I woke up with a lot of energy, and got my exercise in, and my Spanish lessons, and three loads of laundry done and put away, and the trash and recyclables taken out, and the trash bin brought back in from the alley after it was picked up this morning, and a load of dishes done and put away, and breakfast late, and so forth, and then boom. I was done for the day. I pulled out my C-45 materials and tried to study, and failed. I have some things to do in the T-6, but it's still down. Hopefully it gets back up in the next week or so. I have 1) A flight review to give someone in it. 2) A mass formation fly-over with a bunch of folks from central Indiana on May 8th, and 3) Training to give a guy who is coming to us because he bought a P-51 and I was recommended to him to get 5 hours T-6 time in first. I'm not sure from whom. He's talking to Steve Hinton (rather famous fellow), but I don't think Steve would know who I am. Insurance company referral maybe? Anyway, lots to do, and we're all on hold because of a back seat oil pressure gauge. *sigh*
Kaylee finished her last school stuff last night at 11:55 pm. It was due by 11:59. She had a couple of projects she hadn't done and felt overwhelmed and swamped on them. Steve was willing to help her get organized and finished up, and I helped some as well, and she got it done. She is officially done with her first semester. I think she's feeling a little lighter today not having it hanging over her.
I've got a tailwheel lesson tomorrow with the deaf lady. It looks like a pretty day to do it. My first lesson in over a month, I think, in an airplane where I'm behind the person, not touching the same surfaces even. But the side by side stuff is coming next week.
VP Pence came to Kokomo today and made the news. The weather was bad, so the TFR didn't bother anyone around here. I don't know whether he wore a mask or not. I'm sure the news will tell me.
Back to it.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Meet Virginia
(Now I have that song in my head).
I took a double dose of melatonin at 10 pm last night so I could go to bed by 11-ish, because I had to wake up at 5:30 am. That felt like a short night, but I actually woke up pretty alert for it being 5:30 am. I'd been a little worried about the weather, but when I woke up, the big ugly line of storms had dissipated into little rain showers, and it was a non-event. Thankyouverymuch.
Dustin and I went up to FL 210 on the way there, and just cruised. He noticed at some point that our transponder was set up improperly, and showed our N# as N669JH. That bugged me the rest of the flight. I tried to change it myself, but apparently you need other tools and a computer to do that. The airspace was quiet, we got "direct", and we were above all the weather. An uneventful flight is a good flight. I could feel my shoulders loosening up, feel myself relaxing and feeling peace.
When we landed in Charlottesville, Virginia, everyone in the FBO was wearing a mask. Pilots, FBO workers, etc. The next round of pilots and workers who came in weren't wearing one, but it's weird walking into places and seeing masks everywhere. Next up I decided to get brunch. I hop in the courtesy car (after it was cleaned, and after I was provided with my own Clorox wipe too) and go to find somewhere to eat. Only to remember there's a whole pandemic thing going on right now, and everything is shut down for dining in, and I didn't know what anybody had to call in a pick-up order, so I drove through Chick-fil-A. I'll never be mad at getting Chick-fil-A, other than it's pretty high calorie and sodium. But it was worth it. They had a credit card reader outside their drive-up window, you stick your card in and back out, and the gowned, gloved and masked workers give you your food. Such a weird world we're in right now.
Back at the airport, I cleaned the car back down and returned the keys, and then re-downloaded Garmin Pilot onto my iPad. See, I had deleted the app because I was forced to go to ForeFlight. But now we have a GDL 52 in the 340, and with it we can get great weather, ice levels, echo tops, cloud tops, turbulence, all that good stuff, on our ipads, but more importantly, we can get Sirius XM radio and control it via our iPads. Tunes we can control better! But here's the rub. You can control all the weather on ForeFLight, but you can't control the music there. Only on Garmin Pilot. Grr. But fortunately I learned on the way home that you don't have to purchase any subscriptions to go with it, you just have to have the app, which I do. The only unhandy thing is that you can't bluetooth up to the GDL 52 on both ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot at the same time. That means I can't look at my ADS-B weather and traffic and info at the same time as I'm controlling my tunes. I have to shut down one, log out of it basically, log into the other, do what I want there, etc. Not ideal, but it works, and it's better than the music we had in there before, which didn't work about 70% of the time and hadn't worked right for the last 6 months. So I was just grateful to have working tunes, even if there's a little more effort involved. It's nice to pull up your iPad, see all the stations, pick one, turn up and down the volume easily, etc. :)
When it was time to go home, we started off at FL220. The weather had formed back up and was building up storms, the tops of which were sometimes up around FL250, but mostly around FL220. So we climbed up to FL240, which is as high as I can go in the 340 without supplemental oxygen. Our cabin altitude was 10,500' for awhile, with the "cabin altitude" alert on (anything above 10,000'). We passed over the storms, and then descended down for an ILS 23 into Kokomo. It wasn't super low, just good practice.
I landed, got fuel in the 340, had a little dinner, came home to work on pictures and Steve and I are helping Kaylee with an assignment she got stuck on. In fact, I need to go do that now. So...see ya. Enjoy some pictures from today. :)
I took a double dose of melatonin at 10 pm last night so I could go to bed by 11-ish, because I had to wake up at 5:30 am. That felt like a short night, but I actually woke up pretty alert for it being 5:30 am. I'd been a little worried about the weather, but when I woke up, the big ugly line of storms had dissipated into little rain showers, and it was a non-event. Thankyouverymuch.
Dustin and I went up to FL 210 on the way there, and just cruised. He noticed at some point that our transponder was set up improperly, and showed our N# as N669JH. That bugged me the rest of the flight. I tried to change it myself, but apparently you need other tools and a computer to do that. The airspace was quiet, we got "direct", and we were above all the weather. An uneventful flight is a good flight. I could feel my shoulders loosening up, feel myself relaxing and feeling peace.
When we landed in Charlottesville, Virginia, everyone in the FBO was wearing a mask. Pilots, FBO workers, etc. The next round of pilots and workers who came in weren't wearing one, but it's weird walking into places and seeing masks everywhere. Next up I decided to get brunch. I hop in the courtesy car (after it was cleaned, and after I was provided with my own Clorox wipe too) and go to find somewhere to eat. Only to remember there's a whole pandemic thing going on right now, and everything is shut down for dining in, and I didn't know what anybody had to call in a pick-up order, so I drove through Chick-fil-A. I'll never be mad at getting Chick-fil-A, other than it's pretty high calorie and sodium. But it was worth it. They had a credit card reader outside their drive-up window, you stick your card in and back out, and the gowned, gloved and masked workers give you your food. Such a weird world we're in right now.
Back at the airport, I cleaned the car back down and returned the keys, and then re-downloaded Garmin Pilot onto my iPad. See, I had deleted the app because I was forced to go to ForeFlight. But now we have a GDL 52 in the 340, and with it we can get great weather, ice levels, echo tops, cloud tops, turbulence, all that good stuff, on our ipads, but more importantly, we can get Sirius XM radio and control it via our iPads. Tunes we can control better! But here's the rub. You can control all the weather on ForeFLight, but you can't control the music there. Only on Garmin Pilot. Grr. But fortunately I learned on the way home that you don't have to purchase any subscriptions to go with it, you just have to have the app, which I do. The only unhandy thing is that you can't bluetooth up to the GDL 52 on both ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot at the same time. That means I can't look at my ADS-B weather and traffic and info at the same time as I'm controlling my tunes. I have to shut down one, log out of it basically, log into the other, do what I want there, etc. Not ideal, but it works, and it's better than the music we had in there before, which didn't work about 70% of the time and hadn't worked right for the last 6 months. So I was just grateful to have working tunes, even if there's a little more effort involved. It's nice to pull up your iPad, see all the stations, pick one, turn up and down the volume easily, etc. :)
When it was time to go home, we started off at FL220. The weather had formed back up and was building up storms, the tops of which were sometimes up around FL250, but mostly around FL220. So we climbed up to FL240, which is as high as I can go in the 340 without supplemental oxygen. Our cabin altitude was 10,500' for awhile, with the "cabin altitude" alert on (anything above 10,000'). We passed over the storms, and then descended down for an ILS 23 into Kokomo. It wasn't super low, just good practice.
I landed, got fuel in the 340, had a little dinner, came home to work on pictures and Steve and I are helping Kaylee with an assignment she got stuck on. In fact, I need to go do that now. So...see ya. Enjoy some pictures from today. :)
The plane pulled out and ready to go in the early morning
A demonstration on how Kaylee would socially distance with a couple friends, 6' apart or more.
Pretty clouds on the way there
It's a white world
Coming in to land, neat clouds, mountains
Charlottesville, Virginia
Time to concentrate now. ;)
The weather we flew over on the way home
In between layers on the way home
Just pretty
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Champing
You have to love a day where it's 77 degrees and sunny. At least *I* do. The wind was (is) blowing pretty good today too, but not enough to stop us from accomplishing our mission for the day.
Steve met with a new person interested in starting to fly as soon as this is all lifted. I took him a sandwich out at the airport for when he was done. We have had a Champ at Kokomo that belongs at Westfield, the grass strip down by Indy. Nobody has been able to fly it even solo, which they could have been doing, because it's been stuck up here. So today while the weather was decent, that was my job, to get it 'home'. It was also important to do today because we're supposed to get a lot of rain tonight and tomorrow, which means the grass strip will get sloppy again for a little while. At least the plane will be there and ready to go for whenever the weather and conditions allow now. It's gusty today, and bumpy, with winds up between 20-25 knots. It was right down Kokomo's runway, which makes it about a 50 degree crosswind from Westfield's runway. Good times. :)
Steve was my chase plane, in the 172. It made me smile seeing him flying around off my wing. I could SEE him thinking about messing with me, cutting me off on final, but he decided not to. He later said he was thinking about it, but decided that would just make me have to go around in a slow plane, and he'd end up on the ground waiting on me, so he left me alone. ;) It was windy enough that I came down final 20 mph fast, and high, and when I got close, I pulled power out, and it came down like an elevator and stopped within just a few feet on the runway. Lightweight fabric airplanes are fun in the wind. :)
I pushed the Champ away, tied it down, got it all ready for the next fella, and then Steve flew us home. He ended up meeting with another person right afterwards, and I went through the car wash and came on home, to do usual house chores of dishes, changing the bedding, you know, stuff.
Tonight I have to plan out a trip for tomorrow to Charlottesville, Virginia. I leave at 7 am, weather permitting, and that IS a question. It's supposed to rain and be yucky tomorrow, but the bigger problem is that tonight late a big line of storms is supposed to move through, including early tomorrow morning, and will likely be in the way tomorrow between here and there. So I have to get up at 5:30 am or so to check weather and get ready and see if we can make it. It'll be in the 340, so not as many options for altitude for getting over weather, but...we'll see. Maybe it'll fizzle out and just be rain.
Steve met with a new person interested in starting to fly as soon as this is all lifted. I took him a sandwich out at the airport for when he was done. We have had a Champ at Kokomo that belongs at Westfield, the grass strip down by Indy. Nobody has been able to fly it even solo, which they could have been doing, because it's been stuck up here. So today while the weather was decent, that was my job, to get it 'home'. It was also important to do today because we're supposed to get a lot of rain tonight and tomorrow, which means the grass strip will get sloppy again for a little while. At least the plane will be there and ready to go for whenever the weather and conditions allow now. It's gusty today, and bumpy, with winds up between 20-25 knots. It was right down Kokomo's runway, which makes it about a 50 degree crosswind from Westfield's runway. Good times. :)
Steve was my chase plane, in the 172. It made me smile seeing him flying around off my wing. I could SEE him thinking about messing with me, cutting me off on final, but he decided not to. He later said he was thinking about it, but decided that would just make me have to go around in a slow plane, and he'd end up on the ground waiting on me, so he left me alone. ;) It was windy enough that I came down final 20 mph fast, and high, and when I got close, I pulled power out, and it came down like an elevator and stopped within just a few feet on the runway. Lightweight fabric airplanes are fun in the wind. :)
I pushed the Champ away, tied it down, got it all ready for the next fella, and then Steve flew us home. He ended up meeting with another person right afterwards, and I went through the car wash and came on home, to do usual house chores of dishes, changing the bedding, you know, stuff.
