Cleveland

I was glad that we didn't do anything yesterday. We all needed a day to rest and do stuff at home. Me, Steve, Ethan, Amber, Nick and Val all.  And glad that my morning didn't have to start very early today, either. Getting up at 8:15 still felt really early to me because my system and sleep cycle is all messed up. Tomorrow I was supposed to get up at 4:45 am originally, but that's been bumped to 6:45, and I'm grateful for that much.

It was sunny and bright today for once, thankfully. Still colder than you know what, but clear, blue and bright, and I kind of needed that too.

At 10 am I got to the airport. So much nicer. ;)

I flew two of them into Cleveland International. Nice big busy airport, but easy as pie. They have a CAA FBO, so I went there and got cheap gas and free ramp fees, took their courtesy car to a lodge called "AVIATORS" and ate at a table (indoors) in the sunshine by a window overlooking the airport, and ate a really good chicken pesto sandwich and truffle parmesan fries. Good stuff. Outdoors, they had these little igloos over their tables, and they have the option to sit outside in lighted igloos with the view of the runways too. That was kind of cool! 

The airports were clear, the runways were clear, the skies were clear, the trips were short, the food was good, the time to myself was nice, and all in all it was quite a pleasant little day of flights.

Then I got back in my car and my phone blew up with problems for tomorrow's flights. Four legs, two of them involving a winter storm they're getting tonight, which wasn't on my radar because the aviation weather was fine for tomorrow. But their person on the ground said they were going to have delays and cancellations tomorrow. I had no idea. So I call the FBO and they say they aren't even opening until 10 am because of it. We were supposed to arrive at 8:30 am. We had a rental car we couldn't access, and maybe an icy runway. I spent hours going back and forth with people over this, including on phone calls I had to make. I hate making phone calls. I still don't know how it's going to go tomorrow, if we're going to be able to go to that airport or not, or if the runway will be a sheet of ice, or what. *sigh*

Just got another text here at 9:30 pm. Ethan employs a man named Randy. His wife was driving her two kids Justin and Megan when a kayak came loose from a vehicle in front of them, and went through the windshield and decapitated her, right in front of her kids, one of whom (Justin) was old enough to remember everything he saw. Justin became another member of the family, over at their house all the time, is Amity's best friend, and was her "Man of Honor" at her wedding this July. His sister Megan today, her car slid off the road and into a tree. She had to be cut out of the car and LifeLined to the hospital, with severe brain trauma. They don't think it looks promising that she will survive. So Justin will have lost his mom and his little sister to car wreck head trauma. That poor man. Ethan was asking me if I could pick up Tell (his son) in Evansville where he's working on a job, if he wants to come home. I volunteered Morgan since I'll be gone tomorrow. She was going with me, because her other flight canceled, but she could do this instead. So he'll decide in the morning if they want her to go get Tell or not. But how awful is that?? Man oh man...

My own problems with tomorrow's flight suddenly feel a lot less problematic.

Icy Air photos

The restaurant with the igloos outside and Cleveland International's tower in the background

A better view of the igloos. The server panicked when I went up to this window to take a photo and was afraid I was going to try to exit out that door

Just some air shots

Cleveland International Airport--the white runways

Three attempts at the ice ring around the sun

This one focused on the window but it was still kind of cool

Pretty. Icy but pretty

The ground is so icy, it shows up as a glow

You can see the shine on the ground

Just...pretty.