You Never Know

Good and bad, you never know.

Charlie Brier passed away just about a week after Judy Rider.  Yesterday we went to his viewing, paid our respects to his family.  It's odd to me that these people are gone.  They shouldn't be, yet.  But for Charlie it was a blessing.  He was very, very sick, and by the end was just in constant pain no matter what.  It was time.  But that doesn't make it easy to lose a family member right around Christmas.  Losing two friends in two weeks,  you don't expect.

My system is ready for me to stop eating, so I'm going to try.  We went to Frittatta's for lunch, where I had a big breakfast.  It was 1:30 pm and I hadn't really eaten, so I was hungry, and had french toast and eggs and bacon and it was good.  I'm still full, so Steve says "Want to go out to eat with Nathan at 7 pm?"  It's been a long time since I ate, so I should, but I'm still not hungry.  So we go to Outback and I get an appetizer of coconut shrimp and that's it.  No bread, no salad, nothing else.  And I'm stuffed.  No dessert even.  I love their desserts.  But my system is like "STOOOOOP".  So maybe I'll try to just take it easy for a day or two here.  I feel like a puffer fish.  lol

Kaylee says "Let's go to NYC and watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve".  I'm like "hahaha no way."  Steve starts looking into it, expecting, as I did, to find obstacles and deal breakers.  Huh.  We CAN get a hotel room--right on Times Square--for a reasonable rate last minute.  Huh.  We CAN get a car service from the airport to the hotel and back.  Airline tickets are way, way more expensive than if we take the Aerostar, which is not unreasonable on fuel costs for this one.  The weather seems to be cooperating.  Etc.  So, Kaylee invited her friend Meredith, and Kaylee, Meredith and I are going to fly to NYC on New Year's Eve.  Get a ride to our hotel.  Go walk outside and find a good spot to see the stage and ball drop, hopefully.  Be outside in the herd of crowds until midnight.  Go to sleep.  Wake up, eat breakfast somewhere fun in NYC.  Fly home.  We'll be gone about 24 hours.  Steve will stay home and be available in case he's needed here in Kokomo.

I didn't expect that.  I used to want to do that at least once.  I was going to do it with my Cedarville friend, Kim, in the year 2000.  But December 31st, 2000, I was 9 months pregnant with Kaylee, so we aborted the mission.  These days, I'd rather watch it at home and be comfortable in good part.  But...I've never done it.  I'll never do it again.  I should do it while I'm young enough to get it done and have the experience.  And it's a 24 hour whirlwind mini adventure in the winter, which perks me up.  I'm not done doing things yet, so this is something interesting to do.  It may be really tough, but you can't say it won't be an adventure.  :)  So, 24 hours ago I didn't know I was going to New York City.   You never know!

I tried to take a photo of our deck from outside at night, but we'd just come back from dinner and I had to beat Steve into the house, so I didn't get to take much time to try to make it any good.  Here's what I got.  I'll see if I can do better before we take it all down.

Christmas

It was a really good Christmas.  The weather was nice, and that helps because you can do more.  As I mentioned before, the Cherry family came up and spent a few days with us.  And then when they left, I made it back to the store for more food, and then my Mom & Ernie made it up for a couple days too.  I got and made too much food, but I just felt like it.  A brunch with bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, dinners of chicken breasts and stuffing and snow peas one night, ham and my "famous" mashed potatoes and corn another night.  We have leftovers, and tonight I had a plate full of them, and they were still quite tasty.  Steve said he couldn't make fun of my cooking too much any more because most of the stuff turned out pretty well.  The vegetables need to not be in the freezer quite so long before we eat them.  The chicken was good and juicy, even re-heated.  The potatoes, I've used a recipe the last few years that I really like.  It takes me over an hour to make them, but I really like them.  Kaylee's friends liked them too--they requested my potatoes for Thanksgiving.  :)  So we had lots of good food this week.  Too much good food, but hey.  As someone posted, it's not what you eat between Christmas and New Year that matters, it's what you eat between New Year and Christmas.  So right now I'm eating a little aggressively, but once everything is cleaned out, I'll start behaving a little better again.  ;)

Christmas Day was nice and quiet and enjoyable and peaceful.  We had our brunch, cleaned up, chilled for a minute, then opened presents.  I think everyone was pleased with what they opened.  I appreciate everything that was given to me, and so did Steve, and Kaylee.  I even more appreciate being able to spend time with family.  It was a good year. 

Kaylee received some great get-ready-for-college gifts from both sides, and the main gift her parents got her was Apple AirPods.  Here's a funny story for you though.  Her small side-gift from us was a personal alarm type thing.  It works as a flashlight, and also has a 'pin' you can pull that will set of a huge, shrieking alarm.  It's a personal defense alarm for areas like campus.  So I bought her some.  They came in the mail, I wrapped two of them, and gave them to her for Christmas.  Steve later said "You know those came from me, right?"  I said "No, I bought those."  He said "No, *I* bought those."  Come to find out, we'd both bought the same thing without discussing it.  I had no idea he'd even seen them, he had no idea I'd even heard of them.  His had arrived in time, mine hadn't.  He was so confused as to why I was acting like it was from me, and why I knew all about it, when he was the one that ordered them.  It was pretty funny!

