Sunday

Kaylee went to her first in-person church service in a few months today, with Meredith and her family.  Then she & Meredith made up another treat and delivered it to a friend who hasn't been able to get out for awhile.

Steve made us breakfast, then I went out to the airport and flew with a lady in the Champ for an hour.  Next up I took the Saratoga and did a High Performance endorsement with it, the guy flew me to Sheridan where I dropped him off so he could pick up his car, and then flew the Toga back home.  By then it was 4 pm, and I came on home.  Steve and AE were outside around the fire pit, and the cats were outside sunning themselves, so I joined them outside for awhile.  Eventually we got hungry, so Steve and I went to Half Moon for dinner, came home and watched "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade".  All in all, a pretty good day, even if it wasn't a day 'off'.

The Toga right and left

Dulcie chilling in the sun and grass, quite content

Us sitting around the firepit.

Tired

Like I said, busy day, although my last guy canceled on me, so not as busy as it almost was.  I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night.  I fell asleep around 1 am, and then woke up shortly after 4 am, fell asleep again for about an hour, and was busy all day.  I was wiped out!  Melatonin didn't keep me asleep last night.  :)

First up with a long IFR cross country.  It took three hours, and we went to Champaigne, IL, down to Terre Haute, IN, then back to Kokomo, shooting an instrument approach at each place.  I ended up running 30 minutes late for my next student--I knew we'd be tight but then we got delayed a couple times anyway.  So I landed at 12:30, and my next student had the airplane out and ready for me.  I hit the bathroom, and hopped in the Champ to do 3-point landings with the deaf lady.  She's regressed again, and has been having trouble getting any kind of consistency.  She'll do one okay, one really bad, one good, two really bad.  Just over and over.  It's frustrating for both.  She said it took her a ton of landings to get her Private too.  She just has very poor basics, in consistency, pitch attitude, airspeed control, knowing if she's high or low, seemed confused at the thought of using power to fix a bad landing, no idea when she's ballooning too high and needs power or it'll come crashing down in an accident.  Kinda hard to sign somebody off for a tailwheel endorsement when I wouldn't solo them.  She wants to be an instructor, a Sport Pilot instructor.  She has a ways to go to get there, we're doing our best!  After her was a Cirrus pilot working on his tailwheel endorsement.  I think he's about got 3 points down now. Super close.  He's excited and enjoying the flying.   About 6 hours of flying for me today.  I wasn't sorry my last guy canceled, I was pooped.

On the way home, Steve went via downtown, and said there was a protest going on.  They were encroaching on the street, but it was peaceful thus far. Then just after Steve got home, I saw on the Scanner that two pedestrians at the protest had been hit by a vehicle, which may have been why they were out of the street after that.   There's a video of all the cars stopped at a green light with a group of protesters walking across the street with signs, and then a lady in a pickup truck decided she wasn't having any of this and she went around all the cars, and through the protesters.  She hit two, though I haven't heard how badly they were injured, and then she kept on driving.  She was arrested shortly thereafter.

So how do I feel about all this?  I think that what the officer did to George was pretty much murder.  Even other police are saying it's wrong.  Yes, I saw what the autopsy said, but I think you can clearly admit he wouldn't have died if a man hadn't kneeled on his neck, for minutes even after he became unresponsive.  I also support an American's right to protest.  I support their right to protest peacefully.  And then your right to protest ends where my personal property begins.  They have the right to protest.  They do not have the right to destroy nor steal that which is not theirs.  The stealing doesn't even have anything to do with what they're protesting, it's just them taking the opportunity.  Again, they destroy local businesses, homes, people in low income housing there went without power, in fear.  The community is burned down, and I saw an article defending it say "They'll be fine, they have insurance."  So that makes it okay?  So if you have insurance on your house, it's no big deal if I come destroy it, right?  That's now what determines if something is right or wrong?  Ugh.  Also, the Minneapolis mayor claims that none of the people arrested there for violent crimes were even from there, they were all from out of state.  Other protests talk about big matching van vehicles that pull up and dispense organized protesters in groups.  There's more to the story than people just protesting.  Some of this is organized and deliberate, not heart-felt.  I think the people in Kokomo were locals who wanted to be heard.  I think they have that right.  I also think if the protests turned violent and they started down the side streets looting and burning and destroying, that anyone who came onto my property with intent to do harm would be met with an awful lot of ammo.  We would not just stand by and let them.  So if I ended up in the national news, now you'd know why.  Also, I have a video of a white man who was killed in the streets of Dallas by the same thing--smothered in the street, basically. By a cop using excessive force.  It got as much attention as a hang nail, because he wasn't the right color for his life to matter.  It's not just about race.  It's about the Blue Line sometimes doing the wrong thing and needing to address it and be accountable.  And I think that the protesters turned the focus off of where it should have been, on a cop using excessive force, and turned people into either defending violent riots or only talking about the riots and not the man.  It's a shame.  There was an opportunity, a brief moment where most of the country was on one side.  Now it's all just as divided back up as ever.

