Quick

My flight went off as planned, and we had a good time and ended up working on crosswind landings for my last flight of 2018.  We're supposed to fly tomorrow too, but the weather forecast says "no way".  So I'll get an update on stats for the end of the year from MyFlightBook, and I'm interested to see some of them.  I like that kind of data when it requires no work on my part to figure out.  ;)

Steve has been "the man" around here this weekend.  He got the microwave installed, he got his mom's shower fixed, got some shelving cleaned up, got a sink over there fixed up, and went down into the basement and found that the sewage had backed up and piled up onto the floor.  He had to clean an entire stack of fresh poop off the floor, then get down in the drain and the line and clear it out so that it could flow freely again.  Tanner had been here an said he had to plunger the toilet, and apparently that was the start of the issues, and it just pushed it back out down in the basement.  Gross, extra gross, but glad that he caught it when he did, before it became a worse problem, and glad that he's capable of dealing with sewage plumbing.  As well as electrical/wiring.  As well as water plumbing for the shower, knowing how to turn the water off out at the street, etc.  It's handy to be handy and good to know this stuff.  We'd have had to call a professional if it was just us ladies around, for any of these jobs he did this weekend...so he's feeling rather accomplished, as he should be.

I was driving home from the airport, hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was 3 pm or better.  I kept thinking about the new Taco Bell on Markland, and all I could think was, "When will a Taco Bell EVER be any cleaner than it is right now, freshly built, brand new doors opened this week, fresh-faced eager employees."  I eat Taco Bell like once a year.  I decided now was the best time to do that.  Seriously, it will never be cleaner.

While I was in line, the guy in front of me put his car in reverse and backed up at the window.  He left his car in reverse.  This is a terrible idea, folks.  You're going to forget you're in reverse.  So I backed up away from him several feet.  I'm sure the car behind me was wondering what I was doing.  Sure enough, the guy in front of me starts heading backwards before stopping abruptly and going forward.  This is called Defensive Driving, I think.  ;)

That's the end of today.  It's coming up on midnight, I've had microwave popcorn, lots of things are in better shape around two houses today, and if I watched the NFL any more, I'd care more that the Colts apparently came from a 1-5 record to end up in the playoffs, something only two other teams have ever done.  So that's nice.   On to tomorrow's duties...

Likely last flight of 2018, in the pattern at Kokomo.

Weekend Update

I'm looking at the sun beaming in my window for the first time in days, and it's making me smile.  Normally I don't like to work on Sundays, but this is a perfect day, so I'm glad I have one girl scheduled who has been canceled for the last 4 flights.

Kaylee is doing all right.  She's taking her antibiotics, and she's started in singing and practicing for her auditions again.  She's not well yet, but she's feeling well enough that she had company over yesterday.  She asked if it was okay if her friends Caitlyn and Zach came over and hung out yesterday.  Sure.  It was kind of fun hearing them up there laughing, playing music, chatting, etc.  They called me up there to show me their glowing foam stuff in the dark.  Caitlyn calls me "Captain" after she went flying with me at the BBQ Bash.  Zach is the other sax player, Encore person, singer, friend, that just moved this year from Eastern to Oregon, and he's just back visiting.  He said he didn't know what to call me, and I said he could call me Laura, or "Captain" if he desired, and he paused and said "I like Captain. That's cool."  So Captain it is.  lol  I think it's neat that her friends are so laid back about interacting with us.  They think it's cool that we're so laid back in general.  They hung out up front until after 1 am, then went to "Dirty Dan's" to get some donuts, then hung out some more, then Caitlyn spent the night here and Zach went home.   Nobody is stirring up front yet.  ;)

Ann is still working on recovering.  She's getting there.  :)

