Illinois

The water company didn't come this morning when they said they would to move the barriers, so Steve moved them out of my way so I could leave at 8 am for the airport.  He said they didn't do a good job on it, they left a sharp drop-off on both sides, where a tire can go off and hurt something, and one of he slabs isn't secured in there and is going to break down and cause problems in the future.  He's going to contact them and try to get them to fix that better, but I don't know how hopeful I am that he'll get anywhere.  It would be nice for them to at least leave it as good as it was, not worse, when they messed it up in the first place.

My guys arrived a little late, as usual, and we went to Decatur, Illinois.  They have a restaurant there on field, so I walked over to it and had a nice brunch, a small waffle and some scrambled eggs.  It was a neat little place, I liked it. I was back in the pilot lounge hanging out by myself for awhile, working on some things I brought with me.  One of 'my' SMA kids has passed away. Lizzy.  She was 20 years old, spunky and sarcastic. She got sick, an infection, was doing okay, and then boom, went unconscious and passed away.  So I am helping her family via SMA Support with some funeral and memorial expenses. They did not have a lot.  Anyway, I was working on that too.  And a giant email I sent out to all our instructors, as we have a bunch of new ones.  Morgan and Cameron, who are new but came up through us so they're fine.  Shelbe who is a more experienced new instructor but is just coming up to speed with the way we do things.  Connor and Alex who are brand new CFIs too, but they came from universities like Purdue and had a lot of learning to do to catch up.  Everyone listens well except Connor, who is doing what we say because it's his job but doesn't really believe us on things like not doing giant patterns, how we want him to teach specific things. He likes to land flat and fast and with power, all the things we can't stand. But either he'll get better, or he'll move on by his choice or ours. We all start out kind of bad, and the ones who are willing to be humble and listen and learn are the ones who actually get better. I have high hopes for ost of them  :)

I left Decatur and headed to Effingham, where it was a nice 70 degree crosswind gusting around 25 knots.  Just waited a little while and my guys were ready to head back. Uneventful, easy, not too early, not too late kind of day.  I like them like that.  :)

So I got back to Frankfort around 4:15, got out of there around 4:30, and then realized I could run some of those errands I got blocked from yesterday.  I was going to make it to Russiaville at 5 pm, in time to stop at the funeral home there and pick up Ann's death certificate.  I am racing, and I call them just before 5 basically to ask if they'll stay open for me to run in and grab those.  She says "Oh, those are in the Kokomo office" (where we've never been).  I won't make it to Kokomo in time, so that errand is shot.  Instead, I'll go out to Kokomo to pick up a package that was out there.  I get there and he says "Oh, I gave it to Jerry to take back".  *sigh*.   Next up, I'll go pick up Steve's meds.  I pull into the CVS and she says "I don't have anything for him." I said that according to the texts he was getting, he had two.  She said "Oh, you didn't pick them up within a few days so we put it back." I stare at her. "Would you like me to get them ready again?"  Yes, yes I would.  "Okay, give me 20 minutes or so."  *SIGH*  I go to the post office to drop off two Waco t-shirts to Florida and pick up our mail.  They were open and that went fine.  It's A Miracle!  I leave there and go back to CVS and the drugs are ready.  Finally accomplished two things! 

Steve and I went out and had Mexican for dinner, then came home and started working.  I'm packing for my Wichita trip, getting my airline ticket stuff done and ready, doing some work on banking, on our water bill, all sorts of stuff.  I leave tomorrow around 1 to go to Frankfort, where Ethan's wife will drive me to the Indy airport, where I'll catch a 4:30 pm flight to Wichita, via Dallas, of course. I'll land in Wichita at 10 pm and I have a hotel room on the field there, then first thing in the morning I take my printed off ferry permit and fly the Conquest over to Ohio where they will finish the inspection and squawk list, and put it back in service.  Ethan will come to Ohio and get me in the 340, and bring me back to Frankfort Friday afternoon.  Home again it will be...

He got me first class tickets though.  Nah nah  ;)