Thanksgiving

Wednesday night we had decided to leave the house at 8:30, be at the airport and off the ground by 9 am, and in Missouri by 9:30 am their time. I texted that to Mom along with the N# to track us and the caveat of "however, knowing the people around me, I'm guessing it'll be more like 10 am". 

So Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, I get a text from Steve, "You up?" I was lying in bed, and I texted "I'm awake", and he said "We leave in 30 min". For some reason, in my head we left the HOUSE at 9 am. But...I am a speedy person who is well prepared and an excellent time manager, see, so I was showered, dressed, and ready to go by 8:25 am. I'm sitting there, and Steve says "I forget how fast you can get ready!" Meanwhile, Kaylee's lights aren't on over there so I text her, no response, so finally I go next door and yell in, and she's up but "behind". Steve is also doing several last minute things, and we pull out of our driveway at 9 am. I already had the plane ready to go, so we're off and running, and...we touch down in Missouri at 10:01 a.m. I laughed. Somebody made a comment about me being on time all the time, and I remarked that it would make me a pretty lousy corporate pilot if we were supposed to be wheels up at 7 am and I showed up at 7:05 am and then started the preflight and then opened the hangar and tugged the airplane out and then lowered the hangar and then went to the bathroom and then went back to my car to get my iPad and then had to taxi to the other end of the airport and warm up the engines and sit on the ground waiting for the IFR clearance and finally got off the ground at 7:45 a.m. and said "Oh, sorry, I got behind, you'll only be 45 minutes late for your meeting, I'm sure nobody will mind". I don't understand why otherwise such organized and intelligent folks can't figure out a timeline to do all the things they need to do BEFORE the time comes they need to have already been done. I love them anyway, and we all have our super powers. ;)

Mom and Ernie were waiting, and we loaded up and headed home for the day. A delicious gluten-free feast was had by all. Roast chicken (hahaha, I just typed "Road Chicken" which is something completely different and not nearly as good), homemade stuffing that didn't taste gluten free, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, Hawaiian rolls, I made my mashed potatoes, and we had two peach pies, one gluten free, and they were both Really good! That gluten free crust was just as good! I was impressed. It was peach pie with brown sugar in it, and I hadn't had that before, and I wish I'd taken home a piece. ;) 

Just nice to spend a day hanging out, napping, watching TV, relaxing, talking, eating, just chilling with family. They have four cats in the house; sisters Dot and Dash (one with spots, one with stripes, of course), Bojangles, a male Siamese mix, and Boba Fett, a large jet black male. Three of them were around hanging out, Jangles mostly hid out. Outside they have a herd of wild kittens that mom helps feed and provides a space for them to stay out of the weather sometimes, in an enclosed porch area, and we saw 7 of them running in to eat, sit on a table in the sunbeam, etc. Cute little buggers.

I woke up Friday with an unfortunate headache that I think wasn't helped by Wednesday's long day, wasn't able to drink enough water, and just didn't catch up in time. We were originally going to stay later Friday, but Saturday I was supposed to fly to Illinois on the lake to pick up Tre from her son's place, and Saturday we were forecasting a winter storm. Then it bumped up to almost 7", and starting earlier in the morning than originally supposed to, and my chances of getting in and out of the airports safely were going downhill. So...I agreed to be in IL at 6 pm our time Friday evening to pick up Tre, because Friday's weather was pretty. 

Steve, Kaylee and I headed out right on time at 2 pm, and had a really nice clear flight home. In the back of the plane with Steve we had a large climbing kitty tower toy for Molly. :) When we landed, I called for the fuel truck, and Steve and Kaylee unloaded the plane and bugged out for home, and it was time for round two, picking up Tre.

It was nice enough I didn't even go IFR so I didn't have to worry about holding things tightly within parameters since the autopilot doesn't work.  Me and my headache took Morgan along, and actually, I had her fly, because I'd already flown an hour and a half and she hadn't flown in 2 days, so it was my Thanksgiving present to her. ;) It went smoothly, we watched the sun set, the city skyline get darker, the airliners lights all on as they streamed over the top of us one after the other. Anywhere you looked out the window you saw multiple airplanes, everywhere, for awhile there. It was a little game we played--look in a direction and count how many airplanes we saw. The answer was...at least one everywhere we looked. Tre was waiting down there, so I just paid the fee for landing without getting gas, and we loaded up and headed for home, in the dark.

When we got to Kokomo, I took Tre's keys and started her car to drive it up to the plane. She's not super mobile any more, has a walker and a walking stick. So I was going to pre-heat her car and park it right up there for her to walk to, but as soon as I turned it on, the seat started moving to the "Tre" position. Well, she's like 4' 2" tall, and that seat moved all the way in and all the way up and I felt a moment of panic thinking I was about to break bones or get squished like in a compacter. Finally it stopped and I was barely able to drive it over to the plane, with my head bend sideways and down and my body stuffed in the steering wheel. Lol 

Kaylee had told me to text her when I was getting back, because I didn't have a car there to get home. So she came and got me, told me Molly was already exploring the climbing post, and enjoying it.

