen to the angel this time. Homework isn't just for 9th graders...
I stayed up with her last night in solidarity and support, and it always takes me awhile to fall asleep, so it was probably 2:30 or so before I finally conked out. After I got up at 6:20 to make sure she was up for school, I went back to sleep, and I was out solid until past 9:30. When I finally got around to looking at my phone, around 10, there was a text from Nathan that he was going to get the Cheyenne and did we want to go. Steve was working, and couldn't, and I asked "when you leaving", and he said 10-20 minutes. I threw on pants, a shirt, ran a comb through my hair, grabbed my keys and ran out the door, put some sort of makeup on in the car at stop lights on the way there, and pulled up at the airport 20 minutes later. I had just gotten there when the airplane that was going to take us to Aurora taxiied in. You couldn't plan that timing better if you tried. :)
We went over in a turbocharged C-210. It had a pretty fancy pants panel. The winds today were pretty brisk though, and heading west at 8000' to stay out of the light icing in the clouds, we were doing about 125 knots groundspeed in the thing, which is rather slow. The Cheyenne was in the hangar (thankfully not out on the ramp with the 30 knot winds and the 30 degree temps), and she's looking so purty! The interior looks like new...so nobody better pick their nose back there or anything. ;) The new blades are really sharp. They're curved, five blades, black with some silver, and when the sun hits them just right from behind, you get a double prop arc with the lightning bolt action. Pretty cool.
First they went up and did a test flight. I didn't have a headset back there, but we climbed up a ways, Nathan set it up and did a stall series, clean and dirty, I think to verify the stick shaker was working and everything was set up properly. I was a little surprised to find it stalling clean at right around 100 knots. Dirty it buffeted at 90 and broke left and stalled at 87-88 knots. That's higher than I expected, higher than the airspeed indicator says it should, but I looked it up in the POH when I got home, and that's only a few knots faster than the book numbers.
Landed after the test flight, Nathan took care of the painful part of the process (paying your bill), and then we went on home to Kokomo. We were getting almost three times the ground speed on the way home that we did on the way out. Gotta like that. ;) We went up to 19,000' and cruised home. It was nice and smooth above the cloud deck (not smooth at all below it), The winds back at Kokomo were a 50 degree crosswind gusting to 29 when we landed. Normally that's not really all that interesting, frankly, but I have to admit, it felt a little hurtly to me in there, and I wasn't the one flying. lol
The winds were so cutting with the cold temps that by the time I got in my car to go get lunch, my ears were burning and my face was numb. I turn on the radio and the song that is playing comes out right away with the line "I can't feel my face", and I laughed, and said "Hey, me neither!"
I picked up Kaylee at the bus stop after having a light lunch that included cheesecake (Oh MAN it was good but it is also going to have to pretty much count as dinner too), and we get home, pull in the driveway, and she gets a look of horror on her face. She'd left her saxophone on the bus. I had run another girl home from the bus stop before we went home already, so we were later than we would have been, too. This is a BIG problem. She has a quartet she has to practice for, and an official practice with a coach and the three other participants, and school is closed as of today for Christmas break. If we didn't get that sax back asap, she had a real problem. So I drive like I'm not on probation back to the school, wondering what time the office closes on a Friday before 2 week Christmas break since it was already an hour after school had let out, pull up to the bus in the back parking lot first just to see if she could get in in case he left it there, which I figured he wouldn't do...and the driver was still with the bus. We pulled up right when he was getting ready to leave. Again with the perfect timing today. She got her sax, we went home for real, and all was safe.
I tried to walk a few of the cheesecake calories off, so I hit the treadmill when I got home. After all, if one hasn't showered yet anyway, what difference does it make if one exercises too? ;) Now that the Cheyenne is back for sure, it probably won't be too long until we do our insurance check-out in it, so I grabbed the copy of the POH I have, set it up on the treadmill, had my iPad to the right in case I needed different entertainment, had my Starbucks coffee I'd gotten with Kaylee in the cup holder, had my phone with my ear buds in playing jamming tunes, and went to walking and reading at the same time. I think I actually process better that way, because a few things stuck better than they had before. Huh. But still, it really is a ton of information, and some of it is just very new to me. I started with the engines. I know what a Continental TSIO-520 is, for example. I know what the letters and numbers mean, and it makes sense. A Garrett TPE 331-14A, though? I know what Garrett is, but past that, you lost me. So, I figure, that doesn't really matter, it just IS, it's a 14A. 1000 hp. Cool, knew that, got that. Two-stage centrifugal compressor stage and type. Um. Three-stage axial flow turbine stage and type. Crap. Annular Combustion chamber type. I have no freaking clue what we're talking about here. And I'm on page 1. Do I need to know this? The devil and the angel popped on my shoulders. The devil says "Who cares. You don't need to know that to fly the airplane." The angel says "Yo, girlfriend, hit Google and figure it out. Learn something. It's good for you to understand. It weakens you as a pilot to not know your machine well." I figure since the devil already won that whole cheesecake exchange earlier, I'd better listen to the angel this time. Homework isn't just for 9th graders...
