Runnin'

I got to sleep around 1:30 a.m., and woke up at 5 a.m. with a headache out of the blue.  I had a busy day coming up where I needed to concentrate, single pilot, low weather.  So I attacked it at 6 am and went back to bed.  Up at 8:10 a.m., and I was sleeping hard by then, headache gone. I still got about 3.5 hours of sleep, then maybe another hour a bit later, so that was a little rough.

Airplane stuff first.  Skip if desired.

When I took off out of Kokomo this morning in the Aerostar, the visibility was about a mile, and the ceilings said 200' overcast, but I went into the clouds at about 150'.   It was clear blue above, though, and I cruised to Knoxville with a slight tailwind, blue skies, warm sun, and music on. About an hour and a half later, Knoxville, DUMPED me into that approach, diving me down from 9000', vectoring me for the ILS Runway 23L fairly wildly.  I warned Tre in the back that it may be a little aggressive here.  Controller told me to maintain 180 kts all the way to the Final Approach Fix (FAF).  For the record, 180 kts is a pretty smoking approach speed.  I did it, and he handed me off to tower just as I got to the FAF.  I was pulling the power back to get to first flaps down speed to get gear down to go down, and tower came on and said that I was #2 on the ILS, behind an RJ (Regional Jet), and then asked me to slow down by at least 20 knots because I was now overtaking the RJ.  HA hahahaha.  Aw, little piston twin eats RJ on approach. ;)  Ceilings were about 800' and 2 miles visibility.  Not bad.  I made a lovely approach and landing out of it.

I got fuel there, and then  headed over to Jeffersonville, IN, KJVY.  A little non-towered airport there, where there's a prop shop, and I was there to deliver a prop.  They gave me the Localizer for Runway 18, because their glideslope is out of service, so no ILS.  Fortunately the ceilings were about 1000', and the visibility was 9 miles, so it was an easy approach. 

A few minutes later came the more interesting leg.  Home.  I was on top in the blue sky all the way home.  The tops of the clouds were around 2500'.  The bases were reporting minimums, 200' and anywhere from 3/8 to 1/2 mile visibility.  I did the ILS 23.  Because the possibility did exist that I'd have to go missed approach, I only put in half flaps.  (My personal critique for my performance today was that I came in too fast on that last approach, because of the half flaps and not compensating for it properly, and floated farther than I should past the 1000' markers that you're aimed at.  But other than that, everything went well.)  I saw the rabbit lights right at 200', but no runway, so I continued down, and finally saw the runway right at just over 100'.  I was happy to see it!

Side creepy note that I'm going to interject here so it's not the last thing I write about.  So yesterday a Twin Comanche (Twinky) went down at Marion with one fatality.  I get home from flying today, and find out that a Citation crashed, three killed, at KJVY, the airport in southern Indiana I had just flown to today, and it went down just an hour or two before I landed there, and I had no idea.  I thought that was creepy enough, and then I found out that the Citation that went down at JVY today was scheduled for 9 am tomorrow to fly to...Marion.  The airport the Twinky went down at yesterday.  A little too close circle to me.  Odd coincidences!  I was supposed to fly the aircraft sales place's C-340 tomorrow on a demo flight.  I think maybe I'll wait a day.  ;)  Actually, I'm not superstitious, but I am waiting a day because the weather looks yucky tomorrow for a demo flight.

So, back to the timeline.  After I landed, I basically jumped out of the airplane and left Jon and Justin to put it away, hopped in the car, and ran home, left the car running, and Steve had wrestled Roadie into the cat carrier against her will.  I took her in to the vet, paid another almost $200 for another round of blood tests and antibiotics.  She has gained .6 lbs, which is really good.  Better news--her bilirubin levels and liver levels are much better.  Still high, but better.  Thus the second round of antibiotics.  Her red blood cell levels are still too low, so something is still going on, but he's cautiously optimistic.  We have scheduled her dental surgery for the 18th.  On the 14th he wants me to bring her back in for another antibiotics round, to keep her on it past her dental surgery.  I don't WANT to take her back two more times.  She's gonna hate me.  She was already pretty mad at me today.  She was sitting in that carrier, and I tried to talk to her, and she just shot me this very human look that basically said "Stop talking. I don't care what you have to say.  Traitor."  But she ate tonight, she's using the bathroom a lot and it's all normal looking, and she's gaining weight again.  So, all in all, this is very encouraging for the little rat.

We were home a few minutes, and it was time to leave for a Christmas concert at First Nazarene church in town, with Ann.  They always have a really nice program, with flag girls, and a drum line, and ballet dancers, and 3-part male harmony, and female soloists, and of course the choir.  Not all at once, mind you.  But it's a nice program, and they always do a good job.  I was so tired from the day, no sleep, a high workload series of flights, non-stop, that at one point when we closed our eyes to pray, I didn't open them again, and I suddenly got this feeling that I was falling straight down.  My whole body jerked like I'd been hit with an electrical shock.  I kept my eyes open after that.  ;)  I seem to have gotten a second wind now, though, as it's midnight and I'm still awake.  At least I can sleep in tomorrow.  :)  But we did enjoy the concert, it was lovely.

Here are the photos from today.  I took a video of my approach.  I cropped some of it out.  For the record, the photos I have of the approach and landing are still shots from the video, and the video was recording hands off by me.  At the end of my uncut video you see it fall to the floor after I pulled off the runway.  I take photos while landing ALL the time.  I take photos on approach.  I often do it while Dustin is flying.  I don't do it when I am flying single pilot and the ceilings and visibilities are literally at minimums. You gotta know when to focus, man.  I was focused.

Interesting shadows and lighting on top of the clouds between layers.

Back to the normal blue and white

View out the front

Terrain on the synthetic vision, on Atlanta Center.

My view most of the time.  ;)

Getting ready to descend down into the approach back into Kokomo

I adjusted the contrast so you could see the lights better.  Better than I could actually see them at the time.  ;)

Closer...

Rabbit lights, shot final.

Runway 23, THERE it is.

Noooo problem!

And here's a video clip of the approach and touchdown.  I clipped out two minutes of flying along on top of the clouds, and some of the post landing taxi stuff.  The first minute is turning and descending into the clouds.  Then there's another minute of just light rain and gray.  Then the break-out.  So if you want to skip about a minute of gray, go for it.  ;)  Hmmm, it won't let me, it's too big.  So I'm uploading to YouTube instead.  Here is that...it should be uploaded shortly here.

Update

Kaylee was officially accepted into the DTS (Discipleship Training School) program.  We have a packet of info, and she's pretty excited about it.  It doesn't look too strenuous as far as learning, although they have to get up at 7 am which doesn't excite her much.  Their stuff ends at like 8-9 pm, and Kaylee's like "Let's go until 10-11 pm and make it 8-9 am instead!"  Somehow I don't think they'll go for that.  ;) She has a packing list, a to do list, we have a financial list, and the pictures look lovely of the area.  We'd love to go visit her, and she wants us to.  They have like "Family Friday" every week.  However, she could not have gotten farther away from us with this, and we can't drive nor fly ourselves out there with any kind of reasonableness.  So we'll have to airline it.  Which isn't going to happen more than a time or two, most likely.  ;)  But anyway, she's excited, and those are her definite plans after graduation now.  One DTS school near Portland, Oregon, here she comes!