Part of our adventure yesterday was...we got a new microwave!  And we got it installed.  That is more of a story.  I think it's the same one Steve's mom has.  It's big, roomy, and I think it looks good up there.  But boy it was an adventure getting it in.  We stopped at Menards on our way home from lunch with the airport guys, got some more pate cat food because now neither one of our cats will eat the good, expensive cat food in gravy that has meat slivers in it.  They lick the gravy up and leave all the meat.  So now I'm not sure what we'll do with like 50 cans of this expensive stuff.  Dumb cats.  Maybe put it in a blender prior to giving it to them once to see if they'll eat it?  That'll be great.  Too bad you can't sell it.  Anyway.  Different story.  We got cat food, and then the microwave Steve wanted was there, so we picked it up and brought it home.  He knew it would require some effort, but it required more than expected. He had to pull out an electrical outlet, then cover it, cut out several holes in the cabinet above, drill things, run wiring, pull out the stove/oven, which I cleaned up.  It's amazing the dust and food particles that cling to the side of an oven.  I cleaned the floor back there while it was out, and the sides of the counters, and we had not yet begun.  I don't know what all he did out there, but off and on it took all day.  He had a template up there, measured three times, went stud-hunting at least twice, put in a bracket, and then he and I lifted this 53 lb microwave and tried to get it in the right slots in a tight space.  Bent some brackets. It didn't go as planned, but we finally got it in.  At one point he is underneath the thing, and I'm holding it up by myself, pushed against the wall, mostly on my tiptoes, holding up and out 53 lbs at chest level, thinking...if I drop this, I'm going to kill him.  It doesn't seem like the thing a 46 and a 59 year old couple should be doing, but we actually managed okay.  We get the whole thing in there, including giant bolts and all, step back, and he's not happy that the bracket should have gone further to the left and something sticking out of the cabinets he didn't anticipate made something not line up right.  So WE TOOK THE WHOLE THING BACK DOWN.  He then redid his stuff, and it was time to put it all back up.  By this time, my muscles are sore, it's 11:00 pm, he's been at this all day, and I lost my motivation at the "taking it all back down" phase.  This is why it's good I don't do that for a living, because I'm afraid it would have been Good Enough as it was.  ;)  This time when he crawled underneath, he pushed his head up against the bottom trying to help me not have as much load on my own.  I could definitely feel it.  I was probably pushing harder than I needed to, but I sure didn't want to push not enough, and have something give way, or drop, and not be able to catch it.  But finally we got it in, got the stove/oven back, and cleaned up the mess left behind of drilled drywall, cupboards, etc.  Vacuumed the stuff off the floor, and got almost everything back.  We will have to do something with the cord in the cupboard above it, as right now it (cupboard) won't properly fit all the dishes we had up there, but all in all we're pleased with how it looks, and don't care to do that again any time soon.  ;)  My back, legs and arms feel it today, but not too bad.  Weight bearing exercise is good for you anyway.  Good thing I regularly push and pull heavy airplanes around and am oddly strong for my age/gender anyway.  lol  So here's the final product, anyway, photo taken this morning.

Time to take a shower and get ready to go fly with the student.  I'm so glad to have a microwave again!  :)

Quietly

Kaylee is up front watching the "Hello Dolly" DVD and stopping it to practice various lines and songs from it.  She is turning down invitations to go hang out, trying to get totally well, because she wants to be ready for this audition.  Tonight she was asked to go out and see Christmas lights with some friends, and said no.  Nope, she's up there watching and singing along to "Hello Dolly" at the top of her lungs.  :)

Steve ran out to Glenndale for a lesson this afternoon.  He was with his new instrument student, a fellow who went along with me on an IFR flight to Waukegan, and got to see an approach down to minimums and rain and dark.  He found the whole thing pretty fascinating, and had a ton of questions.  I guess he only asked a portion of the questions he actually had.  He asked Steve a few more tonight.  lol

I didn't do anything.  Well, I did dishes and put away and did basic stuff like that, but mostly I read a book.  The whole book.  I haven't done that in so long I can't remember the last time.  So that was nice.  Then I watched a Christian movie about a young girl who was a J-3 pilot who was struggling with faith during hard times in her family's life.  Mother left, brother had a gambling addiction and ruined them and ran away, etc.  It was actually a pretty slow film though, with some pretty poor acting, so it was hard to get into it even though it had airplanes in it.  ;)  It was tough though when a bad guy dangled the "key" to the airplane he was going to take if they didn't pay this other guy's gambling debt.  Of course J-3s from back then didn't have keys, but hey... At least when they showed her taking off in the plane later, they showed the door and window shut, because her long perfectly curled hair would have been a tornado at the start of the engine otherwise.  This I know.  ;)

Tomorrow if the weather holds out I have two flights.  I hope the weather does hold out, I want to get these guys in...

At some point Christmas decorations will have to come down.  But not today.  ;)

Twas the Night After Christmas

and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a cat.