Right now it's Saturday morning, and I'm very glad to not be needing to go anywhere. There are times it's 1/2 mile visibility, freezing fog, bad icing...no thanks, not in the mood today. It started snowing early. I woke up at 7:30 or so and Steve was already outside raking up leaves, because we had a ton of leaves in our back area, in front of the garage, in front of the car port, against the side of the house, and if they got a bunch of snow and then froze, then it makes it slick and messy getting in and out of stuff. So he's out there doing leaves good and early while it starts snowing on him. He finished up in time to clean/dust a bunch of his bottles that were on the deck and put them back up, after he'd taken down a lot of stuff to repaint a wall out there and rearrange a few things.  He's always got projects going on, which is a good thing.

So we're supposed to get...who knows, 4, 6, 7" of snow, and then tomorrow we get the 35 knot winds to blow it around and pile it up. Like I said, glad I don't have to be anywhere these next two days. The next time I'm going anywhere is Tuesday at 7 am. There is supposed to be more snow Monday night through Tuesday evening, but just an inch or two so hopefully not too terrible.

On the way home, Ethan texted me that the 340 sold and the paperwork is being done. There's also a guy very interested in the Conquest. So he's hoping they both sell quickly here, so he can take that money and buy his new airplane before the end of the year, for tax purposes. But that also means the Meridian is gone, the 340 is gone, and the Conquest may be gone, leaving a couple of holes he hopefully fills up fast!

I think Kaylee and I are going to look online for some Christmas decorations today. We decided we'd like to festive up the place this year. Normally I'm not much in the mood, but this year I think it would be nice to have a little Christmas decorations, lights, cheer, when it's otherwise so dreary and dark out there...

Watching MI vs OH football, and rooting for MI, after seeing the punchable face on the OH Quarterback and coach both. Plus Lon is from there, so hey, gotta go for MI today, while I do some online stuff and stay warm and out of the snow, and rehydrate again. ;)

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving too!

On our way to MO!

Wild kittens attacking food

There's one big fluffy tail

Us three

On our way home, with a kitty climbing toy in the back with Steve.
"Pre-Turkey"

"Post-turkey" ;)

Chicago

On our way to Waukegan

Oooooklahoma (and Kansas)

Short version--it was a 15 hour day here, left the house at 5:30 am, got back home at 8:40 pm. Went to the western edge of Oklahoma, then Dodge City Kansas, where they have CAA fuel for $3.83/gallon right now.  I tankered up and got 320 gallons. ;)  It was 6.0 hours in the air and a lot of sitting time on the ground, too.

I did have one kind of weird thing happen. First thing this morning, it was well before the buttcrack of dawn, pitch black, and my left side G600 fired up bright as if it was out in the sunshine. Fiercely, blindingly bright. Everything else dimmed down appropriately, but nothing I did made it dim. I couldn't hardly see past the thing to take off. I get in the air, I'm pretty much blind outside the cockpit until the sun comes up and they're all normal again. I had the visor pulled down in front of it to try to dim it down some. On the way home, it's dark again. I had Googled what to do, I'd already turned down the manual offset as far as it would allow me to do, nothing helped, it's just laser bright. So I took my ipad out of its cover with keyboard, and sat it on the dash and covered up most of my display. Bright light leaked around it but at least it wasn't right in my eyeballs. Then I had to fly and land looking over at the dimmer right side one, which is kind of far over there in the Conquest, but I managed. lol

The picture doesn't come close to giving you an idea of what a laser to the brain this light was, but maybe you can sort of halfway guess.

The Meridian sold today. So that one's gone. Ethan said they have a serious inquiry on the Conquest. He's trying to sell it before end of the year, for taxes. 340 too. He'll need to buy a new plane pretty fast, as busy as they all are in his planes.

I'm wiped. Long day!

Pre-sunrise

My blinding white light in my eyes

Morgan in the dark using the visor to break the bright light in her eyes

City lights and stars

My iPad cover as a cheat to help cover up the bright

Waukegan

First on the agenda this morning was my eye exam. I go to 20/20 Vision. I used to go to Dr. Mike, but his office is SO expensive, his glasses are like $800 as a baseline, the exam is expensive, and I don't have vision insurance. So I went to Wal-Mart, and that was a good idea, because I could pick up a set of contacts anywhere in the country if I needed them. But then my eye doctor there yelled at me. Twice in one day. Blew me off when I said my contacts fog over the first day I put them in, said I just had grease on my finger, and when I proved it to him there in his own office by putting in a new pair, he said I had eye make up on and that was it. And then it was during the "Wear a mask or you're a horrible human" phase, and I had a mask on, but when he would ask me questions and I would answer him, my mask would slip below my nostrils as I was speaking, and he said "Pull that up!" I did, and said somewhat pleasantly that I keep pulling it up but it rides down a little when I talk and he snapped at me "Then YOU need to get a better FITTING mask". I was done. I don't need a Wal-Mart doctor to speak to me that way. I don't need ANYbody to speak to me that way. I walked out of there and never returned, and went to 20/20 Vision. The exams are $150, which isn't terrible, and he's actually very good. He takes his time and is thorough, and cares about helping you be able to see your best. The contacts are a decent price. So I have no regrets. He said I am looking good, my eyes are fairly stable, didn't hardly change at all in two years, no cataracts, no start of macular degeneration, no problems. He is updating my contacts to a slightly stronger bifocal and that's about it. So that was all good.