Roadie is back to eating like a pig now.  Normal cat food, she's licking her plate and diving after it no matter what I put out there. If I get back in time tomorrow, I'm supposed to take her to the vet for blood work.  He's going to weigh her, draw blood, and give her another antibiotic shot, in case that's what is clearing her up now.  Then depending on if she's strong enough, he'll set up a time for the dental surgery.  We're just glad that her mouth isn't stopping her.  She can't eat crunchy food, but at least she can eat the soggy stuff.  She may never eat crunchy stuff again even after the dental work, but at least it won't hurt her any more.

Kids these days ask someone if they'd be amenable to being asked to prom before officially asking them to prom.  So the young man, Sam, whom Kaylee went to the movies with, asked if she'd be amenable to being asked to prom, and she said she would.  So he will officially ask at a later date, probably with something else kids do these days, a "PromPosal".  Some of them get extravagant and wild, and I've helped a couple kids do them from airplanes to their girlfriends.  These two aren't really dating, so I doubt he'll go all out like that.  There is a small group of friends who are going together, as couples this time.  It'll be nice.  I'm glad she's doing that as a Senior.

My phone blew up today with texts and messages, as a twin crashed on takeoff out of Marion airport nearby.  We didn't know it was a twin at first, so I checked, and when I saw we had two planes that could have been up, I looked into it more.  Not ours, fortunately.  Then when they heard it was a twin, that's when I got the texts/messages.  Even though I've probably only landed a twin at Marion maybe three times ever, because I never have a reason to be over there.  But I get the concern.  What I don't appreciate is the people posting on Facebook that they're "devastated", etc. and guessing what happened, when they have no clue what's going on and they're just doing that for attention for themselves.  A few folks in particular get ramped up at any accident in the state, and talk about how they've been there, and how upsetting it is, etc.  I don't appreciate it, and I find it ghoulish of them to be so almost excited about having this to talk about.  Another who posts "Checking In".  Don't be uncouth.  Just be respectful of the families and ACTUAL friends of the people involved, and be quiet.

I was supposed to be in two places at once tomorrow.  Knoxville, TN leaving at 10 am in the Aerostar, and Alabama leaving at 6 am in the 340.  I hate to let either one down, and both are important.  So I had both planes topped off, and arranged for Dustin to fly to AL.  He's a little worried about the weather, and it's not going to be super nice for either one of us, but hopefully it works out okay.  The forecast is calling for low IFR, but the NWS and the MOS are both calling for Loooow IFR, as in fog/minimums.  So I will likely get three approaches in on one day tomorrow, two of them possibly to minimums.  I'm loading up a prop in the Aerostar too, and dropping it off in Louisville, KY on my way home from TN.  Two birds, one stone.  Another approach.  ;)

A few things going on at work, but I can't really talk about it  publicly.  So I guess I'll sign off, feed the cats one more time (Dulcie is getting so fat!) and watch SWAT before going to bed to get up and have a busy trip day...

Roads

The morning started with an eye doctor appointment.  Lately I've been having more and more trouble reading clearly . So I went in and got an update.  Apparently I needed more magnification on one eye, but otherwise my prescription hasn't really changed much.  So I'm getting a new trial pair of contacts to see if they work for me. I also went ahead and got a new pair of glasses.  I've had the same glasses forever, and last time I almost didn't pass my eye exam for my medical because I couldn't read the chart properly.  I got a $13 pair of frames from Walmart, and it STILL cost $259 to get this pair of line-less bifocals, and I didn't even get automatic sun darkening or anything fancy.  Sheesh glasses have gotten expensive. 

I had to bring the Champ back today, from Westfield to Kokomo, for its annual and several maintenance items.  Nick B and a guy named Darren, both very tall and large guys, were going to sit up front, with student guy flying.  They both sit with their seats all the way back, meaning there is zero leg room.  I have little feet and I couldn't even get my foot down.  I had to sit sideways on the seat with my legs up.  Then I wondered if they were going to kill me on the landing, with my seatbelt all loose so I could sit sideways, but luckily they didn't.  ;)

One of the things the Champ is getting fixed is the cabin heat.  It was 24 degrees on the ground, so it was a bit chippy in the air on the way home, but with the door closed it wasn't actually all that bad.   This one has VGs on it and people can't get it to power off stall, so I'm like, hey, I'll get this thing to stall. I pull the power to idle, and I yank and crank and jerk it around, and it is just mushing along, not actually stalling in any kind of real 'break'. I decide to up my game, and I'm getting ready to do some more, and first I lower the nose, add power, and...nothing. My engine had quit at some point in there. I was about 7 miles from the airport and wasn't high enough to make the runway, and I was going..."SERIOUSLY!?" But THIS taildragger has a metal prop, not a wood one, and it was still spinning, and it actually has a starter. I got it running again before I had to land in a field. I decided to leave my power alone after that until I got within gliding distance of the runway.  So that was my mini almost-adventure for the day.  ;)

Roadie is doing great.  She was yelling for food when I went to bed at 1 am, so I gave her another plate of turkey.  Today I fed her a plate of tuna, which she attacked, and then a whole plate of cat food, which she also attacked.  She looks like she wants more, so later I'll give her more.  She has a lot of weight to put back on to get over the bony butt.  I called the vet, and am taking her in for bloodwork Friday afternoon.  We'll see what her bilirubin levels have done and whether or not she's put on any weight and can maybe tolerate dental surgery.  So, we shall see, but somehow, she's doing much better.  She's drinking, she's peeing normal colors, she's eating, she's more active.  So...that's wonderful.  :)

Kaylee's Senior musical will be "Hello, Dolly".  There are 5 main cast roles for girls, and there are 7 Senior Encore girls.  Kaylee's pretty sure that three of the spots are "gimmes" for other girls, which puts two main cast spots up for four girls.  This is her last main goal for high school, to get a Main Cast role.  So my fingers are crossed.  Auditions are the first week in January, so we have a ways to go to wait.

Tonight Kaylee and I went to Harvey Hinklemeyers.  We thought we were meeting Steve there, but he didn't look at his phone for two hours straight, and missed the whole thing. But we had a fun night out together.  I had a BLT and breadsticks, and I ordered some food to bring back to Steve-who-missed-it. 

Two big dudes up front. Nick had to move his seat forward one notch because my leg was pinned painfully behind him. 

There wasn't an inch between my seat and Darren's.  I don't belong in back seats.  ;)

Wing view.  Dreary outside. Light snow, muddy strut.

Monday

The snow, wind and clouds did indeed move in today.  (I'm sure I've mentioned how much I enjoy winter).  Roadie ate a couple of plates of turkey today, but turned her nose up at actual cat food, and didn't eat as much as yesterday.  But her pee looked almost normal, not orange.  I left a report at the vet, and I'll probably have to call tomorrow to see about getting the blood work done to determine what to do about her tooth/teeth.  She's still seems to be neurotic but otherwise doing okay.