Our C-210 ride to Aurora, the panel on it.
Broken clouds, with a little ice.
We had a nice rainbow circle following us.
My first pic of the Cheyenne's new props, in the hangar at ARR
Interior, clean and shiny as new!
Winging our way home at FL190, warm and smooth.
Approach on Runway 23. Neither warm nor smooth down here.
Head on of the new props.
My set-up on the treadmill. Coffee to the left, POH on the stand, iPad to the right, phone with tunes in my ears. Works for me. ;)
On our Christmas tree it looks like these two planes are dog fighting. Of course they are! ;)
And before I went to bed tonight, I was reading the POH, and bumped into a lit jar candle, which went flying off the end table and splattered bright red wax all over our white-ish carpet. "Put a paper towel or rag over the wax and use a hot iron to melt it into the cloth" said the internet. I tried that, and it actually worked pretty well, though there is still a faint hint of pink in some places. Except I left the iron on too long in one big spot, and scorched the carpet. "Use peroxide and water on the scorch marks to help them go away" said the internet to that problem. It did help a little, but not enough. So now I have light pink marks and a big scorch mark on our white-ish carpet, too far in to be covered by the extra rug we have by the front door and too close to that to be able to put a rug down on top of it without being weird. We can't replace the carpet in here even if we could afford it, and if you've seen the furniture we have in here you'd know why that would be a terrible undertaking. I am really bummed...
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Monument
Winter blahs, grey days, cutting winds, as Dean Koontz said in a recent book I just finished, "the sky was a grim vault of sorrow". Poetic, melodramatic, but you have to admit, fitting!
I also got a Facebook "memory" notification today, showing me a photo I put up 4 years ago today, and even though it was just another photo of the sky outside the window of the 340, looking down the wing, I recognized it immediately. It was a photo I took while I was on top of a layer of clouds, on my very first official trip in the 340, I had a whopping 3-4 hours total time flying the plane, the conditions where I was going were gentleman's IFR but I was told while in the air that my destination's relatively narrow and short runway was reporting thick ice, braking action of poor, and a strong cross wind, all of which concerned me, and I had a back-up airport in mind in case. I had two passengers on board, one sleeping soundly in the back and one asking me a million questions in the front, and I was heading to Boyne Mountain, Michigan. I snapped that photo about 20 minutes before I descended into unforecast moderate to severe icing, had a mechanical failure that didn't allow my boots to fully retract and thus extend properly, and had much difficulty getting back out of it. I ended up having to land on the other side of the state, in an emergency I didn't declare, but ATC and I know both knew was. When I posted the picture on Facebook, all I said was "Heading to Boyne Mountain". When it popped up in my feed today, I thought it was sort of interesting that this flight had come up a few times recently, and interesting because I hadn't realized it happened on the anniversary of the first official powered flight. It certainly is a 'memory', thanks, Facebook! ;)
Today is the 112th Anniversary of Wilbur and Orville Wright's first flight. December 17, 1903, they left the ground in a powered airplane for the first time, 20' high and for 12 seconds. They didn't stop there, of course, their record being 59 seconds that day. Those quick flights have morphed into the cause of much joy, wonder, heartache and addiction in the hearts and lives of those who have sought the skies ever since!