Mom & Ernie, Lon, Cathy, Alonna, Tanner & Rania were able to be here with me, Steve, Kaylee & Ann for what felt like a whirlwind Christmas.  I won't even try to go day by day, or a full recap.  The Cherry family came in first, and then headed up north for a family Christmas up there with Lon's parents/family.  Then they came back to us, and were here Christmas Eve and Day.  Mom & Ernie arrived Christmas Eve, and everybody headed home the day after Christmas.  In the meantime, we had lots of food, too much food to be precise, but I like having too much vs not enough, and it's not like we can't eat on it for the next two weeks.  ;)

We got lucky in our unluckiness.  Our microwave was one given to me as a Christmas present when I was 18 years old.  It's the only thing I brought into the marriage that is still around, besides me.  ;)  It had started rattling, and Steve and Kaylee had complained about it and wanting to get a new one.  But it was still working great and hanging in there.  Until Christmas Day.  I'd just gotten done fixing and heating up everything we needed for a giant Christmas brunch, and the syrup for pancakes was in there finishing up getting warmed, when there was a loud pop and a quiet microwave.  It was toast.  Gave up the ghost right then, 28 years later to the exact day I'd gotten it.  I find that really impressive, myself, on multiple levels.  For dinner that night we needed to have Cathy fix the beans next door, and Rania ran the meat over to be re-warmed up in the microwave next door, but other than that, we didn't really need the microwave for that meal, and it was a good thing.  It's terribly unhandy not having one though.  When you want to heat up leftovers.  Or soften butter.  Or make popcorn.  Or see what time it is while in the kitchen.  Or do a lot of things. But mostly heat up all your tasty leftovers.  ;)

Ann still isn't feeling well, so we had one Christmas on our deck, then went next door to have round two over there.  I think most people were pretty pleased with what they received, I know I was, and more importantly I think we had a nice time as a family.

This morning, Mom & Ernie had just headed out, and I got a text about running to Pennsylvania.  So I got ready real quick and took the Aerostar to Pennsylvania to pick up Nathan who was dropping off the Cheyenne for its annual.  It was the weirdest, most beautiful day.  It's the day after Christmas and I had to open the air vent in the plane because I got hot in a sweatshirt.  The sun was beaming in, and there was no snow to be found anywhere.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the weather, because I will take warm and sunny over typical winter ANY day.  I'm so grateful that we are past the 21st and that the days will start getting longer again.  But it sure doesn't feel very Christmassy!  The flight was so uneventful that I got on an IFR flight plan and read a book all the way there. Seriously.  Nathan had packed sandwiches, so on the way home we ate our sandwiches and chips and water and enjoyed the peace and quiet and view.

When I got home, Kaylee told me her ears were truly paining her. Lots of pressure, pain, blocked, left her off balance, she heard a hissing noise in her ear when she'd blow her nose, just miserable.  That's not a normal cold, plus she wasn't having a super runny nose or anything.  So it was time to take her in.  I told her to give me a minute to sit down, I needed a minute first, and then around 4 pm we headed to the walk-in clinic.

That was an experience. It's a good facility, and I like the doctor there and have actually more of a relationship with him than I do with whomever the Russiaville facility will have see us.  But the waiting room was Packed Out, standing room only for some, and the people in there were hacking and coughing and wheezing.  Kaylee and I side-eyed each other, and she texted me "I'm afraid I'm gonna get more sick just by being here."  No kidding, me too.  One kid that came out had bronchitis, his mom declared.  Others were wearing masks.  The little girl behind me had a barking whooping-cough like cough going non-stop.  I could feel my skin crawl.  I used antibacterial stuff like four times while we were there and hope it's all bacterial and not viral or that won't matter anyway!  Yikes.  Anyway, doc looked in her ears, there's fluid there but it's not infected yet, but because it's been hanging on for so long, and likely to get infected, she's on antibiotics now and a nasal spray to help loosen the congestion that the decongestants and Claritin aren't doing.  It took us until after 6 pm before we were out of there.  That was a long wait, and it was now dark outside, when we left in what felt like the middle of the day daylight.

So when I got home, I was kind of done being around people.  I sat in my chair and ate a little, while Steve invited two other people over and inside, and fed them some leftovers, and then hung out on the deck.  I just sat in my chair and read a book.  I felt the urge to download some photos, so I got that done too.

I put them up on my page.  The link isn't quite right, but here's where they are right now:  PHOTOS

If that changes, and you click on that and nothing is there, then go HERE. 

I'm tired and it's late, so I don't think I'll stick any here for tonight, but you can go there to see about 45 family photos.  We have more photos we needed to take, but I didn't much feel like getting my picture taken.  Next get-together.  :)

Hope everyone reading this had a blessed Christmas...

T-Minus-Three-Days to Christmas

I didn't sit down much today, not until the end here.  :)

Skipping a few things, it went something like this.