The roads got a little slick tonight.  There were a lot of slide-offs today.  Kaylee had to drive back and forth to Encore practice tonight.  I'm assuming she made it there okay, and it's better now for her trip home, from what I understand.  I don't even like driving when it's slick, I *really* don't like her driving when it's slick, but she has to do it, gain experience.  I'm not super worried, because I won't let myself get that way, just more thoughtful of it than anything else with her.  I might end up with a few extra grey hairs, I don't know.  :)

I broke out the treadmill again today, to watch a show and walk.  It was the first time I've walked for an hour in awhile.  My feet hurt and a few other things on me did as well.  I'm certainly not in shape any more.  But I have extra baggage back on, so I decided I was uncomfortable with that, and will start working on it some more.  I had a salad for lunch even.  ;) 

When Ann and I went to CVS today, I did the blood pressure machine there on a whim.  My numbers have definitely changed over the years.  My upper number is 15-20 points higher than it used to be, and my pulse rate used to be in the upper 50s lower 60s.  That lower number, well, I've seen that now and then too.  What can I say, I'm odd.  To be an out of shape, overweight, middle-aged, mostly sedentary (I hadn't walked yet) woman with that blood pressure is pure genetics.  ;)

Tomorrow I'm supposed to fly in the pattern with a guy in the 180 out of Sheridan.  If the weather holds out.  Hopefully it's not too slick out...

Tripping

I slept all day yesterday, and I mean All Day.  I woke up at like 10 am.  I napped around noon.  I was awake for a few hours, napped again at 3 pm, napped again at 7 pm, I mean I slept All Day.  I went to bed at 1 am, woke up at 9:30, flew to IL with Nathan and crew in Gumby, came home, ate, and took a nap.  I don't know what tired stick hit me or why, but it hit good and hard!  I'm still yawning.

Today's flight was uneventful, as always the best kind.  On the way down to Carbondale, there was this layer of clouds that had interesting shadows.  It looked like a basket weave pattern up there, with a lot of contrast.  The winds were 24 gusting to 36 down there, but almost right down the runway, and the temps were in the 60s.  Kokomo was nice and clear still, but not for long.  The winds, rain, and clouds have moved in this evening, and tomorrow looks like a mess.

Roadie has eaten two big full plates of turkey and one half plate, and drank a lot at the water feeder, the first time we've seen her do that.  I didn't give her her medicine this morning either.  I don't know what she's doing, or how.  She went outside for awhile.  She is much more active.  She ate like her old self today.  I am supposed to take her back to the vet this week for another blood draw to see what her bilirubin levels are.  I'm half afraid to do it because she's doing so well today, and that will re-traumatize her.  What if it makes her not eat again?  But we need to know what's going on, and if we can fix her tooth and make it not hurt, well, we need to do that, too.  So...I guess we'll see.

The following are photos of the cloud formation today.  So pretty.

Thankful

We had a nice Thanksgiving, and hope you did as well.   Mom and Ernie made it up, and Ann, and AE joined us as well.  We had a nice big brunch, settled in, and had a nice big linner.  So many pies, I made a chocolate pecan pie that was so rich, one piece at a time was plenty.  Pumpkin times three; home made by Kaylee, home made by Mom, and store bought.  Sugar cream brought by AE.  The usual suspects of turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, corn with cream cheese, salad, you know, the fixings.  It may be cliche, but I love Thanksgiving meals, and I could eat it all year round.  Sometimes I do get it at Bob Evans, in fact.  Ours is better though.

Thanksgiving night we watched a Doris Day movie with Kaylee, and most of us enjoyed it.  :)  She's enjoyable company.

Today the weather was survivably warm enough for me to take the Cub  back to Glenndale.  I had strong headwinds, meaning it took a good half hour to get there. The temps might have been in the lower 40s, but at 70 mph, that's still pretty chilly.  My legs were cold for awhile afterwards.  I could have shut the door and window, but I survived without it, and still prefer it open, even when I'm cold while doing it.  I made two landings, found mud on all three wheels, put it away, and probably won't fly it again this winter.

The family is heading to bed, I'm watching a Western Hallmark movie for no known reason, and then tomorrow will probably be a vacation day, thanks to the weather, no students, and the holiday weekend.

I sent my resume off to my friend, and he emailed me back that he got it, he'd be talking to the folks either just before or just after Christmas, depending, and that he would lobby for me hard, and we'd see what happens.  Since apparently I didn't explain what I'm talking about before, a friend of mine who flies the B-17 Madras Maiden has offered to put my name in the hat to be able to be a pilot for the B-17 as well.  I'm short mult-tailwheel hours, far exceed all the other minimums, so I don't know how this will go, but sometime around the new year I should find out something.  In the meantime I'm going to try to get with Jordan and build up my multi-tailwheel hours.  Hopefully he helps me out, or I'll be in trouble both for the C-45 with the CAF and this B-17.  It's not exactly time I can go rent on my own.  This is the last category jump I need for insurance, unless I end up in jets some day, which I doubt.  Anyway, it's interesting.  We'll see if it ends up on the list of could-have-beens, or the list of got-it-dones.  :)  It's a neat opportunity, and whatever happens, I appreciate him putting my name in and lobbying for me.

Prepping

Once again, what I had planned didn't quite go that way, but it worked out, as it always does.

I ended up flying the Champ from Kokomo back to Westfield, when the weather got just barely good enough to go.  (Just low clouds, nothing horrific.)  Was picked up by a 172 and taken home.  By now it was after noon, because it takes forever to fly anywhere in a Champ.  ;)  I stopped for a quick cheeseburger, then drove out to Glenndale to pick up two packages I had waiting there.  I next had to stop at the vet, to pick up a week's worth of medicine for Roadie, and a new "urgent care" food to try.  I went from there to the grocery store to pick up a couple of small things I couldn't get at Meijer the day before.

When I got home, I fed some of the new food to Roadie, and she wolfed it down.  A few hours later I tried to give her some more.  She ran for it, meowing, got her nose up there, and backed away and wouldn't touch it.  Bugger.  She did pee three times though, which is much better!  I also put some chicken broth out there, and the levels are lower.  That is either because she drank some, or because it's right next to a dehumidifier.  Maybe I'll choose to believe it's the first.  ;)  I'll see if Kaylee can sit with her some tonight and get her to eat a little more.

I did some cleaning today as well, since the cleaning ladies won't make it this time.  I have a little more to do,  but will probably hit that tomorrow.  I may be running out of steam for today.

Kaylee is in there baking two pumpkin pies for her friend's "Friendsgiving" tomorrow.  "Friendsgiving" is something relatively new that is gaining popularity, and I think it's a nice idea. 

My new pillow is here, and I fluffed it in the drier for 15 minutes before putting the pillow case on, as directed.  Here's hoping it's worth the money I spent.  We'll find out tonight.  I saved my old pillows just in case, and they will let me return them...

Steve is at the viewing for his Uncle Hank tonight, and with most of the family, I presume.  Tonight I have to call at 9 pm and do a "conference call" for the WASP CAF group.  I'm on some committee that I don't understand and we're meeting by phone tonight.  They want a chair person and one lady already said definitely not.  I'd better not get stuck with that.

I didn't sleep much last night, so I'm really whipped today, but staying busy isn't bad. We're off the schedule for flying until like Monday, though I think I'll be flying Friday afternoon, to move the Cub over to Glenndale, because it's supposed to be in the 40s again, hallelujah. 

Kaylee was texting me with some grammar and sentence structure questions today.  I get a smile out of her asking me which word to use, or what sounds better and why, or how to reword this sentence because something's not quite right.  I wonder if someday she'll have a daughter that she'll be helping with grammar.  It's kind of fun.  :)

In general I have always had a low resting pulse.  It used to be in the upper 50s.  Now it's more often in the 60s, but that's still not bad.  There's a dead spider that dangles off the underside of my garage door.  I asked Steve to remove it, and thought he had, but today I was coming under the door, and looked up and there it was, right over my head, dangling and jiggling with the motion of the door coming down headed my way.  I hopped out of the way, which stopped the door from coming down.  I found a stick, stuck the spider to the stick and got rid of it.  I happened to look at my Fitbit right afterwards, and my pulse was 109.  I seriously hate spiders.  Even dead ones.

