Michigan

This morning I had to get up at 6 am, the earliest I've been up in weeks.  It wasn't too much fun, but it wasn't a bad flight to Michigan, just a little rain.

It was a self-serve only fuel pump again, so I topped off the plane, moved it to a parking spot, and went inside.  I was lying down on the couch in another room when I heard the following conversation:

"What is that? A Navajo?" "No, it's a Cessna of some sort." "Who flew it here?" "That girl out there, and a guy who left." "She didn't fly it though right?" "I don't think so, but she topped it off so she knows where the gas cap is. And the starter, because she moved it over to parking." "Really?? Huh."

Hahahaha!

Unfortunately the pressurization up to altitude today messed with my sinuses and head, and it's really bothering me tonight.  I'm concerned about the flight tomorrow and about my head getting worse.  Last time I was in Vegas I had a sinus infection and that's what it still feels like.  It's miserable and making me sick to my stomach too.  *sigh*  This has to go away...

Pictures from this morning.

Rain on the ground at Kokomo, ready to go.

Breaking out on top, a little extra Vitamin D.

Grasshopper

I actually felt a little worse today than I did yesterday, but it was 60 degrees and sunny and beautiful, and the L-2 (which is called a Grasshopper by the way) was done with its annual, and tomorrow I will be gone all day to Michigan for MBros, and after that we leave for Vegas until Sunday, and I wanted to fly that L-2 and this seemed likely a last good chance to do it.

First, I'm not supposed to fly the L-2, because the CAF took it off line, basically.  This time I decided to get yelled at after the fact rather than be told no and never get to do it.  It's just an L-2, but I had to fly with a guy and get checked out in one sort of like it, in Iowa, and go through paperwork and red tape and all sorts of stuff, and then never, ever, not once, have I gotten to fly ours, and then they got rid of it so once it leaves here, I never will again.  So, with the full knowledge that should I wreck it I would be in some trouble, I did it anyway.  Flew it, not wrecked it.   It was a post-annual test flight.  I got an email afterwards saying I shouldn't have flown it and can't fly it any more.  Oh.  Dear.  My bad.

I didn't know how much fuel it held, but it looked like it said 6 gallons per side and one side was down to about 1/3 (2 gallons) and the other about 1/2.  That seemed like not much gas so I topped it off so I didn't have to worry about it.  I didn't know what speed to use for anything, but the nice thing is that it doesn't matter in there.  It was a little windy, but not far off the runway.  It wasn't like the one I checked out in, which had more horsepower and smoother controls. So this felt a little different.  I took off, messed with some turns to get a feel for the rudder, did a few stalls, flew over Kaylee's school as everyone was driving away (except her), then came in and did some takeoffs and landings.  Three points, wheel, one-wheel.  I'm now legally tailwheel current again, and it was great.  But my head was hurting and getting thick, and I was feeling worse all over, so I landed.  I had Jon help me hand prop it and he helped me put it away, too, and helpers are much appreciated when one is not feeling one's strongest.

Afterwards I had to come home, and I laid down for a little while, had some Aleve, a little food, tried to recuperate, and finally felt better by late evening.  Which is good, as I have to be wheels-up at 7:30 am tomorrow.  That's going to hurt. I'll have another pilot on board for that one.

Kaylee has a genetics field trip tomorrow for AP Biology.  Steve has a stye in his eye, and it keeps gooping up and swelling up and bothering him.  I have the stupid Patty and Laura Lung Hack Cough we get that won't go away.  I'm hoping the trip to Vegas will dry me out like it did last time I had this cough and went west.  I detest coughing.

Photos from today, my one venture out before I ran out of energy.

From inside the hangar

View from the front seat

View from the front seat while turning somewhat steeply. ;)

View from backwards from the front seat. I like all the windows, and mine was wide open. :)

Outside in the sunshine view

Back in the hangar and looking like a WWII airplane in that light.

Drift

I made it outside today!  It took all day and I coughed my head off, but I got to go fly for the first time in 11 days.  It was SO beautiful out.  My guy couldn't quite get to first solo, but he's close.  Hopefully next week. 

Steve stayed home to recuperate.  Kaylee had  musical practice, came home, changed clothes, turned around and went back to school for critique night, came home at 8:30, started in on homework. 

We had a couple of people cause a problem at our airport last week while I was gone/sick.  Apparently two women (I deleted the word 'ladies') showed up at the FBO, with a credit card and an insistence that they be flown somewhere.  The not-so-smart guy at the counter didn't know what to do with them so he sent them to the aircraft sales place (what?!).  The owner there was like "I don't do that!"  So then they started driving around back by the hangars, walking around in the hangars, getting belligerent.  When the airport manager asked them to leave, they got defiant and refused, so he called the police.  When the police arrived, the women got belligerent with them, too, and they were arrested and removed.  Since then, the airport manager has insisted on following the federal guidelines we've all been ignoring for a long time, and insisting that the airport gate be shut at all times with access only to people who have a gate card.  1) There are still two walk-through gates that are never locked, ever, for people to access the hangars, they just can't drive through.  and 2) That's a huuuge hassle for our club members, workers, visitors, warbird customers, for events, etc.  So Steve talked to him some, and he may be willing to change out the security system to one with a keypad where you could plug in a code as opposed to handing out individual cards, or they may have to give us a bunch more cards for club members, or something, but what a hassle.  It always just takes one (or two) idiot(s) to ruin a good thing.

Well, at least this afternoon I sat in the right seat of the plane, coughing, with my eyes closed (except on landing ;)), soaking up the bright sun, in a t-shirt, and felt a knot somewhere inside unwind just a little.