It started off less than great. I arrived in the rain at 15 till, not knowing they didn't open their doors until 9. So I sat in their parking lot until they opened at 9:01. I walk in, check in, I'm the first appointment of the day, and I don't get seen until 9:20. I know they weren't behind because of a previous client. But he made up for it in the end. ;) AND, they fixed my Ray Ban sunglasses, which I had managed to bend all out of shape somehow, so bad they sat on my face funny. They still don't fold up quite properly, but they do sit on my face correctly at least! I could probably take them back to a Ray Ban place, but...they do fit my face at least!

I stopped at a coffee place and picked one up on my way out to the airport. It was still raining, low and cloudy and yucky. I met up with Morgan out there, and we finished getting the Aerostar ready to go. Tre arrived, and I loaded up her bags, walking stick, and walker, and we launched into the 300' overcast ceilings. I was hand flying, and then got set up and put on the autopilot, and...it wouldn't hold altitude. Wouldn't capture, wouldn't hold. So now I get to hand fly the whole time into Chicago's very busy airspace, and fly an ILS approach reporting 200' ceilings when we left, which is minimums. I told Morgan it was her job to make sure I didn't kill us, and she agreed, but I didn't do badly after all. ;) Shot the approach in, helped Tre get with her son whom she hadn't seen in 2-3 years, and then took a crew car and went into town to eat at Jester's, which is a local Chicago style pizza place.

We got a "double decker cheese pizza", and it was huge, and thick, and gooey, and Really, really good. You could only eat one piece of the thing and you were loaded with dough and cheese. I brought the rest of it home, and Steve and Jeff each had a piece too. Good stuff, man, good stuff.

I hung out at Kokomo for a few hours with Steve and Morgan, worked on my receipts and logbook and billing, and scheduling upcoming flights, and then headed for home and a piece of homemade pumpkin pie. Did a little shopping to replace some house staples like paper plates and Reddi Whip. You know, important stuff. ;) 

Watching a Landman episode before I have to get to bed early here, because I have to be up at 4:45 am for the trip to Guymon, Oklahoma, then over to Dodge City, Kansas. We're taking the Conquest so thankfully that will be faster, but it'll still be a good 6 hours flight time. I still don't know when we're going to be able to leave, but I'll have it figured out by sometime tomorrow. ;) I also need to check the weather, since the Aerostar doesn't have a working autopilot, I don't need bad weather if I can help it, so will try to see when it looks good. Haven't had a chance to do that stuff yet.

A giant Chicago style cheese pizza

Broke out at Kokomo around 500'

Nice glasses ;)

A friendlier version in the plane

Ohhhhhkay

I didn't do much over the weekend. I didn't really go anywhere except out to the airport to get the Aerostar ready. Steve and Kaylee went on a short 2-mile hike on Saturday and enjoyed that. She was testing her stamina as her first hike back since being sick. She did well, but was worn out by the end of it. So it was a perfect first trip back out. Steve painted the back wall of our deck, and that took most of the weekend. Today he's working on TSA stuff for our upcoming annual inspection. He always hates those. Turnover is so high in the TSA that he gets a new guy/gal every year, they aren't consistent, and they are typical government employees with badges with little power trips and egos who enjoy trying to make you squirm, be uncomfortable, whatever. They like it. They want to find something they can tell you you're doing wrong, and Steve always, ALWAYS ends up arguing with them, getting his blood pressure up. Once he told a TSA guy that he knows they aren't allowed to carry a gun, and how that's too bad, because HE can.  He's gonna get in trouble some day. Anyway, they're coming this week. Should be...great.

Am tired. Or Tarred if you’re from southern Indiana. 

Up at 5:30, drive to Frankfort, pull out the 340, fly it over to Delphi, pick up Jim, fly over to William’s County, OH, drop off the 340 for maintenance, pick up a Cherokee Six, fly over to Toledo. Jim takes Cherokee Six back home to Delphi where his car is. I go up in the Conquest and we do a bunch of post-maintenance tests. NTS checks, idle checks, manual settings, computer settings, torque and RPM tests, temp tests, at 5,000’, 10,000’, 17,000’ and 26,000’. Shut down and fully feather both engines, er, one at a time, all the required tests. Everything went great until the end. It went downhill on the landing power settings, and we went backwards, and it's going to need more work. I ended up bringing it home anyway, but it’s going to need to go back over, again, in a couple weeks, while they swap out a prop governor, for $16,800, or $30k if the fuel computer is bad too, and then I get to redo all these test flights all over again.

It’s why I liked using the Colorado shop, because they had their own test pilots who would go up after maintenance. So all I had to do was drop it off, and when it was done pick it up and fly it home. I don’t really like being a test pilot, so much effort, and I’m not a mechanical expert in this plane. I do have a mechanic on board, and I do trust him, but…and think about it from his point of view. He’s not even a pilot, up there bombing around doing shit like that with some random person he doesn’t know, hoping they don’t boff it up.

He appreciated that I went slowly and would verify out loud what I was hitting when one engine was already shut down. “LEFT ONLY, turning off this…” Because accidentally shutting them both down at the same time would be embarrassing, now wouldn’t it. “Sorry Toledo/Cincinnati, we’re gonna need a block altitude for a bit here, hopefully.”

But it’s home now so I can at least use it for a trip to Western Oklahoma on Wednesday, which will take me 3.4 out and 2.1 home, or 5.5 total there and back, and would have taken me 6 hours ONE WAY in the 340 including the fuel stop I’d have had to have.  I'm so glad to have it back for some of these trips, man.