Well, Kaylee's pies are baking and the house smells good.  I need to work on my resume and a couple of emails, if I can stay awake, before my 9 pm phone call here.  *sigh*

Roadie and Life Update

Roadie is eating tuna a couple times a day.  Right now, the plan from the vet is to wait until early next week.  If she's still getting stronger, eating, more herself, we'll get more blood work done on her.  If her bilirubin levels are down and she's stable, the vet is willing to put her under anesthesia for her dental issues. If her levels have climbed, then he's not comfortable with the risks of anesthesia on her to combat something that wouldn't help her long term.  So tomorrow I pick up more of the meds for her, to last until next week, along with a can of specialty cat food that is extra soft for her to try.  Right now she'll only eat tuna.  Hoping to find actual cat food she might actually eat.  So far no luck.  The vet also suggested we try broth instead of just water for her to drink, since I can't catch her drinking anything.  She's only gone to the bathroom once in 24 hours.

Steve's Uncle Hank passed away.  Jeff is in town for the funeral, and tonight we went down to Noblesville to have dinner.  It was super good, too.  I had pan seared chicken and potatoes and rice and it was great.  Wolfie's is the name of the place.  Steve said his blue cheese steak and wedge salad was really good too.

The cleaning people were supposed to come over tomorrow and clean, which was great timing for Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, one was sick, two are out of town, and they're canceling the night before.  Boo.  ;)

Cats and Airplanes

Roadie...she peed a lot, and it's still orange, from all the fluid they put in her, but she's still not drinking on her own.  She can't sustain for long if she won't drink.  We also can't get her to eat, but here, it's different.  She'll run up to the plate, and then back away and sit down.  Three different types of food we tried, she'd run up to it, then back off and go away.  It's like she wants to eat, but won't eat anything she used to love.  I've asked Kaylee to stop at the store on the way home and pick up a few different things to try.  Poor cat, the one thing cats have full control over is their food/fluid intake.  You can do a lot of things, but you cannot force them to eat or drink, not for long anyway.   I'm officially concerned about her survivability here.  Maybe she knows instinctively that something is very wrong inside and she's choosing to shut down.  I don't know...

This morning we had our Winter Weather seminar at Kokomo.   Neither Steve nor I had even looked at much of it ahead of time.  I wrote out the bullet points and sent them to Cusick a couple days ago, but we hadn't discussed who was doing what, or anything.  And yet somehow we pulled it off.  ;)  Cusick printed out pages for people to take notes on, I printed out pages with information on the Runway guide for snow/ice, etc. and copies of the notes, Cusick went first and opened the floor and talked about initial go/no-go decisions and considerations.  Then Jerry K talked about Pre-flight considerations.  Steve talked about start up, taxi, takeoff, climbout.  We took a break in there, and then I finished up with in-flight considerations, and landing/putting away.  We said 9:30-11:30 and we finished up at 11:27, with absolutely no prior planning, thought, preparation, or timing considerations.  Now THAT'S talented.  ;)   It went very well, we had about 15-18 people there, taking notes, staying interested.  Several thanked us and said it was a lot of good information, and asked us to do a few more like it.  So it was worthwhile, we had a pretty good time, and I think we did good.  :)

Keeping Up

Kaylee heard back from the DTS (Discipleship Training School) that they received her application, and she had to agree to a background check, which they are doing now.  I'm not sure what kind of background check you can do on a minor, since anything criminal would be sealed for minors, but hey, she's clean anyway, so should be a boring background check for them.  :)  They are supposed to call her back after Thanksgiving, and she'll find out more, the next step, I guess, official acceptance, etc.

Roadie the cat is in a bit of a health crisis.  The last few days she's been peeing orange, and not as much.  She's lost a lot of weight and is very bony, and we haven't seen her eating any actual crunchy food.  Today she stopped drinking as much, and hadn't gone to the bathroom since yesterday.  So I called the vet, who got us in for $125 fee at the end of the work day today. 

Kaylee got home from school in time to go to the bank with her dad, and get the fraudulent charges removed, and a new debit card issued.  Then she came with me and Roadie to the vet.  The first thing the vet (Dr. Hiss) found was that she had bad gum disease and several bad teeth, with one really bad tooth that was red, most of the enamel is gone, and has to be causing her pain.  Probably why she quit eating, he said.  She weighed just over 6 lbs, and the last time she was in there she weighed over 8 lbs. He did a blood draw, and gave her a dose of antibiotics, and a dose of painkiller, and then put fluid directly into her skin because she's super dehydrated.  The nurse said "She was like a sponge!  I got 150ccs into her!"  They warned me that some of that fluid may settle into her elbows and give her jiggly legs for a bit, but that her body was absorbing it and that it was good for  her.  The doctor's biggest concern was her kidneys. He said at her age, kidney failure was a real likelihood. He also said her tooth would need to be removed, but they didn't want to do that until she was stronger and until they knew what else they were dealing with.

The whole time we were in the car, at the vet, afterwards, etc., even while getting poked, Roadie was perfectly still and quiet and behaved.  Didn't try to jump off the table, didn't hiss, just was compliant and quiet.  When we got her home, I fixed her some soft food, which she ate.  As I picked her up to take her to the food, she started growling at me, put her paws up to fight me, and grumped at me the whole time, tried to get down, etc.  She finished eating, and sat up straight and tall, and she was obviously feeling more like herself.  The pain meds and a shot of food and drink helped, thankfully. 

About an hour later, the vet called with her blood test results.  Her kidneys were fine. Her thyroid levels were fine (something else he was concerned about). But her liver levels were elevated, and her bilirubin levels were off the chart.  I guess a normal bilirubin level in cats is 0.4.  Roadie's level was like 4.7.  The vet said they haven't hardly seen a bilirubin level that high in all their experience, and that it's not good.  He said if he had to guess, it's a gallbladder issue.  Either an infection, or a tumor.  He said that they could run a test at the office that would be quick and about $200, but that it probably wouldn't show what they need it to show.  Instead, he says an ultrasound would be what would show what they're looking for, and that runs about $500-$600.  If she has an infection, the antibiotics he gave her would be what they'd do in part to treat it anyway.  If it's not an infection, the antibiotics will do no good, and we'd have to decide how far we want to go and what we want to do.  If we get the ultrasound and it's a tumor, then you have to decide on surgery or not. 

I asked if we could fix her tooth, and he said he didn't want to put her under for a tooth and do that surgery, if she would promptly need another surgery, or would pass away very soon anyway from this issue.  I just don't want her tooth to hurt her. So...we don't know yet what we're looking at.

I expected Kaylee to be more upset and emotional about it.  But she said she didn't want to put Roadie through testing and surgeries most likely. She said she would rather be prepared that Roadie may not live a lot longer, than hope it's just an infection and be even more upset if/when she died.  I tried to warn her that thinking you're prepared doesn't really prepare you when it actually happens, but I understand where she's coming from.  I'm the same way...

So tomorrow Kaylee picks up some oral pain meds for Roadie, and then Monday we talk to the vet again and see about the next step in the plan.  I think he's waiting to see if her pee gets any better, less orange, and if she eats any or better.  He also said those high levels of bilirubin can cause nausea which can also decrease appetite.  So for now, we just wait.