Weekend Update

I am SO glad the Olympics are over.  The television world has decided for me that I need to watch nothing but Olympics the entire time I've been sick and then some.  Not one other single show was on this whole time.  I'm stir crazy, and good and ready for something else to do, to not be sick, to be flying again, to have good shows to watch.  I'm getting TWITCHY.

The sun was shining today, so I went to get some food.  It was my first real excursion out, and I wasn't really quite ready for it, but I had to get out of the house, too.  It wiped me out, but the fresh air was nice.

Tomorrow I have a student going on a solo cross country, and then in the afternoon I am going to try to fly with one for just an hour.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.  He needs to go, bad, he doesn't want to go with a back-up instructor, and I want to go too.  If I can.  The rest of the day I'm scheduled off to rest still.

Kaylee had a performance at a local church this morning, for Encore.  Afterwards she went to Hacienda and then hung out with a couple friends.  She's doing fine.

Steve has a stye on his eye, and is still sick, sicker than I am at the moment, but we're both feeling better than we did in days past.

The T-6 is in annual.  The L-2 is in annual.  The PT-26 is about to go in for annual.  We're winding up to be able to actually go do some stuff.  Looking forward to it!

Update

Kaylee had a busy Friday.  It ended with a party Friday night at a church in town.  She drove there, and then her car wouldn't start, so I had to go out and get her.  She and Steve got the car back home today.  It has some kind of wiring glitch likely related to the remote start.  It's always something, huh?

The biggest irony about it is that after she drove to the party, she texted that she didn't want to drive home.  She'd had someone pull in front of her and almost hit her at a four-way stop.  She was shaken by that, and then used that she was tired as an excuse.  I told her that the guy who almost hit her, didn't.  That she didn't do anything wrong, and that people were going to make mistakes, including her, and that it was all part of learning.  That you can't not drive just because you're a little freaked out, and I told her that we are sick, which doesn't exactly make us safe drivers, besides, we feel awful, and that she needs to suck it up and drive home.  She tried "What if I get in an accident because I'm tired?" and I said "You will be nervous and alert for the whole 4 minute drive home, and feel free to put on the air conditioning as needed."  She said "Mooooom."  I again tell her that this is just something she's going to have to deal with.  Over and out.  The next text is "My car won't start."  I burst out laughing.  She wasn't lying, of course, it really wouldn't start.  So I had to go get her anyway, very sick.   We also made her go to the ortho alone.  You've been kicked out of the nest, baby bird, we'll be there if you REALLY need us, but it's time to grow those wings.  ;)

(Yes, I'm still sick, Steve too. I may be on the other side of the curve at least though, as my head is more clear fog-wise.  Just not my lungs or sinuses.)

Independence

Okay, Kaylee.  She had an orthodontic appointment today at 2 pm.  She didn't want to go by herself, but we told her she'd be fine.  We're both really sick and down today, hard.  So we have to call the school to let her out, and then she can drive there herself, check in and do the appointment, and drive back to school for her musical practice.  She didn't know how to get to the ortho, and followed Steve's directions (and had the address plugged into her phone I'd bet), and thought she was lost once, but she wasn't. She said her friends don't go to these appointments without a parent.  I told her that she often thanked us for not being as controlling as some of her friends' parents, and that her parents were 1) sick and 2) trusted that she could drive there, let them pick her teeth, and drive back to school without us.  Then I said something like "Welcome to independence, adulthood, and the responsibilities therein."  ;) 

She hasn't made it home yet from musical practice, but she's probably not going to be super peppy because she had to get up early, drive to school, leave to drive 40 min roundtrip for an ortho appointment, go back to school for musical practice, get home whenever, she has rubber bands on her teeth now which do NOT make her happy, her teeth will probably start hurting soon, and she'll have homework to do whenever she does get here.  Long day for a kid still recovering herself.

I was in pretty bad shape most of today.  My head feels like a balloon blown up three times its size and packed with lead. I rattle when I breathe out hard enough.  Drugs are required for survival.  Steve is down but not quite this bad yet.  Kaylee was back on her feet in three days.  I'm going on day what, four?  Hopefully that means I'll be on the upswing now.

At least it's been raining a lot so I'm not missing out on a ton of students.

Up, Meh and Down

Kaylee's back at school, and other than a blocked up head, is doing okay.  I am fever-free so far today, but coughing up a lung and now my lung wheezes when I breathe out very hard.  That's potentially not good, so I'm keeping an eye on my temp.  Hopefully it's just mucus or something.  But I've coughed enough that I'm really sore on my abs, stomach, sides, even my back.  Good exercise?  Steve started not feeling well this morning.  Not many symptoms yet other than starting to cough a bit, but I suppose it's a foregone conclusion now. 

I watched a movie called "Hateful Eight" yesterday.  It was slow and long and dark and depressing and cheesy in parts, pure Quentin T.  About an hour and 30 minutes into it, I looked it up to see how long it was, and when it said it was over 3 hours long, the only reason I finished it was because I wanted to know how it ended.  I feel like I lost 3 hours of my life I won't get back, and gained nothing positive.  So today while Steve is taking a rest, I pull up "Up" to watch.  I'd never seen it, so I figured what the heck.  The silly little Disney movie is sweet, uplifting, positive, funny, and has actual decent moral and good character involved.  You come away with a little tear in your eye, a smile, feeling good.  Even though being sick makes me sentimental (or angry), I think the world needs a lot more "Up" and a lot less "Hateful Eight" in their lives.  Just sayin'.