Also, anybody notice that nobody is discussing social distancing with all these huge gatherings of protesting people?  If we get a big spike in cases, especially in certain communities, they'll yell "We opened the states too soon!"  Otherwise, it's suddenly okay to now gather in large numbers, to not socially distance, this "deadly global pandemic that we all need to stay inside for or you care more about money than lives" Covid is suddenly not an issue any more. 

What a year 2020 has been.

Ending on a better note, I have a leather purse I got in Oshkosh last year for $19.  Real leather, smells great, lots of compartments, and I like it.  My purse is so heavy though with everything I keep in it now, that one of my straps broke.  So I have it cleaned out and sitting on the deck so that a friend can stop by and pick it up and sew the strap back on it.  Well, Dulcie has decided she loves my purse, and she won't get off of it.  I left the house at 8 something this morning and she was sitting on it.  I came home at 7 pm and she was sitting on it.  Kaylee texted me that she went in and out of the house 4 times and Dulcie was always sitting on it.  It cannot be that comfortable, an empty leather purse with pockets and zippers, but yet she keeps...sitting on it.  It's weird, man.  But kind of cute.  I told Steve we may need to buy a leather cat bed or something.

Tomorrow is supposed to be my day off, but my calendar failed to block it off, so someone scheduled me, and now I have two things to do.  The student and running a guy to Sheridan to pick up an airplane.  Oh well, it looks like a nice day.  I wish the T-6 was up.  Or the Aerostar.

Dulcie on her throne.

Quick

Kaylee had her ortho appointment today, and she is DONE with Invisiline.  She is waiting on a retainer to be done, and next week she'll pick it up here in Kokomo.  Her teeth turned out nice!

I had a couple students, I'm tired, got a full day tomorrow from 9 am to at least 7 pm, without a break.  Kaylee is bringing me a sandwich so I at least get lunch somewhere in there.

Stormy

Kaylee kept me up until 3 am talking, and I didn't sleep well after that, so I'm a little wiped out today.  I didn't get my walking in, but I at least got my Spanish done, which I can do sitting on the couch in comfort.  ;)

It rained most of the day, clearing off just in time for me to have a rough 1.2 hour flight in the Champ for tailwheel stuff.  I had to rescue that one several times, earn a few more grey hairs.  Then looking out, I could see weather coming in.  I waited until the last minute, landed, put it away, got in the big hangar, and bam, 35 knot wind gusts came rolling through with the rain.  Excellent timing on my part.  :D

We're just hanging out in the living room, nothing on TV, talking about this and that, and playing on the computer.  Nothing exciting tonight.

Tomorrow Kaylee has an orthodontic appointment for her Invisiline, and I have a couple students in the afternoon if the weather clears off by then.  Cathy had a birthday, Steve is doing paperwork, Ann is hunkered down, and we seem to be all okay.

Here are the photos from today in the Champ.  Pretty late evening colors.

The storm off in the distance, you can just tell by the cloud tops mostly.  Airport below

Sun beaming over the start of the front

Showers off the nose

Definitely time to head in.

We had about 7 minutes before it got here and turned unpleasant.

Quip

Windy, gusty day, I only had one flight, but we all had a flight at the same time, so we're all in the pattern for the runway without a taxiway all at the same time.  That always requires a little extra effort.  :)

Kaylee got her grades from her first semester, two A's, two B's, and one that hasn't come through yet.

I really don't have anything to talk about.  I did Day 57 of Spanish, walked about 2000 steps over my goal, did three loads of laundry and one of dishes.  I did my nails because they are so long I can't type on my phone any more, and it's driving me nuts.  But I cut them back and now they're uneven and feel funny and I feel like biting them all off and starting over.  Nails are too much effort. 

And that's all I've got for the day.  Home stuff, one flight.  Tomorrow's weather looks like crap, and so does Friday's, so I may have nothing else to talk about for a few days either.  lol

It went from cold in May to 89 degrees and muggy.  Bam.  It's stupid hot, the kind where you take an extra shirt to work and bring water bottles along in the plane.  I had one flight today, at 2 pm, as it was creeping up on the hottest time of day, and in less than an hour the 17 year old in the plane with me said "It's too hot and bumpy, I'm done".  I outlast them all.  ;)   But I also bring along a water bottle and hydrate before, during and after each flight when it gets this hot, too.

Going to the store has become an adventure itself.  I didn't have time to place an order and wait for a few days, so I went in person and loaded up.  You know one of the things I don't enjoy doing?  Shopping.  You know what I seem to do a bunch of lately?  Shopping.  This is where eating out all the time has been handy in the past, I think, but I'm really doing three separate shopping runs in one, which makes it a little bigger.  Kaylee has her own set of things she eats and drinks and fixes for herself, too.  When she's back off to college it'll cut my shopping trip by some.  :) 

Kaylee and Meredith hung out today.  For awhile I heard them laughing hysterically up front.  There's nothing like the sound of true, unfettered joy and laughter.  Here's a picture Meredith took of Kaylee today.

