Wichita

Up at literal 0-dark-thirty.  Five-thirty a.m. alarms are no good. I'm glad my watch just buzzes on my wrist now though, that's a much more pleasant way to wake up than a loud alarm.  I used to wake up to the radio clicking on with the volume all the way down, but I don't have that clock any more, and I don't know that it would wake me up any more. I'd hate for it not to and me sleep through something important.  lol

Anyway. It was 24° I think, and dark, and windy already. I pulled out the Cheyenne and flew to Frankfort, where I met up with Ethan, who went with me, and Jason and Mark, who went in the Conquest.  We left first so Ethan would have time to talk with the shop.  When the Conquest arrived, I took their avionics guy up for a test flight, and they actually fixed our ILS issue in the airplane asap. It was a disconnected wire.  I love easy fixes.  It was windy as heck out there, gusty.  Tis the season.  *sigh*

We left there, me flying with Mark right seat, and I took everybody home at 33,000'.  He gave me my certificate at the end, and I'm signed off for another year in the Cheyenne.

Got back to Frankfort, Ethan took me to eat real quick nearby, then I flew back to Kokomo, put it away without gassing it back up--I will wait until it's NOT cold and windy--and then got the 340 ready for my trip to N. Carolina tomorrow. Fortunately it was already full.  Unfortunately I may have to fill it back up with self-serve tomorrow night late when I get back, when it will still be cold and windy and dark, as I'll be leaving early again the next morning before they open for fuel.  Another *sigh*. 

AE, Steve and I drove into Wabash to eat at the "Market Street Grill" restaurant.  We had to go up there to swap cars with Kaylee, as her heater quit working in the Buick, and it's butt cold out here.  She didn't want to go out to eat with us, and that place doesn't have much gluten free food available, but when I met up with her I brought her a gluten free chocolate cake piece from there. We swapped cars, and interestingly enough, the heater started working on our way home.  I'm sure it won't stay working, because if it quit once it'll quit again.  But at least we only froze the first half of the drive.  

Tomorrow I was supposed to go to Raleigh Durham and spend the night, coming back Thursday night. Instead, I'm going down tomorrow morning at 8 with one guy, staying the day, coming back in the evening.  Leaving early the next morning with a different guy, and doing the same thing, back in the evening.   More work, double the flying, late nights and early mornings twice in a row instead of just once, and not having a hotel room, a rental car, and the time to wander around Raleigh on my own or hook up with a friend, so not as ideal, but hey.  It went from a paid vacation to two full work days, but that's okay.  It'll also only be 5 degrees warmer down there than up here, which isn't fair. If I'm going to N. Carolina I want to be warmer than 30 degrees!  

From Kokomo to Frankfort

Taxiway lights shining on the fuselage

Sunrise

Purty.

Oh, Kokomo, Kokomo, Kokomo....

I'd have posted this except I probably have people on my friends list who feel the same way she does and don't see anything weird about megaphone screaming at people about the evils of Halloween.  That'll change their minds, ma'am.  For sure.  They won't think YOU'RE the possessed one.  Nope.

Panama City

Morgan, Ricky and the kids all left last night, and so did Alonna and Kaylee. So this morning, Rania and Trey left around 7:30 am, and then Lon and Cathy stayed until 10 something.  Steve had to leave at 9:30 am for a lesson and I had to leave at 10 am for my trip, so we went over to say goodbye to them before we left.  It was weird waking up and not having to go over to get breakfast and meds. It was weird to not have to worry about what time I was going to get home vs when Steve's lessons were to get dinner and meds.  It was weird to not have to go over and turn off lights, or be quiet in the driveway in the morning to not wake her up, or to not worry about what time it is.  It's been years... it's weird and it's going to be a little weird for awhile I think.

I got into the banking and sent out the checks to all the grandkids.  Ann's bank is such a pain in the butt, always has been. I had to take a phone call for every new payee I added to write a check to.  So that was five phone calls.  Every time I log in it makes me verify who I am by a text or call. I say "remember this computer" and it does not. Ever. Anyway, the checks are in the mail, the grandkids were a little speechless and very thankful. Once the death certificate comes through, I'll close down the small IRA she had, and then figure out what we need to do next.

I had 133 knot winds aloft today. Serious headwinds which fortunately were more of a crosswind today.  Tomorrow they'll be right off my nose. Strong stuff.  I flew over the top of some weather, and got down to Panama City in time for Ethan to bring me a sandwich, get gas, load up, and head right back home. Winds were back in our favor at least.  Ethan was tired, he and his wife had ear issues, so he had me fly us home.  All good.  A little over 5 hours flight time today.  Easy day.