Down and Up

Kaylee's up, almost 24 hours fever-free now, and I'm down.  My fever got to about 101.8 last night, and up over 102.3 today.  I didn't take anything until I wanted to go to bed, and I slept pretty well. I slept in the guestroom so as to not infect Steve if at all possible. Today I didn't take anything until it surpassed 102; trying to let the fever do its job.  But then I felt so awful I caved.  I also drank apple cider vinegar because people told me to and it can't hurt even though I feel silly for trying it.  I think the worst of the fever may have already broken by this early evening, because I suddenly got all sweaty, and now I can feel that I'm cooler again.  That's pretty fast, if so.  I'll take it, fevers make you feel all weird, and have weird dreams, and feel lightheaded and makes my skin and joints and eyeballs hurt. Right now I'm hovering around 100 degrees, which feels much better than 101 or 102.  You wouldn't think 1 or 2 degrees matter, but they do.  :)

Kaylee still has a stuffed up head and sinuses, but she feels good and has had no fever for awhile here.  So her class had a meeting at Starbucks for their Junior/Senior prom (she's on the class committee), and she took the Explorer and had her first solo drive.  She drove to Starbucks, then to her friend's house to film a homework assignment with her, and then she'll be home.  I have a hard time being worried about much, but I am occasionally a little uneasy on the driving.  Not hers...she does a good job.  She just has no experience and a whole lot of people out there are not paying attention.  And road conditions aren't always great. And statistics on teen drivers are definitely not great. But as arrogant as it sounds, she's not really your average teen and I feel good about her judgement.  So tonight she's getting some night rain experience.  My baby's growing up all of a sudden!  *sniff*

The House of Ill (Repute?)

Kaylee's temp went up over 102 Friday afternoon/evening.  Saturday we cancelled her state ISSMA thing (obviously).  Her temp got a little better, and she stayed around 100-101.  Today her temp is almost back to normal, but she's coughing, has a completely plugged up head, running sinuses, etc.  She feels better overall except for that congestion.  I made a drug run today and spent $70 on throat lozenges, cough syrup, decongestants, Nyquil, Puffs with lotion, etc.  I stick all this stuff on the counter, and the young man behind the counter says "birthday?"  I laugh, thinking he's cracking a joke, but he's not, he really needs my birthday in order for me to purchase the Nyquil Severe, because it has stuff in it that you can get high on.  I was actually excited, because that means maybe they have this new stuff out now that will actually work.   I can hope.  Anyway, then this young man gets into a discussion with me on how ridiculous it is that they penalize the people who can really use the help with medications to punish the people who won't follow the rules anyway and misuse the drugs.  Well, the kid is preaching to the choir, as you well know.  He was talking to the guy ahead of me about how ridiculous it is that alcohol sales are not allowed on Sundays in Indiana and no cold ones in convenience stores because in part the liquor stores think that they'll go out of business if people can go to the local CVS to get what they want cold and not have to go to the liquor store.  He says "If they can't compete, that's how it goes, that shouldn't limit the choices the rest of us get to make."  Who knew, there's still a Libertarian guy out there young enough to still have acne and feel the need to discuss his political leanings forcefully with strangers.  :D

Steve is not as energetic as normal on a Sunday.  We've sat around and watched a movie and the Olympics most of the day while Kaylee amasses a large trash sack full of used Kleen-x and dishes from food/drink.

Side note: the Olympics have WAY better commercials than the Super Bowl.  Inspirational. Positive. Sweet. Supporting families.  Determined underdogs.  We should keep these commercials year round.  They make watching TV almost worthwhile again!

I ordered food delivered yesterday and today since we're all here long term.  Yesterday I ordered at 12:30.  They were supposed to deliver 1:15-1:30.  They actually delivered 2:45.  I was NOT happy.  That's the first time that ever happened, but that takes you from lunch to starving.  Today when I ordered, if it happened again I was going to officially complain to the company instead of just to the guy delivering it to me.  I ordered, they said it would be here 12:45.  They showed up at 12:42.  That's better.  ;)

We got breakfast food this time.  Blueberry crepes, bacon and eggs and hashbrowns and pancakes.  This is sweet.

It's this beautiful, sunny, warm day.  I should be flying something.  I don't have the energy.  In fact, I have a low grade headache, my lungs feel a little funny, and I started coughing today...

Healing

Kaylee woke up this morning with a fever over 100 degrees.  It's still low-ish at that temp, but she has chills, and isn't very hungry, and has a sore throat and a cough.  So...we're keeping an eye on her.  We kept her home from school...actually the fever did that.  We asked her if she wanted to stay home but if she'd said "no" I was going to anyway, so she just thought she had a choice.  ;)  You don't go to school with a fever and infect everyone else though.

What we did do, though, was go to the BMV right when they opened at 8:30 am.  We walked in with all her paperwork, and everything I own for identification for both of us just in case, because you KNOW how the BMV is.  We were #8 in line and we were there before they opened their doors, so obviously we weren't the only ones with that idea.  :)  They did our paperwork, I paid $14.50, they took Kaylee's eye exam (she still passed 20/20), and took her photo, we signed our lives away, and she became a legal licensed driver, officially, today.  They asked if she wanted to be an organ donor, and she said yes.  The lady said "Is that okay with Mom?"  and I said yes.  I had to sign a form of financial liability for while she's a minor.  And then they said she's old enough to register to vote if she'd like.  Sure, why not.  So that's taken care of too, and she can vote on the next election now, once she's 18.  So a lot of grown-up stuff happened all at once.  It's neat and sort of creepy all at the same time.

What makes you feel a little better about all this grown-up stuff?  When your 17 year old newly licensed driver who registered to vote feels sick so still calls you Mommy and wants to cuddle.  I'm not letting her cuddle because none of us needs this stuff going around, but it's a powerful urge to ignore your sick child who wants to snuggle up on you to feel better.

