On and On

It was a full day. After lunch I had flights from 2-4, 4-6, 6:30-8:30 and 9-11:30 pm.  My 6:30 agreed to push back until 7 so that I could run into town and stuff down a sandwich.  It was a beautiful day, so everyone got in everything they could on the one day I had available at the time.  First up was a flight review in someone else's Cherokee 160.  Next up was engine outs and resoloing a guy in his family's Archer II.  Then flying in the 172 at sunset. We went to go into Glenndale and a biplane was upside down in the field in front of it and the airport was closed. Dennis (the guy whose Cub I fly) took his single seat new to him biplane out, flew it about 10 minutes, and ended up upside down in the field.  He is okay, thankfully. I remember the days you could figure out how to fly a new to you single seat airplane, screw it up, push your airplane back into a hangar, fix it up and nobody is the wiser. Today it's online on the scanner, the sheriff is there, it's all over the news, my cell phone is blowing up, and he's in trouble most likely, if all i's and t's aren't dotted/crossed. 

Dan and I got back in the 172 after dark, did three night takeoffs and landings for night currency, and my last flight of the day was early and waiting.  Chris and I did a night cross country to Shelbyville.  Uneventful, pretty, smooth, completed two people's night training in the last two nights.  

I got home late, and have woken up three nights in a row with a headache I had to do something about.  Fun.  

I've averaged 70 hours flight time per month for the last several months.  Keeping busy.

Ann has someone (Kelley) coming over Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings for company, to give us a break on doing dinners and meds, and now Saturday mornings and Tuesday mornings because she's no longer taking care of her own hygiene, changing clothes, washing hair herself. This morning when I went over for breakfast and medicine, she asked where everyone was. I was like...everyone who? Reminds me, I need to get more crackers and soup.  She went through four boxes of crackers in the last few days.  The woman likes her crackers!

Now I need to get ready for the rest of the day. Here are a series of photos from last night.

Lost Days

I have had better days.  That's about as specific as I'm gonna get, but I'm not sorry to see the day end and another start up.

I had a headache today too, so I lost most of the day trying to get rid of that. I was supposed to be in Wisconsin today finishing up T-6 stuff, but didn't need to be, which ended up being a good thing, so instead I had a beautiful weather day and nothing on the schedule, which I ended up spending mostly on my couch.  :p  

I went to Marion to visit Kaylee this evening, and then I went out to Kokomo to fly with Isabel and do her last night cross-country.  All that's left is checkride prep.  It was a dark, moonless, starless (looking) night, but calm and clear for flying.

I saw three things on the internet tonight that made me laugh or nod or whatever, so without further ado.

Kokomo

Indy

More Indy

I laughed at this a lot longer than I probably should have.

Now that Ann doesn't read my blog anymore, Pardon my French, but this also made me laugh.

Yeah...

Sleepy

I'm too tired to write.  So here are pictures from today.  I went to Wisconsin in the Aerostar early this morning. Met with V, who owns a T-6G model. We got along smashingly, she was born in Australia, great accent. ;)  We went flying. The plane had sat for a year, she hadn't flown it for 3 years herself, so our first takeoff right over a large rock quarry we just circled up over the field for awhile until we both felt sure things were going to stay running well.  Flew over to Oshkosh, and did a bunch of takeoffs and landings, each better than the last.  Came back to Waukesha, did a couple more takeoffs and landings, broke for lunch. Went into downtown and had a good sandwich, chatted, and went back to fly one more round.  When we did the run-up, the left mag started backfiring and dropping out, so we taxied back and canceled the rest of the flights. We were going to fly today and tomorrow.  Instead, I was home by 6 pm today, which means I have an unexpected day tomorrow. I should fill it with the people waiting for me, but instead I took a melatonin and a sleeping pill both and I hope to go out hard and stay out all night for the first time in awhile.  If I get up at some point and feel like doing more, I will. If I don't, I won't. And so be it.

I didn't have any notable reaction to the second Covid shot, so that's good. I feel a little warm, and I'm definitely tired, but I haven't been sleeping well either, so...could be either.  My arm was only a little sore when Steve kept squeezing it, lol, but other than that...I seem to be fine.  So that's good. 

V

Oshkosh not during Oshkosh

You can see the blue dot pretty clearly

Warbird Island. A lot quieter than last time I saw it.