Tonight I have to plan out a trip for tomorrow to Charlottesville, Virginia. I leave at 7 am, weather permitting, and that IS a question. It's supposed to rain and be yucky tomorrow, but the bigger problem is that tonight late a big line of storms is supposed to move through, including early tomorrow morning, and will likely be in the way tomorrow between here and there. So I have to get up at 5:30 am or so to check weather and get ready and see if we can make it. It'll be in the 340, so not as many options for altitude for getting over weather, but...we'll see. Maybe it'll fizzle out and just be rain.
Kaylee's homemade chocolate cupcakes with whipped peanut butter frosting.
I was trying to get a scared look on my face and stall the plane with the "bacon saver" on the wing showing it was stalled, but it is just not working. The angle doesn't look like what it is, the bacon saver is too far away, and my face doesn't look scared. No good. ;)
Cruising
I'm on a long final for Runway 18, Westfield. See it down there?
Old school grass strip taxiway
A view from the car wash. You're welcome. ;)
Look at all the pretty colors...
Things I don't post publicly.
Monday, April 27, 2020
Texas Turnaround
My schedule got all messed up. I was up until 4 am the night before last, so I set my alarm for 9 am and made myself stay awake all day so I could get to bed at a reasonable hour since I had to get up at 7:30 this morning for my trip. It worked, and I've been doing all right, actually.
Steve and I dropped off my car at Mark's first thing this morning, to get rid of the "check tire pressure" warning we couldn't get rid of without help, and reset the "check engine" light that didn't need to be on. That meant I had to get up half an hour earlier, but I did want to get those done. He then dropped me at the airport, I got the Cheyenne ready and pulled out, and waited a few until my passengers arrived.
Three guys, an owner of the company, his coworker, and Dustin. Dustin only came along because he desperately wanted to. lol We went out at 28,000', we were above all the rain and turbulence, and it was a smooth ride that lasted about 2.5 hours. The sky was pretty empty. They gave me an arrival anyway, but sent me direct to a fix that wasn't on the arrival. It was one of those local habits, I pull up the arrival on the GPS and it doesn't have that fix, and if I plug in that fix and then the arrival, it doesn't work because they don't intersect. But the written portion of the arrival had one line on it saying "From xxxxx, heading 230 to xxxxx, thence expect vectors to..." That first waypoint isn't even depicted on the arrival anywhere, but they reference it in writing in one line at the bottom. Like...good grief. They like to keep me on my toes even on a quiet day.
We dropped off the two fellows and unloaded all their baggage. I'd tankered in cheap fuel from Kokomo, so we only needed about 45 gallons/side to get home. They required a 100 gallon purchase to not charge a landing fee, so I made it 50 gallons/side of expensive fuel, which worked out about perfect. While they were topping us off, Dustin and I took the Mercedes courtesy car, one of five (thus the expensive fuel, eh?), and once we figured out how to put it in drive, we drove to "Fast Furious Japanese Grill", which is like Taku that they prepare right in front of you and you take with you in takeout containers. Steak & Shrimp, and it was GOOD, by the way. There were signs on the door that nobody was allowed inside without a mask. We didn't have that. So I went back to the car, and Dustin went in with his t-shirt pulled up over his mouth and nose, and they let him do it. Lol
We went up to 35,000' on the way home, as the best combination of least amount of fuel burned and fastest time home both. Once we got settled in and cruising, I finished my food and Dustin took the radios. We played with his GDL 52 for the 340, and it worked great. It was about 2 hours and 20 minutes home, no real tailwind help, but it wasn't bad either way. About halfway home I got the question from ATC that I don't think I've ever failed to get if I'm at or above 35,000'. "I didn't know Cheyennes could go that high?" "Yes, the service ceiling is 410." "Huh!!" Still amuses me.
Steve had to come get me so we could go pick up my car. A side trip to Hydration Station on the way home, picking up some supplies shipped in to Glenndale, and home. I still don't know what day I'm going to Virginia, but that flight is definitely 'on' as of now, in the 340. Then next week I go back to Texas to pick up the two I just dropped off, and at the end of this week, I do some Champ instruction. Looking forward to all of it.
Steve and I dropped off my car at Mark's first thing this morning, to get rid of the "check tire pressure" warning we couldn't get rid of without help, and reset the "check engine" light that didn't need to be on. That meant I had to get up half an hour earlier, but I did want to get those done. He then dropped me at the airport, I got the Cheyenne ready and pulled out, and waited a few until my passengers arrived.
Three guys, an owner of the company, his coworker, and Dustin. Dustin only came along because he desperately wanted to. lol We went out at 28,000', we were above all the rain and turbulence, and it was a smooth ride that lasted about 2.5 hours. The sky was pretty empty. They gave me an arrival anyway, but sent me direct to a fix that wasn't on the arrival. It was one of those local habits, I pull up the arrival on the GPS and it doesn't have that fix, and if I plug in that fix and then the arrival, it doesn't work because they don't intersect. But the written portion of the arrival had one line on it saying "From xxxxx, heading 230 to xxxxx, thence expect vectors to..." That first waypoint isn't even depicted on the arrival anywhere, but they reference it in writing in one line at the bottom. Like...good grief. They like to keep me on my toes even on a quiet day.
We dropped off the two fellows and unloaded all their baggage. I'd tankered in cheap fuel from Kokomo, so we only needed about 45 gallons/side to get home. They required a 100 gallon purchase to not charge a landing fee, so I made it 50 gallons/side of expensive fuel, which worked out about perfect. While they were topping us off, Dustin and I took the Mercedes courtesy car, one of five (thus the expensive fuel, eh?), and once we figured out how to put it in drive, we drove to "Fast Furious Japanese Grill", which is like Taku that they prepare right in front of you and you take with you in takeout containers. Steak & Shrimp, and it was GOOD, by the way. There were signs on the door that nobody was allowed inside without a mask. We didn't have that. So I went back to the car, and Dustin went in with his t-shirt pulled up over his mouth and nose, and they let him do it. Lol
We went up to 35,000' on the way home, as the best combination of least amount of fuel burned and fastest time home both. Once we got settled in and cruising, I finished my food and Dustin took the radios. We played with his GDL 52 for the 340, and it worked great. It was about 2 hours and 20 minutes home, no real tailwind help, but it wasn't bad either way. About halfway home I got the question from ATC that I don't think I've ever failed to get if I'm at or above 35,000'. "I didn't know Cheyennes could go that high?" "Yes, the service ceiling is 410." "Huh!!" Still amuses me.
Steve had to come get me so we could go pick up my car. A side trip to Hydration Station on the way home, picking up some supplies shipped in to Glenndale, and home. I still don't know what day I'm going to Virginia, but that flight is definitely 'on' as of now, in the 340. Then next week I go back to Texas to pick up the two I just dropped off, and at the end of this week, I do some Champ instruction. Looking forward to all of it.
A selfie in a bathroom mirror is not generally my style. But I couldn't fit in this shirt last time I tried it on, and I wanted to see a full body shot.
My Japanese at FL350
Just a normal view out the window, nothing special...except I got to be in an airplane today, which right now feels kind of special.
That's how many pounds of fuel it took to go from Kokomo to Dallas and back.
Big Nosed Betty
Friday, April 24, 2020
End of the Week
There are 5 days left in April. Actually, this month sort of seemed to go faster, believe it or not. March took about 10 years, but April hasn't been that bad.
I got too cocky on the headaches. Yesterday I woke up with a little one and got rid of it, but I felt icky all day anyway. This morning I woke up at 6 am with one that wasn't going to go away. It's 'funny' how I can tell when it's one of 'those'. I wake up, and there's just this tiny little spot I can feel on the right side. It doesn't even hurt. I could breathe fine, my head was fine, there's just this spot. And then the spot grows and the right side of my nose plugs up. It goes downhill from there. So I took some medicine and went back to bed, and when I got back up at 10 am I was in perfect form.
It was a gorgeous day, so sunny and warm, and light winds, and I just didn't have it in me to go out to the airport still. It's foolish, because it's going to be iffy weather for awhile now. I took a shower, I did my 25th day straight of Spanish, I got my exercise in, I even went to the store to pick up groceries, the post office to pick up our mail, and to CVS to pick up Ann's medicine. I just didn't feel like taking up an airplane. It's been two weeks since I flew, and the only time two weeks go by in between flights is if I had some death virus for that long, I'm at Oshkosh for that long, or occasionally over Christmas back when we used to travel to see folks over Christmas. So, something is wrong with me, for sure, because nothing is stopping me from going up, and I don't feel like it. :o
Today is Richard's birthday. Some of our trees out front are just starting their blooms, so I picked just a small blossom cluster from each to give Ann, as she is missing him extra today. Cathy sent us lots of pictures of all of us from back when the kids were little, lots of pictures of the cousins and crazy uncle Steve and Grandpa too.
Kaylee made homemade ice cream tonight, with bananas and oat milk and peanut butter with walnuts and chocolate chips. I enjoyed it!
Tonight at 8 pm, the film makers of the CAF Rise Above: WASP video/movie did an hour long live Facebook streaming video of the production of the video. They did a nice job talking about all of it, but of course, it was kind of fun hearing them mention my name and talk about the fly-by, and how low it was, and the actresses and film crew's reaction, and ruining the first take when I went by, by everybody cheering and laughing, even the professional crew who was supposed to know better. Gave me a smile for the evening. :)
I got too cocky on the headaches. Yesterday I woke up with a little one and got rid of it, but I felt icky all day anyway. This morning I woke up at 6 am with one that wasn't going to go away. It's 'funny' how I can tell when it's one of 'those'. I wake up, and there's just this tiny little spot I can feel on the right side. It doesn't even hurt. I could breathe fine, my head was fine, there's just this spot. And then the spot grows and the right side of my nose plugs up. It goes downhill from there. So I took some medicine and went back to bed, and when I got back up at 10 am I was in perfect form.
It was a gorgeous day, so sunny and warm, and light winds, and I just didn't have it in me to go out to the airport still. It's foolish, because it's going to be iffy weather for awhile now. I took a shower, I did my 25th day straight of Spanish, I got my exercise in, I even went to the store to pick up groceries, the post office to pick up our mail, and to CVS to pick up Ann's medicine. I just didn't feel like taking up an airplane. It's been two weeks since I flew, and the only time two weeks go by in between flights is if I had some death virus for that long, I'm at Oshkosh for that long, or occasionally over Christmas back when we used to travel to see folks over Christmas. So, something is wrong with me, for sure, because nothing is stopping me from going up, and I don't feel like it. :o
Today is Richard's birthday. Some of our trees out front are just starting their blooms, so I picked just a small blossom cluster from each to give Ann, as she is missing him extra today. Cathy sent us lots of pictures of all of us from back when the kids were little, lots of pictures of the cousins and crazy uncle Steve and Grandpa too.
Kaylee made homemade ice cream tonight, with bananas and oat milk and peanut butter with walnuts and chocolate chips. I enjoyed it!
Tonight at 8 pm, the film makers of the CAF Rise Above: WASP video/movie did an hour long live Facebook streaming video of the production of the video. They did a nice job talking about all of it, but of course, it was kind of fun hearing them mention my name and talk about the fly-by, and how low it was, and the actresses and film crew's reaction, and ruining the first take when I went by, by everybody cheering and laughing, even the professional crew who was supposed to know better. Gave me a smile for the evening. :)
Thursday, April 23, 2020
Dreary
Let's see. Random stuff.
EAA put a post up on Facebook that they will be deciding May 15th one way or the other. Like I said, I highly doubt they'll do Oshkosh this year, but that will be the day we know for sure.
It also hit the news today that the widow has sued the city of Kokomo, the airport, and the worker for misfueling the Aerostar that killed Dan in October. That took longer than expected, but it was certainly expected.
On Monday I have a Merrell Bros flight to Dallas. Hopefully I remember how. Which reminds me, I need to go out to Kokomo and fuel up the Cheyenne for the trip before Monday.