Up fairly early, cup of coffee, do dishes and start a load of laundry.

Feed cat.  In an odd shift, keep other cat off her while she tries to eat.

Run to Walgreens to pick up first batch of things we need.

Run everything home, unload it, put it away.

Run to lunch, meet up with the guys, go to GFS (bulk food place) and pick up 1/2 the food we need, and stand in a line a dozen people long while the cashier screams for more people who aren't showing up.

Go home and unload and put all that away.

Run to the grass strip airport to pick up Kaylee's Christmas present that arrived today.

Run to grocery store to pick up last 1/2 of the food we need. Lines of people into the aisles, and they've moved everything and rearranged their aisles. I can't find half the stuff. I hate them for this. Hoards of people. Hoards.  Empty shelves and hoards.

Come home, unload and put away everything. Do bedding for two rooms, wash, dry, make.

Chase down cat and give meds against her will, try to feed her.  Turns her nose up.

Harass kid who has been lying in bed not feeling well too to get up and clean her stuff out of the guest room.

Put laundry away, do one more load of both laundry, put away clean dishes, load the messed up plates the cats didn't eat, get kitchen stuff ready.

Try to feed cat one more time, something I think she likes.  Waste another entire little can of food as she turns her nose up at that too.  Clean two more plates and a knife.

Cherry's should arrive shortly.  Kid is soaking in hot bath trying to feel better.  Ann is hanging out in her chair next door trying to feel better. Cat is hiding under a chair on the deck trying to feel better. Steve, who has been out all day running around on his own errands, is outside putting up our Christmas lights three days before Christmas.  I think they'll stay there till March, at least, right?

My feet hurt.

Let the festivities begin.  ;)

Dulcie and the tree

Oh Christmas Tree

Dulcie and the Christmas Stuff

Pretty little snowflake. I think this is the ornament Kaylee won for playing guitar at a talent contest at school, and winning.

Roadie.  Suspicious possibly annoyed Roadie.

Curious Cat

STILL Suspicious Roadie.  I don't think she likes me anymore.

It wasn't dark enough when I went outside to take a photo of the lights, but you get the general idea of some of it.

More lights at dusk...

Snap

Two canceled flights, one Fried Chicken Friday lunch, one trip to Meijer where I only picked up 1/3 of what was on the list but my cart was full, the store was full, the shelves were not full, and my tolerance ran out.

More to do tomorrow.

Weather Day

It was supposed to be yucky weather today, but fortunately it held off for me.  I was able to fly with my student this morning, and while we had a crosswind, and it's a little early for her to be doing crosswinds, she's a fast learner and did really well with it.  I could see her being challenged by it and wanting to keep pushing and going on it.  :)  She's going to be a good pilot.

 We had a farewell lunch with about 12 people for one of our guy's last day here.  He's moving on to other employment, and good luck.

I had enough time after that to run home for a few minutes, give the cat her meds, feed her again (she snarfed that one), and get my stuff together, check the weather, file, etc. before running Tre to Waukeegan in the Aerostar.  It was at minimums up there, so again it was another low approach ILS to minimums.  I've had more of those this month than in the entire year, maybe two, previous to this!  When we landed it was rainy and dark and dreary and foggy up there.  I was glad to get back to Kokomo where the weather was actually decent--for now.  It's moving in sometime tomorrow, with high winds and rain, but for tonight, it was nice enough.  

Ann is feeling better and getting back to normal, and I think Roadie is feeling better too.  She's not quite as spazzy as she was, though she's still acting different.  Maybe she just feels better now than she did before, I don't know.  She's very suspicious of us though, and runs.  I don't blame her.  She got put through the wringer this time, and in a week I have to take her back for them to inspect the work they did on her.  I wish we could stop taking her in there.  Sheesh.  She's been more high maintenance than a human this month.

Soooo tired.  I'm going to bed.  Kaylee's at another Encore Christmas event, but I can't wait up any more.  I'm out...goin' down...but all I can say is, at least I don't have to get up early tomorrow!  :)

Hopping

It was a pretty non-stop day today, and I hope I pass out and sleep better than a baby tonight.  :)

Up early this morning to be there to visit with a doctor.  He was a little later to arrive than we hoped, but when he did make it in, he was very helpful, knowledgeable, informative, and eased all our minds a lot.  We got good news, and that's always a good way to start a day!

