Woke up with a bad headache in the middle of the night for the 3rd day in a row. That's how it seems to go the first week-ish of the month, but usually it's only 3 days, so hopefully this was the end of that. Thank goodness I have something that can get rid of it quickly. I then slept in until 9:30 am, which is REALLY late for me, but I needed it, as I've been waking up at 3:45-4 am and not able to get back to sleep and then up all day working afterwards. I was tired, and I earned that sleep-in. ;)
I had one flying job today, a trip back down to TN to pick up half the family members. It was beautiful weather and easy going, a little over two hours round trip plus the drive, gets me paid for 1/2 a day, and minimal effort on my part. I like easy money! This family has been a little distant to me, but the last trip and this one, the wife started talking to me, and this time she leaned her head back in and said "Thank you so much!", and when I told her to have a good evening, she said "You too!", and that's all new. Previous trips it was more like getting silently out of a taxi. I'm thinking maybe she's starting to feel a little more comfortable around me. The kids still don't talk to or around me, but that's okay, I usually win over kids eventually too. ;)
Speaking of TN, these are the videos that Ethan took of me landing at and taking off from that mountain-ish runway. I wish I had one from the cockpit, it's a little more interesting of a view than this. But you can see what the plane looks like anyway, and how far down the runway I was before I got off the ground on the takeoff. The takeoff video is a long time of me getting ready to go at the other end, it's just the last couple of seconds I actually go by.
First landing in there
Takeoff
You know, I've said this before, but...driving on the backroads for an hour with different paths like I do to get to the other airport, I see a lot of things like tractors parked up against a house, trucks and farms, the quiet country, and house after house neatly kept with American flags up and what I will call 'normal' people just living their lives. Honest, hard working people. And I see them, and it all gives me a little bit of hope. If you just watch the TV, all the shows, the news, the talk shows, the popular hits, a lot of the movies, when they show 'normal' country people, they are often portrayed as stupid or vapid or goofy, silly, uncouth. Some of the most intelligent and capable people I've ever met have been these people, and seeing it for yourself now and then vs trying to ignore the noise you hear everywhere else is refreshing. I like going to a lot of different places and seeing how things are. I enjoyed visiting NYC a few times. I like eating in a fancy restaurant and trying foods I'd never heard of that somehow are good even with weird pairings. But the condescending suspicious manipulative fake attitude from a lot of the "big city wealthy" population; now that I can do without. Give me the...real...people, thank you.
I got a bit of a shock today. An old friend of Steve's, his wife texted me for a favor. Their granddaughter had her Senior photos taken, and apparently they are terrible. They can't afford to do another set of them with a professional photographer, and they are asking ME to take her Senior portraits. Gah! The pressure! I take photos of airplanes and sunsets and clouds and stuff. I don't know this girl, she's going to feel awkward, I'm going to feel awkward, I don't know how to do good people portraits, I haven't even used my SLR in years and I don't think iPhone shots is what they're looking for. I feel slight panic. Where do I go? What backgrounds? When can I do this with my schedule? What if my photos suck too? Yiiiikes.
I have to look up some stats. I've flown 107 hours in the last 30 days, and I now have 115 hours just in the Conquest since July. I'm good as long as I can have a morning like today where I can sleep in and my trip isn't until 6 pm. As long as I can get some time to myself to unwind. Or even time in the plane where nobody's sitting up front making me talk. ;) I have quite the streak of consecutive days of flying going. I sort of don't want to take a day off for awhile now and see how long this streak goes. Some twisted little part of me. Looking at the schedule, it looks like Sunday, Sept. 17th, may be the first day I don't fly since August 27th. So almost 3 weeks straight. I'm pretty sure my longest streak in the past has been 10-14 days of flying, because I almost always take off Sundays, so if I don't get one Sunday off, the next one I usually do. But so far so good. I'm not burning out, I'm staying organized, and I appreciate the income. I do want to figure out how many states/trips I've been on in the last few weeks. lol
Tomorrow morning is back to TN to pick up the other family, and I'll be home and done by 1:30 pm. All good.
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