I also got a Facebook "memory" notification today, showing me a photo I put up 4 years ago today, and even though it was just another photo of the sky outside the window of the 340, looking down the wing, I recognized it immediately. It was a photo I took while I was on top of a layer of clouds, on my very first official trip in the 340, I had a whopping 3-4 hours total time flying the plane, the conditions where I was going were gentleman's IFR but I was told while in the air that my destination's relatively narrow and short runway was reporting thick ice, braking action of poor, and a strong cross wind, all of which concerned me, and I had a back-up airport in mind in case. I had two passengers on board, one sleeping soundly in the back and one asking me a million questions in the front, and I was heading to Boyne Mountain, Michigan. I snapped that photo about 20 minutes before I descended into unforecast moderate to severe icing, had a mechanical failure that didn't allow my boots to fully retract and thus extend properly, and had much difficulty getting back out of it. I ended up having to land on the other side of the state, in an emergency I didn't declare, but ATC and I know both knew was. When I posted the picture on Facebook, all I said was "Heading to Boyne Mountain". When it popped up in my feed today, I thought it was sort of interesting that this flight had come up a few times recently, and interesting because I hadn't realized it happened on the anniversary of the first official powered flight. It certainly is a 'memory', thanks, Facebook! ;)
I've been doing well with my exercise and food again, working to get back to a good state of mind on health issues. The first steps towards the commitment are always the toughest.
Speaking of health issues, today was my appointment for my first ever mammogram. It went really fast, didn't take long at all, other than the 4 pages of paperwork I had to fill out with information they mostly already had on their computer. Why do you have to write your name, address, etc. four times? Anyway. The lady who took the images said I was a natural at this, that you couldn't tell it was my first time. This confused me. You stand there, they do their thing, you pretend like you are somebody else somewhere else until they are done, and then you go home and have ice cream (in a small portion) to console yourself. I'm not sure what people who are bad at this do. Jump up and down? As if you have the room for that. :D They are the proud operators of a "MammoPad". Apparently most machines don't have a soft pink foam thingy on the part of the machine where you rest your business, but they do and it keeps things warmer and more comfy. Not knowing the difference, I do thank them for that piece of niceness. Somehow or other it came up and I mentioned that I don't have a family history of breast cancer. She said "This will probably surprise you, but I diagnose a lot more people who have no family history than I do people who do have family history, and the first thing out of their mouth is "But I don't have any family history". It's actually very common for breast cancer to occur in people with no history." Okay, well, thanks for the pep talk! ;) During the procedure, she said that I have "dense" tissue and she took two extra films in order to make sure she got all the angles and tissue she could. At the end, she told me that the guy who reads the films comes in on Mondays. If all is well, I'll get a letter in the mail. Then she said "If they see anything or need you to come back in for additional testing, I'll call you. But it's so close to Christmas, I'll probably just wait until afterwards." I looked at her as seriously and firmly as I could, and said "No, don't wait, I am not a person who panics, you won't ruin my Christmas with it, and I wouldn't want to wait several more weeks to be notified or to come in and get additional scans or whatever was recommended." The way she was talking it was almost like she expected to have to call me, she kept attempting to prepare me for that once she started the scans. I wouldn't be worried anyway, yet. I do know it's common to have to come back in for more tests, the majority of which is nothing, and I'm just not a person who is going to freak out over it. I joked earlier that today was not only National First Flight Day, it was also National Loss of Laura's Dignity Day. Fortunately for you, there will NOT be an applicable photo at the end of this paragraph. ;)
Monday, December 14, 2015
Kaylee
Kaylee had a persuasive speech due today, three minutes long on why minors who commit heinous crimes should be tried as adults. She said it went very well. I also learned she does speeches like I do: she writes them out like a paper. I always do that too. Her teacher said not to do that, to just do bullet notes on ideas or main points you want to cover, then just talk. But I write mine out like a paper, because I write like I think, and once I write it out, I may not go word for word, but at least I know exactly what I want to say, and I probably have several specific phrases in there I want to use that I come up with. That's what I did for my 20-25 minute Purdue talk too. I just work better that way, just like I work better without a rough draft on a research paper. I edit while I write, so my final paper was usually the first one I started with, or very close. She's the same way there too. So we have to pretend and fake up a badly written paper to turn in as a rough draft when we've already written the final one. Yep.
Tonight was the Christmas band concert. It'll probably be Kaylee's last band concert as she's not taking band next year. She still has ISSMA to do, her band quartet, and then unless there's another concert in the Spring before school is out, she'll be done with the saxophone, most likely. It's too bad, because she's good at it. But...it's not her thing. So be it.
There were red lights pointing down on them, so there was some odd lighting going on, but it worked out okay this time. She looked good, they sounded good.
Tonight was the Christmas band concert. It'll probably be Kaylee's last band concert as she's not taking band next year. She still has ISSMA to do, her band quartet, and then unless there's another concert in the Spring before school is out, she'll be done with the saxophone, most likely. It's too bad, because she's good at it. But...it's not her thing. So be it.