Tomorrow is my Cheyenne recurrent training. I leave at 7 am at Kokomo, fly to Frankfort, pick up Ethan, fly to Wichita (yes, Wichita!).  The Conquest will leave Frankfort with Mark and Jason, the check pilot and my new backup pilot to be, and go to Wichita. I will test fly the Conquest in Wichita with the shop there so they can see some of what we're talking about.  Mark will do Jason's ground while I do that.  I will fly all four of us home in the Cheyenne, and Mark will do my Cheyenne recurrent on the flight home.  We will be done by 2 pm as he has to get down to Indy to catch an airline flight home.  I will drop everyone off in Frankfort, and then I will fly back to Kokomo.  Strong headwinds on the way out, tailwinds on the way home, gusty winds on the surface everywhere, and getting cold.  I hate winter.

133 knot winds up there.

My total flight time in the last 30 days.

Post Script

Steve, Cathy and I left the house at 9 am to head to the church yesterday and make sure everything was set up okay.  The viewing was 10-12, and it was neat to see the people who came.  Airport guys who don't like this kind of thing, old fellow school teachers, church folks who hadn't seen her in years, family who traveled from Texas and Florida in a car.  Ann was 90 years old, so most of her 'people' have passed before her, so we were a little worried nobody would be there to send her off.  Fortunately, while it wasn't a celebrity-sized service by any means, her family and closest friends were there for her, and many of our friends were there for us, and that was nice.

The service was 12-12:30.  Tanner had recorded "It Is Well" to play via video for everyone. Pastor Jeff opened up with a little talking and a prayer, then Tanner's video, then Pastor Greg did his message on why you should be saved, and then Steve's cousin Bruce had pre-recorded a message for everyone, and that's the one that got me.  He grew up with her as a parent figure. His mom and her two sisters, all those kids grew up together, close, and the three Simmons Sisters were a core family unit.  He had a lot of neat things to say.  One that made me laugh out loud was when he said that word for word, nobody could match Aunt Dolly on talking. She had a Master's in talkology.  He's a pastor too, he said he's known a lot of talkative people in his life, but nobody has ever beaten her.  He's not wrong, until the last couple of years anyway.  I also liked how he said she wasn't a big person, but there was nothing else about Aunt Dolly that was small.  Her big heart, her big mouth, her big personality.  All true.

One of the things that I enjoyed was seeing the photo video up on the big screen.  Her laughing, her dancing at Morgan's wedding, her grinning with her grandkids, her looking up at Richard, the her that was REALLY her, not the her that we saw these last couple of years.  It was a nice reminder of the real person vs the person the disease transformed her into, physically, emotionally, all of it.  

After the service the church provided a chicken and noodles and mashed potatoes and green beans and roll lunch, with cherry or peach cobbler for dessert, for whomever wanted to stay.  That was kind, and was good, we were all hungry by then.  We stayed and hung out there until it was time to load up and go to the cemetery.  Steve, Kaylee, me, Cathy, Alonna and George, Annie's last remaining sibling on earth (89 years old), rode in the limo to the Logansport cemetery.  Tanner had to go home, so we were short a couple of Pall Bearers, so Kaylee and I acted as them.  I think Ann actually would have liked that.  lol  We took the casket to the hearse, then took the casket to the roller thing and into the chapel where we held Devon's service.  Pastor Jeff did another service up there, and that was it.  We got back into the limo and drove back to the church, then out of the church and back home. Didn't get home until 3:30 pm, by which time we were all tired and overwhelmed by people and activities and talking.  Even the extroverts were, and me, I was way past my limit.  

I wore a dress, but when it came time to be a Pall Bearer, I switched my low heel sandals out for flat boots. It also helped with feet pain for not being used to wearing anything but my Sketchers. ;)

Kaylee did not know it was "Pall Bearer".  She thought it was "Ball Bearer" until the night before.  So she has learned something new.  lol

At 5:20, a friend of Ethan and Amber's had arranged to make a big meal for all of us.  We didn't know what it was going to be, but Ethan had asked if they could help us out with a meal, and I said yes for once, instead of "Oh, no, you don't need to do anything", because, well, I could use help feeding 12 people.  She arrived with trays and trays.  Meatballs, diced cheesy potatoes with a like corn flake crust, a fancy salad with sesame sticks and cheese and all sorts of good things and a dressing that I don't know what it is but it's good.  Homemade rolls that are light and fluffy that came with amish apple butter and strawberry rhubarb jam, and pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting.  It was just what we needed. We got another table out, set it up, and had a really good homestyle meal that I didn't have to cook, and the clean-up was fast and easy, and we have leftovers enough for those remaining today. 