There have been a few deaths of kids with complications from the flu, pneumonia, etc.  Her friend Grace is in the hospital right now.  A friend of mine just got out of a week in the hospital with pneumonia, and he had liters of fluid removed from his lungs with a needle.   Yikes.  A local guy just got out of the hospital with pneumonia.  Strep throat is going around her school right now, so it's bad when you hope it's "just" strep.  She definitely has a fever, so we'll have to keep an eye on her.  So far she's okay, but she has State ISSMA for vocal tomorrow, and it's the only thing she's going to state for this year, since she got silver in both sax quartet and barbershop quartet.  She really wants to go, but...she's coughing and her throat is sore.  She also has to be down there BY 8:30 am, and it's an hour and a half drive down.  That means leaving by 7 am.  So man, I don't know about this one either.  I told her to rest today and we'll have to see.  *sigh*  Poor girl.

Some photos from  yesterday and this morning.  I didn't get any of her holding her paper or in front of the BMV sign because she was sick and it was cold out and she wasn't in the mood to do anything but climb into the car and go home.  Maybe I can catch her on her first solo drive.  :)

A 101 knot crosswind up at FL200

Blue skies on top of the murky overcast layer

I almost got a sunburn spending 5 hours up in this. :)

PedoVan! My courtesy car in Alabama had bean bag chairs in the back.

It looks kinda sharp on the outside. The tinted windows are nice.

Side view of the back.

Stylin'!

Alabama, back country

On the way home, back on top of the yuck again.

The sun was so bright it muted the colors of everything else.

Hey look, I have a 102 kt crosswind on the way home, too.  ;)

Light on the clouds.

There was rain and a little bit of convective activity juuust below me.

Here she is!  One temporary driver's license for Ms. Kaylee JoAnn, signed and ready to go!

Second Home Alabama

It was warm down there, anyway!  I was sweating when I had to refuel the 340.  Again, they only had self-serve at this airport.  MBros tends to like to go places in the middle of nowhere.  This is entertaining sometimes, and annoying sometimes.  Today was entertaining, even if I did have to actually work, too.

But first, Kaylee is sick.  She has a sore throat, a headache, and a low grade fever.  She was at school today (not knowing about the fever), and did voice lesson and piano lesson and then right to her driving lesson.  The driver's ed lady was also going to be her examiner.  The lady said usually she runs the course through with her students a couple of times, pointing out all the "gotchas", before she tells them they're going to take the test.  She said that with Kaylee, she didn't say anything, and Kaylee was running through the maneuvers fine.  So after she parallel parked in a residential area, and hadn't missed any points yet on the course, she told Kaylee "We can count what you've already done towards your test, as I've given you no input or help.  If you want."  She of course wanted, so they went on to complete the rest of the test.  You can miss up to ten points and still pass.  Kaylee missed zero points.  We have the paperwork in hand, and tomorrow morning first thing we have to go to the BMV and submit all the paperwork and get the official driver's license.  She passed, she's a licensed driver, and tomorrow if she's not too sick to do it, she will drive off on her own for her first solo.  :)

I landed from Alabama just in time to get Kaylee from the driver's ed place, where Steve had deposited her on his way to the EAA meeting at Glenndale.  I'm glad I was able to be there and pick her up.  From her on out, it's airplane and travel things, so if you're just in it for Kaylee stories, you can quit here.   ;)

It was a rather scuzzy day.  It was fairly low IFR, rainy, there was a little ice if you got high enough to get above the rain, but I went on up to FL200 and cleared almost all of it.  We also had fierce winds aloft, exceeding 100 knots crosswind both ways.  Unfortunately, one of the two guys I took gets motion sick, and he wasn't doing well even when we were on top and smooth.  So when I had to descend into the clouds and shoot a full approach in, he lost it.  I heard him loudly and violently vomiting into a big bucket in the back as I was landing.  He considered renting a car and driving himself home.  He just does not do well with flying.  In fact, no member of that entire family does, which is a terrible thing for being able to fly them around.

The clouds started off right about at minimums for the approach down there, but lifted to a few hundred feet above minimums before I got there, which was nice!  I still had to do the whole approach, and because they didn't have radar on me in the hills down there, the whole approach included having to do a hold, with a parallel entry, and I haven't actually had to do one of those for real in aaaages.  And not many, ever.  So that was good practice.  I broke out when I was supposed to and all was well.

Once we got on the ground, we had a courtesy van waiting for us.  It was a 1976 van, with two or three toned blue carpeting and interior.  It smelled like burning oil, and would die if you idled for too long.  Me being familiar with old cars, I'd put it in neutral at stoplights so it wouldn't die on me, after it died the first two times.  I think the guys were impressed a little, maybe.  But as my Facebook status said, my most favorite part about this van of all time was that in the back, instead of open space or normal seating, it had one bench seat across the back, and two big beanbag chairs.  I'm not sure whose idea that was, but it's hysterical.  I snort laughed when I saw that, and I couldn't stop laughing, and laughing was not appropriate because the one guy was so sick he was not amused by ANYTHING, but we are in a giant pedo van with bean bags for seats that won't stay running and I am DYING.  I loved it.  It was hysterical.  Hey, it got the job done, ya know?  What more could you want but getting lunch, getting to where you are going, and getting entertained while you're doing it?!

Originally this was going to take them several hours, but then they said "30 minutes".  It was about that long to get back to the airport from their meeting.  So I just dropped them off, went into town and got food, then went back to pick them up.  The airport didn't have a fuel truck, so I had to self-serve fuel again, but today it was 70 degrees and I can handle that!!  Except I couldn't get the fuel to flow.  I found the oddly placed fuel pump switch, but after two attempts I went inside and asked what the trick was.  The trick is that you have to turn a light on AND the fuel pump on at the same time.  Fine.  Still no flow past a trickle.  So the woman comes out and bangs around on the back of the fuel pump farm thing, and now suddenly it's working.  I'm glad I wasn't after hours, or we'd have been in trouble.  I needed fuel and I would not have gotten that figured out for nothin'.