Me in the back of my 13 or 14th T-6

Lake Michigan, more relaxing with two engines. One by Land, Two by Sea? ;)

Funerals and Such

Up early, out at the airport as the sun was coming up, to do an IPC (Instrument Proficiency Check) with Dustin so he could take the 340 to New York. Except he said this morning that he has to go to Florida too, so he's commercial flying to NY today, then down to FL tomorrow, and wouldn't have taken the 340 anyway.  So it's good that I had to say 'no' to the trip, because otherwise I'd have been out the WI thing AND the other trip, and been in trouble on the WI thing. So that worked out well.  Dustin wanted to do the IPC anyway so he'd be legal to go if anything else came up this week or when I was busy. I hope I'm not too busy next time, I can always use the income.

After the IPC, I ran home and changed clothes, and Steve and I went to Michaele's funeral.  Noah played guitar and sang, Greg got up and spoke, Grace was pretty quiet, but greeted people afterwards. Kaylee was originally going to come with us but said she had a meeting and wouldn't make it in time.  We saw a Glenndale person, the Wright's, and later saw Mike W. at the visitation, but mostly it was her church people. There were also two other ladies from our "November Moms" group there, one from Atlanta, so that was nice.  When they asked for people to talk about memories, I never get up at those, but this time I felt like it was important to say something, so I talked about how she got me into activities with Kaylee when Kaylee was little. The November Moms board even though Kaylee was born in January, gymnastics, cheer, the local play group, etc.  Michaele was the one who reached out for those things, and I wanted to give them a memory of her helping someone else with something like that.  Greg kept mentioning I was her flight instructor too, but Steve did more of that with her than I did, and flying wasn't something Michaele enjoyed doing herself and wouldn't do by herself.  She just liked to ride along with others and be a part of the community.  But things with kids...that was her passion. Her kids, she dedicated her whole life to them, all the way.  The hardest part of the funeral wasn't just her loss, but seeing her dad start crying when he talked about how he was there when she came into the world and got to say goodbye before she left it.  Other people's grief, that's the hardest thing for us humans with empathy to deal with.

When I left there, I stopped at McDonald's for a late and nutritious lunch, ha, and then went and got my second Covid shot.  So far it's been 6.5 hours and I don't even have a sore arm, let alone any other issues, so I'm hoping I get away with minimal side effects.

The winds are blowing hard around here.  Winds aloft at 8 am were 50 knots at 3000', making instrument approaches and ground reference maneuvers tricky.  By 3 pm when Isabel and I went up to do checkride prep, it was gusting around 26-27 knots, but right down the runway.  We did all the airwork and didn't do all the takeoffs and landings.  Too hard for her in these conditions even without the crosswind part of it.  

She and I got done around 5 pm, and then Steve and I were going to go to dinner while Kelley came to take care of Ann.  But at 4:15 Kelley had called Steve and said she woke up not feeling well and wasn't coming.  So I went home and got Ann's dinner and meds.  She had poured one of her containers of soup into two big bowls, heated them up, then put them on her counter with a plate over the top of them "just in case someone came by".  It had been sitting there for hours. Broccoli cheddar.  So I had to throw away a $12 container of soup.  I told her to leave the soup in the refrigerator unless somebody was over who wanted soup.  I hope she doesn't do that again.

Steve and I went to Grindestones for dinner and cobbler, I went over to get Ann ready for bed, and now it's time to pack for my trip to Wisconsin.  I'm leaving at 9 am, and that will get me to WI at 9 am.  Then I meet a new lady, an airline pilot with her own T-6 that she hasn't flown in 3 years, to get her current in it again.  And maybe to fly with Vic, the WI CAF Wing guy, to do his "check flight" so he can instruct his Wing people again. Part of it may be that I do a back seat check flight too, but I don't feel like it, so will probably...not.  

Sunrise on the way to the airport this morning

Larry's T-6 and BOB

Hangar full of beautiful warbirds

Dana from Atlanta, me, Grace, Taryn from Indy. November Moms plus Grace.

Kentucky

Man it's been beautiful.  A little cool, we ended up wearing sweaters around for a day, but perfect, magnificent Fall weather. 