Kaylee can't have gluten. She actually does have a terrible reaction to it, it's not just a diet thing. She gets strong stomach pain and cramping, bad digestive issues, and it hurts her for a couple of days if she accidentally eats gluten.  This makes life difficult--you know how much stuff has gluten/wheat in it??  Even the chocolate bar I had had gluten in it.  So when they had offered to make a meal, they asked about allergies and I said Kaylee and gluten, but also, it was a gift to us, so if that didn't work out, she'd adapt as usual.  When the food got here, we forgot to ask the lady delivering it, and Kaylee was tired, overwhelmed and hungry too, and it all smelled good, but she didn't know what she could risk eating or not. The potatoes had flakes on top that could have gluten, the meatballs can have gluten, the salad had  a lot of stuff in it, the pumpkin bars, the rolls were probably definitely out.  She went to her room and was pretty sad, so I texted Amber in Florida on her vacation since I didn't have the other lady's contact info, and asked her to ask what was safe.  Fortunately everything was gluten free except the rolls and pumpkin bars.   So Kaylee was able to eat a plate full of homemade food and enjoy it too, and she loved it. 

Now that I've typed all that, I haven't eaten since breakfast and it's 2:30, so I need to go get some lunch action.  I know just the stuff.  ;)

I did tell Kaylee to take some of the potatoes home with her. She loves the stuff too, and she really does have a limited menu on a day to day basis.  So I think she will.

After cleaning up, we spent the evening a little more quietly.  The ladies went next door and played a game of "Speed Scrabble", and went through the rest of Grandma's jewelry.  The guys and I stayed on this side and watched football and relaxed or talked or didn't.  

This morning everyone slept in except me, who got up at 7 am because I woke up and couldn't keep sleeping.  We had eggs and coffee for breakfast, and started cleaning up a few things.  Tanner had driven all the way up here yesterday and had to leave in the viewing in order to go back for a gig in Nashville with his band.  Alonna left this morning and headed for home.  Morgan, Ricky, and their three kids, Israel (Izzy), Ezekiel (Zeke), and Zaria, who is 6 months old and a cutie pie, all three constant motion and noise machines, left later this morning.  Lon, Cathy, Rania and her husband Trey are still here, and they went north to visit his mom who also has Alzheimer's and is in a care facility up there.  They'll be coming back this late afternoon, and leaving in the morning. And of course tomorrow morning our lives go back to normal, and I have a trip in the afternoon, and Kaylee goes back to school and work (she leaves tonight too to go back), and so it goes.

Just some photos of the families hanging out

I didn't take photos of the casket or people at the services. It just didn't seem right. Here are some of the flowers.  Kaylee also got a blanket sent over from her work place, and Ricky's work place sent some lillies. Very pretty.  Lots of pink, Ann's favorite color.

Yummmy.

Fini

The viewing is over, the services are over, the meal is over, the graveside service is over, the family dinner is done, and we're watching football before going to bed.  I'll write more tomorrow, just saying we're home, all is done, all is well.

Panama City and Home

Yesterday was a late start to the day.  I didn't end up leaving for the day's flights until 6 pm.  I drove to Frankfort, picked up Ethan and his family, and we flew over to Lafayette to pick up Amity's boyfriend Clay, then left at 7:40 pm to head to Panama City, FL.  Ethan flew, I did the radios, and we landed down there at 10 pm our time.  I got gas, and it took them an hour to do a "quick turn" on me, and then they couldn't figure out how to bill me out, so I left my credit card info with them. 

This morning I got a call from them, how they had charged me incorrectly, and needed me to call them back.  I do, and he says they only charged me for 150 gallons instead of the 210 they were supposed to charge me for.  Except I only got 45 gallons/side for a total of 90 gallons. He said "but the invoice says 210" and I said "There's a paper that I wrote on that says 45/side and that's what I actually got in the plane last night".  So he's going to be calling me back.  Eye yi yi.  Better not charge me for 210 gallons when I got 90.

I took off at 11 pm my time, landed at Frankfort at 1 am, drove home and arrived by 2, and then didn't get to bed until 3 am.  

The last two times I had to drive from Frankfort to home at 1 am, I got pulled over by the police, neither resulting in a ticket.  This time I was super careful, knowing they are out there, and when I came up to the road I always get pulled over at, I saw the cop car, and he had someone else pulled over already.  HA hahaha.  Missed me, missed me, nah nah nah nah nah.

This morning I only slept in until 8 am, so here by 5 pm I'm already tired.  

We've been trying to get ready for the funeral tomorrow.

Well, Alonna has arrived, Tanner and Lon arrived separately, and now the Howards have arrived, Morgan, Ricky, and three kids.  So I'd better go...

On the way to Panama City

Panama City, FL

The Cop That Didn't Get Me. This time.

