Wow

The clouds and rain moved in today.  My 8:30 am was canceled, and she was mad, but I wasn't.  I guess the shock has finally worn off enough that I had the energy I needed today to do stuff.  And I had a lot of catching up to do.  I worked on stuff from about 9 am until right about 10 pm.   My inbox was crammed full, and I plowed through all of that.  I worked my schedule and found some time for a T-6 guy to come in, my students have filled up my schedule this week, I'm trying to do the J-3 tailwheel endorsement before he runs out of time so I'm flying with him tomorrow morning again.  I've contacted all the people I'm trying to juggle, and have found slots for most of them, so far, prioritizing what I can. One put off for awhile because he's not in a hurry and I'm booked.  I sent one new tailwheel guy over to Jerry to start flying with him, because I can't take on anyone else right now.  

I sent out three donation request emails to three companies to ask them for donations to SMA Support via the BBQ Bash, since it was only 'on' for one day that was minimal because of not advertising thanks to Covid.   Day two was stopped before it started, via the accident.  If we can end up on the positive side of the register, that will be great, and companies donating and writing it off on their taxes helps both of us, I do believe.  I have three companies that usually donate, so I sent off an email to each of them, a week after the fact, and I guess we'll see.

I ended up at the bank changing over a bunch of $1s to bigger bills.  Deposited my checks thus far made out to SMA Support into the bank.  Made photo copies of them so I can fill out receipts and/or thank you notes.  Got gas in my car, cleaned up the kitchen and did dishes, caught up on laundry which was piled quite high, wrote letters, downloaded photos, mailed off a response to a legal issue, returned a phone call, organized money, sent out information to instructors on a new policy, answered questions from instructors about the new policy, answered an instructor about getting his MEI, and no, not donating 15 hours free multi time to him but not everybody else who also wants to be a professional pilot and needs that time too, did my Spanish lesson (Day 183), got most of my walking done, and tried not to pick at the icky looking thing on my arm where the dermatologist froze off something.  I have a big blister thing there.  When she froze stuff off of Steve and Ann, they didn't have this on their skin.  It's weird and it bugs me.  I want to perform surgery on it but so far have controlled myself.  But not for long.

I posted some pics up on the BBQ Bash page, and one on the CAF page, and posted on my own wall about donations, but hid it from Kesha (mom of the boys, who is my FB friend), because she doesn't need that.  I have forgotten what all I've worked on today.  All sorts of projects including things I didn't want to do.  I may have offended one person as he didn't get back to me, but he'll be out of here for a "real" flying job as soon as he can, so I don't think I'll lose much sleep over him. Everything else I think went well.

I did try to fly with Zach last night.  I sat out there and ate my lemon berry marscapone cake and watched the sun get lower until he was done flying.  Then we talked until dark about the accident, etc.  Then we decided to do a night flight.  The tug doesn't work for Gumby. I used the Cheyenne tug that we used the other day and had worked fine--it wouldn't get the plane up there for nothing.  I tried, he tried, I tried hanging on the tail to lift the nose, finally he did and got it up high enough to get on the tug.  Success!  Then I tried to pull it out of the hangar and the belt came off.  I put the belt back on.  Then the tug wouldn't engage.  I gave up.  We put it away.  I quit.  I told him we could maybe do it tomorrow instead.  It was 8:30 pm, after a long day, and everything was going wrong.  I don't need too much more of a reason to call it off after that.  

I'm not sure what all I've missed over the last week, what stories I didn't tell.

Kaylee is meeting us to take us to Ivanhoe's for ice cream on Wednesday, something she wanted to do for his birthday and kept getting bumped.  So I look forward to seeing her then.  I think she's doing okay.  She struggled for awhile after the accident, but the last time I saw her, she seemed to be doing a little better. 

The other day coming back from the boys' funeral, you remember I told you that Kaylee's tea spilled?  Here's the rest of that story.  I had in my lap a large bag with 3 people's food, a phone in my hand attached via cord to the car with directions on how to get up there, and a drink carrier with three drinks in it, awkwardly on my lap.  Kaylee came to a round-about, and had to hit the brakes pretty hard.  I pinned the bag of food with my elbow, didn't drop my phone, and grabbed for the drink carrier with my left arm.  I got everything except one drink, which toppled over onto the floor at my feet, where my purse was too.  Kaylee starts apologizing all over, we tell her it's fine, it's not her fault, it's better than hitting someone, and then Steve mumbles "I don't know why Laura couldn't hang onto the drink though."  Now I'm annoyed.  Why you gotta be that way, right?  Why assign blame--I wouldn't say that to anyone else who spilled a drink. It's not like it's on purpose. But it has been a long, long, hard, tough day, and I decide not to argue about it.  Fast forward to the next night.  Lon and Cathy take us out to dinner.  We are sitting at dinner, when they inform me that Steve was out cleaning the Explorer out...the back seat of the Explorer.  He lost his diet coke all over the place back there when she hit the brakes. His drink spewed all over, and mine was just on the rubber floor mat up front and was super easy to clean.  He didn't admit it, they outed him.  Then I was annoyed all over again, because he let me feel all annoyed at him and didn't admit he spilled his too.  Butt head.  ;)  I texted Kaylee that, and she thought it was super funny that he got us.  I dunno... lol

My tailwheel guy that came the day of the accident, and I flew with him every day until he was done and ready to go home?  He did a good job with everything but crosswinds, because we didn't have any, and then he went home and soloed his new-to-him Sonex airplane, successfully.  And then he posted that I was the best instructor he'd ever had, which made me feel good, and that he'd love to come back some time.  He's a super quiet introvert too, so it's really hard to know how he's feeling or what he's thinking 99% of the time, or if he was pleased, or what, so hearing him say so made me feel better, especially since I was wondering because of everything else going on.

Tomorrow morning I have Job in the J-3, lunch, then a lady in the 172, and a lady in the Champ.  I'd been taking the Toga to fly to Huntington to fly with Job, but now I'm short of airplanes, and it'll have to be Gumby, which doesn't have a great working tug yet.  So hopefully I don't get bogged down by that at 8:30 am.  If the weather cooperates I wonder if I can solo the young lady in the 172.  It sure would be nice.

Now it's finally bed time, so I guess I'll wrap it up.  I know I'm missing a lot, but I also know some of it had to do with grief, and I'm not sure I want to go back there now when I'm just feeling like we're coming out of it. 

Pictures will have to wait again.  Maybe tomorrow I'll have some time to do that.

Although I will leave this one.  Mimi took this and didn't tell me she did.  It is the three of us standing together looking down at the accident on Sunday.  A family photo the likes of which we'd never had before, or hopefully again, I guess.