I'd pushed a flight student back, so as soon as I left there, I talked to the vet's assistant, than the vet himself, I hit a drive through for "lunch", then out to the airport and flew with the student for awhile, doing pattern and takeoffs and landings.  Landed from that, had an hour and a half, so ran to Menards to pick up more special cat food for the one who wouldn't eat, and was still acting weird and ramped and drugged up, and made a copy of a key I needed.  Ran home, tried to medicate the cat with her pain meds, and I think I got it in.  Put the plate of new food in front of her, and she snarfed that like it was her last meal. I gave her another plate, and she snarfed that too.  That's good news.  I separated my candles out and packaged up the ones who went to a couple different people, left home, ran the candles where they needed to go, then back out to the airport to give a T-6 ride.  The T-6 is still dead, even after being on a charger, and the APU wouldn't start it, with the rider strapped in.  So Justin ran and got the airport start cart, and after some effort, we figured out how to hook it up, and then the plane started, the generator worked and charged the battery enough, and I (actually he) flew for about 40 minutes.  He didn't want to do anything, just fly around, so it was a quiet, relaxing flight.  He loved it as was.  Landed from that, and my next student was waiting by the 172.  I flew with him and did checkride preparation, all the fun steep turns, stalls, etc.  Landed from that and it was dark.  Put the plane away, ran home, gave the still weird acting cat another plate of food, Steve picked me up, we headed through a drive through for "dinner", and headed back to visit and see how everyone was doing.  It was a day where something was happening all day long, busy indeed, and I'm very sleepy, but not quite ready to go to bed and start tomorrow.

Tomorrow will include a cat medication, a vet call (she still might not be peeing), a student, a trip to Waukegan, IL and back, probably in IFR and rain, and hopefully a discharge from the hospital and home-ness!

Whew!

Flying along and sort of but not really relaxing.
But it sure is pretty.

Attempt to take a photo of the backseater. That bar is unhandy there for shorter folks.  :)

Our deck. One Christmas tree lit up, and you can see both cats on the deck through the screens.

Medicine

Ann isn't feeling well right now, and the doctors are running some tests to work on figuring out what's going on.  Hopefully we should know a little more tomorrow.  Prayers for her would be appreciated!

Roadie went in for her fix-up today.  She got her nails trimmed, her ears cleaned, her rear cleaned, a shot (at least one shot), her teeth cleaned, and three teeth removed.   Steve dropped her off this morning and picked her up this afternoon.  When she got home, she was as high as a kite.  That cat is still doped out.  She's running around, wild, eyes dilated and buggy, tilting her head weirdly, just acting like a spaz.  Dulcie is standing there staring at her, literally looking down her nose and glaring at her, and if Roadie gets too close, Dulcie hisses at her.   She is NOT amused with this weird Roadie.  Roadie wants to eat and attacks you for food, but you set it down and she won't eat it again.  I finally got her to eat some tuna juice with mashed up tuna, two servings of it, and then she still begs for food, but won't touch anything else.  Starting tomorrow I'm supposed to start squirting that medicine in her mouth again, the medicine she quit letting me squirt in her mouth last time.  It "aids healing and reduces swelling and manages pain".  So she needs it, but she makes it impossible to get in her.  They also gave us kitty toothbrushes and toothpaste and say that's best to do every day.  She is just flat out of luck.  I will never, ever, EVER brush these cats' teeth on any kind of regular basis, if ever at all.  Nope.  Not doing it.  So for now she is staggering around a little, running wildly, and acting like a loon, but she's home and her teeth are fixed.  Now if we can get her to eat again...that is so tiring, trying 14 different things and she wants something but won't touch anything but whatever magical thing triggers her.  *sigh*

I had a trip to West Virginia today.  We left at 8 am, which is later than some of their trips at least, but still felt very early to me when I woke up this morning at 6:40.  Buckhannon, West Virginia, a little airport on top of a mountain.  I've been there before.  Last time they had a courtesy car that was wheezing, that he didn't think I'd get the key out of or get started, and I handled it fine.  Today, it had died and was sitting and rotting in the corner.  Or at least he said it was dead.  There's no real internet in there, even with their Wifi, so half my texts even wouldn't go through, let alone anything else.  There's one room with one chair off to the side.  I was okay until a new guy took over and stood in the doorway and told me his life story, and had to talk to me a lot, and I was tired, and I just didn't have it in me today.  I couldn't leave, couldn't get food, but they did have a pizza place that would deliver, so I got a sub sandwich and a big tea and life felt a little better.  :)  I'd have loved a nap, but I had no place to do that.  I was there from 9:15 am until 4:30 pm, which left me a little stir crazy.  I went for a small walk, but it was in the 30s down there, colder than Indiana even, so that didn't last too long.  :)  But it was a pretty area.  The mountains are neat.  I'd love to have had a car to wander around some in.  That's the place that last time I went there, the GPS couldn't even get a signal anywhere around there, and I got lost because I'd wandered around relying on the GPS to get me home.  Nope!  I found my way back eventually, so I was prepared for that this time!  But alas, I couldn't go anywhere today...