Tomorrow we're doing an informal seminar at Glenndale Airport all morning on winter flying.  I guess I'm supposed to be one of the people presenting information at this.  However, I'm not prepared at all for a bout of public speaking.  So here's hoping that goes better than expected too.  ;)

The Day of Unexpectedness

I met with a new to me guy this morning, down at Sheridan.  I haven't operated out of Sheridan myself in ages. I didn't even know where the plane was hangared.  So I got there early, hunted down the plane, figured out the lock, looked at the heater, and got stuff mostly together before the guy got there.  He said that we first met 7-8 years ago, when I gave him a Discovery Flight in a Champ at Glenndale.  I have no memory of that one flight, but he said it was full circle, coming back and finishing up his Private with me now.  That's always nice.

From there I was supposed to race out to Kokomo and fly the Cheyenne to Asheveill, NC.  Originally we were going to go Thursday, but Thursday is going to be a winter storm day, so we bumped it to today. In and out before the weather moves in down there tonight. There was some weather down there to deal with, pretty good ice up at altitude, so I spent some time working on that and making sure I had a safe plan. An hour before we were supposed to leave, the guy I was flying texted me to cancel.  So suddenly I am not going to N. Carolina after all, at all. Things usually happen for a reason, so I've decided that it's fine.  I apparently didn't need to go to NC today after all.  When it was set up, I needed the flight for Cheyenne currency anyway.  I've now had a currency flight in it already anyway, and felt comfortable again by the end of the last leg.  So, good enough.

Meanwhile, Steve was looking at Kaylee's checking account, and found several odd charges on it.  He texted and asked her about it, and sure enough, it wasn't her.  She's been 'hacked'.  So he had to call the bank, and they canceled the account's card and removed the fraudulent charges.  She has to go into the bank with Steve soon to get a new card issued.  It was a good lesson for her, though, as she's thus far been a little unconcerned with her bank account.  She never checks on it or deals much with it.  So today she was texting me, asking me questions about her credit score, effects of this, etc.  It wasn't the best thing to happen, but in a way it's a good experience for her, and she can now learn how to deal with this while she's still at home and sort of protected, and she can now learn to keep a better eye on her finances, too.

Kaylee's not taking the muscle relaxants any more, seems to be doing okay.  I'm glad we went to the doc though, and got it taken care of asap instead of letting it heal on its own over a few weeks.  She has too many programs and stuff coming up.

Kaylee has a friend who for whatever reason will not be having a Thanksgiving with family.  We invited her to our house too, why not, right?  But instead the group of girls decided to do their own Thanksgiving dinner Wednesday evening with her.  A "Friendsgiving", as it's called.  So Kaylee wants to make and bring stuffing and maybe a pie to this Wednesday night.  Thursday, of course, we are having our own, at home.  We may also have our friend AE over, if he'll come.  He's on his own, and it would always be nice to have somewhere to go if you wanted, you know?   I'm looking forward to the food.  In fact, I need to get on it as far as shopping, getting a turkey, because yes I want turkey even though it's cliche, but who doesn't like turkey?  ;) 

So that was the day full of unexpecteds.  Steve had a couple more.  He switched his first lesson from 10 to 9:30, then ended up forgetting to go until 10 anyway, was half hour late to his student.  Then he had on his schedule to take his mom to a doctor's appointment, but it was actually today.   His schedule management was a little off today.  ;)

Tomorrow will be a "Stay home in the bad weather and get other stuff done" day.  I have to deal with Amazon Smile, I already dealt with PayPal, and I have a few other things to accomplish.  Tis good.

Fire Drill

It was a fire drill kind of day, with one thing happening on top of about 3 other things all at once.  I was getting texts from people all day saying "Can you talk right now?" or "Did you look at the weather for  my trip tomorrow?"  Or "Did you look at the weather for your trip yet?" or "Can you make this up real quick?" or... I was texting while I was emailing while I was on the phone for awhile there.  Kind of a crazy day for me.  :)

Kaylee took her medicine this morning, but hasn't taken any since.  She is still a little sore, but she can move and turn her head now, so she's feeling pretty good about it.

Last night the news was calling for slick roads.  I warned Kaylee about driving slowly.  This morning she texts me from school "Mom. There were like two flakes of snow."  It wasn't slippery at all.  That's great for now.  She was in the office for first period, and she heard a phone call about a friend of hers, L.O.  She got scared, so she asked what was going on even though the kids aren't supposed to talk about anything that happens in the office.  Apparently her friend's mom and little sister were in a head-on collision accident.  I pulled it up on the scanner, and LifeLine was called in and declined because of weather (this is not good).  A semi was involved (also bad).  Fortunately we learned that her friend's mom has a leg injury and neck/head pain, and her sister is just shaken up and both will be okay.  Scary.  More back road accident stuff.

I needed to do my CAF drug test for the rides program.  So at lunch I had plenty to drink.  Two cups of coffee and two large mugs of tea.  I then drove to the med clinic.  When I checked in she said "It'll be just a few minutes."  No problem, I didn't even have to go yet.  The place was busy, but I figured I don't need to see the doctor, I just need to pee in a cup.  An hour later I really, really had to go.  I warned them one way or another I was going to need a restroom soon.  She finally called me back, and told me that they had to have at least this much, or I'd have to stay for 3 hours under observation, or forfeit which they would call "refusal to test".  Having enough for their sample was not a problem.  That mission is accomplished.  Oh, I had to do an alcohol test too.  They did an air sample, then had me blow into the thing.  Fortunately I blew a .000 BAC.  Whew.  ;)  The one I'm more concerned about though, is I saw on the internet that Sudafed with pseudoephedrine can sometimes pop a false positive for methamphetamine on tests.  I took a Sudafed before bed last night and another this morning because I'm stuffed up.  I'm really hoping this doesn't become an issue.  Just what I don't need, a failed drug screen, because I was trying to keep my nose clear, ya know?

I got a few groceries, and some egg nog for the family.  :)  Other than making some coconut shrimp, I've been working most of the evening on stuff.  My resume, which is harder to organize and put down than I expected.  I also did a 3-page outline fleshed out quite a bit on Winter Operations, for our weekend seminar we're doing at Glenndale for folks interested in learning more about winter flying.  Flight planning for my trip to Asheville, NC that was moved up from Thursday to tomorrow because of sleet coming in Thursday.  Today's new guy was pushed back to tomorrow morning because of the weather this morning.  So it'll be a busy one tomorrow too...

Kay Day

Kaylee woke up feeling not bad.  Steve drove her to school.  Right when they got to the parking lot, she rolled the right window down, and it stayed there and broke.  So Steve drove it right over to the mechanic's place, and had Jon pick him up there and take him to the airport, and me pick him up at the airport. 

I picked up Kaylee at 3 and brought her home.  She fell asleep on me (the medication still makes her drowsy), and I woke her up at 5 and took her to Encore practice, then had to go back at 8 pm and pick her back up, in the snow.  She said she'd be done at 8, but I sat out there until 8:30 until Mrs. E was done with them.  What this day did is remind me why I'm glad she drives herself now days, but we also enjoyed the car time together too.  Chatted, sang, talked about stuff, stopped and got some drinks.  It was nice, and I'm glad I don't have to spend hours a day driving back and forth to Eastern any more, too.  ;)

Last night I was driving somewhere after dark, oh, to pick Kaylee up from youth group.  I was at a stop light, and Bohemian Rhapsody was on, right at the head banging part.  I'm singing along loudly, and doing a little bit of head action, and I look over and the guy in the car next to me seems to be looking at me.  Except I have tinted windows that you can't see in even during the day, so I figured there was no way he could see me.  Except he seemed to be looking at me.  Kind of took the thunder out of the moment, but hey.