Onward

We're progressing along. Steve and Cathy have gotten most everything arranged and set up.  The house next door is very close to being just how we will leave it for awhile, with a pile of things on the table for the grandkids to look through and see if there is anything in there they want to take with them.  She'd already divided up most of her things.  She was very organized about that even before she had dementia.  

Instead of doing a Friday night viewing and Saturday services, we're doing it all on Saturday.  Morning viewing, small service afterwards, a family lunch provided by her church, and then out to the gravesite for whatever immediate family wishes to go.  Kaylee and the Cherry families will be coming tomorrow afternoon.

Yesterday my job was to answer a couple phone call questions but mostly just go on a couple of trips.  I had to wake up at 5 am, be out the door by 5:45-6, and wheels up by 7.  We went first to Niagara Falls, NY.  We were supposed to be on the ground there for 2.5 hours, so I took a courtesy car, went to get breakfast, and then headed over to the Falls to check them out again as an adult.  I got a text just as I was pulling out of the breakfast place that they were going to be back in 20 minutes.  Well, I'm 10 minutes away and I still have to pay for fuel!  So no Falls for me, from earth anyway.  I was glad though, because the next leg was down to Fort Myers, FL.  It took 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Again, they were there less long than they expected to be, so instead of getting home at midnight, I got home around 9 pm.  An actual pretty reasonable hour!  

It's easier doing these flights than it is dealing with the funeral and stuff stuff, even when most things are  pre-arranged for you.

Today I went to her bank to get bank checks for the grandkids to present to them.  Her bank no longer has bank checks. Or temporary checks for any account.  And their cashier check printer is down.  So I'm like...no way to get physical checks.  Great.  Everyone will be here tomorrow and it was going to be a nice farewill gift from Ann to them, with something physical to hand to them in one of the mugs that they always shared with her.  I'll have to come up with another way to present it, while just doing an electronic check from the website to mail to their houses at this point.  Dumb.

Tonight is my late night.  I'm heading to Frankfort at 6 pm, going over to Lafayette at 7 with Ethan and his whole family, and we're picking up his daughter's boyfriend from college there, and then flying down to Panama City, FL.  I'll drop them off at like 9:30 pm, have to probably get some gas, which gets me back to Frankfort around midnight, and home after 1 am.  Fortunately my flights for Friday have been canceled, so I can sleep in before I start getting into all the details of having everybody come in.  I'll need to get groceries of some sort for starters...

I took these on my NY/FL trips. It was a lot of time sitting on my butt, like 8.5 hours flight time, but it was also peaceful up there.

This is ambient light, it's actually dark as night out here. These phones are amazing.

Climbing up into the clouds

Sunrise thinks about it

See? Peaceful.

Niagara Falls from a distance

Niagara Falls up close

The cool little diner where I had breakfast.  Just oatmeal today but even that was good.

Fort Myers, FL. Palm trees and all.

They had a real T-6 outside in the front under a canopy, and this P-51 hanging from the ceiling.  Tons of WWII photos, it was a base.  Gave me something to enjoy looking at.

Peace

Well, it's over.  Around 4 am, Steve, Cathy and I all woke up, but didn't really know the other people had too, and never could get back to sleep.  Steve went over early in the morning, and found that his mom had passed, apparently.  He asked me to come verify, so I went over, checked for breathing, a pulse, etc., but it was clear she was gone, and we then called Hospice, who came over and cleaned her up and prepared her for the funeral home people, who came a few hours later.  These people are all a well oiled machine, dealing with these things all the time, and they knew what to do and how and when and where.  Steve called the funeral director who said he'd handle the church and just about everything else, and Ann and Richard had both prepared everything ahead of time, almost 10 years ago, and paid for it all too.  When I texted my Mom to tell her, she said she'd woken up in the middle of the night and been unable to sleep as well.  Makes you wonder.

Steve and Cathy are working through not having any surviving parent still here and how weird that feels, like you're adrift in the world, I believe.  Fortunately I can't say that, and hope to not say that for a very long time, but I can kind of sort of comprehend.  

This afternoon I went next door and started taking care of some of the things over there, that I'd help with some of the personal things nobody will need but that might be painful for someone to throw away.  Dentures, face creams, toothbrush.  I turned the heat way down (she liked it really hot in there) and emptied out containers that wouldn't be needed any more.  I went through and tossed medications, and the notebooks her caregiver Stormy wrote in every time she came over to tell us what she'd done.  I went through the kitchen and threw out what wasn't going to be eaten or used, and brought some of the other things over here.  I ended up with a large black trash bag of throw away items, and took them out to the trash.  By then Steve figured out what I was doing, so he came over too, and worked on the office area.  The safe, paperwork, all that stuff.  Right now Steve and Cathy are both next door and I have left them there, as I think they're looking through photos for the services.  