The flights were calm and in good weather, so that was nice.  I didn't have to strain my brain any or have anything down to minimums or exciting ice or blowing winds or anything like that.  That made my life easier today, which I appreciated!

It has been a bit of a cluster at work. Airplanes and maintenance and people all combining to give us all a headache, especially Steve.  Hopefully that settles in soon.  Tomorrow I have an early meeting, then a student from 10-12, gotta get medicine and food in the neurotic cat, I have a few things I need to get done, and then a 4 pm student going until dark. Busy for the middle of December.

Roadie annoyed at me in her cage yesterday when I had to take her in for an antibiotics shot.

Sunrise, mist, airplanes, contrails.

Flat windsock, taxiway lights up, morning.

"My" plane ready to go.

Morning misty ground.

Sunset on the way home.

Two views from the right seat.

Sequence of landing runway lights in the dusk...

The Grumps

 For December 16th, it was a beautiful day.  Bright blue sky, bright warm sun, almost 50 degrees.  It was a jolt of warmth that I truly appreciated.

Kaylee had a Vocal Concert today. She was supposed to sing "Santa Baby" as a solo, but because of all the Christmas programs and concerts and stuff happening, plus a lot of time that the vocal teacher had to be gone for new grandbabies, she just didn't get enough practice in on it to be able to do it well, so she "scratched" on her solo.  She wasn't the only one.  All the students who were also in Encore or Starlets did the same thing, and instead did trios.  One trio for Starlets, one for Encore, and they sang songs they'd done for their Christmas concert at school, so no new things to learn.  Kaylee and her friends sang "By Candlelight".  They sounded good, of course, but she was standing behind the two girls who were sitting on stools, and the angle she was standing, I couldn't see her at all. I couldn't get any photos of her singing.  Then they did a group song up on stage, and she was behind a row of girls taller than she is, and I couldn't see her at all or get any photos of her up there.  I am disgruntled by this, and complained at her when she got back down.  How dare she not let me get a photo of her singing?  ;)  This is the closest I got.

Putting stools back after singing.

After Kaylee's performance, we got home and I had an hour and a half to get to the airport and pull out the T-6 before the sun went down.  Looking at the weather ahead, it looked like today was going to be maybe the last chance for the winter where it wouldn't be in the 30s or below.  So I ran out there, pulled off the oil drain, covers, pulled the prop through 9 times, checked oil and fuel, and went to tug it out.  The tug was hooked up to a battery tender, so I had to un-rig that, which didn't take too long.  Tugged it out of the hangar, which actually took a little effort as it's fairly tight.  I had to hop off the tug and check several times.  Got it unhooked, the tug back in the hangar, climbed up in the back seat and pulled out the headset, and strapped down the back seat, so that when I went upside down, nothing would fall free or loose or jam up my controls.  Hopped back in the plane, strapped in, primed it, flipped on the battery, and it was so dead that it didn't even turn on a light.  DEAD dead.  I unstrapped, relocked the controls, got out, went to two hangars hunting for the APU.  Dragged it out to the plane, climbed back up for a screwdriver, went to the other hangar to get the extension cord, unscrewed the panel, started charging the plane, climbed back up to flip on the battery so it would charge, and waited.  After about 15 minutes I climbed back in and tried it, and the lights/JPI came on, but nothing.  So I just sat there in the front seat of the plane and watched the sun get lower.  I tried the starter a few more times.  It got enough juice to start "click"ing, but it wasn't even trying to turn over the prop.  It would have eventually, but after 40 minutes I was tired and annoyed and out of daylight.  So I jumped back down, unhooked everything, and did the reverse and put it all back together.  I'll spare you repeating it all. I just wanted you to feel sorry for me.  ;)  I was going to just go home, but I was really still annoyed, so I pulled out Gumby, and just went up briefly around Kokomo.  Watched the sun set, cranked it around a little, back down quickly for the day, and went to put it away.  Couldn't get it up on the tug, it kept rolling back towards the hangar.  I got it stopped, got chocks, put it away, put everything back on it, and by the time it was time to go home, I was still more annoyed than cured.  I don't have a group of local friends I complain to and hang out with, so my therapy is a small enjoyable food snack now and then, some online communications, and some fun flying.  My therapy was sort of averted today, but for a few minutes there I did enjoy the view.  It wasn't quite long enough to really relax, but I didn't want to stay up in the dark, I had stuff to do, I needed to get home.  So I took what I could get, and was glad for what I could do.  I did take some pictures.  I like looking through a camera lens too.  :)