Landed out of that, put the plane away, hopped in my car, and drove to my last dentist appointment down in Indy, where they took an x-ray, checked out my tooth hole/stud, declared it “perfect”, and cut me loose for good to get my new implant put in. Again, I drove two hours round trip for a four minute sit in the chair, literally 4 minutes, and I was in and out of there. Next week I have an appointment with my dentist to make the mold for it. Only two appointments to go and I’ll finally have a tooth there again and not feel like an old lady with a holey/gappy smile!

Now tomorrow I’m running to the eye doc to get more contacts ordered (in Indiana anyway they force you to have an actual exam every year before they’ll allow you to purchase more contacts, which grates my grits, as it’s a money grab, but…), and then I’m taking Tre in the Aerostar to Waukegan, on Lake Michigan, where it’s going to be good and low IFR again, and rain, both here and there, close to minimums, hopefully not below them. The Aerostar has had a couple of avionics issues, so I am hoping it behaves itself for these two flights. I'd really like it if the weather would be higher than 300' all the way here and there, but...beggars and choosers and all that.

Ethan's guys are having a “push up” contest that lasts a month. I am in no way competing with a bunch of 20 year old construction workers on push ups.  But at least they were impressed when they heard I could do 10 of them. They said their wives couldn’t do even one, so I won some sort of brownie points. :D

Kaylee said she didn’t remember the last time she jumped up on me and I held her, it’s a Tik Tok thing I guess, and she asked if I could still do it. I said yes, so she tried it, leaped up on me. I caught her and held her for awhile without us falling over or dropping her, so I won that one too. I’m not as strong as I used to be, actually not at all, and I need to start working on that so I don’t lose it lose it, but at least I’m not a weakling yet either. ;)

My new blue nail polish in front of Gumby

God's Paintbrush this morning

Illinois

I rested yesterday, and by the end of the day I felt fine--I've felt fine ever since. WHEW!! I made it! Sorry, the health drama is over for now. ;)

Kaylee is doing all right too. Still dehydrated, her POTS has been acting up, still over here blowing her nose, and she fatigues quickly, but she's been at work all week, and getting it done. But one thing she did today was go down to Carmel and get a rehydration IV. She walked in there, and they have a MENU of things you can get in an IV. It's a spa, a bar, of IV stuff with various vitamins and whathaveyou. They asked what she wanted and she said "Um, hydration?" So they gave her "Jingle Juice", which was Saline solution, B1, B-complex, magnesium, and I don't remember what else. They also do a painkiller, Tramadol, and something for weight loss, an "anti-migraine" cocktail, a "hangover cure" cocktail, etc., and you just go in there and look over their menu and pick what you want, and they do an intake with a nurse, hook you up, nurses monitor you while you sit in a lounge chair, read a book, close your eyes, whatever you want to do. So. Weird. Kaylee was weirded out because it was so nonchalant, and they kept talking about veins and stuff and she still hates needles. Her nurse was like "You'll probably feel the magnesium like a warm hug when it goes in", and "You'll be able to taste the Vitamin B", and she's like... please stop talking about it. Lol She says so far she didn't notice a huge difference in how she felt, they said it might be until tomorrow morning before she does, but she did say that her system really did seem to need it, as she didn't have to pee for quite awhile after, and when she did, it wasn't the neon yellow you usually get with B vitamins if your system didn't use them. So who knows. We'll see. A freaking IV hang-out spa bar. That just Screams "Carmel".

My day wasn't super long, but it started early and it wasn't easy. I woke up at 5:15 (didn't have to wake up until 5:45 of course), and the world was fog. Fog at Frankfort, fog in Pekin, Illinois, fog in between. And it was supposed to stay foggy. The fog went below minimums at Frankfort, so I had to find a place I could go to if I had a problem right after takeoff, because I wasn't getting back in there. It was below 1/4 mile visibility. I found that nearby, a place a little above minimums that was staying that way. And then Pekin was below minimums so I had to divert us to Peoria. I broke out sort of, saw the end of runway lights and called out "Lights" out loud, right when my avionics yelled "MINIMUMS MINIMUMS" and rolled out in the gray fog. Beautiful day. ;)

Peoria is where I used to fly for Pizza Hut. I have a bunch of time in their pilot lounge up there, and the bathroom and everything was just super familiar--even though I haven't really been there since 1999. lol

I took a crew car and wandered around, ended up at a place called the 520 Cafe. It was a busy little place, with really good food. I had blueberry crepes that were delicious, and coffee that was so smooth you didn't even need to add sugar, just a little half and half. 