Kaylee's going to try to take the medicine one more day and then stop, and see how it goes.  She can already turn her head much better now, so she's feeling pretty good about it.  They have an Encore performance Wednesday, and the Christmas program is only a few weeks away.  Lots to do, no time for bad necks.

Tomorrow I have to go to Sheridan to meet with and fly for the first time with a new guy. I don't even know for sure where the plane is, don't know the procedures down there any more, don't remember procedures or speeds in the 180 for checkride stuff, it may be slick because of the sub freezing temps, and I don't feel like it, but...you gotta do what you gotta do.

Torticollis

When Kaylee woke up this morning, she was still in a lot of pain, but it was a little better than yesterday.  I woke up at 4 am with a spot in my head.  Woke back up at 5:30.  Got up for good at 7:30 and laid on the couch all morning.  When both she and I got to feeling a little better, we slowly got ready and I took her to the walk-in clinic, which was open even though it's Veteran's Day, thankfully.  The doctor there remembered Kaylee, which surprised me since she's only been there like twice before.  He diagnosed her with Torticollis, or "Wry Neck", and was surprised because he said you usually only see that in babies/small children.  Which is what I said when Kaylee brought it up as a possibility.  I figured it was a pinched nerve.  She was right.  She cannot move her head in certain directions, it's like locked in, the muscle is hard and taut, her head stuck off to the side.  Her shoulders are way uneven, she's just all messed up.  I kept calling her "Quadimodo".  She said "I don't know who that is!"  I said "Google it".  She wasn't in the mood, so when we got to the doctor's office, we were sitting in the waiting room, and I pulled up Quasimodo and held up the phone to her, and she BURST out laughing.  So did I.  We were snort laughing.  Couldn't stop.  She said "You're terrible!  That's so MEAN!"  So I said "But I'm not wrong."  She started laughing again and said "No, you're not wrong."  Then she made me text her the photo, which she sent to a friend of hers and told her friend I was calling her Quasimodo, and her friend said something like "For Shame, Laura!" Totally worth it.  I couldn't stop laughing even when we got into the doctor's office.

Fortunately, there's something they can do.  The odds are that this is what she had a couple years ago when she had a similar problem, and it took weeks to resolve.  This time we have muscle relaxants, which he said should have her almost back to normal in a couple days.  Cyclobenzaprine.  After one pill she could already straighten her head up and bring her shoulders more even.  She said it still hurts, but not as bad, and she can at least move it.  She also said it makes her skin feel a little tickly, which would bother her except she's also feeling rather mellow.  The doctor said not to drive on it, so I took her to youth group tonight, because she really wanted to go.  (Also, she can't turn her head to safely look for traffic, so...)  She's supposed to take these pills 3 times a day.  She has a script for basically 6 days worth, which she probably won't need.  She also has a doctor's note for tomorrow in case she has to miss school, but she's planning on going.  I hope she doesn't have a test, since she's a little too mellowed out on it.  ;)   She is not allowed to practice Encore dancing stuff yet.  So all in all, she's feeling better, on the mend, and very mellow and relaxed right now.  ;)

Me, I had a hard day.  It was another one of those two-fers, where I have a headache Day One that I can kick.  I used a little oxygen, and a couple doses of over the counter meds, and it went away after lunch.  I made a lovely dinner, I had no triggers, I felt great when I went to bed, perfectly clear.  And woke up at 4 am for Day Two of the headache that I cannot kick without the big guns.  Oxygen, the ER  cocktail of decongestants, excedrin and mucinex, Advil then Tylenol, protein, water, caffeine, everything I can do, and it just went downhill in a hurry.  I think maybe I'll see about calling the doctor for an appointment to talk about sinus issues and see what he has to say.  It's been increasing in frequency, and going from one day every now and then to two days in a row that are a problem, about every 3-4 weeks.  Can't handle it, and won't have the supplies needed to combat that frequency either.  *sigh*.  So that's what's up on my end.

But if you need to smile again, just picture Kaylee laughing her head off at that picture of Quasimodo in a waiting room while trying not to move her head off of its tilt.  It still makes me laugh.  ;)

Saturday Night Live

There was a coffee and donut fly-in/drive-in breakfast at Glenndale this morning.  It was too yucky to fly, so everybody drove in, except one guy who should have driven in.  He flew in with a C-150, landed 2/3rds of the way down the runway, hot and fast, used up every bit of the runway, and then when he took off, he started at the threshold instead of the end of the runway, put in no flaps, and almost didn't make it over the wires on a cold day with one person on board.  He also didn't call and check on the condition of the runway, which was standing water that had frozen over.  He's lucky it was frozen.  He's the super high hour airline pilot who has flown everything and who asked me rather aggressively if I was any good at it when he found out I'd be flying the Twin Beech.  He may be able to fly circles around me in a Boeing 757, but I can kick his butt all over a grass strip.  ;)

Kaylee pinched a nerve or hurt herself in her sleep last night.  She can't move her head at all, her shoulders are uneven, her back is starting to hurt, she's cried several times today from the pain and frustration.  Tomorrow I'll take her to a walk-in clinic and see if there's anything they can do for her.  She had this happen one other time and it took almost a month to completely heal up.  That time it happened after she cracked her neck and something hurt right away. (I've had that happen before too, I think a nerve gets pinched when the joint or whatever it is in there spreads apart).  I don't know what they can do for her.  She's hoping for a muscle relaxant or something.  I don't know if they'll do that or not.  We've tried an ice pack, we tried a heat pad, we tried a muscle cream with aspirin in it, I tried massaging it for a long time.  She can't swallow a Tylenol or any pill without tossing her head back and she can't move her head, so she hasn't had any anti-inflammatories. I may get some Children's Liquid Tylenol for her to try to help with that tomorrow.  Poor kid.

I read an article online about how the military trained its people for awhile on how to fall asleep anywhere.  A tired military member makes mistakes, etc.  I don't know when they taught this, or which branch, or whatever, but I read it out of interest and started implementing it myself and it's been interesting.  The technique is to close your eyes, breathe slowly, and then relax each of your muscles, either top to bottom or bottom to top, and then once all your muscles aren't bunched up, blank your mind for at least 10 seconds straight.  They said if you can't blank your mind, just say a phrase like "don't think don't think don't think" for 10 seconds and that you can't think of other stuff when you're doing that. They say you'll be asleep quickly if you do that.  I've had trouble with falling asleep my whole life.  It usually takes me 45 minutes to an hour after I lie down before I finally go out.  I started doing this, and I learned a few things that I found interesting, and I HAVE fallen asleep faster.  First, I had no idea how tense I would be when I laid down to sleep.  I didn't think I was, but my upper body is wound tight.  Shoulders will drop quite a bit when I deliberately relax them once I lie down.  And my face!  My eyes are tightly screwed shut, my lips pressed together, like I'm trying to force something.  As I work my way down to loosen up muscles, I usually have to relax my face a couple of times before it stays that way.  Shortly after I blank out my mind for a few seconds, I actually do drift off.  I don't know how long, because if I thought about time passing, I'd be violating the rules.  ;)  But I've tried it for the last week or so, and it actually does seem to help me go to sleep faster.  Just getting everything as relaxed as I get seems to make a real difference, and I hadn't realized I wasn't relaxed in the first place until then.  It was interesting.  Here's an article that says everything I just said, and it's got a lot of ads, so you don't have to click on it, but it's sort of "proof" that this exists.  lol  https://www.iflscience.com/brain/heres-a-us-army-trick-for-falling-asleep-anywhere-in-120-seconds/

Try it sometime, if nothing else it helps you relax a bit more before sleep.