Kaylee has been practicing for tryouts for "Hello, Dolly".  She is practicing opening monologues, audition songs, roles, the whole ball of wax.  She's watching previous years' versions of the play, and she's really putting a LOT into getting main cast.   Her voice is sounding really good; she's getting more vibrato, and can hit some really high notes pretty powerfully.  She's in her room working on it still, and has been all evening.  Over and over and over.  If life were fair and you won something because you really tried and put effort into it, and politics was never involved, and effort could also make you better than other talented people, well, she would deserve main cast.  :)  Hoping she lands what she's hoping and working for...

Photos from the last two days:

Friendly Santa at the Wild's house for the party.

The view out the back door where I stepped outside to get some quiet and fresh air for a second. ;)

A shot of some of the folks hanging out.  There were also people in suits and dresses, jeans and sweaters.  It's nice that they can dress up if they wish, or not if they don't, and just have some food and drink and hang out.  Several people claimed that some of us "cleaned up real nice".  lol

I stole Kaylee's Encore earrings.  I texted her this photo and she said "WAIT, are those MINE??"  Lol.  Oh, and this was before I fixed my hair and make-up, so don't judge.  I took care of the eyes. Except the crow's feet.  Those just exist.  But hey, I AM almost 47 years old, and this is very close up, so c'mon.  ;)

Sweaty, disheveled, disgruntled, unattractive and annoyed.  But still, sitting in a T-6.  ;)

Sunset in the prop arc.

Look in the spinner.  Sun under the nose of the spinner.

On the horizon

Just a few pictures of the sky in a few turns.

The sky color is fading.

Gumby getting ready to be put away.

I love this.  This photo was taken by a different CFI.  It's THE LOOK.  The look on the face of every student who hears the IFR clearance for an IFR approach for the first time and is trying to remember all of it to read back to ATC, and can't.  So they turn and look at you like ^^^^^ that.  :D 

Knoxville

Nathan, Tre, Holly, Jamie & Gwenie, me and Quentin loaded up in the Cheyenne today and headed for Knoxville, Tennessee, wheels up at 7:30 a.m.  As we were cruising along, climbing up, center came on and said "Moderate to severe turbulence, all altitudes.  It doesn't matter where you go.  It's all terrible. There are no good rides."  The SIGMET for turbulence covered everything from Green Bay Wisconsin to Cleveland Ohio and down to us in Tennessee.  I don't think I've ever heard that before.  We got lucky, and stayed low, and 20,000' is about as low as anybody has ever flown a trip in that airplane, but we ended up with light to moderate turbulence at least.  And a little ice.  And a lot of rain.  So I pulled up the weather for our destination, and it was calling for clouds 100' and visibilities of 1/2 mile.  The problem is, the ILS for that airport has minimums of 200' and 3/4 mile.  I looked around for an alternate, and there wasn't a great option close enough to get us to a funeral on time.  When we got there, they asked if we wanted to hold and wait for better weather, or give it a try.  We are Part 91, which means we can give it a try even if it's reporting below minimums, so we did.  Nathan was flying, so I called out altitudes, lights in sight, runway in sight, etc.  It is handy to have two people sometimes when it's super low.  But the interesting part was that right about at 200', I had the lights in sight, so we could come down another 100'.  By the time we got a little lower, we broke out, and the visibility was good, and we came in for a nice easy landing.  But about 1/3 of the way down the runway was a wall of clouds.  The fog was over the other half of the runway and the whole rest of the airport.  The only decent area was right at the landing zone for the runway we came in on.  ATIS had to be on the bad part of the runway, and tower couldn't see us, so we had to report when we cleared the runway and cleared the taxiway.  It was so murky--well, basically we taxiied into a cloud, literally, so...

We were there because Tre's sister had passed away, and it was her memorial service and luncheon.  I didn't know her personally, but she sounded like a pretty great, fun lady.

The trip home was less adventurous.  The weather was better, we were all sleepy from eating and being up early, and the winds were in our favor, doing 440 mph for awhile there.  The trip home only took an hour. 