Memorial Day

Normally the Indy 500 is going, and there are Memorial Day events around, fly-overs, etc.  I didn't get asked to any fly-overs this year, but then again I don't have an airplane to do one in yet anyway, so it's probably good.  :)

I brought lunch from Grindstone's out to the airport today for the folks out there.  Chuck was out there to hang out, Jesse and Steve and Jerry and I all had a student.  I had two. One, I did a high performance endorsement with a guy in the Saratoga, and two, I had my first official lesson with the wife who is getting her certificate for her husband's sake.  She is focused, passed her written, and did pretty well.  She wore out faster, and I could feel it happening, so I ended it after just about an hour.  It was also turbulent and bumpy and windy while we were up...then got calm when her husband went up with Jerry.  Naturally.  ;)  They have a 3 hour round trip drive to take lessons with us, but they can't fly at the same time because they're in the same airport, so they also each have to wait around for the other's lesson to be done.  We'll see how it goes, and how it goes with two different instructors teaching them, too. 

Kaylee met us at Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  Every other table blocked off, all servers in masks, etc.  We had a nice evening together.

It didn't feel like a holiday, a Memorial Day, or a day off.  It was a work day--I was out there for almost 8 hours, for two fairly short flights of an hour each.  But that's the way it happens now and then.  But still, I do note the day and its significance.

The Weekend

The last two days have been fairly hopping.  It's been hot.  We sort of skipped past nice spring, and went from little heaters running in our house to keep the temp warm enough at night, to 89 degrees yesterday during the day.  I have to dig out my shorter pants now.

The airport was a beehive on Saturday.  All the instructors were out there, each with students all day, and everyone that owned their own plane was out there too.  It's funny, you're all mostly "distant" from each other, except for the training where you have two people in the same plane, but everyone else basically waves from afar.  Our oldest instructor, Jerry, was out there from 8 am until he went home at 6 pm.  I started later at 10 am, but didn't get home until 10 pm, leaving the airport around 8:30.  Steve too, and Jesse.  The only instructor who didn't work all day out there had an excuse--Steve C just had shoulder surgery and is recovering.  He gets a break.  ;)  Even Ty was out there flying a little, and he hasn't flown or instructed much in about a year.

I had a new tailwheel guy who is over-correcting but close to getting it, checking out Ty in the Saratoga so he can check out another guy in it, a checkout flight with a new pilot who is the son of a club member, started to learn to fly at Purdue but is going to finish up with us and we needed to know where he was at as far as training and skill, and ending with a guy with 100 hours who hasn't soloed yet but is finally having a breakthrough and hopefully will be able to solo soon.  He gets close and then it's like he sabotages himself, goes backwards.  He had a really bad day a couple days ago, and a really good day yesterday.  I just need him to consistently at least have 'safe' days, so I can know if he happens to have a bad day while soloing, I won't lose my first student in 20 some years or have a bent plane either one.  :)  He's getting there.

When we were all done for the day, we decided we needed food.  We got to Grindstone Charley's at 8:45 pm.  We were in there for an hour, and when we left, we looked around and realized the lights were off except in our section and it was very quiet.  They had closed at 9 pm and we didn't realize it.  Talk about a lack of situational awareness.  We owe them an apology.  Steve double tipped our server, which we've been doing the few times we've gone out, because they're only able to operate at half capacity (some now starting to open at 75%, but still, it's not like servers are rolling in the dough at 100% capacity.)  The server was so thankful and excited that he started telling us his entire life story, from his current roommates to getting his own place to his car troubles to...we finally got home around 10, and it had been a busy, long, but good day.

Yesterday was our anniversary.  We don't generally do much about that, but we had decided we'd go out to eat. I said I thought one of the nicer steak places that we hadn't been to in awhile sounded good.  Marble Steakhouse, 10 West, etc.  We didn't have any students because it was Sunday.  Steve worked outside for awhile on house stuff, then we went out to the airport where we were the only people in sight.  The whole place was deserted, on a hot, sunny, calm-ish day.  I guess everyone got their fix in the day before.  ;)  We went to fly the Champ, and the right main was low.  Steve couldn't find the air bottle, which really annoyed him as it wasn't where it was supposed to be, and the whole flight was almost scrapped.  Eventually he found a compressor that would work, slowly, and we got the right main back almost all the way up to par.  lol  He decided to fly from the back for the practice.  We flew over Greentown, and one of Kaylee's friends texted her "There's a yellow Cub out here buzzing Greentown" right when I texted her that the Howard County Fairgrounds' line was short today if she wanted to go get fair food.  She laughed and told me we were spotted.  We weren't in a Cub and we weren't buzzing, but otherwise...  ;) 

So Howard County Fair can't go off because of the 'Rona, but the vendors have set up their trucks, and you can get in a usually very long line and go buy fair food if you want.  Elephant Ears, burgers, lemon smash-ups, all that stuff, you can get this week only.  I was glad that the lines have been so long, meaning at least they can do something this year to stay afloat.

From there Steve did a takeoff and landing at Kokomo, I practiced a one-wheel crosswind landing, two actually, one that was clunky and one that was smooooth, then we went over to Glenndale.  THERE it was busier.  We saw about four planes sitting out, and multiple golf carts running around.  He did a few there, I did one there.  We waved at people as we went by.  :)

We were done after that, put everything away, and then I said I could use a little ice cream.  89 degrees and muggy is not something I ever like, and I'm sure not used to it right now.  So we went to Scoops and I got a child scoop of Cherry Amaretto to try it, and he got a shake.  We came home, and Steve started calling the steak places.  Well, that didn't quite go as planned!  Marble--closed for dinner on Sundays.  10 West--closed.  Pastarrific--closed.  He started calling around, and ended up calling Taku more so he could say he tried and they were closed, but they weren't closed, so we went there.  They had steak on the menu, new york strip, fillet, etc., so I thought you could just get a steak.  Nope, it comes chopped up.  Oops.  Well, I got my tasty rolls, so I was good.