Something I found for him was a heads-up display for driving.  He hasn't had a chance to try it out yet, but hopefully soon, and hopefully it works well.  It's always a crap-shoot on technology whether it'll be worthwhile or a pain, but if it works as advertised, it should be interesting.  Shows the road, and your directions, etc. on the windshield in front of you so you don't have to look down at your phone while you're driving to get your directions.

He surprised me with AirPods too.  He saw me admiring them.  I listen to music a lot, all the time, in planes, in the car, on corporate trips when I go for walks around, etc.  So I use my ear phones a lot, and I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of these.  I'm guessing the technology will continue to improve though, because one funny thing about them is that they can currently do less than their wired earphone counterparts.  On my old technology ear buds, I can pause the music by one click on the button on the wire.  Two clicks will take it to the next song.  Three clicks will send it back to the previous song.  I can take open the camera and take photos "remotely" with my ear buds in by clicking that headphone button.  I can turn the volume up and down on that button on my earphones.  And I can talk to Siri through them and have it do stuff.  So on the new AirPods, you can only have two of those functions, and you choose which one you want to work, one on each ear.   I chose "previous song" on my left ear and "next song" on my right ear, because that's what I use the most.  I can pause the music by pulling one of the buds out, so that's close enough.  But my favorite part that really cracks me up is that they now sell cords to attach your AirPods together with a cord so you don't lose them.  Making them look an awful lot like the old wired headphones.  Heh.  But there are still reasons I like them better.  Not having the cord means I'm not attached to the phone and can still enjoy music.  I can pair the earphones with other devices.  And, a biggie, I can still charge my phone up WHILE I listen to music, something I haven't been able to do since they got rid of the round charging port.  So I can listen to it on road trips in the car, for example, and keep my phone charged up, plugged in and providing directions, and listening to music.  That's great for me.  I've been using them in the car the last few days, and I like 'em.  :)

Christmas Eve was a beautiful weather day, so Kaylee and I went up in the T-6 for about half an hour.  She wanted to do some aerobatics, so we went up to do that.  She gave me a nice compliment at the end of it, said it had been a long time since she'd done any aerobatics with me, and that I was very smooth, told Steve I did a nice job.  She's not a pro on aerobatics, but she can tell if something feels good or not at least.  :)  She said she likes going over the top on loops, because when she's upside down, she lifts her arms and floats and feels free and light.  I know what she means.

This afternoon it was back to work for the first time, did a cross country with a fellow.  I want to get 3 more flight hours in within the next 5 days, and I'll have an even number of flight hours for the year 2019, which is like ending your gas pump on an even dollar amount.  It's just the right thing to do.  ;)

View of upside down from the back seat

Me & Kaylee

Three generations of ladies

The gift the kitties left on the gifts.

Kay Jo

Mom & Dulcie

Ann & Roadie

Ernie with Steve's wrapping paper job

Me & Kaylee 

Kaylee with Grandma & Grandpa

Me with Mom & Ernie

Kaylee with her dad and the knife she got him from Thailand

Family of three

Steve & Ernie

Kaylee with Roadie

Cherrys

We had an enjoyable quick couple days spent with the Cherry family.

Sunday morning early I was up and out at the airport, where I did a test flight with the new owner of the C-150 Texas Taildragger.  I got out there about 15 minutes early, and the plane had been left outside, so it had a pretty good-sized layer of frost all over it.  Tim  (business owner) hauled it inside and hosed it down to wash the frost off, which worked.  I got it started first try when the new plane owner (JB) arrived, and we went off on a test flight.  It was actually the first time I'd ever flown it.  Heavy on the rudders but still a little squirrely somehow.  Anyway, he wanted to see two takeoffs and landings, which I did, and then we parked it, he wrote a check, signed the paperwork, and he and I took off to deliver it to Warsaw.  I had him fly it home.  He has 8 hours total time, last flew in 1997, so he was starting over, and thought he was nuts for doing it in a taildragger.  I had to rescue the landing, naturally, but that's okay.  We had a good time, it was a good flight, and he paid me for my entire time, so...I'm okay with that.

When I got back, we all had lunch, and then the Cherry's came out to the airport, and Tanner, Lon, Cathy & Alonna all went on a T-6 ride, kind of a different Christmas gift and way to spend the time here.  Lon didn't mind getting yanked around some, so we did that, including a roll.  Cathy is in generally really uncertain about the whole airplane thing, but she said she wasn't nervous at all this time.  We just went up and did a wide, slow, easy trip around the area and in for a landing.  Alonna wanted to do a little bit of all of it, so we did my limited repertoire.  :)  It was fun, and different, and I think everyone enjoyed it, including me.

