Two Pilots & an LSW: Traveling Fool

I got so behind and busy I didn't have any time to just sit down and catch up, until this morning. I scheduled this morning off to "recuperate" as I put it on the schedule, and I needed it!

Steve has called into the doctor's office to ask about Hospice services for Ann. They are supposed to send someone out today to assess her. They wanted us to bring her in, but she can't walk from her chair to her kitchen table (a very short distance) without gasping for breath and having trouble with her breathing and heart. Getting her out to a car, and in and out of a doctor's office would be a feat. They wanted us to take her to the ER to be evaluated, and Steve said no, if she goes in to the ER she won't come out. They said "If you bring her here we will probably send her to the ER", and he asked about services that would come to us. We're not trying to extend her life, we're just trying to not have her die in a hospital room scared and alone. He had to bring up hospice several times and finally they agreed to do that. So sometime today they're supposed to be coming by to assess and discuss what they can do for her. Maybe a bed (right now she just sleeps in her chair and she's having trouble getting in and out of it. She won't sleep in her own old bedroom but she may in the hospital bed that sits up. We shall see. I don't know if she just has some other infection going on that is making everything else worse, or if this is "it", but it's time. She sleeps most of the day, she isn't eating hardly anything, we can't get her meds in her properly, she's not communicative at all, she is incontinent now, her breathing doesn't sound great...we'll see what they say.

I haven't heard much from Kaylee, as we're both really busy. I've been gone for weeks straight, basically, and she is working and doing school at the same time, so she's been busy too. We shoot off a quickie "Love you!" now and then randomly, so last I heard she was doing all right.

The cat is also just the same. Sleeps a lot, is still eating, without steroids, bony and old and frail but comfortable and sweet.

Steve is swamped with the additional care of his mom, me gone all the time, most of his instructors gone, breaking in two new instructors from Purdue who need help just being basic decent pilots let alone instructors, taking on all the students while all us other instructors are gone, taking on Isabel's stuff while she's gone now that her father-in-law died, and doing the normal stuff he had already been doing. Billing, accounting, phone calls, maintenance scheduling, etc. He needs about three of him divided up. He was doing very well delegating and minimizing his work load, and then life interfered as it does. He's still from the generation though that he's not complaining, or whining, he's just doing what he has to do, because what else are you going to do, right? He's a good man, he works very hard, and he somehow doesn't usually lose his...peace.

The rest is me, which is just...flying. I've flown 114.3 hours in the last 30 days, 46 separate flights, flew 28 out of the last 31 days, to 38 different airports, in 16 different states, in 11 different airplanes. In 30 days. That's a lot, in case you're wondering. ;) Here's a map of the cross countries. You would have to zoom in on the real map (can't here) to see all the different airports inside the state of Indiana, too. Kinda wild, huh?

Sept. 20th was the 3 year anniversary of the fatal Glenndale Toga accident. That morning I had a Conquest trip to Owosso, Michigan with Andy, took him up there, and while I was waiting, they have a tiny little restaurant on field. I went in there to eat, and there's no space, so all the tables are right up against each other. It was raining lightly but it was still packed out, and I had a good bacon/toast/eggs breakfast. Two pilots sitting right next to me struck up a conversation, and even though I am not friendly, they made me talk, and it was fine. ;) Andy got back a little late, so I didn't have time to do what I was originally going to do, so the rest of the plan went like this.

I dropped Andy off at Frankfort and topped off the Conquest. Flew it to Kokomo, left it on the ramp, got a golf cart ride back to the Cheyenne, where Kevin was waiting, and we flew to Lafayette. Picked up two Purdue coaches, the women's basketball coach this time. While I was in the foyer, Cameron W. came up to me. He's a Purdue instructor there now, and his student was canceled because they didn't have an airplane. Kevin offered to let him go along, and he canceled his other evening plans to go ahead and do it. He'd never been to New Hampshire before, and why not go, right? So Cameron came with us, we flew the Purdue coach to N. Hampshire starting at 3 pm, for them to look at a recruit. We ate dinner in downtown Manchester at a nice little seafood place, where I had lobster on top of jasmine rice and mahi mahi that was Really good. We left N. Hampshire around 11 pm. Like I said, it was the 3rd anniversary of the Glenndale crash, and Cameron was the only survivor of it. So I brought it up on the way home, and we talked about it a little. I know people don't like to talk about bad things that happened to other people that make them uncomfortable to bring it up, but I also know that pretending like it didn't happen isn't very healing for most people either, and making it weird for them is worse than just being up front about it. So we talked for a few minutes and he said he was glad this opportunity came up, because he likes to fly on the anniversary of that date, just to...just because. I get it. So instead he was up in the flight levels getting some night, IMC, multi-engine turboprop time while listening to music and eating a giant home made whoopie pie that the Purdue ladies brought back as a thank you dessert for us. So it was a good evening for him too.

We didn't get back to Lafayette until 1:15 am, dropped everyone off, and Kevin and I got back to Kokomo around 2 am. Put the plane away, and I got home around 2:30 am, couldn't get to bed and sleep until about 3 am. I woke up at 5, which annoyed me, and 7, and didn't really get back to solid sleep. Combine that with lack of hydration, and you can guess what happened. I had to get up at 9 anyway to go out to Kokomo, get the Conquest, and get it to Frankfort by 11, at which time four of us left to go to Illinois through some weather, rain and clouds. Picked up another guy there and went on to Davenport, Iowa. The weather was supposed to be VFR there but it lied. We ended up having to shoot an approach in, and I'm not sure what button E hit incorrectly, but the approach didn't work properly. So he flew while I fixed the buttons and we ended up breaking out not that far from minimums with 24 knot gusting winds. None of that was forecast. That's why he brings me along. :D We left the guys there to go work on a project, and he and I went into town to eat. My head was killing me by then so I popped a couple pills. I wanted straight Coke and breakfast, eggs. They didn't serve breakfast after 12 (I thought they did) and they only had Pepsi. So I was out of luck on multiple accounts. When we got done eating, I went to the pilot lounge, put my sunglasses on in the dark room, put my head back, and rested. I still didn't feel great, still didn't have enough sleep, but at least the meds kicked the headache. We were supposed to go to Minneapolis, but the lady up there canceled on them. So instead we just went back to IL, dropped off the one guy, then back to Frankfort and dropped off the other two. From there I drove home, and I was glad I didn't end up in MN too. I was done for the day.

I am scheduled off for today (Friday) in the morning for "recuperation", which I obviously needed. This afternoon I have a flight with a student, and then tonight I am taking 6 people down to Tennessee leaving Lafayette at 10:30 pm. I'll get down there around midnight, back to Frankfort around 1, back home around 2 at best again. I should be able to drink more water this time though as it's a shorter set of flights. Don't need another late night, but I won't have to get up early Saturday at least...