I bought two "My Pillows" today. We'll see if they're as good as they say.  They get 4.5 stars on ratings, and Consumer Reports said that 50 percent of people said the pillows helped a lot, and 17 percent said they helped some.  So that's not bad.  I need pillow help. I'd sure like it if it would fit comfortably.  Flat pillows  need something under them, fluffy pillows cut off my airway and tilt my head too far forward, two pillows stacked is too tall and one pillow is too flat and anything like feathers (sneezy) or memory foam or anything like that tends to flatten out on me.  So I'm on a quest now.  I hope this is the answer.  The only negative I saw is that some people said sometimes you have to beat the pillow into fitting properly again if you switch positions during the night.  I switch positions a LOT, so I'm hoping that's not true.  If so, I can return them...

I have a flight coming up with someone who asked to have a copy of my pilot's license and medical so that "if things went wrong he could prove to the FAA that he did due diligence".  My eyebrows shot up when he said that.  I didn't send it to him, but I did send him a screenshot of the public access FAA's website that shows my name with Commercial Pilot information, and medical class and date on it.  He doesn't need actual copies of my stuff with my home address and so forth on it. In fact, I'm sort of offended, to be honest.  I said "We don't have to do this if you're concerned." He's not concerned, he says, just covering his bases.  Mmmm.

Guess that's it.  It's midnight, I'm going to try to get to sleep, and we'll see how this muscle relaxing thing goes tonight. I feel a little tense at the moment.  ;)

Home Stuff

Kaylee is out at a Rend Collective concert tonight (Christian rock band).  She is definitely feeling better today than yesterday.  (If you didn't know, there's a post below this one.)  She got her application and fee in to the DST (Discipleship Training School) today, and I presume will hear back shortly on that.  I would say they'd never turn somebody down, but I've heard it can be competitive.  Nah, they won't turn her down.  It's too much money for them to turn it down.  ;) So she's likely going to Oregon after graduation.  Which is coming up in 6 months, by the way.

I got my stuff done today, didn't leave the house, but accomplished a lot anyway.  This email came in, too, and I thought it was nice, so I'd share some of it with you guys.

Good morning Laura!

I am one of the many folks you met at Grimes Field, Urbana, Ohio, when you flew the "Texan," in during the gathering of the B-17's.  The girls and I were dressed as Rosie's.  We were so inspired by you and your accomplishments as a woman pilot.  We, My daughters and I, spoke to you a bit about the Flying Squirrels program offered each summer in Indiana. We are interested!

It has been a few months since you sent me a list of aviation scholarships offered to women.  I have completed some research, written essays, and filed and submitted for  3 scholarships through "Women in Aviation." Thank you for sending those along with your other correspondence, as well as, your encouragement to dare to dream I could fly.  I vividly remember the conversation between us.  You spoke of not being a wealthy person, you did not live in a fancy house, drove an older vehicle, and flew whenever you had the opportunity.  That stuck with me, especially when writing my life history and interest in aviation in only 500 words.  (I was able to cut it down to 502 words!!)

To date, our family, Chad, Myself (Christine,) and our two daughters, Jocellen and Adrienne, are taking a basic Ground School offered by one of the pilots at  Grimes Field.  We're having a great time with this introductory course.  So many new things to learn!!! We are enjoying it, to say the least.  

Our daughter, Adrienne has continued her interest in Aviation.  She now has 7 hours flight time.  Her time is in a J-3 and a 150.  She loves the J-3 the best...of course, ladies do love taildraggers!!!   

I have started logging time as well.  Still under an hour but it's going to build eventually, ...and I love it!  I also currently have my 3rd class medical.  A lot of scholarships wanted that so I went ahead and bit the bullet.

We have also recently assisted in re-instated the local EAA chapter 421 at Grimes Field, Urbana.  Chad and I are charter officers.  We are so excited to see this chapter "Take Off!"

So, all this updating you on our aviation activities brings me to the Flying Squirrel program.  (Etc.)

I hope this email finds you well.  Thank you for taking the time to talk with a couple of strange ladies from Ohio.  You're an inspiration!  I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Wishing you Warm Regards and Blue Skies!!!

Other than describing the paperwork and emails and bills and such that I accomplished today, that's about it over here...Have a good weekend!

Sweats

Kaylee stayed home from school yesterday with gastrointestinal distress.  We all concurred that going to school in such a condition is no fun for the person experiencing it, not conducive to learning anything, difficult to deal with in public restrooms, and not something anyone else there wants to be exposed to, either.  So she hung out at home and sent me texts off on an throughout the day about her miserable experience.  She seems to be okay today.  Don't know if it's something she ate, or a quick 24 hour bug, but at least she's doing better.  :)

My alarm was set for 4:30 a.m., but I woke up at 4 a.m. on my own.  (yay)  Since I hadn't gotten to sleep until midnight or so, that made for a very short night.  The first leg was to Brooksville, Florida.  I dropped off Dustin, Ted and his parents.  I got some gas there to avoid the landing fee, and then took their courtesy truck to lunch.  They only have one courtesy car, and it's a giant Ford diesel dually.  Dooley?  Dually?  I don't know how to spell that. I don't even know what it is.  But the guy said "You'd have to drive a large diesel dually with a big drum strapped down in the back of it."  I said I don't care, I'm just happy to have food.  I kind of got a charge out of driving that big thing (extended cab, too) around.  Biggest pickup I've ever driven.  Or do they call them "truck" and not "pick-ups".  Seems like I saw a rant about that somewhere.  ;)

A line guy at the airport told me where I needed to go, a local place called the Breakfast Station, so I did, and he was not wrong.  They never are!  That's why you ask.  :)  After I ate, I took off from Brooksville and flew over to Tampa Executive Airport.  I did it IFR, and it was only 30 miles away, in the middle of Tampa's busy airspace.  I hand flew it in order to get the practice in, and it was a good one.  They were changing my heading, altitude and frequencies constantly.  I didn't have time to look up the weather for my destination airport which in that airplane was like 8 minutes away.   It was fun.  ;)

Tampa Exec was a really nice little airport, actually.  I got more gas there, to avoid paying a landing fee, and only had about an hour to wait before everyone came back to head to Kokomo.  I went for a small walk, but it was 86 degrees out and I was actually sweating.  We left right around 1:30 pm.  We had some weather to go around on climb-out in Florida, and the rest of the flight we were on top of all the weather.  They Cheyenne sure wins for making trips so much more manageable.  By the time I landed back at Kokomo, I felt good in the airplane again.  When you go for long periods of time without doing something, ya get rusty.  Hand flying all the way up, all the way down, and on the low level transfer, helped me get back in the game on it.

That night Steve and I went out to eat.  I did find this ironic: I fly to Florida and have french toast and bacon.  I get home and have a shrimp cocktail and breaded shrimp for dinner.  That's just not right.

The early morning and being up about 20 hours makes it hard on me the next day though.  It's Friday and I'm not getting out and about...

