Still Going

Sunday, Pete and Laural, the Gunfighter pilot and his wife, drove me to Dallas Love to get my airline flight home on Southwest. I had changed my ticket so late in the game, I was about the last person to board, with no option but a middle seat, on a flight where *every* seat was filled. I was still a little numb, and I didn't actually care. I was sitting in my middle seat, hadn't gotten my headphones out of my bag because there were so many people in the aisle I couldn't get it done and hadn't thought of it before I got on the plane.  I didn't have music to listen to, or a movie to watch, or a window to look out, and I was still just so stunned that I sat there for 2 hours and stared straight ahead, played games on my phone, and just sat there until the plane landed, never once seeing outside. I was still in a little shock. Unfortunately I'm familiar with the signs in myself by now. I go internal. I compartmentalize. I lock down and do one thing at a time to put one foot in front of the other. I can feel the...dissociation? I don't mind that, because it allows me to not panic in critical situations, and it allows me to deal with things when I'm ready and able.  In public is not where I care to deal with things, or think about them.  So I lock it down until I have the space to unpack it.  I think that's a good skill to have grown, but I'm sorry there have been enough things happen that I've had to use it enough to build the skill in the first place.

When I landed in Indy, Steve and Kaylee came and got me, and we went to Red Robin to eat.  I wasn't hungry yet, so I just had some garlic fries, but being in the company of my family was the best cure.  It was good to be home.

Monday kept me busy. Our bank is closing its Kokomo branch, so I went out and got a lot of cash, and some counter checks for each of our accounts, to make it less likely we'll have to go to the branch itself anytime soon. I had boxes to pick up, the cat to give steroids to because nobody else wants to :D, housework to catch up on. Then I flew Spencer and Jon to Anderson in order to work on the T-6 down there. We found out they don't have a way to tow it, and it was clear on the other side of the  ramp, so I taxied it over to the hangar and we hand pushed it in.  I left them there to work on it then, and came back home to keep doing my stuff.  Late that evening, I went back out in the RG and flew back to Anderson, where we ran up the T-6 and found it has *another* problem.  This airplane sat for so long, that whatever can break, has.  I don't like that. They're looking to have it ferried to the Carolinas and I don't mind if they find someone else.  lol  But it was cool watching the flame shoot out the exhaust at night.  That is so neat.  I got home around 9 pm, watched some TV and relaxed.

Today the weather is crap. I'm going to do some ground for IFR this afternoon in the crappy weather, and other than that do some planning, finish unpacking my bag, maybe do some photos, and just routine stuff.  We did learn that Air Base Georgia of the CAF has canceled their formation event JP and I were taking BOB to this weekend. My hotel had said "No refunds on cancellations" but I called in person and they did finally agree to refund me, thank heavens. Georgia has a P-63 that the pilot who died also flew. The CAF did a 3 day stand down out of respect, and Georgia canceled their event for the same. So I'm now going to be around the next three days after all, which is also good. To be honest, I wasn't really feeling it either. Going around and doing close formation with 4 other C-45s with some people I didn't know after watching two airplanes run into each other, and a vivid imagination that unfortunately lets me imagine what those last few seconds were like from the inside, my heart wasn't really in it yet.

Okay, I need to go shower and get ready for the day. I DO still have stuff to do. :)

I'll come up with pictures later...