The trip home was looking sketchy too, but we timed it just right so that I went over the top of the building rain/storm cells, and was in between existing ones at home.  The pavement was still wet from where it had just rained, and there were more cells behind it, but when I landed it went from about 700' overcast to VFR long enough for me to land without another approach.  I could have used another approach for the practice, but the guy in the back seat just needed to land, so all's well that end's well.

I have pictures, but will have to post them tomorrow.  It's 1 am and my daughter is insisting I take her to the BMV when they open.  So I should get to bed.  ;)

Progress!

We're feeling pretty good about some progress around here.

Kaylee's online driver's ed course is done, and we have the certificate and email to prove it.  So tomorrow evening she should be a licensed driver.  :)

The Explorer is home with a brand new engine.  Steve says it purrs like a quiet kitten and runs great.  He cleaned up all the stuff and is ready to hand it over to the newest official driver in town.

We got our first couch seat into the Suburban and out to a guy who is willing to recover and repair it.  If he does a decent job, we'll save our sectional leather couch and have it back looking as good as new!  My old seat was the worst, so he's doing that now.  It should take about 2 weeks to get back, they think.  Steve said he told the guy "This was my wife's seat" and the guy said "What did she do to the arm-rest here, set it on fire?!"  Pretty much, why?  lol  So that's exciting, and finally some progress on the couch situation too.  After my chair is Steve's, and after Steve's, maybe this stand-alone recliner.  I'm pleased!

Tomorrow I head to Sylacauga, Alabama.  I have to look that up every time I try to say where I'm going.  I don't know where it is (other than the general direction of Alabama), there's nothing there, and they have a 1976 courtesy van, which the guys I'm flying down are using, so I won't have access to food, either.  I'm going to try to pack a sandwich or something tomorrow.   The weather is pretty low and rainy both here and there.  I guess it's about time I shot a nice low approach or two again.  The afternoon is calling for maybe a line of thunderstorms, which is super "funny" for February, and of course there's ice in the morning, and rain all day, and low IFR.  So it's a good fun solid day of work.  I'll probably earn this one. ;)

So anyway, there are several positive progress reports for today!

Onward and Upward

This probably shouldn't be the "Laura Health Report", but Monday I went down for the day, and I mean down hard.  Head.  I had to drive Kaylee to school because Steve had to go out of town, and I had to drive with my window rolled down (it was like 12 degrees outside) in order to not throw up. I didn't feel right until this morning.  Ugh.

I was glad to get to fly with a student today--the first time I've flown in 10 days.  Another long stretch of inactivity here, thanks to the weather mostly.  At least Thursday I have an MBros trip, to Alabama, in the 340.  It should be raining, cloudy and not all that nice, but it's better than nothing, and as long as the temps don't make all that moisture an icing problem, I'll be good.

Kaylee's 4th driving lesson went great, they went out onto the highway, merging, switching lanes, etc.  If we can get her online stuff done by Thursday, her next lesson will be her driving test.  If we can't, we're set up for Sunday at 2 pm.   She's hard at work right now trying to get through as much of the online stuff as she can.  They limit you to three hours per day and she has 57% left to accomplish tonight and tomorrow.

Kaylee also has to get another shot.  The Indiana Department of Health just sent a letter out to all the schools, who sent it to us, that they are requiring Hep A shots for all students prior to entering 12th grade.  This is baloney, as Hep A isn't a life-threatening illness, you just basically get the runs.  Just because THEY think something is a good idea doesn't mean it should be mandated by law.  If my kid could give your kid Polio or meningitis and potentially kill them, that's one thing.  But the runs??  C'mon.  The school is offering to provide the shot for free, but Kaylee isn't sure she can do that.  She freaks out when she gets shots, yells, cries, almost passes out, is afraid she IS going to pass out, "can't" move her arm for hours afterwards without feeling super weird, and all in all isn't sure she can handle doing it at school in front of her friends.  I told her she can decide where to get it done, but she has to get it done.  She's super thrilled.  SUPER thrilled.

Did I tell you that Steve and I are going to Vegas and leaving behind Kaylee?  In March, she'll have her driver's license, can keep an eye out for her Grandma and take care of her cats, and we're going with Nathan and Kevin and such out to Las Vegas for the retirement party of a couple who met at test pilot school and have become friends of mostly Nathan.  We're going to catch a Vegas show, something I've never done before, and enjoy some good food and good company.  We'll be there a few days.  Meanwhile Kaylee will be taking herself to school and back and practices and back.  And so many people don't like when their kids are growing up.  What's not to like?  ;)

Driving

I wasn't feeling great yesterday and I felt even worse today, but finally by tonight I'm back.  Sinus/head thing was getting me, and left me feeling dizzy and like I had a vice around my head.  No migraine thank God, (maybe that new Migravent actually helps), but still didn't feel great.  Finally around 8 pm it was like the band around my head mostly left, and the rest of me felt better almost instantly. 

Kaylee's driving lesson today went well.  They did parallel parking.  They just did it behind one car, not actually in between two, but same procedure, and she explained steps to do it and said Kaylee did great with it.  Kaylee said she understood it and feels pretty good about it.  Also, while she was driving, she hit a patch of ice that neither she nor the instructor saw, while she was turning a corner.  The instructor was excited about it, because Kaylee didn't hit the brakes, just tried to straighten the wheel and stay calm.  She said she told Kaylee "You don't panic very easily, do you!" See, the thing is, Kaylee DOES kind of panic on stuff, and we are always telling her you can't DO that.  Not in a car, not in a plane, not in life.  So we've been working with her on that, and today she hit that ice, in a fast turn, and it scared her to pieces, but she still did the right thing.   I tried to really reinforce how positive that is.  That it's okay to be scared!  You just can't throw your hands up in the air and scream, or hit the brakes and freak.  And you never really know how you'll react until something actually happens, and then you can know.  Now she can know--that she may get really scared, and she may not always be able to save everything, but at least she knows she doesn't have to panic.  I think that's big.

