Surprise

I haven't really heard from Kaylee, other than her asking me to help her get her passport renewed.  She's doing fine, last I heard.  :)

The scale is still moving in the correct direction, so that's good.  I've been good and consistent about food and exercise for about 3 weeks here.  But wouldn't it be nice if it came off as fast as it went on?

I got a text from D, asked if I'd happen to be available to fly tomorrow morning to Bismarck, North Dakota, for a funeral.  My schedule DOES happen to be open on a Saturday, which is unusual, so I said sure.  Paychecks are good, especially in February.  The only problem is that the 340 isn't topped off and the airport is closed, and we're leaving at 6:30 am before they open.  So I drove out there tonight, pulled it out, taxied it over to the self-serve pump, and topped it off.  The biggest problem with it was that it's very dark out there.  There's one super bright light on the top of the fuel farm, but it's SO bright that it ruins your night vision while not actually making it so you can see inside the tanks.  It just glares in your eyes.  I was wearing my glasses, which kept fogging over, and I couldn't hold my iPhone light and the fuel nozzle at the same time.  So it was a little difficult, and cold, but I got it done.  The other hard part was taxiing back to the hangar in the dark with my glasses fogged over.  I can't see with them off, and I couldn't see with them on.  So that was nice.  ;)  I got the headsets ready to go in the back, made sure we had enough oil for a nice loooong flight, got the tanks topped, and came on home.  We're flying to Mankato, Minnesota first for a fuel stop, then going on up to Bismarck.  There's some ice to deal with, naturally, some wind shear, a nasty headwind and gusty surface winds up there, but otherwise it seems like an okay day.   Hopefully.  I'll have to be out there by 6:15 am, which means I need to leave the house by 5:55 am, which means I need to get up about 5 am.  Oh yay.  It'll be almost a 5 hour flight out there, plus the fuel stop.  It's gonna be a long day. Probably close to 9 hours of flight time, plus an hour on the ground for the fuel stop, plus however many hours on the ground up there, plus about 45 minutes drive time to the airport and back.  Like I said...long day.

Meanwhile, there's an article that came out that sort of floored me.  Apparently not everyone can hear their thoughts in their head.  I hear this in my head as I'm typing it.  I hear books in my head as I'm reading them.  I can look in a mirror and have a conversation without saying anything out loud, and hear it in my head.  I thought everybody did.  Apparently not.  That's wild--I can't imagine the inside of my head being...silent.  All the time.  That's so WEIRD.