When we got home, Kaylee and Meredith were there working on a few things.  One was a set of very bright and festive cookies for a friend who can't get out right now.  The other was a "hummingbird cake", which I've never heard of, but had.  Pecans, cream cheese frosting, bananas and pineapple mixed in with the cake.  It's a huge cake, and it took the forever.  It's supposed to be a 3-layer cake, but Kaylee put it into two larger cake pans, which is probably better for cutting anyway. It's very good, and Meredith wrote up a "Happy Anniversary" card with her super nice calligraphy handwriting.  Very sweet.

Kaylee & Meredith went to Panera and picked up a couple salads, then had a picnic at Foster Park, too.

All in all, a pretty good weekend, I'd say.

Airport Stuff

It was a hopping day out at the airport today.  I don't know anything about Kaylee's day, other than that she was going to apply at Hydration Station since she hadn't heard back from the coffee shop at all, and that she's out with friends and she brought a lawn chair with her, so they're probably outside around a fire, just like Steve, AE and Kenny are in our back yard tonight.  :)

My first flight today was a young girl who hadn't flown in two months, and she's pre-solo, so the longer you go without flying with the less experience you have, the more you usually lose.  But she did pretty well, and went away excited.  My next guy had started off doing real well the last two times, and today he was all over the place, so he wasn't quite as excited or pleased with today.  But I think we fly again tomorrow evening, so hopefully he'll pull it together.  He's not far from solo if he could get consistent.  Last lady was the deaf lady, and I taught her wheel landings in the Champ, which is actually pretty tricky, and she's about got it.  They're not perfect, but they're safe.  If she gets those down, I just need some decent crosswinds.  Once she has those, I'll sign her off.  :)  But honestly I'm sort of impressed both at how I could teach them without talking and how she could pick them up.

It was cloudy and icky for days, but today it was just good enough to go in the pattern for awhile, and then this evening the skies just parted, and it was beautiful.  She asked me to take some photos, so I did.  So pretty out.

Tomorrow is another busy day for me, then Sunday is our anniversary and day off.

Here's a series of photos of takeoff in the Champ, with the sun getting low around 8:30 pm.

A couple of selfies of enjoying the sun. I like it when they get good enough I can relax throughout most of the pattern and just have to concentrate on landing.  ;)

Brief

Not much to talk about today.  Steve went out to the airport fairly early and Kaylee slept in after being out late last night, so I had the place to myself for quite awhile.  I did my routine.  Sometimes routines are ruts, but sometimes routines help bring a little sanity and consistency, and that can be nice.

This evening I had one flight from 6-8, and she did well. No pictures, nothing interesting to take a photo off tonight.  Kaylee has hung out and talked with me a lot today, which was nice. 

Really, I don't have much today...

Mid-Week Update

Indiana's numbers are holding steady, so we move into "Phase 3" of the reopening process starting Friday.  Malls and retail stores and movie theaters can open at partial capacity, and up to 100 people can gather, preferably outdoors, some camps can open for daytime stuff, no overnights, etc.  No bars can open, which I think is funny.  You can sit in a restaurant, you can sit in a bar.  If it's safe to "social distance" and have seating spaced out and cleaning measures in place, then it's safe no matter what you're consuming.  If it's not safe, it's not safe no matter what you're consuming.  I would be angry if I was a bar owner.  But I'm not, and I have my own battles to deal with.

I couldn't figure out why we had no glasses in the cupboard.  Well, we had like three, and normally we have a shelf full.  Kaylee had nine glasses up front.  Just water glasses, nothing gross growing in them or anything, but still, NINE glasses in her room and the front living room.  As soon as she gets home I'm asking her...what the heck??  Who hoards nine glasses??

Tonight she drove to Indy to visit with one of her friends that went to Thailand with her, then later she is going to visit Meredith and a couple other friends.  She was excited to have things to do and people to see today.  She hasn't heard back on the job at the coffee shop.  I told her to "follow up" with it.  It's been a week and a couple days.

I drove to Sheridan today to sign paperwork to be the instructor for a young girl who won a scholarship to learn to fly.  She's excited and eager to get going.

It was too windy today for my folks, so no flying.  So I did the usual.  Keep up on laundry, do dishes--including a load of pretty much all glasses :D, get my exercise in, do the cats, and complete my Spanish lessons.  This time, for the exercise, I finished it by taking a walk outside, down into the park.  The air was cool and the winds were high, so it was kind of a nice day for a walk.   I stopped by Panera for soups and salads for two houses.  We like their ingredients and food.  It's fresh and healthy and natural stuff and you can taste the difference between a Panera salad and a Wendy's salad. You just can.  You pay for it, too, but...I like it.