I came home and tried to nap for a little while, because I was super sleepy.  But I couldn't get a good nap in, so I just got up, changed clothes, and Steve and I went to our airport Christmas Party at the Wild's house.  Turn-out was pretty good, I think most folks enjoyed themselves, and we got around to most people. 

Now it's 11:30 pm and I'm wiped out.  It's Laura's bed time...

Kaylee is at an overnight church function, after a dinner, after a Pep Band event at her school.  She's a busy girl...

Breaking out on top

Cloud action

More cloud action

Friday Trip

It was baked spaghetti Friday at Glenndale today, but this time at high noon Nathan and I were almost directly over the top of the airport instead, on an IFR flight plan to southern Illinois.  I thought about calling down a hello to everyone, but I didn't.  :)

Flying into Carbondale, we had an instrument approach to shoot.  The winds were down the runway with the RNAV, and the minimums were 400'.  The ceilings were reported at 500', but it was actually right about at minimums when we broke out and saw the runway, not just the ground straight under us.  Good visibility though.  And back home it was clear, but the weather was coming our way.  We landed, and a few hours later it socked in, and right now it's fogged over.  I was going to run to Chicago and drop a friend off to pick up his plane, but it was already fog over there, and headed to fog over here, and would have been a bad plan.  So he's out of luck, unfortunately, and may have to drive Sunday on a family adventure instead.

Our tree is up and decorated lightly this year, with just white lights, some angels, snow flakes and bulbs.  Next year we're going to do multi-colored LEDs and all our homemade ornaments and airplanes.  :)

Kaylee's choir group went to Riley Hospital for Children today, where they got to record an album, and sing in the lobby for the families and some of the  mobile kids there, to bring some Christmas cheer.  Afterwards they stopped at the Spaghetti Factory and did a "flash mob" where they started singing in the restaurant.  She said the people there were all older and got into it and clapped and enjoyed it. 

Tonight she has three essays to turn in before midnight, and she had Pep Band tonight too, so she's been a busy girl...

On the bus on the way to Riley.

In the lobby at Riley

Austin, Meredith, Kaylee

Kaylee & Meredith

Mid-December Already

Kaylee had a Christmas band concert tonight.  She played the Soprano Sax.  Orchestra and band do a concert on the same night, first separately, then as one group.  They did a nice job, as always.  Unfortunately, the girl sits in the middle back there and you can't see hide nor hair of her the whole time.  So I got a couple shots of her as she was standing up to leave afterwards, and with a friend afterwards, and that's about it.  We tried to buy a DVD of the night, but the guy abandoned the table and never came back.  I did record one song at least.  :)

I did get my new glasses in from Wal-Mart.  Which meant I had to go to Wal-Mart in December.  This is a bad plan, but I didn't have a choice.  My new contacts are not in yet because they had to order them from the manufacturer, because my "power" is stronger than normal.  I may not be able to wear multi-focal contacts a lot longer.  I may get stuck with regular ones, then have to wear readers again to see close up.  I hope not for a long time.  I'm addicted to being able to see well and without effort.

I think I fended off a bad headache by drinking...Pedialyte.  Sometimes I feel like I'm dehydrated, but no matter how much water I drink, it feels like it's not helping.  So I drank Pedialyte last night, all "electrolytes", and I could feel a difference.  It tasted DISGUSTING, I almost gagged on it, but, again, I do think it helped.  I'll try again next time and see if it was a fluke or legit.

I think I mentioned that I bought this eyeliner from Sephora and I couldn't figure out how to sharpen it.  My sharpener wouldn't cut through the surrounding end, there was no way to twist it up, or push it up.  I walked into a store that sells Sephora and two girls said "I don't know, maybe that's all you get of it."  Yeah.  One tip, for $12, that wears down in 5 uses.  RIGHT.  So today I contacted them and asked for help.  They recommended a specific sharpener that should cut through.  So I ordered it, and I will be annoyed if that doesn't work.  We shall see.

Roadie's doing great.  She goes in for dental surgery next week. She's eating and gaining weight.  We got our tree up and Steve got lights on it, and now we just need to decorate it.

Flying has been a little slow, both with students and with MBros. It'll be one of my slowest flying years in record, actually.  But I have enjoyed the flying I've been doing more than normal years too.  It's been a good year in several regards.

Walking to her seat, never to be seen again until the end.

Standing up to walk out.

The back of her hair, and talking with some friends.

Kaylee & Allison