After lunch, Steve, Nathan, AE and I got in the Aerostar and flew down to Paducah.  It was stunning pretty weather. Nathan goes down each year for his highschool reunion stuff. We got down there and walked downtown, stopped at a place called Max's, hung out, met some of his high school friends, then went over to Doe's Steakhouse, where the guys all had two pound bone-in ribeye steaks.  I wasn't hungry enough for that, so for the first time I had the Mahi Mahi there.  Everything was fantastic, as always, but MAN were we full.

Saturday we spent driving around and checking everything out.  We drove around the lakes, stopped at a marina for lunch and carrot cake, and that evening dropped Nathan off at his official reunion while we went to a seafood place for dinner.  I had the Ahi Tuna, rice, also very good.  The best part was that we were outside on a patio with umbrellas and lights, and live music.  The live music was an old country guy with a guitar.  He had a high, nasally voice, and wasn't so great with rhythm or lyrics.  And yet he kind of grew on you.  He played old and new country both, and I knew every song he played, which is funny, since I don't listen to country any more. Or maybe I listen to more of it than I thought somehow.  But he played as the lights came on and the skies got dark outside there on the fenced in patio while we ate a bunch of different seafood.  We had oysters on the half shell, Mahi and Ahi, fried alligator bites, Steve had gumbo which he said was really good, and then he got frog legs to try them.  I actually took a bite of the meat too, because I was curious, had never had them, and they were there.  I can't stand eating things when I can see the shape of the creature I am gnawing on, but he just put some meat on a fork and gave it to me.  It tasted like juicy chicken.  It was good, but I don't want to eat them.  At least now I can say I have.  The guys ended with key lime pie, but I was too full for that.  That night AE, Steve and I sat down in the hotel lobby and finished off our bottle of cabernet that we'd gotten at Doe's.

This morning we went to a breakfast place we loved. "Gold Rush Cafe" I believe is the name of it.  Small little place downtown in an old building with an odd set-up, very quirky, and we liked it a lot.  The owner had put up signs all over the place like "Today's Menu: Eat it or Leave" or "Whining Costs Extra" or "If you have suggestions, wrap them in $100 bills before you give them to us if you want us to take them seriously". I can't remember all of them, but the owner definitely has a sense of humor.  And the food was fantastic.  We all tried a little bit of everything.  Mini waffles, bacon, real sausage patties, eggs, toast, hashbrown casserole that was cheesy and didn't have onions in it (yay!), huge fluffy biscuits and gravy, short stack.  Obviously we didn't all eat all of that, but amongst us all, that's what we had. Really good.  When the cook came out with our food, she figured out the other three, and then said "By process of elimination, this last one is yours, and you're gonna take it and like it."  We laughed.  I don't mind feisty.

The flight home was also completely uneventful, blue skies, in fact I came home VFR, with not a cloud in the sky nor a bit of airspace in the way.  Listened to music, talked, and relaxed all the way home, back to reality.

My Monday has shifted again. The winds are too strong in Wisconsin for tomorrow in a T-6. So I'm doing an IPC at 8 am, a funeral at 11 am, a checkride prep flight at 3 pm, and then Tuesday and Wednesday I go to Wisconsin. I'm supposed to get my second covid shot tomorrow afternoon, but I'm a little worried it'll knock me out Tuesday when I'm supposed to be flying.  I didn't have any reaction to the first one but I hear it's the second one that can get you.  I'm not sure what to do because there isn't really a whole lot of days I am not supposed to be flying.  I have an appointment for tomorrow at 2, and I couldn't figure out how to cancel it, so if I just don't show up I guess I could walk in when I have two known rainy days coming up?  I don't know...

It was a nice weekend away, and Kaylee helped us be able to do it by spending the weekend at home so she could take care of Ann Friday, Saturday and Sunday until we got back.  Three times a day, minimum.  We really appreciated it.

Commander Steve passed out in the back

 I took a few photos of the downtown street by Doe's and Max's

Max's bar

Us

Steaks and fries at Doe's

2 lb bone-in ribeye

Kentucky Dam

The Boys

The Bisen/Elk place. We saw zero animals but pretty scenery!

The singer we had, at the Shipwreck Cafe, and a little girl dancing in front of him while he sings.

Steve and AE and our lit umbrella

One of the rude signs at our breakfast restaurant this morning

Steve and I came home from Kentucky to find Kaylee had done this, and I could not stop laughing.
That is so me.