When she got home, we tried to go online to schedule her driving exam, only to learn that there are no testing slots open for almost two weeks.  Not cool.  So one way around that is to finish the online driver's ed program, and then she could have her license this Thursday on the last drive.  So that's going to be the plan now.

Next week sometime I'm supposed to go with a guy to South Dakota to fly home a C-310 he just bought.  Aberdeen, S.D.  It should be an interesting road trip, if nothing else.  I'll have to airline out there though, and I'm really not a fan.  But I don't mind a little road trip right now...

Recap

The weather prevented us from doing any flying today, so my one student did a ground lesson on cross-countries, and Steve worked all day putting the Aerostar back together.

I think Ann is starting to feel better, hopefully!  I'm mostly thankful it wasn't the flu, but it still sure took her energy for a while here. 

There's really nothing of interest for me to talk about at the moment, I just wanted to let you know we were all still alive and hanging in there.  Kaylee's next driving lesson is tomorrow morning. 

The pictures are of Nathan working on BOB, Steve working on Gumby, and still shots I took of a video that Justin B. took of me landing over the top of his head at Kokomo.  I can't save off the video for myself, or I don't know how, but I put a link to it from Instagram on my Facebook page.  In any event, I thought these two still shots turned out kind of neat...

Nathan and BOB

Steve and Gumby

February, The Longest Month

Kaylee had her 3rd driver's ed lesson tonight.  They went to downtown Kokomo today, and she said it went fine.   This one was almost all in the dark, as she had to go after school, after the voice lesson, and after the piano lesson.  Steve and I went back to Harvey Hinklemeiers and had a good sandwich and their signature vanilla (diet) coke from a fountain.  Good stuff.

Steve got the window fixed on the Buick.  He wrapped up the door and window with thick black plastic, then cut a window out the size with a ziploc bag, all sealed up, so he could see to drive.  The car guys were impressed with his set up, as it was air tight and did not use a bunch of duct tape.   Anyway, they had it fixed and I drove it back home after lunch.  So now I have the Buick, Steve has the Jeep, and Kaylee will have the Explorer hopefully within a week or so.

Ann hasn't been feeling well for a bit here.  Not the flu, no fever or anything, but weak.  So we're all hoping she turns the corner soon!

I've been having trouble sleeping.  I'll be tired at a normal time and crawl in bed and wake back up.  So I get back up.  Or sometimes I just stay up.  Last night I was awake past 3 am, well past, I just quit looking at the clock.  That makes it hard to get up in the morning then.  Winter...ugh.

Smack

Another day, another batch of excessive driving.  Today after school Kaylee had Musical practice (yesterday was Encore practice for ISSMA for choir).  Steve came with me and we had some broccoli cheddar soup at McCalister's before I had to turn around and fetch her for our fourth run out there for the day.

Bad news for us today.  My Explorer has blown an engine.  Long story short, it'll cost $5000 to replace the engine.  If we don't, the car is worth a couple hundred bucks and we start over trying to find another vehicle.  If we do, we're out $5000 but we have a zero time engine, new transmission, and well kept body with no rust, corrosion, good paint, etc.  So in the middle of February, a nice slow time of the year for us, we get to drop a lot of money down in one unexpected lump sum.  Last year it was a roof.  It would be nice if next winter we could have smoother sailing.  The nice thing is that we did get a lot of years and a lot of miles out of the engine...

Monday Monday

Mondays are busy days.  Kaylee has school, of course, and she stays after school for practice on something or other, and then she's home for an hour, and then she has to go back for Encore practice, and then needs picked up at 8 pm, and then has homework to do.  I kept busy too, and then after picking her up at 4, running her home, and driving her back at 5:45, I had a school board meeting from 6-8.  Then I had to pick her up at 8 and head home.  We spend a lot of time and money on traveling and gas.  Once she's driving herself here, SHE won't be any less busy, but WE sure will gain some real time.  I mean...today we drove 40 minutes round trip to school this morning, after school, back for practice, and back to pick up.  So four times back and forth at 40 minutes each.  I mean, that's some legit time, and it feels like I'm filling up with gas every 2 days.   That doesn't take into account the fact it takes 40 minutes round trip to get to the airport and back too, by the way, and some days we have 2-3 trips out there, too.  Unreal.

One of my former students sent a note that he wasn't going to be a member any more.  It's the right decision for him--his health is such that he cannot and should not fly on his own, so he'd come out every once in a blue moon to go fly with me, but he was still paying monthly.  So I'm glad he is saving the money, but sad that he's finally giving up completely.  He wrote a note that said "Thanks for all your past instruction and encouragement.  You're simply the best."  I might save that note.  :)

I had a school board meeting tonight, and it ran really long.  I'd been there two hours when I left to pick up Kaylee and it was still going.  There's always that One Guy who makes it difficult on everyone else.  He's running two gears behind every one else.  Asks questions he doesn't need to know the answers to, or should already know the answers to.  Doesn't understand what people are talking about.  I'd swear he's about 50 IQ points behind everyone else, but he thinks he's being methodical and thorough.  He drives 11 other people crazy.  :p  It doesn't sound very nice, but that kind of board member is the reason other board members start leaving--they don't want to put up with it every meeting.