I didn't get my walking in today. In fact, I walked under 1000 steps so far all day. I was wiped out today. I didn't break my Spanish streak though. I think I'm on Day 24. THAT I can do sitting down. ;)
Steve has returned a couple of calls from guys who want to start taking flying lessons as soon as we can, so that's promising. One of them was a 300 lb man who wants to get his light sport certificate though, because he's diabetic among other things, and, well, that one's not going to pan out I'm sure. He really wants to do it, but odds are that he won't be able to get in the Champ and get the stick back, which is a non-starter right there. Also, he won't be able to take a checkride, because there are no 80 lb examiners anywhere around to keep him within weight and balance legally in those airplanes, and they don't look the other way any more. Even if they did, they don't look the other way THAT much. Big man needs a big airplane. But at least there are still a couple people interested in pursuing flying, at the moment. If we can get back to it before it's too late.
Illinois just extended their "stay at home" through basically June. Indiana has said they'd follow along with their neighbors, which is obviously Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and sort of nearby Wisconsin. Wisconsin has also extended to basically June. Ohio and Michigan are set to expire May 1. I don't know yet what Indiana or Kentucky will do. Indiana currently goes through April 30th, and the governor said he won't release all restrictions May 1st, but does plan on starting to open up. Crossing fingers that this is done smartly and safely, that people don't lose their minds and do stupid stuff to get us all in trouble. Restaurants can open with limited and tables farther apart, movie theaters can open with limited and spaced seating, etc. And high risk folks can continue to protect themselves. This is a long week as we wait to see what's happening.
THIS is an interesting site, on the likely infection rate of a person. Obviously it fluctuates day by day, but Indiana has been 'green' or under 1.0 for about 2 weeks, so that's a good thing. It was down at .7 the other day, back up to .9 right now, normal fluctuations, but still good. You can read the site for more info if you're interested.
Kaylee's financial aid package just came in for next semester, and she qualified for scholarships for all but a couple thousand dollars, and for that she qualified for a subsidized loan. That's a good one for us to put in her name and build her credit, too. So that was good news. We're still not pleased that the school only reimbursed 20% of her room & board, which means that whole food package, where they aren't even OUT anything, they aren't giving back. Makes me not want to put the money down for another food package next semester. Apparently Purdue is doing the same thing, and some students are suing them for the rest of their unused room & board. I don't know if they just need enough people to complain, or if there is some other reason they're not giving the unused portion back, or if they're just trying to be cheap, or what. But anyway, the good news is that she is in good standing, got good grades, and her scholarships are there to cover her tuition next semester too. Where she'd better be on campus with Mer as her roommate in a triple occupancy room on a floor with several friends. That's the plan. Got it?? :)
EAA put a post up on Facebook that they will be deciding May 15th one way or the other. Like I said, I highly doubt they'll do Oshkosh this year, but that will be the day we know for sure.
It also hit the news today that the widow has sued the city of Kokomo, the airport, and the worker for misfueling the Aerostar that killed Dan in October. That took longer than expected, but it was certainly expected.
On Monday I have a Merrell Bros flight to Dallas. Hopefully I remember how. Which reminds me, I need to go out to Kokomo and fuel up the Cheyenne for the trip before Monday.
I didn't get my walking in today. In fact, I walked under 1000 steps so far all day. I was wiped out today. I didn't break my Spanish streak though. I think I'm on Day 24. THAT I can do sitting down. ;)
Steve has returned a couple of calls from guys who want to start taking flying lessons as soon as we can, so that's promising. One of them was a 300 lb man who wants to get his light sport certificate though, because he's diabetic among other things, and, well, that one's not going to pan out I'm sure. He really wants to do it, but odds are that he won't be able to get in the Champ and get the stick back, which is a non-starter right there. Also, he won't be able to take a checkride, because there are no 80 lb examiners anywhere around to keep him within weight and balance legally in those airplanes, and they don't look the other way any more. Even if they did, they don't look the other way THAT much. Big man needs a big airplane. But at least there are still a couple people interested in pursuing flying, at the moment. If we can get back to it before it's too late.
Illinois just extended their "stay at home" through basically June. Indiana has said they'd follow along with their neighbors, which is obviously Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and sort of nearby Wisconsin. Wisconsin has also extended to basically June. Ohio and Michigan are set to expire May 1. I don't know yet what Indiana or Kentucky will do. Indiana currently goes through April 30th, and the governor said he won't release all restrictions May 1st, but does plan on starting to open up. Crossing fingers that this is done smartly and safely, that people don't lose their minds and do stupid stuff to get us all in trouble. Restaurants can open with limited and tables farther apart, movie theaters can open with limited and spaced seating, etc. And high risk folks can continue to protect themselves. This is a long week as we wait to see what's happening.
THIS is an interesting site, on the likely infection rate of a person. Obviously it fluctuates day by day, but Indiana has been 'green' or under 1.0 for about 2 weeks, so that's a good thing. It was down at .7 the other day, back up to .9 right now, normal fluctuations, but still good. You can read the site for more info if you're interested.
Kaylee's financial aid package just came in for next semester, and she qualified for scholarships for all but a couple thousand dollars, and for that she qualified for a subsidized loan. That's a good one for us to put in her name and build her credit, too. So that was good news. We're still not pleased that the school only reimbursed 20% of her room & board, which means that whole food package, where they aren't even OUT anything, they aren't giving back. Makes me not want to put the money down for another food package next semester. Apparently Purdue is doing the same thing, and some students are suing them for the rest of their unused room & board. I don't know if they just need enough people to complain, or if there is some other reason they're not giving the unused portion back, or if they're just trying to be cheap, or what. But anyway, the good news is that she is in good standing, got good grades, and her scholarships are there to cover her tuition next semester too. Where she'd better be on campus with Mer as her roommate in a triple occupancy room on a floor with several friends. That's the plan. Got it?? :)
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Briefly
The furnace part didn't work, so alas, we will have to get a new furnace and A-coil. At this point we'll probably just wait until it gets cold again late Fall. The air conditioner part works. But the air conditioner coil, or A-coil, is under the furnace, and if you buy the new furnace and install it without putting in a new A-coil, odds are the A-coil will fail next, and you'll have to uninstall the whole furnace again just to replace it. So they always say, if you replace the furnace, replace the A-coil at the same time. So be it.
Kaylee had another Final today, said she thought it went fine. She's been in decent spirits lately. Her weighted blanket came in, and she likes it. Says it's heavy enough that if you're restless in bed at night, it sort of prevents you from tossing around, and she thinks that helps her sleep better.
Nothing else new today. Laundry. Dishes. Spanish lessons. Exercise. Dinner. Paperwork for the CAF. Paperwork for the business. Answer some email questions. Feed the cats. Add water to the coffee maker. Watch SEAL Team and SWAT. Surf Facebook. Look at the pretty day outside and don't even look at the weather to see if it's good enough to fly because it isn't going to happen. Shower anyway. Stuff.
Kaylee had another Final today, said she thought it went fine. She's been in decent spirits lately. Her weighted blanket came in, and she likes it. Says it's heavy enough that if you're restless in bed at night, it sort of prevents you from tossing around, and she thinks that helps her sleep better.
Nothing else new today. Laundry. Dishes. Spanish lessons. Exercise. Dinner. Paperwork for the CAF. Paperwork for the business. Answer some email questions. Feed the cats. Add water to the coffee maker. Watch SEAL Team and SWAT. Surf Facebook. Look at the pretty day outside and don't even look at the weather to see if it's good enough to fly because it isn't going to happen. Shower anyway. Stuff.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Tuesday's Triumphs?
I have an aunt that I unfriended on Facebook a long time ago because she was terrible on FB, posting like 30-40 times in a row, filling up my news feed, before we had "unfollow", playing games and inviting me to them, dozens a day, all sorts of stuff. She obviously had a *LOT* of time on her hands. Well, she re-friend-requested me a couple times, and I felt bad, so I accepted her the other day. So far the news feed hasn't been bad, but she has a new habit that confuses me. Whenever I post on my own wall, she will share it on Messenger--to me. She sends me a copy of my own post in a private message. Every single time. So today I asked her why. She hasn't answered me yet. lol Stop it!!
My weight fluctuated up by several pounds over the last two/three days, and I tried to ignore it as a normal fluctuation, but by today I couldn't stand it any more. :p It hadn't really done that so much in the last month or so; I'd gotten lucky, I know. Hopefully it goes back down to where it belongs soon. I know I didn't eat that many excessive calories, so it's gotta be normal fluctuations. I'm just ready for it to fluctuate back down where it belongs. ;) No headaches either. I'll take it as a win!
Kaylee is in the middle of "Finals Week", and she's up there taking tests and doing papers and finishing up. She said she has one class that was extended to next week, but other than that, she'll be done from her first semester of college by Friday. It's nice having her around, and not just because she randomly makes homemade banana cake with cream cheese frosting. I enjoy her company. Even if she's forced to be here against her will. ;)
So Ann's cardiology appointment went well over the phone. We stayed apart and I put the doc on speakerphone. We learned something that makes sense--a pacemaker would help if her heart rate was dropping too low, but it won't stop it from getting too high, and her issue is the heart rate going too high. They control high heart rates with medication, and low heart rates with the pacemaker. So for now, they are adjusting her medicine in the morning and we'll see if that does the trick on keeping her heart rate down a little more, more often. She's really been doing well these last several weeks though!
The part for our furnace finally got here, so Steve is over there right now changing it out. We'll see if that does the trick or not, shortly. Actually maybe we won't. Steve says it's not an easy job, requires a drill, and he might not feel like it tonight. We'll see. :D
The cats' fleas are gone right now. He sprinkled the yard and around the house with anti-flea stuff, and I keep crushing up a pill and feeding it to them. That pill seems to be more effective than the drops I put on the back of their necks, FrontLine, and the FrontLine was more effective than the collar, which did zilch. But their coats are growing back in, they don't have big bumps all over them, and hopefully we've got the right combination to keep them flea free now. We even let them outside on these beautiful days lately. They love it, and are much happier again.
We had a bit of a good news day. We had applied for a small business loan, the SBA loan. We pretty much gave up on it, as they ran out of money quickly, and had come back and said instead of the original $10,000 everyone applied for, they were only going to give $1,000 per employee, with a max of ten. Well, we don't have that many employees, of course. But Steve sent in an application, and today our business bank account showed up with a new direct deposit. Not the full on amount, but everything helps. So that was a nice little bonus and assist, especially as we were sending out refund checks this week to a couple people, and hangar rent and insurance are due! It was like...a break. We caught a break! Woo hoo! :)
I took the picture I posted on Facebook, also below, on our deck, before going next door today. I didn't end up needing to wear it for long, as Ann stayed about 6' away, and I just had it on speakerphone vs the Facetime meeting I thought we were doing, sitting next to each other. So that worked out safer anyway. But I'm posting these pictures as side by side comparison. I know they're not the best "before" pictures to choose because of the difference in lighting, angle, that my face is covered in this one and I'm not smiling, all sorts of stuff. But I don't have a lot of photos of myself face on without sunglasses, and I think they get the point across. The first two are from December 2019, and the third is from today, right about 4 months later.
My eyes are a lot more clear and alert, not as tired.
My weight fluctuated up by several pounds over the last two/three days, and I tried to ignore it as a normal fluctuation, but by today I couldn't stand it any more. :p It hadn't really done that so much in the last month or so; I'd gotten lucky, I know. Hopefully it goes back down to where it belongs soon. I know I didn't eat that many excessive calories, so it's gotta be normal fluctuations. I'm just ready for it to fluctuate back down where it belongs. ;) No headaches either. I'll take it as a win!
Kaylee is in the middle of "Finals Week", and she's up there taking tests and doing papers and finishing up. She said she has one class that was extended to next week, but other than that, she'll be done from her first semester of college by Friday. It's nice having her around, and not just because she randomly makes homemade banana cake with cream cheese frosting. I enjoy her company. Even if she's forced to be here against her will. ;)
So Ann's cardiology appointment went well over the phone. We stayed apart and I put the doc on speakerphone. We learned something that makes sense--a pacemaker would help if her heart rate was dropping too low, but it won't stop it from getting too high, and her issue is the heart rate going too high. They control high heart rates with medication, and low heart rates with the pacemaker. So for now, they are adjusting her medicine in the morning and we'll see if that does the trick on keeping her heart rate down a little more, more often. She's really been doing well these last several weeks though!