There were red lights pointing down on them, so there was some odd lighting going on, but it worked out okay this time. She looked good, they sounded good.
Most of the band, Kaylee in the middle.
Me stalking Kaylee stalking her friend on stage in the orchestra.
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...
Weekend Update
I lost Saturday to a headache. I woke up at 4 a.m. with it, and couldn't go Christmas tree shopping with Steve, Kaylee and Ann. They went to our usual place outside of town, where Kaylee picked out the perfect tree, and then they went to Omeletti's, a nearby restaurant for hot chocolate and breakfast foods. That's a fun tradition and I'm mad I missed it. I took some medicine that Cathy had left me many, many months ago to try just in case, and this was the time. It did kick the headache within the hour, but left me with painful, achy joints, feeling like I had the flu, and total brain fog. I had to sleep that off too, and finally around 6 pm I was mostly myself again. I hadn't eaten all day, so I was shaky and wobbly, but at least human again. I missed our airport Christmas party because of it too, and a flight I was supposed to make in the afternoon. That's the first time I've lost a whole day in...gosh, forever. That's good that it's been so long, bad that it happened at all.
Sunday we had to do the flights we didn't do yesterday, so I went out to Glenndale and flew the Champ with someone for their first ever flight lesson. The winds had kicked up over 20 knots, so it was a little breezy for that, but it was mostly down the runway, and we weren't doing takeoffs and landings anyway, so that was good. We were able to hover by pointing into the wind, and go sideways doing slow flight. The winds aloft were very strong, had to be over 30 knots based on how we were getting shoved over the ground and our airspeed at the time.
Later Steve brought our newly chopped down tree inside, and Kaylee and I decorated it. She wanted to go minimalist this year. Airplanes, angels, and colored balls only. So we did that. We still need to decorate inside the house, but the tree is done. :)
I have no flights for tomorrow, which is probably good since the winds are supposed to be up over 40 mph. That's no fun. Or too much fun. Or something.
Sunday we had to do the flights we didn't do yesterday, so I went out to Glenndale and flew the Champ with someone for their first ever flight lesson. The winds had kicked up over 20 knots, so it was a little breezy for that, but it was mostly down the runway, and we weren't doing takeoffs and landings anyway, so that was good. We were able to hover by pointing into the wind, and go sideways doing slow flight. The winds aloft were very strong, had to be over 30 knots based on how we were getting shoved over the ground and our airspeed at the time.
Later Steve brought our newly chopped down tree inside, and Kaylee and I decorated it. She wanted to go minimalist this year. Airplanes, angels, and colored balls only. So we did that. We still need to decorate inside the house, but the tree is done. :)
I have no flights for tomorrow, which is probably good since the winds are supposed to be up over 40 mph. That's no fun. Or too much fun. Or something.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Pics
Kaylee had a Christmas party tonight, a secret santa exchange, at a friend's house. She had a great time, and when I got there to pick her up, she told me to come in. Normally at this time of night I'm in glasses and yoga pants, but this time I was still dressed, so I went in. The mom had created beautiful, perfect cookies and desserts, cookies that looked like colored Christmas lights, rice crispy treats in the shapes of wreathes with red berries placed just so, christmas tree brownies frosted in green icing and decorated, homemade hot chocolate with milk in cups with peppermint marshmallows to put on top, ice cream toppings in individual glass cups, about a dozen such things, and each of them were labeled on little mini chalkboards with perfect white writing. Kaylee was impressed. Me too. It was a living beautiful Pinterest arrangement. They seemed super nice, too.
I was invited to go formation flying tomorrow, which I can't do because we're going Christmas tree shopping in the morning, followed by a lesson in the Champ, followed by a Christmas party. But I think the weather around here is going to stink anyway, which makes me feel better about the whole thing. Besides, I didn't have a formation flight all year, why do just one now, right? :)
Here are a few photos from the Christmas program. I've had the most trouble getting photos at programs lately. I had to go in and adjust the brightness on every photo, no matter what I did with the settings, and many were just no good, blown-out. But I did get some, anyway. :)
Two teachers who were angels for the program.
The Starlets (Kaylee is far right second row from bottom)
During the Nativity Scene, ole Frosty sat in the far left stage...
And Santa sat far right stage. We are now "Compliant".
The Star the Shepherds followed
Most of the Nativity Scene (there were more wise men but I couldn't get them in frame with my lens)
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