I am instead working on cleaning up around here, laundry, dishes, and getting ready for a very long trip day tomorrow.  Leaving at 7 am to go to Niagara Falls, and then down to Fort Myers, FL, and then back.  I'll be out of the house from 6 am to 11 pm at the earliest.  That's a lot of distance to look at for weather, NOTAMS, procedures, etc.  So far at least things seem reasonable for the day. I'm glad, I don't need a super difficult day.  The left engine is losing a lot of oil again too, so I have to keep an eye on that. It's worse than when he "fixed" it. But I can't blame him, it didn't leak for 4.5 hours of flight time and now all of a sudden, boom.  Oil.  *sigh*

I'm just ordering in a pizza for tonight for the three of us, nothing fancy.  I have to get up at 5 am, and didn't sleep last night real well, so...I'm not doing anything very arduous this evening. 

Cleveland and Marco

Ann is still here as of me writing this.  Her lungs have filled with fluid and her breathing is more of a struggle. She choked on the meds this morning, just the trickle of fluid, but it's just her body reacting to everything, she is not conscious, awake or aware.  I checked on her first thing this morning while the others were asleep, before I left for my trip, and I talked to her then.  Cathy and Steve have spent the day and evening over there.  This is hardest on them, this interminable watch and wait and dragging out the end...of their Mom, who isn't really their Mom any more.  Odds are large that she will pass away in her sleep at any time here.

In the meantime, I had the distraction of work.  So I left at sunrise for Cleveland, and had forgotten that the runway was right on the water right by downtown skyscrapers.  Last time I was in there my windshield was completely iced over with a tiny stripe to sort of see out of from the heated plate, 30 knot crosswinds gusting, and low IFR.  That was a fun one.  And I apparently hadn't paid attention to my surroundings once I got on the ground.  We weren't there for very long, got there at 9, left by 10:30.  So I had enough time to get a bad cup of coffee, pay for the fuel, and sit down for a few minutes and it was time to head back.

That worked out perfectly because my schedule had been so tight prior to that, that I wouldn't have been able to eat anything all day, and I mean ALL day.  So this way, we got back an hour early, and I was able to go to Jimmy John's just down the road and get a sub and a cookie to take with me on the 3 hour flight down to Marco, which I ate by myself and enjoyed just fine at 31,000'.  

I also got to Marco early, on purpose, so I could top off and be ready for them by 5 pm.  But they were watching on FlightAware, and they said they were done and just sitting there, so they came on out early too.  So I got home at least an hour earlier than I otherwise would have.  I got home around 9 instead of around 10, and that was a reasonable time frame for me.  I even stopped at Arby's on the way home and brought Steve, Cathy and myself some late dinner.  

Every time I go to Marco Island, when someone says "Marco traffic", I want to get on the radio and yell "POLO!!"  It's this weird immature urge.  I can't be the only one.  Surely someone has actually been immature enough to DO it.  They meow on Guard frequency for heaven's sake, surely someone has belted out a POLO.

Kaylee texted me that her Econ professor was a super hard grader.  I told her she'd have to step up her game, then.  She otherwise seems to be doing fine.

The cat volcano vomited on our couch and blanket the other day.  It was like a possession. Steve started to jump up and I warned him to stay still or she'd run, and if she ran vomiting like that we'd have a MUCH bigger mess to clean up.  So gross, I had to wash that blanket twice. 

Everyone else is just hanging on.

Loading up at sunrise

Cold water up there in Ohio

Cleveland

The oil leak they "fixed" in Florida last week

Eating Jimmy John's at 31,000'

Like I said--the oil leak they "fixed", this was made after it sat for 1 hour after a trip.

Close to home....

Sunrise to sunset.

Sunday

Cathy is next door at the moment, just hanging out with Ann.  The nurse visited again today, said she expected it would be 24-48 hours, though nobody knows for sure, of course.  The grandkids each sent video messages through that Cathy played for her, songs they sang, messages of love.

My day off, I headed out to Kokomo to meet the kid named Andrew from Purdue, needing his spin endorsement for his CFI.  We spent about an hour on the ground talking about stalls, spins, spin entries, recovery, the most common ways students will get you in trouble, etc. Then we went up and did power off stalls, power on stalls coordinated, power on stalls uncoordinated, spin entries to the left and right, a fully developed spin, and a spin where I just had him let go of the controls after entering it. I don't know how many total we did, but quite a few.  He did a great job. He'd never been in a tailwheel airplane before and we had a 40 degree crosswind around 15 knots. He did the takeoff, but he didn't want to do the landing.  I haven't landed from the back seat in ages, so I told him that and jokingly said maybe he'd get to see how not to do it. He asked if I needed him to move his head so I could see. I said nah, that's part of tailwheel, not being able to see in front of you. Then I asked if he was sorry he wasn't trying the landing himself yet.  He's like...maybe...  I then happened to absolutely grease it on, roll it on so gently you couldn't hardly feel the wheels touch.  I'm taxiing in, and he says "You say you're rusty and then you land like that."  I said "We all get lucky now and then."  