The part for our furnace finally got here, so Steve is over there right now changing it out. We'll see if that does the trick or not, shortly. Actually maybe we won't. Steve says it's not an easy job, requires a drill, and he might not feel like it tonight. We'll see. :D
The cats' fleas are gone right now. He sprinkled the yard and around the house with anti-flea stuff, and I keep crushing up a pill and feeding it to them. That pill seems to be more effective than the drops I put on the back of their necks, FrontLine, and the FrontLine was more effective than the collar, which did zilch. But their coats are growing back in, they don't have big bumps all over them, and hopefully we've got the right combination to keep them flea free now. We even let them outside on these beautiful days lately. They love it, and are much happier again.
We had a bit of a good news day. We had applied for a small business loan, the SBA loan. We pretty much gave up on it, as they ran out of money quickly, and had come back and said instead of the original $10,000 everyone applied for, they were only going to give $1,000 per employee, with a max of ten. Well, we don't have that many employees, of course. But Steve sent in an application, and today our business bank account showed up with a new direct deposit. Not the full on amount, but everything helps. So that was a nice little bonus and assist, especially as we were sending out refund checks this week to a couple people, and hangar rent and insurance are due! It was like...a break. We caught a break! Woo hoo! :)
I took the picture I posted on Facebook, also below, on our deck, before going next door today. I didn't end up needing to wear it for long, as Ann stayed about 6' away, and I just had it on speakerphone vs the Facetime meeting I thought we were doing, sitting next to each other. So that worked out safer anyway. But I'm posting these pictures as side by side comparison. I know they're not the best "before" pictures to choose because of the difference in lighting, angle, that my face is covered in this one and I'm not smiling, all sorts of stuff. But I don't have a lot of photos of myself face on without sunglasses, and I think they get the point across. The first two are from December 2019, and the third is from today, right about 4 months later.
Monday, April 20, 2020
Baaaack to Monday
Quiet Monday. As expected, the governor of Indiana extended the stay-at-home until May 1st. So breaking from two weeks and going to 10 days. ;)
A student of mine is in on conference conversations with IU, Purdue, etc. trying to figure out what to do in the Fall. They don't know how not to go back to school, and they don't know how to go back to school without cramming a bunch of kids together and making the virus spike again. I'm not going to tell Kaylee this yet. If she doesn't go back in the Fall, I may have a despondent kid on my hands. We'd rather not bother paying a lot of money for her to sit on my couch and do a couple classes on her laptop. We're not thrilled to be getting back 20% of her several-thousand-dollar room and board when she was only there 54% of the semester. Like I said, we were supposed to "flatten the curve", not "eradicate the virus", which we can't do within 2 years if then. So let's carefully and gently start up again. The data shows Indiana pretty well clear with an extremely low rate of infection by early May. So hopefully by August it won't be an issue to go back to school in Indiana.
The news says tonight that domestic violence calls are up 70-110% in nearby areas due to people being without jobs, without income, being stressed, and being locked inside with others. Suicide rates are drastically up as well as depression and other mental health issues. There is more than one way to count cost, and lost lives count when they're lost in other ways, too.
I ordered a weighted blanket for Kaylee, which came in today. It's a 12 lb blanket. Normally the good ones are very expensive-this one was originally $130. I got it for $35. Not too shabby! She'd been interested in having one to sleep with, as she has such trouble with sleeping. Thought maybe it would help. We'll see. She likes it so far. She's in "Finals Week" right now, the last week of her freshman semester at "college". She's going to be applying for a job at Big Ben's Coffee Shop after school is out here. I think I said that already. I might have said all the above already, I don't remember. It's not like I have a lot going on right now to talk about, so pardon me. ;)
Yesterday when the temps went up, my eyes were watering, my throat was scratchy, and my head was filling up. This is normally when I wake up with a headache. I didn't. Woo hoo. :) If I get by without a headache tomorrow morning too, I'll know I'm better than I used to be.
Steve worked outside and inside both today. Kaylee had classes and a final. I called a couple doctors and cleaned up inside and had a couple email conversations. Scintillating. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Windy again. Too windy to Champ fly. I have a virtual doctor call with Ann, and...a book to read?
A student of mine is in on conference conversations with IU, Purdue, etc. trying to figure out what to do in the Fall. They don't know how not to go back to school, and they don't know how to go back to school without cramming a bunch of kids together and making the virus spike again. I'm not going to tell Kaylee this yet. If she doesn't go back in the Fall, I may have a despondent kid on my hands. We'd rather not bother paying a lot of money for her to sit on my couch and do a couple classes on her laptop. We're not thrilled to be getting back 20% of her several-thousand-dollar room and board when she was only there 54% of the semester. Like I said, we were supposed to "flatten the curve", not "eradicate the virus", which we can't do within 2 years if then. So let's carefully and gently start up again. The data shows Indiana pretty well clear with an extremely low rate of infection by early May. So hopefully by August it won't be an issue to go back to school in Indiana.
The news says tonight that domestic violence calls are up 70-110% in nearby areas due to people being without jobs, without income, being stressed, and being locked inside with others. Suicide rates are drastically up as well as depression and other mental health issues. There is more than one way to count cost, and lost lives count when they're lost in other ways, too.
I ordered a weighted blanket for Kaylee, which came in today. It's a 12 lb blanket. Normally the good ones are very expensive-this one was originally $130. I got it for $35. Not too shabby! She'd been interested in having one to sleep with, as she has such trouble with sleeping. Thought maybe it would help. We'll see. She likes it so far. She's in "Finals Week" right now, the last week of her freshman semester at "college". She's going to be applying for a job at Big Ben's Coffee Shop after school is out here. I think I said that already. I might have said all the above already, I don't remember. It's not like I have a lot going on right now to talk about, so pardon me. ;)
Yesterday when the temps went up, my eyes were watering, my throat was scratchy, and my head was filling up. This is normally when I wake up with a headache. I didn't. Woo hoo. :) If I get by without a headache tomorrow morning too, I'll know I'm better than I used to be.
Steve worked outside and inside both today. Kaylee had classes and a final. I called a couple doctors and cleaned up inside and had a couple email conversations. Scintillating. Tomorrow is Tuesday. Windy again. Too windy to Champ fly. I have a virtual doctor call with Ann, and...a book to read?
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Sunny Sunday
I had placed a small grocery order 4 days ago for pickup at Kroger, which I got today. Interesting thing there was they only had one substitution, and it was that they didn't have my "steam in the bag" sweet corn, just the kind you have to put in a dish and cook yourself. Well, I can handle that. Everything else I ordered, they had. So it's starting to look like just maybe the grocery store madness may be finally fading.
The furnace on our deck blew a fuse. We need that to keep the cats warm enough on the deck. So right as I was leaving, Steve gave me the fuse and asked if I'd be willing to stop at Lowe's to pick up another fuse. My hair was both flat and frizzy at the same time, I was in glasses, and yoga pants, and not planning on going inside anywhere, just driving up to Kroger and home. But I thought...well, okay, we need the fuse, how bad can it be. When I pulled up to Lowe's, there was hardly an empty parking spot. Lowe's was Packed Out. Like...wow. That was busier than any store I've seen in town to date. I was able to go inside, do a self checkout, and leave, and only touch the fuses I bought. So that was good. But the fuses, they didn't look exactly like the one I had. I had two options, and both were 30 amps and 250 volts, and I didn't know which one to get. I called Steve but he was mowing the lawn and didn't hear me. I texted him pictures of the two options and then when he didn't get back to me, I asked the kid that was stocking that aisle. He knew less than I did. So I made my best guess and went with it. When I got home, I told Steve that you don't send your wife to something like a hardware store for something she knows nothing about, and not be there for backup. ;) Fortunately I got the correct ones, and the heater on the deck is working again. The cats are welcome.
However, the unpleasant thing that happened, was I of course ran into an airport guy in the store. Looking like a homeless woman, and probably an angry one, I look up and there he is. We both smile and say hi and he keeps walking, we don't converse, which is good, because I'm really embarrassed. Steve keeps saying "You look fine, always!" That's 24 years of marriage talking, because trust me, I did not look 'fine'. I looked like a 48 year old woman with frizzy flat hair and old lady glasses in yoga pants. :p Oh well.
Tonight Steve cooked up my last two big 10 oz fillet steaks that Walt had sent us. And I had corn, and rolls, and it was really good. For dessert, Kaylee made us a banana cake. Like banana bread only cake, with a cream cheese, yogurt, powdered sugar frosting. It was really good, and we all had two pieces of it. I sprinkled walnuts on my 2nd piece. Even better.
I'm on a 20 day streak of doing my Spanish app lessons. Just 10 minutes a day, so that doens't add up to a lot of time, but like I said, I'm picking up a few things here and there.
I wanted to take Kaylee out flying or driving today, but neither she nor I had it in us. It's funny, sometimes it's a beautiful day and I don't want to waste it. But we were at the airport a lot yesterday, she drove the Vette a lot, I was out there moving around airplanes, Steve too, and at the end of the day, we were really tired. Woke up today and I just didn't feel like going out and being super busy again. A state of entropy from this whole quarantine thing? It's hard to get back in motion? Every once in awhile it feels really good to be in motion, and then it's like...boom. Done. I feel like sitting inside and looking out the window on a beautiful day. What a waste. But what can you do. I did my Spanish, I got in my exercise, I picked up groceries (and a fuse), I helped cook a meal, I did dishes and two loads of laundry, I just didn't feel like going flying. And that's when I know something's wrong, especially since it's been more than a week since I did. But it would have required a shower. And more effort than I cared to put into it. Which is wrong, but true. And Kaylee didn't feel like it either, so...so be it.
I did learn that the beach shots showed by the media were old pictures from before all this. A drone went by over the beach after it opened and showed a much more deserted area, with people spaced apart. But that, the truth, the real story, wouldn't have fit into the media narrative nearly as well, so they had to show old crowded pictures to make sure people would be outraged. Kinda like when they used footage of Italy in their hospital scenes when talking about the US, because it looked worse. They admitted that one, by the way. So wonderful, love it when the media...aw, forget it.
They said on the news tonight that per the data, the governor should be able to *start* opening up the state around May 25th, which is over a month from now. I saw other government/scientific data, which I can't find again right now, on the risk factors. It said Indiana's risk 2 weeks from now will be very low, a tiny fraction of 1%. 2020 has been a freak of a year. I read a thing that said:
"Imagine if 10 years ago you were approached by a time traveler, and he was like 'Look, I don't have much time to explain; all I can tell you is that the year 2020 is going to be wild. You know Donald Trump, the star of The Apprentice? Well, he's the President of the United States and at the beginning of 2020 he gets into a Twitter beef with Iran that has people yelling about WWIII. Australia catches fire, the entire country. Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash. Half the world is devastated, the other half just makes messed up memes. Tom Brady actually leaves the Patriots to play for the Buccaneers, and just when the world starts recovering, some dude in China eats a freaking bat and starts a global pandemic. Everyone loses their minds. 40% of the population thinks it's the end of the world, another 40% thinks it's all no big deal, and 20% blames the whole thing on cell phone towers. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the only way to survive is by hoarding toilet paper. Grocery stores are ransacked and Charmin Ultra Soft essentially replaces the dollar as the US currency. Eventually as hysteria grows, world governments are forced to shut the entire planet down and lock everyone in their homes...and...the only person that can keep people from completely losing their minds and starting a riot is a homosexual gun-toting Oklahoma man with two husbands, a meth addiction, and 223 pet tigers. And that was all before SPRING!'" (If you don't know who "The Tiger King" is, you don't want to know, this description ought to cover it for you. ;)) But honestly, that's funny because it's true. What an insane first 4 months of the year we've had.
The furnace on our deck blew a fuse. We need that to keep the cats warm enough on the deck. So right as I was leaving, Steve gave me the fuse and asked if I'd be willing to stop at Lowe's to pick up another fuse. My hair was both flat and frizzy at the same time, I was in glasses, and yoga pants, and not planning on going inside anywhere, just driving up to Kroger and home. But I thought...well, okay, we need the fuse, how bad can it be. When I pulled up to Lowe's, there was hardly an empty parking spot. Lowe's was Packed Out. Like...wow. That was busier than any store I've seen in town to date. I was able to go inside, do a self checkout, and leave, and only touch the fuses I bought. So that was good. But the fuses, they didn't look exactly like the one I had. I had two options, and both were 30 amps and 250 volts, and I didn't know which one to get. I called Steve but he was mowing the lawn and didn't hear me. I texted him pictures of the two options and then when he didn't get back to me, I asked the kid that was stocking that aisle. He knew less than I did. So I made my best guess and went with it. When I got home, I told Steve that you don't send your wife to something like a hardware store for something she knows nothing about, and not be there for backup. ;) Fortunately I got the correct ones, and the heater on the deck is working again. The cats are welcome.