My guy wondered if I could pick him up in the original place, but it was still too low. I MIGHT have made it in, but...it was better to have him drive an extra 30 minutes. Risk vs reward wasn't worth that one. So he got back close to 11 am central time, and I was back at Frankfort by 1 pm our time. When I left Peoria, Frankfort was still 1/2 mile and 200', and their lowest approach requires 7/8th mile and 250'. In other words, when I left for a 44 minute flight, I wasn't going to be able to get in. It wasn't forecast to do anything different. I got about 2/3rds of the way home and it lifted to 500', and bam, I was in. BOO-ya. ;)

I had a few errands, picked up Kaylee's check from the PO Box, stopped by and picked up a Chai Latte with oatmilk to bring home, and did some online shopping. See, our towels are terrible. Old, thin, frayed, non-matching, just embarrassing really. So awhile ago I ordered a set of two towels, two hand towels and two washrags, to see if I liked them. I don't like towels that are so soft but they don't actually wipe water off of you and leave you damp, and who wants scratchy, and I don't want them to pill up or be super cheap. I did like these, and they are currently 50% off, so today I ordered 3 sets of towels for both front and back bathrooms in matching colors, and as soon as they get here, we're going to have a bunch of new "rags" up in the wash room. ;)  This pleases me. This is how you know you're getting old, right? You get excited about new towels? lol

The sales I saw caused me to get a few other things. I got a laser hair removal thing that was $150 on sale for $39. Might as well try it, right?! I got a Christmas present for Kaylee that I think she'll like. A duffle bag and matching toiletry bag so I can give Kaylee back the bag of hers that I stole, and some compression socks. Kaylee wears them sometimes for her circulation. I got a pair to try for when I'm sitting in an airplane for 7-9 hours in a day, mostly without being able to move, walk, etc.  So that was my little shopping spree for the day. All practical stuff I'm sort of excited to get in anyway. ;)

The CAF is having a "Safety Stand-down" because they've had 8 insurance claims in the last couple of months. Two of them were T-6 groundloops that caused damaged. One of THOSE they said was the THIRD time that T-6 has groundlooped in the same unit, with 3 different pilots. Damn, man. He called them "experienced", but something is definitely wrong in their training if 3 pilots from the same wing have wiped out the same airplane. Anyway, we all had to watch a video about it, and sign in that we did. They want to hire contractors in to go to all us units and fly with all the instructors and provide feedback, tips, do checkrides with us all and make sure we're not sucky. Honestly? I don't blame them and it's probably a good idea. I think our own unit has gone downhill on quality of training since Nick took over the PT-26, unfortunately. I'm not super thrilled at the idea of being examined either, but...I think it's fair of them and I get it. Four groundloop accidents in the last couple months, plus four other accidents, is a lot.

Kaylee's been hanging out over here working on her therapy notes. She spends hours a day at that at home, not getting paid for that part of it, but it's obviously a critical part of the job, recommendations, summaries, all sorts of stuff. 

Tonight she says she does feel better, more energy, feistier than she had been. So maybe the juice helped. :)

Oh Ohio

I'm writing this in the middle of Wednesday, but I don't think anything of note is going to happen today. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking...well here it is, I am sick. I felt hot, my head hurt, congestion, stomach bothered me. I slept in until 9 am, and when I got up I still felt warm and had a low grade headache. I took some Tylenol, drank a bottle of water, drank a black coffee, relaxed. My temp was 98.9, and the headache stuck around until about 1 pm, mostly. Right now I feel a little congested, a tiny headache, a little warmer than normal, but I think I'm all right. Ordered in a little Chinese and a Chai Latte delivered for lunch, and resting.

Kaylee is back at work still. She wears out early and is tired by halfway through the day, which is to be expected when one is still recovering from Covid.

Yesterday was my long one. I needed to wake up at 5:30 am to check the weather. So of course I woke up at 3:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. At 5 am I started staring at the weather, and it wasn't good. We were going into Lakefront up by Cleveland, on frigid Lake Erie, and like normal, the icing up on the lake front areas is bad, and it was calling for SLD which is Supercooled Large Drops, or...sleet. So, that's bad for me no matter what airplane you're in, even for airliners. And it was right at approach altitude, and it was IFR so I was going to have to shoot approaches. I stared at that for a long time, and finally had to text them and tell them that it doesn't look like we can safely get in there. That meant a 10 hour round trip drive for the two of them. About 10 minutes later I'm looking again, and it's changed. It now looks doable. I wait and look and look and finally I text them and say "Guys, I know this isn't confidence inspiring, but the forecast has changed and I believe we can get in there okay now". They were so excited. lol But that was just the start of my day.

I was also arranging with Morgan and Steve Fortner to drop her off at William's County and have her fly the Cherokee Six back to Delphi, so I had to factor all that in and plan it. I get everything planned and ready to go, and Ethan texts that the Cherokee's owners don't want to fly it in rain because of the paint. So, had to reverse all that and replan it for that not happening. Morgan decided to go along with me anyway, because she has nothing going on but the occasional instructional flight now that the Meridian has been down for its annual. 

I had already been up since 3:30, basically, so I was plenty tired to start with, but it was a busy day anyway. I met Morgan at Frankfort, and it was IFR, so I took off out of Frankfort to go to Delphi, 5 minutes away. I had the autopilot on and had it shooting an approach for RNAV 36 where I'd have to circle to land on 18, and the clouds were at minimums for the circling approach. The autopilot dives down on the glideslope and I get going so fast I have to retract the flaps again, even with the power as far back as I could get it without pulling it too far. We got way too low on the glideslope, so I disconnected the autopilot and hand flew it, not that well as I was behind and fast, broke out, had to stay close to the runway because of the visibility and clouds, had to overshoot down final and let it overshoot because I was slow enough I couldn't crank over, and it was a little bit of a three-stooges approach both IFR and visually. Morgan was laughing and said she was super glad she hadn't missed that. :p

I picked up two guys there, and we took back off IFR for Lakefront, OH. The weather was rainy and cold, but the icing was under control fortunately. Landed at Lakefront, Morgan and I took a crew car over to a place called the Lakeside Diner. It was a beachy vibe place with a deck with outdoor seating on the water by the bridge, but it was cold and rainy so we ate indoors by the window and watched boats go by, and a whole swarm of birds following the huge boats chumming up the water and providing food for them. Morgan detests birds, like how I feel about spiders almost, so she was horrified. It was good food, good ambiance, and a nice part of the day.