We didn't watch the Super bowl in this house this year, haven't watched any football since sometime last year, but I WAS pleased to hear of the end result of the Patriots losing.  I may have looked up the end there to see ole Tom and Tom's faces.  People said "They've lost five Super bowls!"  Yeah, well, they've also won 5, so...you can't deny they are a good team, I just don't have to be a fan regardless.

There are so many bad bugs floating around right now.  The pastor at the church is down with a major flu. A lot of my friends and their families are down.  When I went to the store today I used the wipes for the grocery cart handle.  Reaaaaally don't want to get this stuff going around.  Prayers for all the sickies out there now!

Tricky

I had the darndest thing today. One of my students gets motion sick. When he first started flying, he would throw up every lesson. After the 3rd time I suggested he use ginger, and he never threw up again, even on windy or bumpy days. He'd eat these ginger chew things before and during flying. Well, he's a teenager in highschool, and he's had to take 6 months off for school stuff. Now he's in checkride prep, and we're pushing to finish him. Today was his first flight in 6 months. (Neither of us thought to mention ginger). We're going through the maneuvers, and he says "Can you take it? I'm not feeling so well." Shoot. I take the plane, but it's a bumpy day, winds gusting to 25, and I aim for the airport. He says "I'm gonna need a bag." I hand him an envelope, and he opens it, and I'm trying not to stare at him, but about 45 seconds goes by and I look over and he says "I can't get it open." I take the bag and fly with my knees while I'm opening the bag, only...THE BAG IS SEALED. Who made a sick sack that won't open?? Hello, quality control! This poor kid is just holding it while I fly with my knees, twisted around in the back seat hunting in the back pockets for additional bags, and I come up with the large gallon ziplock bag we keep our fuel strainer and fuel stick in. I dump that stuff out and hand it to him and he calmly throws up in this bag. The kid can hold it this whole time until he has something to let go in.

He felt terrible about getting sick, but I was just thoroughly impressed at his control. I also gave Steve the sick sack and said "What kinda product did you get us, here?!" He said it was military surplus that was given to us. We also have a box of official "Sic Sac"s to use, fortunately. Who knew you'd need to pre-open sick sacks to make sure you had one when you needed it, huh?

I've been trying to become an instructor for the CAF in the T-6.  I took the checkflight in August or September.  In December one of them asked me, finally, for my info, to submit it and allow me to instruct.  Now two months later, in February, the same guy emails me and asks me again to send him my info because he's going to start working on it.  I told him I sent it to him two months ago.  Today I found the email I'd sent with all the info and resent it on to him.  Good ole CAF, so organized and efficient and helpful.  :/

Kaylee's last drive is on Thursday the 15th. She will have to go to the BMV to take her test to get her license. She has something after school every single day, for musical, for weeks.  Saturday she has her state ISSMA for vocal solo.  The BMV is only open 8:30-5:30.  So I'm actually going to take her the morning after her last drive, and get  her to school late, so she can get her license.  I hope she passes the first time...

Yesterday Kaylee had saxophone ISSMA with a quartet of two freshmen, a sophomore, and her.  Their 4th backed out so the band director begged her to do it.  They ended up with a silver, and Kaylee was very upset.  She'd never gotten a silver at anything but barbershop quartet and she'd intended on keeping it that way, so this silver really honked her off.   She's not very graceful at losing, however, and could use a little practice on keeping herself in check, keeping her crap together, showing grace in person and being mad in private.  Nobody likes to not win.  But you're not always going to win, that's just not how life works.  So deal with it.  Learn from it.  Get better, move on.

Tomorrow we get more snow and it's a day off, minus Kaylee going to church...

Pennsylvania

Up at 5 am, left when the stars and moon were still out.  Watched the sun rise at 29,000' doing over 400 knots groundspeed (sweet).  I was above it all until I got there, and there was a snow squall right over the field.  I had to do an ILS in, and it was about 1 mile and 500'.  When I broke out I thought "Wow, that is one skinny runway!"  Come to find the snow plow had plowed one strip right on the centerline of the runway, and the rest was white and snow covered.  The ramp and taxiway were reporting braking action of poor, and sure enough, you could tell it had sleeted and there was a sheet of ice over everything.  It was cold, but this time I had fuel, I had a vending machine, a coffee pot, a comfy couch, and internet.  So I was good. 

I was in PA because the Cheyenne needed some work done on the flaps.  They wouldn't retract if you didn't do it right, and I got so busy on the ILS that I didn't do it right.  Fortunately I was at the maintenance shop and they wanted to see the flaps frozen down anyway, so, as far as they're concerned, "I meant to do that".

When I got back, I flew over Glenndale to say hello, then parked at Kokomo, Steve picked me up and we drove back over to Glenndale for lunch.  A cranky older guy who usually treats his wife poorly even in public came in the room and asked Steve "Was that you or Nathan who flew by earlier?"  When Steve pointed at me, and then I raised my hand, this guy just harrumphed and didn't say a word. It amused me, anyway.

I had a cross country lesson with a student from 5-7 pm then.  I was really tired.  Early mornings are just tough on this old girl.   But what a great sunrise to watch.  Anyway, after my cross country, I was driving home, stopped for dinner, rolled down my window, and it broke.  Stuck down.  I had to drive the rest of the way home, in like 10 degrees F, with my window wide open.  I was thrilled.  I've done something to my hands with the cold.  Today on the lesson I didn't have my gloves, and my hands were burning and thick and I couldn't even feel my fingers.  It was just frigid.  It's 11:30 pm now and they still hurt.  Dumb things.  I will be carrying gloves at all times until Spring now.

Photos from today.  Beautiful morning.  Couldn't decide between some of these so I'm sticking up them all.

Girl, look at that groundspeed.  ;)

Look at all them thar buttons.  Doesn't it look complicated?

Winging home.