However, the unpleasant thing that happened, was I of course ran into an airport guy in the store. Looking like a homeless woman, and probably an angry one, I look up and there he is. We both smile and say hi and he keeps walking, we don't converse, which is good, because I'm really embarrassed. Steve keeps saying "You look fine, always!" That's 24 years of marriage talking, because trust me, I did not look 'fine'. I looked like a 48 year old woman with frizzy flat hair and old lady glasses in yoga pants. :p Oh well.
Tonight Steve cooked up my last two big 10 oz fillet steaks that Walt had sent us. And I had corn, and rolls, and it was really good. For dessert, Kaylee made us a banana cake. Like banana bread only cake, with a cream cheese, yogurt, powdered sugar frosting. It was really good, and we all had two pieces of it. I sprinkled walnuts on my 2nd piece. Even better.
I'm on a 20 day streak of doing my Spanish app lessons. Just 10 minutes a day, so that doens't add up to a lot of time, but like I said, I'm picking up a few things here and there.
I wanted to take Kaylee out flying or driving today, but neither she nor I had it in us. It's funny, sometimes it's a beautiful day and I don't want to waste it. But we were at the airport a lot yesterday, she drove the Vette a lot, I was out there moving around airplanes, Steve too, and at the end of the day, we were really tired. Woke up today and I just didn't feel like going out and being super busy again. A state of entropy from this whole quarantine thing? It's hard to get back in motion? Every once in awhile it feels really good to be in motion, and then it's like...boom. Done. I feel like sitting inside and looking out the window on a beautiful day. What a waste. But what can you do. I did my Spanish, I got in my exercise, I picked up groceries (and a fuse), I helped cook a meal, I did dishes and two loads of laundry, I just didn't feel like going flying. And that's when I know something's wrong, especially since it's been more than a week since I did. But it would have required a shower. And more effort than I cared to put into it. Which is wrong, but true. And Kaylee didn't feel like it either, so...so be it.
I did learn that the beach shots showed by the media were old pictures from before all this. A drone went by over the beach after it opened and showed a much more deserted area, with people spaced apart. But that, the truth, the real story, wouldn't have fit into the media narrative nearly as well, so they had to show old crowded pictures to make sure people would be outraged. Kinda like when they used footage of Italy in their hospital scenes when talking about the US, because it looked worse. They admitted that one, by the way. So wonderful, love it when the media...aw, forget it.
They said on the news tonight that per the data, the governor should be able to *start* opening up the state around May 25th, which is over a month from now. I saw other government/scientific data, which I can't find again right now, on the risk factors. It said Indiana's risk 2 weeks from now will be very low, a tiny fraction of 1%. 2020 has been a freak of a year. I read a thing that said:
"Imagine if 10 years ago you were approached by a time traveler, and he was like 'Look, I don't have much time to explain; all I can tell you is that the year 2020 is going to be wild. You know Donald Trump, the star of The Apprentice? Well, he's the President of the United States and at the beginning of 2020 he gets into a Twitter beef with Iran that has people yelling about WWIII. Australia catches fire, the entire country. Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash. Half the world is devastated, the other half just makes messed up memes. Tom Brady actually leaves the Patriots to play for the Buccaneers, and just when the world starts recovering, some dude in China eats a freaking bat and starts a global pandemic. Everyone loses their minds. 40% of the population thinks it's the end of the world, another 40% thinks it's all no big deal, and 20% blames the whole thing on cell phone towers. The one thing that everyone seems to agree on is that the only way to survive is by hoarding toilet paper. Grocery stores are ransacked and Charmin Ultra Soft essentially replaces the dollar as the US currency. Eventually as hysteria grows, world governments are forced to shut the entire planet down and lock everyone in their homes...and...the only person that can keep people from completely losing their minds and starting a riot is a homosexual gun-toting Oklahoma man with two husbands, a meth addiction, and 223 pet tigers. And that was all before SPRING!'" (If you don't know who "The Tiger King" is, you don't want to know, this description ought to cover it for you. ;)) But honestly, that's funny because it's true. What an insane first 4 months of the year we've had.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Saturday's Plethora of People
The biggest problem with having the appropriate freedoms and rights is that the world is so full of dolts that ruin it for everyone else. They open Florida's beaches, and what happens? People swamp them. People do protests where they clump up tight in big numbers together, unprotected. I don't have a problem protesting something you disagree with, but 1) don't block traffic or cause people problems who are not part of what you're trying to protest, whether it's ANTIFA or these guys, I don't care, and 2) getting yourself and 500 other people sick right now at the peak infection rate time frame is the best way to drag this out and make it worse for everyone. So I want my rights and freedoms, and I'm willing to argue for them, fight if need be, but boy, some herds of people make it super easy for some in power to take away those rights for 'the greater good', also thanks to other people who "I don't care about personal rights, take them all, you need to save me no matter what". What a mess.
Having said all that, I said somewhere that I hadn't even seen my friends in over a month. That was true up until today. It wasn't planned, and everyone stayed 6' apart, nobody was coughing or feeling puny or had even been anywhere else, nobody touched each other, and I used enough hand washing and sanitizer today to make my hands dry, but it was a beautiful day, and one at a time, for one reason or another, under ten of us all ended up at the airport at the same time. Steve and Kaylee drove the Corvette out there, then out on the roads. (He found a hill to have her practice on too. Not a big one, but big enough she had to work at it, so that was good.) I went out to go fly with her, but it didn't end up happening because it was gusty and windy today. Nathan went out there to work on the Aerostar's annual. Chuck came out because he hasn't left his home in a month and he's going nuts and wanted some fresh air. Glenn Antoine came out to go fly the RG and saw the rest of us were out there. Jerry Long was out there to work on some stuff for the Saratoga. Ron Beachy was out there working on the wingtip of the Champ for awhile. Jessie Clement flew in in his Cub and waved from a distance. The Wilds had a party going on over at their place, 4 or 5 cars, all the aerobatic planes were going up and doing aerobatics. We never saw them in person, never got on the same side of the airport even, but you could see the planes out and about. It was the first nice day we've had in a bit, and obviously people came out in numbers. Apart from each other.
We also had an unofficial running of the C-45 for the first time in a couple years. We're going to have an official first running a little bit later, but for now we wanted to make sure it would run before having everyone come out, have a party, (after the lock down of course), and then have it have problems. So Steve pulled out the 340, I pulled out the Cheyenne, Nathan pulled out BOB, and then he fired it up. The first time he had to shut it down because the left engine oil pressure wasn't rising. So we checked the oil, added a little more, and ran it again. The right engine didn't want to start at all, maybe a primer issue, but once it did get running, she sounded good. He ran it for a little while, ran it up a little bit, tested out the feathering and unfeathering buttons, checked over the gauges and stuff, and then shut it back down. It was really nice to see the white smoke blowing out the back, hear the two radials run. Ahhhhhh
Then Nathan put away BOB, and I put away the 340 and the Cheyenne, and Chuck went home to take a nap, and Jerry went home, and Ron went home, and Steve and Nathan and I shut everything up and reluctantly went home.
Today was the first time I've needed to get gas in my car since this really started. That Buick gets amazing gas mileage. I had gloves, tossed them afterwards. I'll be good to go another month at this rate of driving.
One of our friends posted that they're starting plans for Nonkosh. I thought that was good. NotKosh.
Kaylee sat down with Steve and I today and discussed visiting a nutritionist over the summer. She went once, got a lot out of it, and wants to keep going. So she's going to get a part time summer job, hopefully at Ben's Coffee Shop in town, to help cover the costs (insurance doesn't and it's not cheap). She has a friend who works there, says the owner could use the help, and will get her an application/meeting. She's actually looking forward to it, too. Learning how to make different coffee, interacting with customers, making money. The downside is the store opens at 7 am and she's so upside down on her schedule right now that she's going to bed around 4-5 am and sleeping until noon. So that'll be a challenge. Steve said the only requirement he has on the nutritionist is that she's not allowed to become vegan. She informed us that her nutritionist is a woman who is also a hunter. She hunts all sorts of meat, and uses every bit of it. So, Steve's biggest fears were allayed. ;)
Kaylee wrote up a "Letter of Persuasion" on this. She's only done that a couple times, but it started when she was little and wanted an iPod Touch. She did her homework. Wrote out a letter to her dad about what she wanted, and why, and what her plan was. I helped her with the first one a little, because she was young, and I suggested she remove the line "It's my money", because, at age 11 or whatever it was, no, it really isn't. :D She did remove that line, and was more respectful, and he was so blown away by the logical, thorough research and presentation, that he one-upped it. She didn't get the iPod Touch, because that was just an iPhone without the phone. So he just got her her first phone, with strict rules on how to use it. So anytime something is big or important to her, she'll write out her thoughts on paper so she can organize them, be logical, do research, and come up with a plan. It's only been maybe two times before today. So that's what she did with this, successfully. It's actually a pretty good life skill to learn too. :)
These are the pictures from today. I can't post them on Facebook because this didn't happen today. The CAF guys want to be there for the "First Run-Up". So...they will be. Now that we know it'll run. ;)
Having said all that, I said somewhere that I hadn't even seen my friends in over a month. That was true up until today. It wasn't planned, and everyone stayed 6' apart, nobody was coughing or feeling puny or had even been anywhere else, nobody touched each other, and I used enough hand washing and sanitizer today to make my hands dry, but it was a beautiful day, and one at a time, for one reason or another, under ten of us all ended up at the airport at the same time. Steve and Kaylee drove the Corvette out there, then out on the roads. (He found a hill to have her practice on too. Not a big one, but big enough she had to work at it, so that was good.) I went out to go fly with her, but it didn't end up happening because it was gusty and windy today. Nathan went out there to work on the Aerostar's annual. Chuck came out because he hasn't left his home in a month and he's going nuts and wanted some fresh air. Glenn Antoine came out to go fly the RG and saw the rest of us were out there. Jerry Long was out there to work on some stuff for the Saratoga. Ron Beachy was out there working on the wingtip of the Champ for awhile. Jessie Clement flew in in his Cub and waved from a distance. The Wilds had a party going on over at their place, 4 or 5 cars, all the aerobatic planes were going up and doing aerobatics. We never saw them in person, never got on the same side of the airport even, but you could see the planes out and about. It was the first nice day we've had in a bit, and obviously people came out in numbers. Apart from each other.
We also had an unofficial running of the C-45 for the first time in a couple years. We're going to have an official first running a little bit later, but for now we wanted to make sure it would run before having everyone come out, have a party, (after the lock down of course), and then have it have problems. So Steve pulled out the 340, I pulled out the Cheyenne, Nathan pulled out BOB, and then he fired it up. The first time he had to shut it down because the left engine oil pressure wasn't rising. So we checked the oil, added a little more, and ran it again. The right engine didn't want to start at all, maybe a primer issue, but once it did get running, she sounded good. He ran it for a little while, ran it up a little bit, tested out the feathering and unfeathering buttons, checked over the gauges and stuff, and then shut it back down. It was really nice to see the white smoke blowing out the back, hear the two radials run. Ahhhhhh
Then Nathan put away BOB, and I put away the 340 and the Cheyenne, and Chuck went home to take a nap, and Jerry went home, and Ron went home, and Steve and Nathan and I shut everything up and reluctantly went home.
Today was the first time I've needed to get gas in my car since this really started. That Buick gets amazing gas mileage. I had gloves, tossed them afterwards. I'll be good to go another month at this rate of driving.
One of our friends posted that they're starting plans for Nonkosh. I thought that was good. NotKosh.