After we got back to the house, we hung out for a little bit, had some coffee, and then went out to see the We Care Christmas lights in Kokomo. They were packed out, but it's a beautiful display and worth the visit.  The only problem is that it's so warm out, that the path is muddy, and our shoes all got messed up walking through.  But really, it is a neat thing.  Just one neighborhood that gets together each year and puts up a massive lights display that is big enough to have ended up being noted on national TV.  :)

This morning we all slept in a little bit, and then Steve and I made up a holiday breakfast.  Grapes, eggs, bacon, biscuits, pancakes.  Cleaned up from that and had a Christmas.  The cats joined us and wouldn't stop getting on people.  lol  A few photos were taken, and then we all sort of crashed for a little while.  Ann had all the ladies pick out some jewelry of hers to take, and some books for everyone.  Alonna had to do a little work, Kaylee passed out on the couch, and I tried to.

The weather has been gorgeous.  Scary warm for Christmas.  But I'm not complaining, I'm fine with it being warm all year round.  ;)  It's supposed to be up near almost 60 by Christmas Day.  Craziness! 

I need to head back to the store and pick up some replacement food, and that should be exciting on Christmas Eve, but I'm gonna do it.  We need more eggs, man.  Among other things.  So...wish me luck tomorrow!

Me & Lon

Tanner back there

Lon

The top of Cathy's head.  lol

Alonna

The lights are from We Care in Kokomo

Roadie on a Christmas Present

Steve loading up his sister

Kaylee took this picture, with Lon's direction on placement.

Cropping it in made it even funnier.

Cathy back there

Steve helping Alonna strap in

Alonna ready to go.

Friday Funday

Kaylee got the tree decorated today, and she decorated Grandma's house and deck too.  :)  It's so nice.  We're leaving this up for awhile.  I mean, we only got it up 5 days before Christmas.  Might as well enjoy it for awhile!

I flew with the deaf woman today, for almost 2 hours.  By the end, she was able to do smooth takeoffs and decent 3-point landings without me having to touch it or "guide" her.  It was great!  She's coming back tomorrow, and if she nails the 3-points again, we'll move onto wheel landings.  That's going to be harder to teach without being able to talk, but I'll give it a shot.  It's a little tricky to have my right hand on her shoulder, my left hand on the stick, leaned forward enough to be able to direct her, which blocks my view somewhat on the landing.  If I need power, I'd have to either let go of the stick, or switch hands and grab the stick with my right and the power with my left.  It's an interesting challenge, but we're doing great.

I also had a fellow who has struggled with flying and landings thus far whom I think is really close to nailing it down.  We had an excellent flight.  If he can get consistent at it, I just might be able to solo him.  I'm looking forward to it!  Hopefully SOON.  He's worked hard for it.

I didn't want to take more pictures tonight, but the view made me do it anyway. 

Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and almost 40 degrees.  I had Jon take off the battery tender and put on the side panel on the T-6.  I'm gonna try to take it up tomorrow as a possible last hoopla before winter.  Even if it's not the last hoopla, it MAY be, so I'm going to act as if it is.  Weather and runway and temps usually go down in January, and the plane goes in for annual in February, I believe, and I probably won't see it again until April or May, if all goes well.  I'd like it to be done in March, so when it finally starts warming up again, I can sneak in a time or two.  Usually it's been six months or more each year in between me flying it, and I get rusty.  I don't want to get rusty.

Without further ado, tonight's photo series of Champ flying, sunset, white ground, and runway lights.

Me & D.  The headphones are so that she can verbalize to me, even though I can't verbalize to her.  It works out though.  I direct her in other non-verbal ways, and she verbally tells me what she thinks I mean.  If she's right, I let her know, if she's not, I clarify via writing with a pad and pen I keep back there.

Two taildragging ladies

New wider lens on the cellphone.  I can see me too.  

Here's the sunset series.  Brrrr that looks cold.

Photos Galore

The temps have dropped, but as long as the sun is out, it's okay.  The sun goes, it gets really frigid.  After my flight today, walking back to my car, my face and my fingers were burning, even under gloves. I thought to myself, "why do I live where my face hurts"?  But I know the answer. 

Kaylee & Meredith have been getting our home festive and ready for Christmas.  They put up lights and garland around the deck mostly, and some in our back living room and kitchen.  It's lovely, they've done a great job, and I think they had fun doing it, too.  You don't usually hear Kaylee bust out laughing out loud full throttle like that.  It's good to hear. 

It's something that the House, and the country, spent alllll day long on the impeachment proceedings.  Alllllll day.  Six hours of "debate", too, prior to the vote.  This country is in so much trouble. 

So, keeping it short, with no further ado, here are a ton of photos I'm behind on.  :)

Christmas Kitty plopping down on the tree skirt

These next several are from tonight's sunset.

The lights on the planes on top of the TV

Kay & Mer getting the lights set up to hang
(I love my phone camera)

The girls with the lights and garland they set up over the door.

The rest of these are all from our Christmas Parties Fri & Sat both

Desserts!

Me & Zazas

Sunrise Saturday morning on my way to the airport to fly the tailwheel C-150

Kay & Mer with the sign they made

We lit up the outside of the hangar too.  :)

Three Generations

Steve setting up the drinks

Inside "BOB"

Becky from Grindstone's helps us out

Me & Zazas