Michigan Run

This morning I loaded up 7 other people and myself into the Cheyenne, and headed to Fremont, Michigan.  I just went to 27,000', since we were only going 45 minutes away.   It was very windy, and bumpy, at least until I got above the clouds, which wasn't much below 27,000'.  Coming in to land up there, it was IFR, the winds were gusting to 26 knots, it was blowing snow, and it was 18 degrees.  There are two runways.  One was short but into the wind. The other was long, but a crosswind.  The Instrument Approach went to the long runway, so if I wanted to land into the wind I'd have to circle to land on it, plus I'd have to land on a short runway with a fully loaded plane.  So I just decided the 26 knot crosswind was the lesser of two evils.  Got to practice an RNAV approach in and land with a nice gusty crosswind with the plane full of people.

Nobody came out to park me, so I picked a spot and, and folks started piling out.  When we got inside, there was a desk guy who was trying to get someone to tell him what we'd need.  When they pointed at me, his face was pretty funny.  I said "I need 75 gallons of Jet A per side", and he said "It's self serve."  I said "What?  For Jet A?"  He said "Yes, we don't have a fuel truck here."  I'm going "UGH" because it's cold and nasty out there and I'm not in the mood to fuel the Cheyenne myself.  He says "I can take your card, tug the plane over and fill it for you, but it'll cost you about $100."  I think about it for about 20 seconds, hard, but finally I said "I can't justify an additional $100, I'll do it myself."  (Their fuel was almost $2/gallon more than Kokomo's, too.)  I pulled up the temperatures to see when it would be the warmest part of the day, and when the snow would stop.  The answer was that the temps were dropping, down to 13 degrees, and the snow didn't stop all day, nor did the wind.  So I got my coat on, no gloves because I wasn't expecting to be a line girl today, fired up the Cheyenne and taxiied it over to the pumps, shut down, and got to work.

The winds were so strong the ladder kept blowing over before I could get on it.  The fuel nozzle was wrong on the Jet A pump.  The wind is blowing icy heck at me, my hands are numb, and then I see the line guy walking over.  He says "The nozzle is a helicopter nozzle.  Here, let me change that out for you."  He does that, then says "This hose is super stiff and heavy.  Let me pull it out for you."  It is, too.  The two of us together had a  hard time unwinding that hose.  I put the ladder back up, it falls over before I can get on it.  He says "You don't have any gloves.  Here, I'll go up."  Lol.  I got Jet A all over my coat, as the nozzle leaked like a sieve, and the two of us together fueled up the airplane.  I was grateful that he came over, considering doing that by myself would have been more problematic than normal. 

Afterwards I went into the FBO and looked around.  No Wifi/internet.  No computer.  No vending machine.  Nothing in the fridge.  Even the water fountain is marked "INOP".  I ask "Do you have a courtesy car to go into town for some food since I'll be here for 7 hours?"  Nope.   *sigh*  But all is not lost.  It was warm in there, there was a bathroom, a comfy couch, Cellular internet on my iPad, and I found a place that would deliver a pizza and a Diet Coke to me.  I ordered enough to give the line guy some too, to thank him for helping me out.  I watched the wind whip the snow around outside the windows, and was glad to be warm and dry.

Coming home was easier.  It was blowing like crazy still, but takeoffs in poor conditions are always easier than landings, and it was beautiful at Kokomo.  There was even a pretty sunset, but I was too busy to get a good picture from the air of it.  One of the line guys at Kokomo took a picture of me taxiing by with the sunset behind me.  I hope he sends it to me.  :)

I am going to Pennsylvania tomorrow morning, really early, so I called ahead on the radio and asked the line guy to stay and fuel me tonight.  He did, and because I needed specific amounts, he had me stay out there and help him read the fuel meter until he was done.  I really need to remember to bring my gloves and not expect that just because I don't expect to be standing outside for long periods of time, that doesn't mean I won't be.  :p 

There was a dog at the airport up in Michigan.  He was a sweet, pretty dog, quiet with soulful eyes.  When I was fueling up, he came over by me, and I said "Hey, buddy, it's really cold and windy out here, you should go inside!"  Then I really looked over at him, and saw that he was standing directly into the wind, head up, with the snow blowing around, and he seemed quite at peace with it.  I decided Michigan airport dogs are probably pretty used to winter conditions.  He would stop by and see me in the lounge every once in awhile.  Just a sweet boy.

I forgot a Kaylee story.  Her Driver's Ed teacher was really complimenting her, said she was a good kid and a really good driver.  That's always nice to hear.  But the story I forgot to tell was that Kaylee said they were going along, and she was doing the speed limit to sometimes 5 under the speed limit, and a car came up behind her, started flashing its lights and honking its horn, but wouldn't go around her even though it was a passing zone.  She said he was RIGHT on her bumper, and she asked the Driver's Ed teacher if she was doing something wrong, and the lady's like "No, I have no idea what this guy's problem is!"  Eventually the car passed her in a bad area, pushing her off towards the side of the road, honking and mad.  It's not like she was doing 35 in a 55, and her car had "STUDENT DRIVER" all over the back and sides, pretty hard to miss.  So somebody out there is apparently a bit of a jerk.  The teacher said she did well handling it, just kept doing her thing and didn't let it fluster her too much.  I guess we all have to get our first Road Rage Person at some point, and she just got hers.

Here are some photos from today.

Climbing up on top, to FL270

I don't know his name, but here's the sweet dog, face into the wind.

Isn't this lovely?  You can sort of see the wind sock over there. It was stuck straight out most of the day.

Wind blowing the snow across the ramp.

Inside the FBO. It was nice inside, even if they had zero amenities except a comfy couch in public with nowhere to lay down or nap.

On the way home at FL280

Sunset, taxiing by the wind sock at Kokomo.  It was kinda breezy here, too.