Two Pilots & an LSW: Kissimmee and Country

Sunday, October 08, 2023

Kissimmee and Country

I'm writing this Sunday, on the couch and in my glasses and yoga pants and just taking the day to catch up and rest both. Lon and Cathy just left, they were here yesterday and today, him visiting his mom with dementia and her visiting hers. She got to help with diaper changes and hand feeding and all that fun stuff. Ann drools a lot now too, which I don't understand where that comes from. Do they just forget to swallow? But she uses her shirt to wipe it off, or wipe food, or her nose, or whatever needs wiped. We do a lot of laundry over there. I'm doing laundry, Steve is setting up cameras next door and our air fresheners need restocked and just doing house stuff.

I'm also prepping for tomorrow's flights. I'll be up at 5:45 am and going to Michigan, then Iowa, then Ohio, then home. I *should* be back before dark. I've been impressed at how organized I've stayed on all this stuff. I'm not the world's most "stay organized" person, and so far I haven't goofed up, which is a small miracle. I'm trying.

Saturday was a good one. Nathan and I flew Kevin, Janene and Stephen down to Kissimmee, FL to drop them off for a week at Disney with the rest of their family who flew down commercially. Some of the family just won't fly on a private plane, only on airline. No skin off our nose, if you want to waste a day traveling and be gate lice with everyone else, that's up to you. ;) Anyway, normally down there I grab a car and go into town and get lunch while they are refueling me, get some seafood. Nathan wasn't planning on that, so we just basically turned around and headed home. Unfortunately the FBO had gotten rid of their snack machine too, and I hadn't eaten since the night before. Fortunately, I always carry at least a pack of peanut butter crackers in my purse which I ate on the way home. Not as much fun as my grouper tacos from the day before, but I WAS home earlier which helped in other ways. :)

When I got back, Steve and I went down to a place in the country, about 1/2 hour away, to a tiny wood cabin in the woods that a friend and his wife are building. It's not finished yet, but it's really cute, and it's on something like 4 acres of property, with woods and a stream and a big hill. We sat on a flat area with a fire pit, and lit a fire, had some whiskey, some brats, some beef stew, the guys smoked cigars, and we watched the sun go down and enjoyed the company and the night. It started off windy today (made for some fun landings) and it was chilly, so we all prepared with extra layers. I was afraid once the sun went down that it would be TOO cold out there, but fortunately when the sun died, so did the winds, and it was nice. It got down to like 38 last night, but it was 43 or so while we were out there, so I had a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and coat available. It was really nice. We told stories, enjoyed the view and the outdoors and the company. We spent like 5 hours out there just hanging out and taking a little mini vacation, not far away, but far ENOUGH away. You could even see a lot of the stars out there, it was really dark. There were coyotes making noises nearby, and owls, but no bugs, because it was too cold for bugs. That's about perfect. ;) That's the kind of place Steve has always dreamed of having. A little log cabin, some woods to walk through, a stream to listen to, a place for a fire pit, close enough to get to without making a production out of it, far enough away that people can't get to you easily and you actually feel like you're out of the loop for a bit. Like I said, it was really nice and we enjoyed it. Maybe sometime we can do it again...