After I signed his endorsement and he left, I went out and took up the Citabria next.  I had been concerned that the last time I did spins in it, it had over-revved. And it had maintenance just done.  So I took it up on a post-maintenance test flight, and then did spins in it, too.  It has more horsepower and does more aggressive spins, but it did not over-rev, and then I remembered, it was when I was doing aerobatics and fell out of a maneuver that the RPM got too high, not spins.  So in the future I can do spins in the Citabria and that'll be fine. After the last spin I did in the Citabria, my head felt it.  I'd woken up with another headache, and Tylenol, Advil and Excedrin later, I still had to take something else, and finally felt decent by my 1 pm spins flight.  But climbing up at a higher altitude and repeatedly doing spins, then landing, going back up and repeatedly doing spins, at the end I thought "okay, that's the last spin I need to do today."  lol  So I went to do some takeoffs and landings in the pattern in the Citabria, which handles a little funny and I have more trouble greasing on this particular one than I do Chuck's Citabria or our Champs or about anything else.  But when I get there, our 172 is in the pattern, and they are doing giant patterns.  Waaay out there, and I'm stuck behind them. So after spending more time in a pattern cross country than on practice, I moved to the other runway, and got 2-3 landings in before the 172 said they were coming in on my runway too now. So I got stuck behind them again.  I pulled up the schedule on my phone and they were supposed to be done soon, so I out-waited them, and then when they left, had the pattern to myself.  I got in about 3 landings before the Cherokee 180 came out and wanted to stay in the pattern too. *sigh*  Since I had to go to the bathroom anyway, I just quit at that point and put it away.   Got about 12 landings in though.

The foliage is really bright and pretty now, we're reaching peak.  I didn't take any photos or videos of the spins this time, just one of the foliage. 

Tomorrow morning early I take Ethan's guys to a project up in Cleveland. Back to Frankfort around noon, and head for Marco Island by 1 to pick up Andy and family.  So tomorrow will be a long one, getting up at 6 am,  getting home by 9-10 pm.  Just carrying on day by day.

End Times

Ann is still here as of now, but probably not for much longer. After we gave her the Lorazepam yesterday, and a small dose of morphine so they could move her around and clean her up and change her clothes, she went to sleep, and she was OUT.  I don't think she's been sleeping well, and this took away the agitation and helped her sleep. I couldn't wake her up to give her any food, but I got some water and some broth down her last night.  This morning she never opened her eyes, but she woke up enough to have some sips of water.  Tonight she wouldn't participate with drinking at all, or work for the sponge on a stick that we dipped in water to put on her lips or in her mouth.  So I took a syringe and squirted a little water in there, tried to close her mouth, but her jaw is almost locked open.  She finally did swallow that, after we lowered the back of her bed and it went further back in her throat, but I then left well enough alone. I don't want it to run down the wrong pipe and into her lungs or something.  She can't have many days left, and every time I check on her I wonder if she'll be gone.  Cathy is on her way, will arrive tonight.  Kaylee is home as well.  Steve and I both told Ann that it was okay to go, to be with Richard again, and to take care of Devon & Sidney with him for us.  That was the one time she made a noise today, when Steve said Devon's name. Maybe it was coincidence, but maybe not.  That look of people right before they die, I now recognize it. I know it's a part of life, but I'm not sure I'm glad to know it.  It feels weird, this death watch, and it's weirder to see pictures of her five years ago and not even hardly recognize who is in the bed in front of you.  I'm glad that the last clear thing she ever said to me was not that long ago--two weeks?  When she wasn't walking on her own but she was still sitting in a chair, and I walked in with ice cream and she saw it and lit up and said "I love you and you love me!" clear as a bell, the only clear sentence I'd heard come out of her in ages.  That's a nice last memory where I know it was really her.

This morning I flew with our new instructor, Alex, and took him over to Glenndale to do some short/soft field takeoffs and landings. He has struggled since coming out of Purdue with actually being able to fly, and land, and he had giant patterns. So I took him there to show him how to tighten up his airspeed, his pattern, and to see the difference between practicing a short/soft field on 2 miles of concrete or doing it for real.  He had a blast, really enjoyed it, and fine tuned it pretty well.  It had just rained the day before, so the field really was soft, with a lot of drag, so that was all a good experience for him, and he could see the difference between using the technique on concrete vs doing it on grass.  At one point he said he just realized that his takeoff was so bumpy because the GROUND was bumpy.  Like...yeah, man.  The grass and dirt clods are bumpy.  lol  So it was a good experience for him.