Kaylee sat down with Steve and I today and discussed visiting a nutritionist over the summer. She went once, got a lot out of it, and wants to keep going. So she's going to get a part time summer job, hopefully at Ben's Coffee Shop in town, to help cover the costs (insurance doesn't and it's not cheap). She has a friend who works there, says the owner could use the help, and will get her an application/meeting. She's actually looking forward to it, too. Learning how to make different coffee, interacting with customers, making money. The downside is the store opens at 7 am and she's so upside down on her schedule right now that she's going to bed around 4-5 am and sleeping until noon. So that'll be a challenge. Steve said the only requirement he has on the nutritionist is that she's not allowed to become vegan. She informed us that her nutritionist is a woman who is also a hunter. She hunts all sorts of meat, and uses every bit of it. So, Steve's biggest fears were allayed. ;)
Kaylee wrote up a "Letter of Persuasion" on this. She's only done that a couple times, but it started when she was little and wanted an iPod Touch. She did her homework. Wrote out a letter to her dad about what she wanted, and why, and what her plan was. I helped her with the first one a little, because she was young, and I suggested she remove the line "It's my money", because, at age 11 or whatever it was, no, it really isn't. :D She did remove that line, and was more respectful, and he was so blown away by the logical, thorough research and presentation, that he one-upped it. She didn't get the iPod Touch, because that was just an iPhone without the phone. So he just got her her first phone, with strict rules on how to use it. So anytime something is big or important to her, she'll write out her thoughts on paper so she can organize them, be logical, do research, and come up with a plan. It's only been maybe two times before today. So that's what she did with this, successfully. It's actually a pretty good life skill to learn too. :)
These are the pictures from today. I can't post them on Facebook because this didn't happen today. The CAF guys want to be there for the "First Run-Up". So...they will be. Now that we know it'll run. ;)
The start of the wingtip repair. We joke that a bird strike happened on the back of the wing.
(That's a slow airplane joke).
BOB
Glenn, standing by a fire extinguisher, socially distant, like me. ;)
She looks good. HE looks good? It looks good.
Nathan pushing it away into the hangar.
Just a few seconds of engine running goodness.
Friday, April 17, 2020
End of Another Week
It was a more productive day than yesterday. I mean, for one thing
So there is that. ;)
I still didn't get my exercise in, though I got 3 times the number of steps from yesterday. Progress counts.
Spanish lessons complete for the day. I drink, you drink, he drinks. Got it! Soy una mujer. Yes I am.
Steve's Jeep was done from maintenance. This one was more costly than anticipated. The frame had corrosion after all these years, and he got a good quote from an honest guy, and they found more than expected, but it's all fixed up now. So our grand outing for the day included the following. 1) Pick up mail from the PO Box. 2) Pick up a box from Glenndale. (We can't get shipments at our house. We have no covered porch, so weather would be a factor, and no doorbell, and theft would be pretty much guaranteed most of the time (except possibly right now as we're home, but nothing is set up for home). We don't get anything at the house. And things can't be delivered and left at Kokomo. So Glenndale it is. Works great--until right now). 3) Pick up the Jeep from the welder. 4) Go back home.
I need gas in my car now too, but it was dreary, cold and rainy, and tomorrow looks better, and Ann has had another prescription come in to be picked up. They used to all come in at once, but not any more. If I'd have known another was coming in so close together, I'd have waited and picked them all up at once, but we didn't know. So, so be it, I'll grab the next one in the CVS drive-through tomorrow, no problem. :)
Kaylee is writing a paper tonight on four factors of salvation, based off of the TV show "The Good Place". Sounds funny, but Steve read it and said she did an excellent, deep job on it. She had to submit it by 11 pm. She got it done at 10 pm. That's about right. Maybe even early for her. And I thought *I* was a procrastinator!
Her friend asked her if she wanted to Zoom chat, and Kaylee's phone autocorrected her response to "I'd like to but I'm writing a peepee." Of course she meant paper, but it was much funnier that way.
A pilot we know was flying a Bonanza from Metro to Cincinnati, and lost his engine, and landed on a highway. He got really lucky, because there were big wires, trees, and hills all around, and because of COVID, there was almost no traffic on the highway. He totaled the plane, got both wingtips, the nosewheel collapsed, and the front hit a concrete barrier too. But he was able to walk away completely uninjured. He was flying it to the airport for maintenance, but I don't know what kind of maintenance. Also don't know what caused the engine failure yet. Glad he's okay.
Some other memes that I appreciated today.
I still didn't get my exercise in, though I got 3 times the number of steps from yesterday. Progress counts.
Spanish lessons complete for the day. I drink, you drink, he drinks. Got it! Soy una mujer. Yes I am.
Steve's Jeep was done from maintenance. This one was more costly than anticipated. The frame had corrosion after all these years, and he got a good quote from an honest guy, and they found more than expected, but it's all fixed up now. So our grand outing for the day included the following. 1) Pick up mail from the PO Box. 2) Pick up a box from Glenndale. (We can't get shipments at our house. We have no covered porch, so weather would be a factor, and no doorbell, and theft would be pretty much guaranteed most of the time (except possibly right now as we're home, but nothing is set up for home). We don't get anything at the house. And things can't be delivered and left at Kokomo. So Glenndale it is. Works great--until right now). 3) Pick up the Jeep from the welder. 4) Go back home.
I need gas in my car now too, but it was dreary, cold and rainy, and tomorrow looks better, and Ann has had another prescription come in to be picked up. They used to all come in at once, but not any more. If I'd have known another was coming in so close together, I'd have waited and picked them all up at once, but we didn't know. So, so be it, I'll grab the next one in the CVS drive-through tomorrow, no problem. :)
Kaylee is writing a paper tonight on four factors of salvation, based off of the TV show "The Good Place". Sounds funny, but Steve read it and said she did an excellent, deep job on it. She had to submit it by 11 pm. She got it done at 10 pm. That's about right. Maybe even early for her. And I thought *I* was a procrastinator!
Her friend asked her if she wanted to Zoom chat, and Kaylee's phone autocorrected her response to "I'd like to but I'm writing a peepee." Of course she meant paper, but it was much funnier that way.
A pilot we know was flying a Bonanza from Metro to Cincinnati, and lost his engine, and landed on a highway. He got really lucky, because there were big wires, trees, and hills all around, and because of COVID, there was almost no traffic on the highway. He totaled the plane, got both wingtips, the nosewheel collapsed, and the front hit a concrete barrier too. But he was able to walk away completely uninjured. He was flying it to the airport for maintenance, but I don't know what kind of maintenance. Also don't know what caused the engine failure yet. Glad he's okay.
Some other memes that I appreciated today.
Kinda true, and also made me laugh
Definitely true, and also made me nod.
No question just true. ;)
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Thursday
This was a slow day. I intended on going flying. I intended on seeing if Kaylee wanted to go. I didn't even end up taking a shower. Even though the weather was nice, even though we're going to get 1-2" of snow tomorrow. I just didn't have it in me today. Instead I asked for favors or wrote business emails to about 5 different people, one of my least favorite things to do. I didn't get my exercise in either. I did get my Spanish practice. I'm on a streak, 17 days. ;)
Interesting times. The SBA loan ran out of money basically 2 days into the applications per a friend who applied for one the day they announced, his bank got it sent in 3 days after it opened up, and is today told he's out of luck. Wow! The city of Kokomo had a small business loan program as well. They announced it April 8th, and said you had until mid-July to file an application. Today they sent out a thing saying that they were out of money and that anyone who sent in an application after the 12th would be out of luck but they'd keep your application on file in case something else came up. So instead of the original 3-4 months, they lasted 3-4 days. Lol
On a personal level, there are good things.
The T-6 annual is basically done, they just need to clean the panels and put it back together, do a run-up, and sign it off. That'll require a return to maintenance flight. It's first event was May 15-16, the TBM Avengers Gathering, where the Aeroshell team was coming too, and I was going to give rides. That of course has been postponed until "TBD". But it'll be good to have it up in case someone needs instruction or something.
Howard County extended the "stay at home" "Code Orange Travel Restrictions" until May 4th. The State of Indiana's governor will surely extend the state's restrictions, which are supposed to end on Monday, as well. That's not the good part. The good part is, we're done. After this next two week restriction, we're going to open the flight school back up. We'll do it carefully. We'll have procedures. We've discussed it with all the instructors, and all are ready to go. One to two may have wives who don't allow them to go back, we'll see. ;) No students will be forced to go, no CFIs will be forced to go, but we will be open for those who want to. So far I already have 4 flights with students scheduled for the first week of May. Let's go. Anyone who is high risk, compromised, or even just afraid, should most certainly keep themselves quarantined and safe, and do what is best for them.
MBros owner needs to get to Dallas and be dropped off, then picked up about a week later. He has life-long lung issues, is high risk for mortality if he catches COVID, and doesn't want to risk spending much time driving with all the stops, or airlines, and even the 340 requires fuel stops that far. So later this month I'll have two Cheyenne trips to Dallas.
The President brought up a three phase process to reopen the country, up to each state governor on timing and such. Kaylee will be thrilled to see Phase I includes opening restaurants with certain restrictions. lol Our governor said he's thinking "early May" for lifting the state-wide restrictions. I wonder if the county will beat that a little or not, and how many will be left standing in the end. We shall see. Hopefully almost all of 'em.
I am going to contact Jordan about flying the Twin Beech. I know they left their flight school open this whole time, so I doubt he'll balk at it. Their county is like Howard County, super low on "bad" numbers. Indy also kept their flight schools open, but they're in the middle of a hot zone, 611 new cases in one day today. Didn't seem so wise to me. I don't know if they're STILL open, but I didn't hear that they closed. Anyway, I got side-tracked. I'm going to contact Jordan about flying, and I think he'll be willing to do it, which gives me something fun and different to look forward to.
Tomorrow looks like we're going to get maybe 1-2" of snow, or maybe sleet, or maybe rain, or maybe it'll miss us altogether because we're on the edge of it. But in any event, it'll be a stay indoors kind of day. Mostly. I AM going to go pick up my candles that came in from my Children's Christian Academy school fundraiser from 3 months ago. They let me know they'd be there, and that if I was available I could come get them, one person at a time in the office, sanitized, etc. If I wasn't available, they would arrange another time. I'm like...available? It'll be my one big grand adventure for the entire day!
All of these things are progress, *something* positive to look forward to. We've flattened the curve. The goal was never to stop the virus, something you can't do without full on testing, a fully working safe vaccine, and about two years' time. The goal was to "flatten the curve" so as to not overwhelm the medical system, but rather have people exposed at a slower rate. That has been done here. Just like flu season, the most vulnerable need to protect themselves further. The SMA families have been doing it their entire lives, this is nothing new to them. *I've* been there, when Devon was here. The virus is here and going to be here. The exposure needs to happen, build immunity, and a 98-99% survival rate, with 85% experiencing none, mild, or some moderate symptoms. Again, then the most vulnerable need to stay protected until a vaccine can be produced. The day the only time I hear "flatten the curve" is on a triva game show question about "The Great Pandemic of 2020" and not in the news or on my feed, I will be so delighted...
Interesting times. The SBA loan ran out of money basically 2 days into the applications per a friend who applied for one the day they announced, his bank got it sent in 3 days after it opened up, and is today told he's out of luck. Wow! The city of Kokomo had a small business loan program as well. They announced it April 8th, and said you had until mid-July to file an application. Today they sent out a thing saying that they were out of money and that anyone who sent in an application after the 12th would be out of luck but they'd keep your application on file in case something else came up. So instead of the original 3-4 months, they lasted 3-4 days. Lol
On a personal level, there are good things.
The T-6 annual is basically done, they just need to clean the panels and put it back together, do a run-up, and sign it off. That'll require a return to maintenance flight. It's first event was May 15-16, the TBM Avengers Gathering, where the Aeroshell team was coming too, and I was going to give rides. That of course has been postponed until "TBD". But it'll be good to have it up in case someone needs instruction or something.
Howard County extended the "stay at home" "Code Orange Travel Restrictions" until May 4th. The State of Indiana's governor will surely extend the state's restrictions, which are supposed to end on Monday, as well. That's not the good part. The good part is, we're done. After this next two week restriction, we're going to open the flight school back up. We'll do it carefully. We'll have procedures. We've discussed it with all the instructors, and all are ready to go. One to two may have wives who don't allow them to go back, we'll see. ;) No students will be forced to go, no CFIs will be forced to go, but we will be open for those who want to. So far I already have 4 flights with students scheduled for the first week of May. Let's go. Anyone who is high risk, compromised, or even just afraid, should most certainly keep themselves quarantined and safe, and do what is best for them.