Here are some photos from the trip to FL

And as I post these, I am watching snow fall.  We had pretty Fall leaves for a day or two before the winds took them away.  Now we have spitting snowflakes out of a dead, flat, grey sky.  So here is a photo of a pretty sky to remind me that it exists.  :)

Sunrise at FL280

Cheyenne on the ramp in Tampa Exec.

Palm Trees for the win.

Easy Breezy

It was another windy day, and it took a turn for the cold.  Coming home I could feel the chill in the air as the temp just dropped.  The high winds have taken off most of the pretty leaves off, leaving brown, green, and bare branches.  Here we go...

I haven't flown the Cheyenne in a long time, and tomorrow is my trip to Tampa.  So I took it up today for two takeoffs and landings.  The first one I was a few seconds behind the plane all the way around the pattern.  Still made a nice landing, even with a 23 knot crosswind at 50 degrees.  The second time around I was pretty well caught up.  So I'm glad I did that, since I'll have the boss and his parents on board tomorrow.  :)

Next up I needed to fly a 172RG for a guy out in California who wants to buy it from the Kokomo sales place and fly it back to CA.  So he paid me $50 to take it up around the pattern.  I wrote up a list of squawks on the plane for him.  Easiest $50 I've made in awhile.  Even if it was windy.

Kaylee had an interesting morning.  She's an office aide for the front office for first period.  Well, they locked down the school, called in the police and a couple police dogs, and they were looking for drugs.  Something must have been called in.  Kaylee says the school has been having a lot of issues lately with vaping, juuling (same thing), and drugs. Sad, in the middle of the country Greentown, IN, but it's everywhere right now.  Most of my Nov Mom people say it's a big issue in their schools too, all over the country.

Well, going to finish this show then try to get to sleep so I can wake up at 4:30 am when it's 28 degrees outside, to go fly to Florida for a few hours.  Wish me luck.  :)

Oh Ugh

I have been eating way too much lately.  We keep going out to eat and I keep eating tasty things.  My stomach is too full and I have picked up weight.  Must quit that.

Kaylee is off visiting Austin, who is home now from the hospital after having his leg removed.  I don't know how he's doing yet, but I do feel sorry for him, and I hope his healing is going well.

The voting returns are coming in. Since they took all our TV off for this, I guess I'll sit and watch it.  It is sort of interesting, I have to admit.  I'm glad there was record turn-out for the vote.  If nothing else, if more people who are actually invested in this get their vote in, however they believe, that's a good thing.

Steve and I met AE down in Kentland to eat at a place called Bookers tonight.  Good food, and good company.  Tomorrow I'm going to take the Cheyenne around the patch and see if I remember how to operate it before my trip to Tampa on Thursday.  I won't be in Florida long, but it's going to start getting down to the 20s up here, so I will try to soak up the sun as much as I can while I'm down there, and try NOT to hit a deer, like I did last time I was down there, last year this at this exact same week, by the way.  Huh.

Monday's Meetings

First thing this morning I went with Justin H in the RG over to Aurora to pick up the 340.  Over there the clouds were 800 scattered, 6 miles visibility,  mist/light rain, so we shot the RNAV 27 in.  I flew the 340 home, and what we went there to fix seems to be appropriately fixed, so that's good.

Then it was an evening of meetings.  I had a meeting for Kaylee's Senior Spring Fling, the event that four of us moms are responsible for putting on for the entire Senior class as their last shin-dig at the school, on graduation night.  10 pm - 2 am, four hours, nobody is supposed to leave.  It's designed to keep the new graduates from going out and drinking and partying elsewhere.  If they stay they get some big prizes, up to things like iPads, stuff like that.  Every one of them.  It's kind of wild.  But I'm in charge of chaperones and entertainment, heaven help us all.

I had to leave that meeting a bit early to get to my next meeting, a school board meeting for the Christian school.  We have a problem board member and six problem four-year-olds.  These four-year-olds are little terrors in the class, and even the school. When the mom of the ringleader was told, she thought it was funny, what he was up to.  The teacher can't handle them. She was in tears the other day.  They laughed at her when she tried to verbally chastise them.  Four-year-olds.  This is why I'm not a teacher.  The little bullies, I couldn't just keep letting it go like is happening now.  In fact I'd like to go in there tomorrow and have a chat with the little fellas.  :(

Tomorrow is voting day.  I'm curious to see how this goes and what will come of it.

I'm tired tonight, but tomorrow's weather won't allow for flying, most likely, so I may have the day off.  I have some things to fix online, PayPal going to the proper bank account, Amazon Smile going to the proper bank account, SMA Support stuff...always stuff to do!

The 340 on top of the clouds this morning.

Sunshine

This morning I was the first one up, as I had a flight lesson, a first flight lesson, with a young lady flying her family's C-150.  I haven't been in a 150 in a long time, not since the one came up from Missouri, and probably years before that.  Neither she nor I are tiny, but we mostly fit.  I have to turn a little sideways to get the door shut, and hers popped open after takeoff and freaked her out.  There's no intercom in there, a hand held mic, and the radio comes in over the speakers.  It's old.  Really old.  And beat up.  I can't get the fuel selector valve to turn off, which isn't great, but at least it's stuck ON and not off.  ;)  I couldn't get it to stay running this morning, and it wasn't that cold.  It would start great, and die.  I tried keeping it running with the throttle, no luck.  Had to use the primer.  That doesn't bode well for when it actually gets cold out.  I'm back to sitting on the floor of a plane.  I wore my shoulder harness though.

The guys worked on BOB today, and the day was so pretty, I was eyeballing the T-6.  I want to do a couple things with it.  But the side panel is off, battery trickle charger on, and the tires both look a little low.  So I sighed about that for awhile, and then took the Cub out instead.  It's colder than (front of the) T-6, but it was a warm enough day to be able to pull it off.  I had a pair of gloves with me, and that helped drastically, just keeping my hands warm.  I went over by Glenndale but it was too wet to land.  When I got back to Kokomo there was a student pilot in the pattern, I couldn't talk on the radio, she was doing giant patterns, so I just landed and came on in.  It was a nice flight though.  Music, a few photos, some fresh air (a lot of fresh air), felt good.

Steve and I ran home, met up with AE and Nathan, and ate dinner at the Marble Steakhouse, in town here.  He made a reservation.  When we got there, they had our name on the table, spelled properly even.  That was fancy and lovely for Kokomo.  I had some salmon that was different but really good.  Shrimp cocktail that was excellent, so was the crab cake.  Crab mac and cheese was really good.  Creme brulet to finish off the night, with a glass of wine.  Steve is now napping, and I'm guessing the other boys probably are too.  I keep yawning but I'm holding out.  ;)

Kaylee is the Treasurer for the local chapter of the National Honor Society, voted in Friday. She's the Treasurer as a Senior Class Officer, Secretary in Choir Officers, Treasurer in another club she's in that I can't think of. She says she goes for Treasurer because everyone goes for President or Vice President. She wants the officer position on her resume, so doesn't want to not get voted in, and Treasurer sounds complicated and hard, but isn't.  (So far).  So she's an officer in all sorts of things and does very little work on any of it.  lol

The park by our house

Kaylee's school from the air. It looks like a toy somehow.

Also Kaylee's school

Most of the leaves have fallen off, now.

 By Glenndale

My shadow down Runway 36

The Cub gives me a comb-over hair-do in the air

Glenndale

Afterwards.  Still bright sun and nice day

The restaurant with our table reserved.

The outside of the little steak restaurant, downtown Kokomo.