I was supposed to do spin training again today, but the Conquest took so long getting here (instead of 11 am it got her at like 3:30 pm), it ran into my time to do the spins, so I had to put that guy off again, until tomorrow.  Fourth time.  I hate that.

When the Conquest arrived, Dale was the pilot and had brought the mechanic, Don along with him.  We will be moving away from using Don from now on, as he has never, ever, not once, ever, been anywhere close to being on time when he said he would be.  Not just a day or two late, but a week or two late sometimes.  So we're going to a shop in Wichita next time, and see how we do with them.  But anyway, they arrived this afternoon at 3:30. I had the plane topped off, and then we took off and headed to Michigan where I'd drop them off.  I asked Dale to fly and I'd fly home. He has 1500 hours of Conquest II time, and does insurance checkouts in them, and I wanted to see how he did things, if they were different than how I did things, etc.  I asked him to, so he showed me a couple of the start-up checks that my checkout pilot didn't show me.  Answered two questions I had, which was great.  The rest of it? I was a little surprised to see that, well, I am better than he is at actually flying it, cross country, radio communications, IFR procedures, etc.  He flies some jets on the side too.  I don't know why I still assume that other experienced people will be better than I am, well, I do know, but every once in awhile I have to remind myself to...at least give myself a break.  I'm experienced too now.  I always know what I need work on, what I don't have down cold, what feels sloppy, and I don't always know that I've actually got the plane down pretty well.  So I write this as a reminder to myself next time I start to stress out about a checkout. Like my Cheyenne checkout that is coming up the 31st.  I used to lose sleep over those, worrying about making a fool out of myself. I think I can stop that.  

Cathy just arrived, and she and Steve went next door together.  Mother, son, daughter.  Hard times.

Oh! Last night I watched Casablanca. I'd never seen it before, didn't even know what it was actually about.  Now I know. It IS a good movie. And it's amazing how many lines, songs, quotes, etc. that you know from that movie having never seen it and not knowing the basic plot.  Amazing.  Here's looking at you, kid.

Ice starting to accumulate on the window

Blue skies above the 400' ceilings in Michigan

Coming

The weather tanked today, heavy air, clouds, rain, and my head followed along, so I didn't get much done.

Ann had the hospice nurse come in and see her for her once a week meeting, and we talked to her for awhile.  When she left, she agreed that Ann was agitated, seemed to be in pain when touched or moved, wasn't clear or communicating, immobile, only drinking a few sips of water or broth a couple times a day, and that these are probably end stage things.  Ann could have lived as she was for years, as it's a mental disease and not a physical one. But once she stopped being mobile, in the last couple of weeks, her physicality tanked.  So I have morphine for when she gets moved around and seems to be in pain.  Lorazepam for the agitation, when she is picking at her clothes, repetitively verbalizing, etc.  And something for her secretions if they start increasing to the point where she isn't swallowing them.  I can squirt them all in her mouth without her having to take pills.  I'd guess a couple of weeks at best.  Today when I went over to do her dinner and meds, I pulled up a YouTube channel called "Hymns of Faith", old school hymns that I found today, as music still soothes her.  The first song that came on was "It Is Well".   It kind of stunned me a little bit. That was the song the grandkids all sang at Richard's funeral, and is a plaque she has in her "peace room". That song means a lot to the family.  I kind of sang it by her head while I was trying to get her to take sips of chicken broth.  

Steve is out tonight at an EAA meeting. It's election night for the next year. After my headache today, and with my eyes and nose still running like a faucet, I couldn't handle a large group of loud deaf people in a small room all talking at once.  Social interaction, too much for today.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to do spin training with a kid in the Citabria towards his CFI, and then I'm headed to Frankfort to meet a guy named Dale who is supposed to be bringing the Conquest to us from Florida, and I'll fly him to Michigan to drop him off and head home. I'll get home late, but it'll be okay. 

Didn't

I didn't do the spin training today because it was so windy, he rescheduled for Friday.  It's going to be windy Friday too, but maybe it'll be a little better. ;)

Tomorrow looks like a wash-out too. I am supposed to fly with our new instructor, and I'm going to put him through a little more than the basics. Except it's supposed to rain all day so that'll probably be postponed for Friday too.  It'll be windy then but in that case it'll be good for him.