MBros owner needs to get to Dallas and be dropped off, then picked up about a week later. He has life-long lung issues, is high risk for mortality if he catches COVID, and doesn't want to risk spending much time driving with all the stops, or airlines, and even the 340 requires fuel stops that far. So later this month I'll have two Cheyenne trips to Dallas.
The President brought up a three phase process to reopen the country, up to each state governor on timing and such. Kaylee will be thrilled to see Phase I includes opening restaurants with certain restrictions. lol Our governor said he's thinking "early May" for lifting the state-wide restrictions. I wonder if the county will beat that a little or not, and how many will be left standing in the end. We shall see. Hopefully almost all of 'em.
I am going to contact Jordan about flying the Twin Beech. I know they left their flight school open this whole time, so I doubt he'll balk at it. Their county is like Howard County, super low on "bad" numbers. Indy also kept their flight schools open, but they're in the middle of a hot zone, 611 new cases in one day today. Didn't seem so wise to me. I don't know if they're STILL open, but I didn't hear that they closed. Anyway, I got side-tracked. I'm going to contact Jordan about flying, and I think he'll be willing to do it, which gives me something fun and different to look forward to.
Tomorrow looks like we're going to get maybe 1-2" of snow, or maybe sleet, or maybe rain, or maybe it'll miss us altogether because we're on the edge of it. But in any event, it'll be a stay indoors kind of day. Mostly. I AM going to go pick up my candles that came in from my Children's Christian Academy school fundraiser from 3 months ago. They let me know they'd be there, and that if I was available I could come get them, one person at a time in the office, sanitized, etc. If I wasn't available, they would arrange another time. I'm like...available? It'll be my one big grand adventure for the entire day!
All of these things are progress, *something* positive to look forward to. We've flattened the curve. The goal was never to stop the virus, something you can't do without full on testing, a fully working safe vaccine, and about two years' time. The goal was to "flatten the curve" so as to not overwhelm the medical system, but rather have people exposed at a slower rate. That has been done here. Just like flu season, the most vulnerable need to protect themselves further. The SMA families have been doing it their entire lives, this is nothing new to them. *I've* been there, when Devon was here. The virus is here and going to be here. The exposure needs to happen, build immunity, and a 98-99% survival rate, with 85% experiencing none, mild, or some moderate symptoms. Again, then the most vulnerable need to stay protected until a vaccine can be produced. The day the only time I hear "flatten the curve" is on a triva game show question about "The Great Pandemic of 2020" and not in the news or on my feed, I will be so delighted...
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Hump Day's Business
The big adventures of the day included taking a shower and getting ready, and reading a book. Steve actually did stuff. He contacted some of our customers and told them he was removing the monthly dues charge from their accounts, and he called them to ask how they were doing, and let some of them know they didn't need to worry about making payments right now. Others he sent a bill out like "Hey, um, you can pay this." lol We have one student who just got his Private not too long ago who fell off a ladder 25' up, and landed on a concrete wall top, fell off that and hit the ground. To repeat, from 25' up. He had multiple bone fractures. Both wrists, his arm, his hip or leg, and he also broke his neck and his back. AND HE'S FINE. I mean, he's not FINE. But he had no head injuries, no concussion, and he was not paralyzed by either neck or back fracture. He has bolts and plates and all sorts of hardware pinning together his bones all through him, but he will be okay. He was released from the hospital Thursday afternoon. First thing Friday morning, his first call was to Steve, worried about his medical and about if he was going to be able to fly again. (Yes, you bet). I laughed and said that's how you know a true aviation addict. He's a good guy, and I hope he's healed up soon with minimal after effects!
This afternoon, Kaylee came with me for the errand/supply run of the day. We went over to Panera to pick up soup and salad for four of us, then tried Starbucks to get a coffee, but nobody was there, so I went to another Starbucks, and it was shut down too, which is weird. Who has heard of Starbucks being closed on a Wednesday afternoon? So I went to Coffee Junkeez, and got a banana cream latte that was *amazing*. Kaylee got a toasted marshmallow latte which was good but not quite as good as mine. From there we stopped at CVS, where I did have to go inside to pick up milk for both me & Ann, and her medicine that just came in. We drove out to Glenndale to pick up two more boxes of ours that came in, and then came home for the day. And that was our grand adventure.
Kaylee got me hooked on something today both terrible and awesome at the same time. It's going to sound gross to you, possibly, but it's amazing. My madagascr vanilla almond oatmeal, made thick. Take a Ben & Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough "slice", which is a dark chocolate covered disk of their chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and break it up into the oatmeal. The heat melts the chocolate coating so now you have chocolaty oatmeal, and there are ice cream clumps, and little balls of soft cookie dough, and it's the best new thing I've eaten in...um...the first time I had fresh ahi tuna I felt that way, and the first time I had Outback's Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. This will be in my life forever. It's the most delicious, rich, creamy treat I've run across in ages. Kroger carries both that type of oatmeal and those Ben & Jerry slices (I can't find them many other places). If you ever try it, you're welcome.
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Tuesday Beats Monday
I had a busy morning. I stopped at CVS by the house, to pick up a medicine, and was excited to find both toilet paper and Diet Mt Dew, both things which my grocery order didn't have. *Score*. Next I deposited some cash into our bank account, on my way out to Glenndale to pick up our packages. Kitty litter, bottled water, that kind of supplies. It was all heavy, and there was a lot of it! From there I went out to Wal-Mart, to pick up my grocery order that I'd put in 4 days prior. While I waited for them to come out with my food, I did my daily Spanish lesson, DuoLingo. Now that's multi-tasking! ;) They only had 1 gallon of milk for me, when I needed 2, one for us and one for Ann, but at least they had one. They didn't have my oatmeal, and replaced Ann's 3 boxes of "Family Sized" Cheerios with SIX boxes of regular Cheerios. Haha. Oh well. Actually, though, all in all, we did get the majority of what we ordered, so that was great! Now I just have to go somewhere to get milk. I actually think CVS probably had some, so tomorrow when I have to go back to pick up another medicine that just came in, I'll see if I can grab some then, and the oatmeal will just have to wait.
From Wal-Mart, I stopped at McDonald's drive-thru for lunch. I haven't had fast food in a long time, which is weird for me. lol I was really enjoying the fries, and I had made sure to sanitize my hands after any interaction with any public surface including even the bag from McDonald's. That's fine until you lick your fingers from french fry salt and they taste like hand sanitizer. Really blew my french fry euphoria. (I don't care about fries most of the time, but I love McDonald's version-I think they sprinkle addictive stuff on them.)
When I got home, I had a ton to unload. A lot of bags of groceries for both households, and there were about 6 big boxes in there too. Once I got the bags in, I changed clothes, and had to sanitize the groceries, especially the stuff going next door. Put all our stuff away, wipe down everything I touched, take the stuff next door, and then the adventure was done being out and about for the day. The rest of the day I did some bill paying, online banking, cleaned the stove top, did the dishes again (HOW do we end up with so many dishes for 3 people?? Oh yeah, we're eating at home for every single meal and snack for a month straight and counting, even if we order in now and then.)
I just unfriended two people who were ranting that if you saw someone socializing in groups larger than ten, call the cops on them because who cares if they're annoyed, lives are at stake. You can see from the above that I'm careful, and I haven't even seen most of my friends in a month, because they don't FaceTime or Zoom. We're not getting together. But it is not against the law to make choices other people don't agree with, or to not follow "recommendations", or even to not be smart, and if you're the type of person who would call the cops on someone for being out with 'too many' people, you are not the type of person I need as a friend, either virtually or in real life. Yes, I feel that strongly about that. It really does feel like "Brown Shirts" to me. Neighbors spying on neighbors and turning each other in if they go against the government? Ugh. You wanna do something, go up to them and tell them (from 6' away) that you feel they are risking their health and whomever else they come in contact with. But the police?? Ugh.
I'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, other than a CVS medicine & milk run. It's so weird right now, this being in limbo stuff. Kaylee and I were up until 3 am talking about stuff. I didn't wake up until 9:45 am. That's late for me, but still only about 6.5 hours of sleep.
It seemed like a good idea to donate blood, something I can do, even though nothing is happening right now that is requiring that around here. So I went to their website, and pulled up their local drives, and they didn't have a single time slot available to donate for two places, all day long. I thought, okay, they obviously do not need my O- right now after all. Fine by me, I'll keep my blood! Besides, I'd been so anemic until recently, it's probably for the best anyway.
Last but not least, weight things. I'm down 20 pounds now. I am having fewer headaches. I still had one not too long ago, but I had been having them a lot more frequently, getting to a point I was concerned about the rate of medicines I was having to take, and getting concerned about it in general. Now it's been awhile since I woke up with that stuffed-right-side-of-the-head feeling, or woke up in the middle of the night with the beginnings of a headache that I end up fighting all day. Also I have been feeling SO much more energetic again. I'm not exhausted all the time, I'm not napping during the day, I don't wake up feeling like I never slept. I'm alert, and sharp, not fuzzy and muddled and forgetful. I swear, it felt like I had cotton in my head half the time, blocking up my sinuses and slowing down my brain cells. I was starting to feel like I was losing it, and I'm only 48! Now it's easier for me to move around, and be motivated, and get stuff done. I'm lighter on my feet, they don't hurt nearly as much as they used to. I used to wake up in the morning and hobble for the first five minutes because it hurt my feet to start walking on them when I hadn't been on them for awhile. I can fit into my nicer shirts again, mostly, which is nice, and my face isn't as puffy, which just makes me feel relieved. I think some of this is a combination of things. The surgery I had? It was a miracle. I physically feel SO MUCH BETTER. I haven't had any issues, no hemorrhaging, I don't feel anemic right now. I have experience at this, I can usually tell when I am. I'd be curious to do another round of blood tests to prove it, but I don't want to pay that much for my own curiosity. lol So not being anemic helps A Bunch with energy levels and mood and everything else. If you're exhausted all the time, you don't have the energy to exercise, and don't have the energy to want anything but comfort food. Bad combination. The second thing that is weight loss related, is sleep. At some point I crossed over a weight where I had to start wearing Breathe-Right strips to bed, or Steve would hear my trying to suck air through my nose unsuccessfully. I didn't always snore unless my head was the wrong way, but I'd be breathing Super Heavy. He said it sounded like I was trying to suck air through a too-small straw, like I was heavy duty exercising just lying there. It didn't bother him because he can sleep through anything now, but my quality of sleep was bad. I'd wake up a lot, I'd be heavy breathing, sometimes I'd even go to sleep pushing against my nose with my hand to open the airway. So I started the strips, and they really helped. I don't know at what weight I can stop wearing them, but if I breathe in real hard wearing one vs not wearing one, it still sure opens your nasal passageway up better with them. I'm half afraid to try it without one. But it'd be nice to not have to buy any more or go to bed with a clear plastic strip across my nose. So attractive. lol
Mostly I write that out to remind myself that I was here before and let myself gain it back. It's a lot harder and less fun to take it back off than it is to put it back on. And I feel so much more human without even this relatively small amount of extra weight. I'm not going to get down as low as I did before. I'm likely going to stay a bit "overweight" per the BMI calculator, because trying to get under the weight they suggest is what derailed me in frustration last time. I will do this until my body stabilizes and stops losing weight, and then WHEREVER that is, I will attempt to just stay there, and wherever it is, it's better than 20 pounds up was. I'm hoping for 10-15 more, but if it doesn't happen, I'll work on convincing myself that it's okay right there. ;) Besides, I have to remember, I'm not 19 any more. I'm almost a 50 year old woman. (Good Lord.) Doesn't mean I have to go to pot yet, but it also means I'm not going to have bony hip bones and a flat stomach ever again, either. lol
And that's your "more than I asked for" briefing for the day. ;)
From Wal-Mart, I stopped at McDonald's drive-thru for lunch. I haven't had fast food in a long time, which is weird for me. lol I was really enjoying the fries, and I had made sure to sanitize my hands after any interaction with any public surface including even the bag from McDonald's. That's fine until you lick your fingers from french fry salt and they taste like hand sanitizer. Really blew my french fry euphoria. (I don't care about fries most of the time, but I love McDonald's version-I think they sprinkle addictive stuff on them.)