Back to the airport, they weren't much longer, and we headed back out. Going into Delphi to drop off the guys, it was now just about 100' above minimums; dropped them, took off and went right to the Initial fix for the Frankfort RNAV approach to home. It was higher ceilings there even though they were only 5 minutes apart. Still had to shoot the approach, but it certainly wasn't minimums. Landed, had Derek put the plane away, and Morgan and I separately drove to Sheridan for the CAF meeting.

I wasn't sure I was up for a group meeting; I was already tired. But I made it, got home around 8:30 pm, and I was home and watching NCIS before Steve had even left from socializing down there. This is how we stay happily married--we go separately so I can leave when it's over and he can stay down there and chit chat with everyone for over an hour and be the last man standing. :) 

I wanted to go to bed early, but couldn't quite make it, so it was good I was able to sleep in until after 9 am today. I still feel like I'm recuperating here today.

My new phone has an annoying habit of being unable to focus past the closest item no matter how I tap the screen or tell it to focus. You can see that on just about every photo here on the runway with condensation on the window. 

Lakefront

Cleveland, if you could see past the window

Still focused on the window streaks

I did get this one

Pretty sunset somewhere there past the window drops

Ah, Brother

Kaylee went back to work today. She was coughing, weak, can't eat much, and had digestive issues all day yesterday, but she had a full schedule today anyway, with her last appointment ending at 6 pm. I wasn't thrilled that she did that, but she said she "didn't have much of a choice".  I talked to her on the phone all the way home so she wouldn't fall asleep driving. Her first session tomorrow isn't until 10 am, so that's good. She has time to get to bed early and get some rest.

I did not get sick after all, and neither has Steve. What do you know?!

I dropped off a bag of clothing to Goodwill, and the only other thing on my schedule today was my "annual physical". My appointment was 1:45, they said be there 20 minutes early. I get there at 1:20 pm, and I didn't get out of there until 3:15. They have a new operating system for all their computers and they are falling behind schedule big time. I only went so they wouldn't kick me out of their practice. ;) My weight is high, my BP is normal, my pulse is good, and I gave them a copy of all my recent bloodwork for them to put on file. I asked them about my one bad number, my HS CRP, which is at 16, which is way high. It's an inflammation marker, but my blood cell counts, other inflammation markers are all fine. She said with a CRP that high sometimes they'd put a person on statins even if their cholesterol is fine, for the 'heart protection' aspect of it. I said no thanks for now. She also said nobody really knows what that number means for real, so for now not to worry too much about it. So I gave them my stuff, they checked me over, I got in the system, I found out it's been over a year since I did other tests I'm supposed to do, and tried to start setting those up. And finally I was out of there with a clean bill of health.

When I first went in, they had to ask "new" questions for their new system. They asked if I was around anyone who was sick. Uh, not too close. Am I sick myself? Not that I know of. Have I traveled out of state recently? I said "Out of state? Uh, yes, all the time. I'm a pilot, I go to a lot of different states every week". She said "Oh, I'm not sure how to put that in here. I'll just put "unable to determine at this time"." Lol She didn't want to make us all do high risk protocol or something I guess. 

Errands, and then I went out to Kokomo to fly the Champ for a quick 30 minutes. It's warm, sunny, nice winds, and I'm guessing the last good day for that for awhile. Tomorrow it's supposed to be cold, rainy, sleeting, etc., and it's supposed to stay that way for awhile. Dropped off Steve's mail to him out there, flew the Champ, put it away, and came home to catch up on a few things for tomorrow before Steve got home and we unloaded Kaylee's new treadmill and put it in her house. I had trouble by the end with my hand grip carrying that heavy thing from our overhang to the front of her house. I've lost a little grip strength. At least my bicep strength seemed to be doing okay though. lol

Tomorrow's weather looks awful. I'm supposed to pick up two guys at Delphi, take them over to Burke Lakefront, OH. Lakefront is always extra juicy with ice in the winter, and tomorrow it's going to be cold and rainy, so that's not promising. Will have to wake up early and see what I get.

I like this one. I'm going to miss this.

Home Bound

Nice sunny day, Steve spent it working outside clearing off fallen leaves and cleaning out dead flowers.  Kaylee spent it napping and having stomach problems, lots of the runs, unfortunately. She's having trouble keeping in enough food/drink. Nothing sounds good, she's not hungry, but she hasn't eaten much all week. 

I slept in; woke up early, went back to sleep, stayed in bed way later than you'd expect. It was nice. Washed sheets, also washed my pillows, towel, and the blanket Kaylee was sitting on. Basically I washed anything that may have had germs on it, in an effort to be at the end of this little local virus session. I occasionally have a little congestion or nasal drainage, but I still feel fine. It's now Day 7. I should be good, right?!