This time when I got unfriended from someone on FB today, I know I didn't do anything, so I'm guessing she just thought my wall was boring.  Well, hey, there's not a lot going on right now lady, your wall wasn't that interesting either!  :D

I had a bit of an "ah ha" moment last night. Kaylee comes out sometimes at midnight right before I'm about to go to bed, to just sit and talk.  Last night we were up till 1:30 am.  She should come out earlier so I don't drag the next day.  Lol  Anyway, we were talking about fingernails, and I said I messed my nails up awhile ago, they had like dips in them for awhile, and they used to be smooth.  She pipes up with "that's a nutritional deficiency, most likely iron."  She got that from her nutritionist, and she's right. So I looked at my nails closely again, and I only have one fingernail with those dips/dents in it, the rest of my nails are smooth again.  I was like...HUH.  That was IT.  And it does show my iron levels are up from what they were, too.  :)  Cool!

Me on my walk on the covered bridge

The pretty and old bridge

More Mondays

Another week begins, and May is more than half over already.  I find that a little frightening, that, plus the fact that the year 2020 is almost half over.  I mean... :o 

Ann had been having trouble with a leg, and I was a little worried that it was just swelling and pain in one leg, not both, wondering about a blood clot even though she's on blood thinners.  So the doctors wanted to see her today, and we went in.  It has all changed up.  They have signs in front of every parking space with a phone number and an ID #.  No walk-ins are allowed.  So, like at Kroger or Wal-Mart, you park, then call the number on the sign, and tell them your name and that you're in slot F7.  They ask about insurance changes, etc., and then when they're ready for you, they send out a nurse to come get you in your car, and walk you into the foyer, where they weighed Ann right there, and then took both of our temperatures, then made sure we both had masks on before going in.  The rest was fairly normal.

The bottom line is that they think it's cellulitis, not a blood clot, so we have some antibiotics to pick up and try starting tomorrow.

Afterwards it seemed like we needed to go to Cone Palace and get a shake.  It was also after 2 pm and I hadn't had lunch yet, so a tenderloin was in order too.  ;)  I got a banana malt and she got a strawberry shake and they were both quite good.  A little treat after the doctor, don't ya know!

I'd had a 3 pm student who canceled, and then I had a 5 pm student that I was able to fly with.  I think he's an inch from picking up this landing thing, and I want to keep going and get it.  SO CLOSE.  I'll be almost as excited as he is when I can solo him.  :)

I just got the email today that Eastern High School's production of "Mary Poppins" that was postponed until July has just been flat out canceled now.  This was a big event, they purchased all sorts of audience participation toys and things to sell the kids in the audience.  They went big this time, and it was canceled one week before opening night.  That means they had all the practices, all the memorization and choreography and had paid for all the sets, costumes, all of it.  They regain that money through ticket sales, and now the early ticket sales like ours are to be refunded and there will be no more.  They're out thousands of dollars, and Mrs. E told the kids that they may not be able to pull off a show at all next year.  This is a sad loss thanks to the virus.  So I'm donating the five tickets we already bought, having the school keep the money.  I'm tempted to add another donation to it as well to help.  Stuff like this falls victim to things like covid, and times are tight for everyone, so some small town high school drama production isn't on anybody's big picture radar.  But it's on mine...it matters a lot to that school, and the kids and teachers involved.  If a person wanted to make an additional donation, this site is where it can be done: https://eastern.booktix.com/.   I really do feel for Mrs. E., Mr. Matthews, and all the kids, the seniors who waited 4 years to get main cast in a play and then had it canceled a week before opening night.  Just...ugh.

I ate a little too much today, but I kept up my Spanish and walking.  Tomorrow will be Day 50.  That's sort of a running commentary on Covid stuff.  I started it as something to do during quarantine.  Fifty days later...here we are.  And where is that, exactly, anyway?

Masked ladies

Kokomo got a ton of rain, and there are a bunch of little lakes all over

Water as far as the eye can see

Weekend

When I got home tonight, Kaylee was in the middle of a kitchen whirlwind, making up "prison egg salad."  She chopped up pickles and chopped up cheese and hard boiled eggs and chopped them up, and made ramen noodles and chopped that up, and some lunch meat chopped up, and I don't know what all else, and it took awhile, but she finally got it done.  It was a recipe she found online from someone who actually made it that way in jail.  She loves calling it prison pasta salad.  It actually IS good, for the record.

I flew with four people today, starting at 2 pm, all in the Champ.  That was a lot, actually.  The first guy drives from more than 2 hours away, in Michigan, to do tailwheel here.  He did a really nice job today, too.  The second one drives for over an hour, and she brought me warm, fresh out of the oven homemade banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips.  She is now my favorite.  ;)  The third and fourth are a husband and wife who are not pilots yet, said they were interested in getting their sport pilot certificate, while he builds a project airplane.  It was a little gusty and crosswindy, which was a little bumpy for two brand new people's first time.  There was a definite difference in the two.  They left, and I said to Steve, "He's really into is, she is not."  He said "Yeah, she is pretending to be into it for him, because it's his dream, but it's not hers."  When husband was there, she was saying the right things, but when I was up flying with him, she was telling Steve how this was her husband's dream, etc.  It's sad, because this is a LOT of work and time and money, and if someone doesn't really want to do it, they're going to have a really hard time getting it done.  And now she's going to have a hard time telling him she doesn't really want to do it.  I wish she'd have been honest with him up front and be supportive of his dream without agreeing to do it herself.  If she comes back and tries to take lessons, it's going to be a difficult situation all around.  By the time they left, it was coming up on 7:30 pm. and we decided to go to Outback.