When I got home, I had a ton to unload. A lot of bags of groceries for both households, and there were about 6 big boxes in there too. Once I got the bags in, I changed clothes, and had to sanitize the groceries, especially the stuff going next door. Put all our stuff away, wipe down everything I touched, take the stuff next door, and then the adventure was done being out and about for the day. The rest of the day I did some bill paying, online banking, cleaned the stove top, did the dishes again (HOW do we end up with so many dishes for 3 people?? Oh yeah, we're eating at home for every single meal and snack for a month straight and counting, even if we order in now and then.)
I just unfriended two people who were ranting that if you saw someone socializing in groups larger than ten, call the cops on them because who cares if they're annoyed, lives are at stake. You can see from the above that I'm careful, and I haven't even seen most of my friends in a month, because they don't FaceTime or Zoom. We're not getting together. But it is not against the law to make choices other people don't agree with, or to not follow "recommendations", or even to not be smart, and if you're the type of person who would call the cops on someone for being out with 'too many' people, you are not the type of person I need as a friend, either virtually or in real life. Yes, I feel that strongly about that. It really does feel like "Brown Shirts" to me. Neighbors spying on neighbors and turning each other in if they go against the government? Ugh. You wanna do something, go up to them and tell them (from 6' away) that you feel they are risking their health and whomever else they come in contact with. But the police?? Ugh.
I'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, other than a CVS medicine & milk run. It's so weird right now, this being in limbo stuff. Kaylee and I were up until 3 am talking about stuff. I didn't wake up until 9:45 am. That's late for me, but still only about 6.5 hours of sleep.
It seemed like a good idea to donate blood, something I can do, even though nothing is happening right now that is requiring that around here. So I went to their website, and pulled up their local drives, and they didn't have a single time slot available to donate for two places, all day long. I thought, okay, they obviously do not need my O- right now after all. Fine by me, I'll keep my blood! Besides, I'd been so anemic until recently, it's probably for the best anyway.
Last but not least, weight things. I'm down 20 pounds now. I am having fewer headaches. I still had one not too long ago, but I had been having them a lot more frequently, getting to a point I was concerned about the rate of medicines I was having to take, and getting concerned about it in general. Now it's been awhile since I woke up with that stuffed-right-side-of-the-head feeling, or woke up in the middle of the night with the beginnings of a headache that I end up fighting all day. Also I have been feeling SO much more energetic again. I'm not exhausted all the time, I'm not napping during the day, I don't wake up feeling like I never slept. I'm alert, and sharp, not fuzzy and muddled and forgetful. I swear, it felt like I had cotton in my head half the time, blocking up my sinuses and slowing down my brain cells. I was starting to feel like I was losing it, and I'm only 48! Now it's easier for me to move around, and be motivated, and get stuff done. I'm lighter on my feet, they don't hurt nearly as much as they used to. I used to wake up in the morning and hobble for the first five minutes because it hurt my feet to start walking on them when I hadn't been on them for awhile. I can fit into my nicer shirts again, mostly, which is nice, and my face isn't as puffy, which just makes me feel relieved. I think some of this is a combination of things. The surgery I had? It was a miracle. I physically feel SO MUCH BETTER. I haven't had any issues, no hemorrhaging, I don't feel anemic right now. I have experience at this, I can usually tell when I am. I'd be curious to do another round of blood tests to prove it, but I don't want to pay that much for my own curiosity. lol So not being anemic helps A Bunch with energy levels and mood and everything else. If you're exhausted all the time, you don't have the energy to exercise, and don't have the energy to want anything but comfort food. Bad combination. The second thing that is weight loss related, is sleep. At some point I crossed over a weight where I had to start wearing Breathe-Right strips to bed, or Steve would hear my trying to suck air through my nose unsuccessfully. I didn't always snore unless my head was the wrong way, but I'd be breathing Super Heavy. He said it sounded like I was trying to suck air through a too-small straw, like I was heavy duty exercising just lying there. It didn't bother him because he can sleep through anything now, but my quality of sleep was bad. I'd wake up a lot, I'd be heavy breathing, sometimes I'd even go to sleep pushing against my nose with my hand to open the airway. So I started the strips, and they really helped. I don't know at what weight I can stop wearing them, but if I breathe in real hard wearing one vs not wearing one, it still sure opens your nasal passageway up better with them. I'm half afraid to try it without one. But it'd be nice to not have to buy any more or go to bed with a clear plastic strip across my nose. So attractive. lol
Mostly I write that out to remind myself that I was here before and let myself gain it back. It's a lot harder and less fun to take it back off than it is to put it back on. And I feel so much more human without even this relatively small amount of extra weight. I'm not going to get down as low as I did before. I'm likely going to stay a bit "overweight" per the BMI calculator, because trying to get under the weight they suggest is what derailed me in frustration last time. I will do this until my body stabilizes and stops losing weight, and then WHEREVER that is, I will attempt to just stay there, and wherever it is, it's better than 20 pounds up was. I'm hoping for 10-15 more, but if it doesn't happen, I'll work on convincing myself that it's okay right there. ;) Besides, I have to remember, I'm not 19 any more. I'm almost a 50 year old woman. (Good Lord.) Doesn't mean I have to go to pot yet, but it also means I'm not going to have bony hip bones and a flat stomach ever again, either. lol
And that's your "more than I asked for" briefing for the day. ;)
Monday, April 13, 2020
Easter?
It was the weirdest Easter Sunday I've ever seen.
I got up at 8 am to put a pork loin in the crockpot along with some vegetables and let it slow cook all day. The house smelled delicious most of the day, which was nice. We were able to eat it around 5 pm, and it was falling apart tender. I also ate some Cadbury little mini chocolate eggs. Love those things. I made mac & cheese to go with dinner, just to have another side, but I had potatoes and carrots in the crock pot too. It was all pretty good.
Last night Kaylee made a homemade blueberry pie. A couple days ago she made her own raspberry jam. They were both excellent. Steve wants more pie but he ate his 1/4 of a pie last night, and Kaylee and I only ate 1/8 of a pie last night, so we get our other 1/8 today. He's trying to weasel it out of us by whining. ;)
My Wal-Mart order is scheduled for tomorrow, so we'll see how this goes. I really hope they have most of this stuff. I don't want to start over at another store somewhere else. I can't get my specific oatmeal right now, which is super annoying. I like it for breakfast, along with a handful of fresh walnuts. It's low calorie and tastes good, and is filling. But it's not on store shelves, not available on delivery options, and I have two packets (days) left. I got Richard and Ann hooked on it too, and she eats it every day for breakfast as well. I need to find some soon. Amazon had some for sale, at $10 per box. Normally it's $2.50-$2.75/box. Ridiculous. I have thus far refused to be robbed on oatmeal.
I was supposed to fly a T-6 over to its annual before it went out of annual at the end of the month and required a ferry permit. Unfortunately, the new owner decided he didn't want "a toy airplane" flown at this time, and he'd let it go out of annual and get a ferry permit to get it to annual. Fine. I was going by myself in it, no real worry about exposure to anything, and was looking forward to having something to do. Que Sera.
Our county has had 4 total "COVID-related" deaths. So we seem to be doing pretty well over here, at least. I saw a statistic that they think about 25% of small businesses will be permanently closed from all of this. Know how many people THAT will affect? How many will lose insurance? How many lives will be lost due to other factors from losing everything? How many lives would have been lost if they didn't shut down this hard? We'll never know, because we did, so hopefully it indeed made the difference they claimed. You can be concerned about people medically and still be concerned about people's way of life too. We'd never be NYC. We don't have hoards of people crammed into subways every day traveling around, something they never stopped doing. I mean, no wonder at their numbers. But like I said, hopefully it was worth it here.
Our county commissioners are re-opening a few businesses that shouldn't have really been shut down in the first place. Lawn care businesses (how does a guy mowing a yard outside alone expose everyone else to danger?), dry-cleaning businesses, pet grooming businesses, all smaller things with more limited exposure to customers and easily controlled cleaning/distancing options. I'd think house cleaners could get back to it soon too. Make the people leave the house, mask up, glove up, and you're there to clean anyway.
Steve hasn't had a great day himself. An email problem with a client started the day. Then a person wanting their money back. Then having trouble reaching government officials to get stuff done, and also having trouble reaching medical offices to work on a few things. Just one of those...Mondays.
Guess that's it for today. It's blowing holy wind buckets. Last night an area in S. Carolina lost twice as many people in one hour to a tornado than our county has lost in total to the Wuhan Flu. You never know what it's going to be that "gets" you. Big ugly storms last night down south, so much damage, another airport and a lot of planes wiped out. Tough times everywhere.
Meanwhile, this was the flowering Dogwood tree in front of Ann's house. Planted by Richard and a friend from Delco, praying for all his grandkids while he patted the earth around it.
I got up at 8 am to put a pork loin in the crockpot along with some vegetables and let it slow cook all day. The house smelled delicious most of the day, which was nice. We were able to eat it around 5 pm, and it was falling apart tender. I also ate some Cadbury little mini chocolate eggs. Love those things. I made mac & cheese to go with dinner, just to have another side, but I had potatoes and carrots in the crock pot too. It was all pretty good.
Last night Kaylee made a homemade blueberry pie. A couple days ago she made her own raspberry jam. They were both excellent. Steve wants more pie but he ate his 1/4 of a pie last night, and Kaylee and I only ate 1/8 of a pie last night, so we get our other 1/8 today. He's trying to weasel it out of us by whining. ;)
My Wal-Mart order is scheduled for tomorrow, so we'll see how this goes. I really hope they have most of this stuff. I don't want to start over at another store somewhere else. I can't get my specific oatmeal right now, which is super annoying. I like it for breakfast, along with a handful of fresh walnuts. It's low calorie and tastes good, and is filling. But it's not on store shelves, not available on delivery options, and I have two packets (days) left. I got Richard and Ann hooked on it too, and she eats it every day for breakfast as well. I need to find some soon. Amazon had some for sale, at $10 per box. Normally it's $2.50-$2.75/box. Ridiculous. I have thus far refused to be robbed on oatmeal.
I was supposed to fly a T-6 over to its annual before it went out of annual at the end of the month and required a ferry permit. Unfortunately, the new owner decided he didn't want "a toy airplane" flown at this time, and he'd let it go out of annual and get a ferry permit to get it to annual. Fine. I was going by myself in it, no real worry about exposure to anything, and was looking forward to having something to do. Que Sera.
Our county has had 4 total "COVID-related" deaths. So we seem to be doing pretty well over here, at least. I saw a statistic that they think about 25% of small businesses will be permanently closed from all of this. Know how many people THAT will affect? How many will lose insurance? How many lives will be lost due to other factors from losing everything? How many lives would have been lost if they didn't shut down this hard? We'll never know, because we did, so hopefully it indeed made the difference they claimed. You can be concerned about people medically and still be concerned about people's way of life too. We'd never be NYC. We don't have hoards of people crammed into subways every day traveling around, something they never stopped doing. I mean, no wonder at their numbers. But like I said, hopefully it was worth it here.
Our county commissioners are re-opening a few businesses that shouldn't have really been shut down in the first place. Lawn care businesses (how does a guy mowing a yard outside alone expose everyone else to danger?), dry-cleaning businesses, pet grooming businesses, all smaller things with more limited exposure to customers and easily controlled cleaning/distancing options. I'd think house cleaners could get back to it soon too. Make the people leave the house, mask up, glove up, and you're there to clean anyway.
Steve hasn't had a great day himself. An email problem with a client started the day. Then a person wanting their money back. Then having trouble reaching government officials to get stuff done, and also having trouble reaching medical offices to work on a few things. Just one of those...Mondays.
Guess that's it for today. It's blowing holy wind buckets. Last night an area in S. Carolina lost twice as many people in one hour to a tornado than our county has lost in total to the Wuhan Flu. You never know what it's going to be that "gets" you. Big ugly storms last night down south, so much damage, another airport and a lot of planes wiped out. Tough times everywhere.
Meanwhile, this was the flowering Dogwood tree in front of Ann's house. Planted by Richard and a friend from Delco, praying for all his grandkids while he patted the earth around it.
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