Tomorrow I have a normal doc appointment, first one in a few years, just to hand over bloodwork results and get one on the books so they don't kick me out of the practice again. I think I have everything else moderately under control now as far as health numbers. Just need to do a better job exercising and eating better.

After that I may go flying for fun. Tomorrow looks like a good weather day. Not too cold, not too windy, not too cloudy. Will see what trouble I can get myself into. ;) Next work trip is Tuesday.

Michigan

Kaylee woke up feeling a little better, with an appetite, and ate breakfast. After that, however, her appetite never really came back. She was doing relatively okay until she was helping her dad clean out her fridge, bending down and such, and then it hit her again and she had to go sit in her chair and veg out for awhile.

I woke up not feeling very good at all. My head hurt, I felt thick and fuzzy. I took my Vitamins, drank water, drank a cup of black coffee, rested in my chair, ended up having to take a painkiller, and fortunately I didn't have to go anywhere until noon. About then the headache went away, and I started feeling better.

I get in the airplane on this super windy day, and the barometric pressure was 29.52. Yesterday it was 30.16. We had a DUMP in baro pressure. That instantly made me feel better...I'd have gotten a headache out of this day no matter what with a change like that--my headache wasn't a Covid headache. Steve had a headache too. I was going to get Ethan and Amber in MI, and he had a headache too. And up there the pressure was down to 29.42. Unreal low pressure, man. 

The flight to Michigan was windy and turbulent, with 30 knot winds over there and 30 knot winds back home. Going into Delphi it was a direct crosswind too, so that was gonna be entertaining. I was supposed to be in MI at 2 and they'd be there sometime before 3. Well, they didn't end up making it until 4:30 pm, so my day was extended, but that was okay.

When I got them back to Delphi, the winds had died down to 17 knot gusts, but it wasn't a very good landing I did there. I said "Well that was firm" out loud. lol It figures because my landings up there and back at Frankfort were great, but not the one where they were on board...fortunately I have a couple years worth of good landings to bank on with them. ;)

We watched the sun set, and it was gorgeous tonight. After I put the plane away, I was hungry. I hadn't really eaten today other than a package of peanut butter crackers and a small baggie of pretzels, so I stopped in Frankfort, downtown, at their pizza place, and I went inside with my iPad and ordered a large pizza, sat there and read and ate 3 slices before getting a box to bring the rest home for Steve tonight and us tomorrow. 

I feel better today than I did yesterday. Yesterday I was fairly sure I'd wake up feeling like crap today. The fact I did wake up feeling puny but not THAT kind of puny is lovely, actually. I have hope that I'll wake up tomorrow feeling pretty good now. :)

Steve and I are catching up on the 9-1-1 shows we missed the other night because of an old James Bond movie he started watching too late, tomorrow I have off and plan on resting other than some house chores, and...onward.

I got a message today from a guy who sent this photo and said I'd given him a ride when he was a kid, and he appreciated my positive influence in his life. He's now a CFI/CFII/MEI and wants to get into warbirds. I'm old.

On the way back from Michigan yesterday

Today's wind and grey

On the way home from Michigan Tonight

Purty

Home Sweet Home

Ohio Ohio Ohio Michigan

Kaylee is still hanging in there. She takes her blood pressure and heart rate all the time and it bothers her that it's 90/60, occasionally going to 88/58 or so. She's also not drinking a ton, eating much, or moving hardly at all, she's sick, and she already has low blood pressure, so of course it's going to be lower. But she's obsessed about it. So today she called her cardiologist, because her heart rate was going way up and down too, and told him about her blood pressure, and he said if her pressure didn't start going up after tomorrow she could go into the ER and get IV fluids to help with dehydration, and that would get her BP up too. So she's thinking about doing that. She hates needles, and IVs are the worst needles, but rather than just waiting it out until she's feeling better, trying to eat and drink and move more, she's going to go to an ER and get an IV. What else is a doctor going to say if a patient says they're concerned about something? They'll come up with a solution, right? I don't get it, I think it's weird, and I'm actually kind of annoyed by it. I've never known anybody who sits there and takes their blood pressure repeatedly all day while they're sick, and worries about it, particularly when it's low and they're 24. But...whatever, I guess. IV fluids probably will make her feel better. She should be starting to hit the back side of this by now, as it started Monday and it's now Friday, so basically Day 5.

Me, I felt a little warmer this morning, and my temp was 98.6, which is actually about a degree higher than it normally runs with oral thermometers. I could feel it so I tested it. My nose had some congestion, and I've had some congestion off and on today, but not consistent, and it could be allergies or something too. I'm also a little fatigued, but...I woke up at 4:30 am even though I didn't have to get up until 7:30, and I've had 4 early wake-ups in a row. So I SHOULD be tired. I have been okay until this afternoon; I got fuzzy and sleepy and thick this afternoon. I finally started feeling better tonight after I got home, sat down, ate a little something, and relaxed. At the moment I feel okay. I figure I have 2-3 more days, and if I don't have it by then, hopefully I won't get it. I have way too much to do this coming week or two, FINALLY, to be sick. And we don't have a back-up plane or pilot for the work stuff, either. So...I need to be fine.