I juiced 2 lbs of carrots, 4 apples and some celery today, decided it wouldn't hurt to get something healthy in my system.  It actually tastes pretty good, and if someone would do that for me every day, I'd be happy to drink it every day.  Wish it wasn't so messy and take so much time and effort.

Ann may be bed bound now. I had to spoon feed her her soup tonight, and slip her meds in her mouth in between sips. She yelps if you try to move her legs or change her or anything, like it hurts. Don't know if it does or not.  We are talking about getting morphine or something to give her.  I dunno.

The Conquest may be fixed finally down in Florida. If so, I'll be going down in the next couple of days to fetch it, possibly.  Then I should be back up and running with more flights again.

I had a bad dream this morning, that I was in an airplane on final and Steve was in an airplane (Cherokee) on final in front of me and I saw his tail come off and his plane go down and crash, killing him.  I woke myself up, and then I went back to sleep and dreamed that I was telling him about this dream, in the kitchen, as our groceries were being unpacked.  I woke up again, and he came in and I told him I had to tell him about my dreams, and then our groceries were delivered and he said he had to go fly.  But not in a Cherokee.  Good thing I'm not superstitious, eh?  But he's home now, don't worry, the day is done. And I've never heard of a tail falling off of a Cherokee, either.  A WING, yes, but not a tail.  ;)

Nothing big today, just the usual.  I think I'm finally hungry...what's for dinner...

Good Stuff

I slept in again, that's almost decadent.  Today I did a bunch of stuff I put off doing. Ordering things I need personally and around the house, including my new pair of shoes for the year. I get one pair of Sketchers that I wear all year, and then when I go to Oshkosh, I usually finish wearing them out, and I end up having to get new ones. This year I didn't walk around Oshkosh, so they lasted a little longer, but I now have a hole in them, so it's time. ;) Anyway, got all that stuff ordered.  Got rid of two months worth of receipts from the Conquest, and it was a big stack of paperwork.  Household chores, some organizing, stuff you don't care about but felt good for me to do. 

I had one flight today, and it was one I paid for vs one I got paid for.  I haven't flown the T-6 for a month and a half, and I haven't flown any taildragger in a month.  That's very unusual unless we're talking December through February, but I've obviously just been busy with turboprops lately.  The C-45 was out with another guy, all the planes were already pulled out, so I pulled out the T-6 too, and took it up.  I did an excellent fly-by of Glenndale.  Sneaked around the corner, low, tight and fast, made it a good one.  Later I got two texts. Ron said "Very cool! Thanks, we needed that"  and Michelle said "You made Ron run...that doesn't happen very often".  So that was worth it.  :D  I spent the rest of the time in the pattern. Even though nothing was 'bad', you know the difference between when you're "on" and when it's just fine.  Little sloppy things I don't want to put up with. A 3-pointer that was perfect followed by one that I flared too high.  Not consistently doing what I wanted. So I pounded out a bunch of takeoffs and landings until I was feeling pretty good. I would actually have liked to do more, but it was time to come in. The C-45 was back, the gas truck was there, we needed to put it and the T-6 away in the back, so I came on in. But I was at least satisfied with what I'd done by the end. 

Tonight Steve and I went to Marble with E and his wife, and along with regular chit chat, we had basically a business meeting. Talked about his brother, his airplane, how it's been thus far and what we can expect in the future. Basically his brother thinks that for the next year or so, he won't be any busier on flights than what he was this last month.  But two years from now, they may double on flights. Ethan is also possibly expanding next year.  So we're definitely going to need some backup pilots.  It'll be great though, because I'll be as busy as I want to be, and when I want to do something else, I'll have backup pilots available.  Best of both worlds.  I was glad to hear his brother (and wife) were very happy with me thus far.  I've certainly tried to be professional, timely, organized, etc.  So far so good.  His brother's wife said she always wanted me to be their pilot, and she was fine just sending her young daughter with me alone down to drop her off to be with them coming up, and that that is a big deal for them.  I appreciate the trust.  Everything has an upside and a downside. The upside is financial. The downside is taking a backseat on my push to get into a P-51, by not being out there as much around the warbird community, staying in the forefront like I did the last couple years. But being out there as much as I was the last couple of years costs a lot of time where I'm not  earning money, and money I'm actually spending, both.  With Kaylee in the Master's program, Ann requiring as much care as we can pay for on top of caring for her ourselves, and the lawsuit requiring regular checks for thousands of dollars to the lawyer, I'm just trying to balance staying in the warbird game with actually making all the money that I can.  Can't have it all, you know.  Unless I won that $1.7 billion lottery, of course, which I didn't even try for. ;)

Tomorrow I am doing spin training with a Purdue student in the Citabria.  Should be fun.

The water reservoir is super low right now

Colors are starting to be more noticeable.