We waited in the car until they texted us that our table was ready.  The poor servers were kept running, in masks.  Our waitress is a friend of Kaylee's, and she requested us. So we doubled her tip.  We did that at Grindstone's, too, the only other time we've eaten out so far.  They are only able to be open at 1/2 capacity, everyone is hurting.  The food was good since it didn't have to travel to my house 20 minutes after it was fixed.  :)  

Steve and I were sitting there looking away, when suddenly I heard a crash and my leg got wet.  I thought "huh, somebody dropped a glass nearby".  Except there was nobody anywhere close by.  It was MY glass.  I hadn't touched it, and it wasn't on the edge of the table.  A guy at a table 10' away said "I SAW that--it was sliding down the table like a paranormal act."  The waitress came over and said that was the 2nd or 3rd time that had happened today.  The table is at a slant down, and when enough condensation hits the table from the glass, it rides the water wave to the floor.  It was the darndest thing.  lol  I said they need to warn people to put the glass over close to the wall, and not have it happen again.  :)

I didn't have dessert so that I could come home and have some banana bread.  It was quite good.  Worth the scary landings from earlier.  ;)

Today's Devon's birthday, 22.  A lifetime, a world ago.

Tomorrow is going to storm and rain and blow.  Hi ho.

Friday Again

The whole day was dreary and rainy and grey, until right about at 5 pm, when I had a student.  We had to wait 15 minutes to let a couple little cells go through, and then we went out and he nailed it.  He did great, and he'd been struggling so much.  Next up was the Champ lady, and she too had really had a hard time last time--and did really well tonight.  So it was a good flying day.  :)

I almost forgot to do my Spanish today.  I'd have blown a 47 day streak.  ;)  I got it in at 10:30 pm.  Whew.

Kaylee was up early this morning doing something, came home and passed out for a couple hours on the chair in the living room.  I know she went to the Mexican restaurant for dinner with two friends.  Other than that I haven't seen her today, but assume she's doing all right.

It feels like something happened today, but I can't think of what.  I did stuff you normally do, like dishes and taking out the trash and catching up my logbook and exercising and...stuff.

I was supposed to fly until 9 pm tonight (which I did) and then back at 9 am tomorrow, but she moved to later in the afternoon for tomorrow, which works better for me.  I don't want to get up early anyway tomorrow.

Back seat of the Champ

Just about at sunset

Taxiing in, done for the day

The real sunset 30 minutes late was gorgeous.  I wish I was in the air for it.

Stormy

This time it's just my weather, not my attitude.  ;)

Well, other than that California's governor said he's fully prepared to go to martial law "if need be" to keep the state shut down.  You can Google the link for the news story if you care, otherwise, I'll just leave this there and move on.

I AM tired of one more thing.  Every TV commercial, every radio commercial, uses one of these phrases.  "During these uncertain times", "during these unprecedented times", "while we are socially distancing", etc.  Just about every one of them.  Even if the commercial itself has nothing to do with Covid or anything relating to it.  The flooring place selling you flooring has to mention it even though their main point is that the big box stores don't have people who know what they're talking about and they (little guys) do.  I've started flipping the radio/tv station when I hear the magic phrases, and I find myself flipping just about every commercial.

I did the stuff today I was going to do yesterday, got it all done.  Day 45 of Spanish, but I'm having more trouble with this segment.  The words don't make sense.  A lot of Spanish words you can see where they come up with it.  "necesito" is necessary, and "cinturon" is belt, something that cinches,
"cartera" is a purse, something you can cart stuff around in, and, you get it.  But "falda" is skirt. And "Abrigo" is coat. And "Vestir" is dress.  I can't even come up with a way those words make sense, so I'm just trying to memorize them.  That's fine for this segment, but I'll certainly forget them once I move on.  Oh well.  lol

Got my exercise in, and finally kicked off one pound this morning.  It's funny, for awhile I was losing about 2 lbs in 1 week.  Now I'm losing about 1 pound in 2 weeks.  That's a slow boat to progress right there, but I'm reminding myself of what I said I will remind myself.  Another month from now I'd rather be down two more pounds than up 5.  :)  I was actually really sore this morning, still am, because yesterday Jerry's student left the battery on in the Champ, and I had to hand prop it the next morning.  Well, it sat in the cold hangar around freezing temps, and it did NOT want to start.  I threw that stupid prop about 20 times.  If you don't think that's exercise, well, you're wrong.  My shoulders are sore, my neck is sore, my back is sore.  I used muscles I hadn't used in awhile.  It's good for you, I guess.  ;)

I started the day's run with a trip to CVS, to pick up a few things for both Ann and myself.  From there I ran through the car wash, because out at the airport, if you park by the hangar door, the birds will poop all over your car.  I got nailed like 4 times and my poor car was a mess, so I ran it through.  Panera is right next door to the car wash, so I stopped in there to pick up soup and salad for two households.  Next up was a Meijer trip.  This deserves its own paragraph.