My morning started off playing Dodge the School Bus, as no matter what road I went down, I got behind a bus stopping and picking up kids. Got to a bigger road and got behind semi trucks doing 40-42 mph in a 55 zone. Turn off a side road to get away from them, and end up on a road with a crew blocking the road working on powerlines. Get around them and end up behind a large piece of farm machinery going very slowly on the narrow back road. This is literally how this went this morning. It got a little better from there and I made it on time, but sheesh. No matter which road you go down, something in your way...

I took the 340 over to Fortner's in Bryan, OH. Dropped it off so he could fix the left engine leak. A guy named Aaron flew me over to Toledo in a Malibu, which is a lot like the Meridian but with a piston engine.  He came in to land on the wrong runway. I told him where 25 was, and he was staring at it for about 3 seconds before tower came on and asked him if he was landing on 16. He saw it then and moved around to land. I get it. I've lined up on the wrong runway before too. lol He was really embarrassed, as I would be if I were him and that was my introduction to a new pilot, but I really don't think less of him as a pilot over it. He did a nice job with the airplane. He dropped me off, and I was supposed to take the Conquest up for 1.5 to 2 hours with the mechanic to reset the parameters on the engines. Except when I started the left engine, the fuel computer failed. Repeatedly. That started a cascade of things. They tried switching computers, they tried cleaning the contacts, they tried several things. Finally they gave me keys to a crew car and I went into town to eat lunch while they worked on it.

But see, Jim Yost was flying the Cherokee 6 to Bryan, OH to the mechanic's too, and I was supposed to pick him up in the Conquest, take him back to Delphi, pick up Ethan there, and take HIM to Grand Rapids, MI. Now the Conquest isn't running, and we're running out of time. So Aaron, who had taken the Malibu in to get the oil changed, had to come back and get me. He dropped me back off, Steve F put the 340 back together, and I took Jim in it over to Delphi instead, dropped him off and picked up Ethan to take to MI. It was long and annoying and tiring.

In MI I got gas, and then headed back to Frankfort, where I had to put the plane away as they'd already gone home. Went through Culver's, which took 30 minutes, and then finally home around 7:30.  Long day. Annoying day...

Tomorrow I go back to MI to pick up Ethan and Amber, but NOT early at least. I will try to sleep in and pray I wake up feeling all right. I don't expect to wake up feeling all right, but I can hope.

Grand Rapids

4:30 am, my alarm goes off, but instead of the gentle buzzing on my wrist that wakes me up, my phone volume was up, and it buzzed loudly on the end table next to me, woke up both me and Steve. Aggressively!  Oops.

4:30 am is not an appropriate time to wake up in case you're wondering.

Originally I was supposed to take Andy to Ft. Lauderdale, and Morgan was scheduled off to go with me. Andy took his jet, and the Conquest wasn't back anyway. She didn't have anything else going on for awhile here, so she came with me today, even though it was up at 4:30 am for her too, and just a quick trip to Michigan and back.

I took Amber up there and dropped her off, got gas, and we were back at Frankfort by 10:30 am. I'd already been up six hours! It's crazy.

I was supposed to drop off Amber, fly right to the Mechanic's in OH, drop off the 340, get a ride over to Toledo, test fly the Conquest while they set up the engines, then fly it home when it's done. Only the first thing happened. The batteries failed and they had to retest them and recharge them. So I took Amber, dropped her off, got gas, came home.

Morgan and I decided to go to Missy's for brunch, since we'd already been up so long, so we ate 'lunch' a little early, but it was good. The day was so young, and sunny, and decent winds, and not that cold, so we took up Chuck's Citabria and test flew it to make sure it didn't leak from the fuel thingy they'd worked on. Flew that a bit over an hour, all was well, so we went back to Kokomo and I picked up Jerry's Citabria. Morgan flew Chuck's back home to Glenndale, and I flew Jerry's over to pick her up, did a few takeoffs and landings back at Kokomo, and put it away, now very tired. All of a sudden, I felt like I'd hit a wall, and I was super tired. 4:30 am.

Steve, Morgan, Chuck and I went to dinner early, at 4:30 pm, I ran my car through the car wash, and it was time to get home and relax a little bit.

Tomorrow's plan was today's plan. I have to get up at 7:30 am, which seems a little early but is three hours later than I slept in this morning, so hey. I have to take the 340 to Ohio. I'm dropping it off and a guy named Aaron is flying me to Toledo. I'm test flying the Conquest there for 1.5-2 hours while they reset engine parameters at various altitudes. When that's all done, I drop off their mechanic, then go back to other Ohio and pick up Jim or Joe, one of whom is flying the Cherokee Six over to the mechanic to be fixed too. I'm picking them up there, then taking them back into Delphi. Where I'm picking up Ethan and taking him to Grand Rapids to join his wife. Bringing the Conquest back to Frankfort, driving an hour home, and I'm finally done for the day.

I'm not sick yet. Sneezed a fair amount today, have some congestion off and on, but feel all right other than really, really tired from three days in a row of ugly early wake-ups.

Kaylee is doing a little better today. She still has a bad headache, throat ache and congestion, and is dizzy too, but she said she just feels...better anyway. She was able to get up and move around, and took a bath today. I brought her over some chicken salad and fruit and sweet tea and she was able to eat it. So that's good.

Steve's all right so far too. I am the one she was hanging on, and if I'm going to get it it'll be likely in the next day or two. The fact I didn't really have symptoms by day 5 made me feel a little optimistic for a minute. We'll see.