I haven't been inside a "big box store" since this whole thing started.  I've been inside Kroger a couple times, but not Sam's Club or Wal-Mart or Meijer, etc.  It's a different feel in there than it is in the smaller places I've been into.  The workers were stressed and unhappy and tired looking.  The people in the store all looked a little bit like I feel most of the time.  When someone else gets too close, they cringe and back away.  ;)  We all try to stand around and stay back while someone makes their selection, and people are suspiciously looking at other people. There wasn't much smiling or friendly conversation in there like I've seen in the smaller places.  The whole atmosphere was more apocalyptic.  My cashier was an older lady with what looked like health issues who is probably terrified of catching COVID but works because, guess what, people need to work to survive, and she hasn't decided to quit, and she wouldn't look at people, didn't talk, and just sounded completely wiped out the few times she opened her mouth.  I felt so bad for her.  Of course there is plexiglass up in between her and us, they're all masked up, etc, but we're all still touching some of the same things, and those masks don't actually stop the virus if you stand there and breathe it in.  The only good news is that I haven't heard of a lot (many? any?) stores in Howard County (or many other places?) where the workers are frequently getting sick.  I did see one story several weeks ago about a Wal-mart somewhere in the country that had an outbreak, but that's it.  Hopefully it stays that way for them.  

As I was walking out to my car with a large cartload of supplies, the skies opened up and it started DUMPING rain.  Of course it dumped rain and a big line of storms went through right after I washed my car.  ;)  But I don't think it would have gotten those big bird poos off anyway, so it was still worth it.  I loaded up all my stuff, in the rain.  The winds got so strong at one point that it rocked the car and I saw things flying sideways.  Just a brief burst of something bad.  I waited in the parking lot for a few minutes, then came on home, unloaded Ann's stuff to her, unloaded our stuff to us, and it was just sprinkling by then, so that helped.  

Kaylee had made pancakes for herself and had one left over for me, with vanilla chips and chocolate chips baked into them.  That was not healthy, but boy it was good.  :D  

Right now the weather is gorgeous.  I wish the T-6 was back together. 

The rest of the evening will probably be paperwork.  I've got some bills to pay, a couple emails to send, and some studying to do on the Twin Beech, if I can focus.   Steve is doing several different 501c3 packages for places, so he has a lot to get done, and he has some tax stuff to do too.  Not exciting but it takes a long time and is a lot of work.  I hear him sighing over there now and then. 

Kaylee hasn't heard back from the coffee shop on the job.  The girl who took her application didn't tell her what to expect, so I guess we just wait before trying somewhere else.  

And now you're caught up on our day.

Weather Inbound

Fair warning.

Today was the last nice day for probably the next four days.  I flew with the tailwheel lady this morning, and she went backwards.  I mean in ability, not literally backwards in the plane.  lol  We had about a 5 knot crosswind component, and it was enough to throw off the pattern, approach, level off, flare, take off, all of it.  It was sort of a mess.  I called it off before she wanted to because we weren't accomplishing anything good.

Then my eyes started running and I started sneezing and my allergies just kicked in hard, and instead of going to CVS and going through the car wash and checking our mail and doing a few other things I was planning on doing, I just came home and took a Claritin D and haven't really done anything since.  I'll do all that other stuff tomorrow.

These are screenshots of some data put out on the news tonight for the state of Indiana.  Take a look.  Also, Dr. Fauci says that leaving the lock downs too soon could cause a resurgence of the virus that gets "out of control", and that this is too soon.  He says that the numbers of reported cases are probably way under the reality.  Dr. Birx, on the other hand, thinks that the numbers of reported cases are probably way over the reality, by about 25%.  Both are experts we should believe, and both are polar opposites in their opinions on the numbers.  So, back to Fauci saying we should stay in lockdown because we'll have a resurgence.  He also said that the vaccine may very well not be effective.  So tie this up in a bow for me.  How and when do we leave the house then?  If there isn't an effective vaccine in 18 mo to 2 years from now, still, and we can never leave because the curve, while flattened, now has to be permanently gone before we can leave, because there will ALWAYS be a resurgence when people start getting out, right, and the vaccine may not really help us anyway 1-2 years from now, then WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE PEOPLE??  Yes I'm shouting.  Where it leaves us is dying broke and penniless in our homes (or evicted out into the streets), but because we'd be dying from something besides COVID, that would be okay??  C'mon.  What are they doing here?  What's their plan, then?  When exactly do we start reopening, if not now?  What's going to have changed in a month?  Two?  A year?  Just wait and HOPE it does?  Look at Indiana's statistics.  Look at our RT number here.  https://rt.live/.  What they're doing is giving credence to the conspiracy theory that this has become a plan to oust Trump by pulling off a rigged paper election and an economy they won't let heal.  They're giving credence to the conspiracy theory that they're trying to keep "dementia Joe" out of the public spotlight and off the campaign trail so people can't see how bad off he really is.  They're giving credence to the conspiracy theory that this is some big test to see how far they can push Americans, and how much money the Fed can just fart out and fund all their pet projects and how many people won't say anything because it has a catchy name like "HERO".   They're making ME put on a tin foil hat and think that every time they post the next news story about the "mystery illness" kids are coming down with, they're trying to pump up the Karens of the world into insisting on keeping their children home from school for another year to help their plan.  I don't want to hear "Stay home and save lives", because that's done, and NOW WHAT.  What's YOUR plan, if it's not to slowly reopen and resume?  Don't just tell me the potential bad of reopening, you tell me what your plan is if we don't.  I'm waiting.

I ranted here so I wouldn't do it on Facebook.  Stick with pretty pictures, Laura.

So first up are two pictures of the small church Kaylee sometimes attends.  This is the kind of place that makes me feel peaceful.  Quiet, open spaces, simple, gentle, peaceful.

Then the statistics.

We live in the top 2.9% county, bordering the 1.9% and the .6% infection rate counties.

So. just over 1/2 of a percent of infected people in Indiana died from it, almost half of the people infected with it showed no symptoms at all.  The vast majority of deaths around the country were in nursing homes, where they say the average lifespan of residents is about a year, and another new study by another expert says most of them probably would have passed away anyway, COVID or no.  But we can all pick and choose which experts we want to believe, now can't we.

Also, these guys flew over Kokomo today, and rattled my kitchen.  That was great.  :)

Also, I think this article has a few valid points to consider as well. 

Catch-Up

The last two days have been so busy, it's almost like a normal Spring, and I'm tired, though it's a good tired, not a foggy/weak tired.

Mom, I'll put the Kaylee stuff up front so you can skip the flying stuff.  ;)  She went into a local small coffee shop (not the Starbucks) and applied for a job yesterday.  I hope they hire her, she'll enjoy it, and it'll bring her in some income, and be good experience.  Plus she has two friends who already work there.  Hopefully they could use another person.  Or two.   Other than that, I haven't really seen her in two days, so that's all the good stuff I know to tell you.  ;)

I had three flights Monday.  First in the Champ, with a new CFI, who is going to do the Flying Squirrels with us, and we wanted to make sure he'd be a good safe tailwheel CFI.  It's one thing to fly them yourself, another thing to let someone else fly them badly and save it.  So I deliberately bounced and made him fix it, etc.  Kinda fun, actually.  I also came down and did a one-wheel landing and flew it down the runway for awhile just to practice it.  Because, why not.  ;)   Next guy was practicing landings, and last time he was really close, and today he went backwards a little.  Last up was the deaf tailwheel student, and she had trouble last time, and did much better.  I only puckered up on one of them, and she only bounced one.  And those weren't on the same landing.  lol   I didn't get home until almost 10 pm Monday night.  I stopped at Wendy's for chili, and they were out of beef again.  I think they run out sometime after lunch, because the lunch guys always get burgers just fine but when I go to get chili in the evening, they've been out each time.  At least you know their beef really IS fresh.

I couldn't go to sleep last night, got up at 1:30 am and took melatonin, and then woke back up around 6.  Not great because I wanted to be well-rested for today.  Oh well.  lol  I flew the 340 down to Terre Haute, and spent from about 11 am through to about 5:30 pm down there with Jordan, and we had a really nice time.  He's a laid-back, good guy, and I really enjoy him and his family.  His son was out there for awhile too, and he is getting ready for his multi-engine checkride...and he's going to do it in the Twin Beech with Doug Roz.  How fun is that?  He's real excited.  Jordan went over some ground, some systems, how things worked, things to watch out for.  We flew for about an hour and a half, and did steep turns, slow flight, power off stalls, power on stalls, engine out to a full feather and unfeather, 5 takeoffs and landings, one with a single engine, and a go-around.  I didn't do everything perfectly, but for having 1 flight in one 3.5 years ago, it went rather well.  :)

We chatted for awhile after we were done flying, he looked at the 340, and I headed back, having had nothing but a bowl of oatmeal to eat all day.  I wasn't even hungry, I was just focused on what we were doing.

When I got back to Kokomo, Steve was still there, and we went out to our first restaurant dinner since March.  We went to Grindstone Charley's, which seemed appropriate as they're the servers we know and want to support first.  They are open at 50% capacity, and the good news (for them) is that they were pretty much there.  They had about every other table blocked off, no more big tables allowed, servers all wearing masks, etc.  Someone brought us iced tea and everything.  It was lovely!  I got chicken and noodles for a little homemade flavor.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the last two days.  There's a lot and it's late and I need to go to bed, so I'm just going to post a lot of them and not spend a lot of time deciding which ones to post or not.  :)  Jordan took the first four.

Steep turns

Engine out, with the prop feathered

Me smiling at the feathered prop.  lol

In the 340 on the way there

Jordan's hangar

View from the back of the Twin Beech

The panel

There are 5 possible issues with the feathering and unfeathering prop system.  This is the schematic of it.

A selfie in the shiny polished aluminum tail.

Making a turn towards a dead engine, something people tell you not to do.

Monday's last flight in the Champ as sunset got closer.  Kokomo

Kokomo Municipal Airport, goodnight!