I'm writing this from my laptop in Romeoville, Illinois (south of Chicago). I'm really pooped because I went to bed at 11:30, fell asleep sometime after that, and woke up at 2 am out of a hard sleep and never got back to sleep. I finally just got up at 4:45 am and stayed up, sat in the living room and slowly got ready for my 7 am departure. It was a nice leisurely morning, anyway. I wasn't that tired until I got to IL here, and then I closed my eyes for almost an hour in the pilot lounge before going to get some breakfast. I'm a little tired now, but not as bad as you'd think a person would be on a couple hours of sleep. I just wish there weren't other crews in here in this small pilot lounge too. Today *I* am the tired puffy non-talking sit-in-a-chair crewmember I usually make fun of.
I brought my laptop so I could send over some more of my records to the PA people. I don't know how this is going to go, but I can't wait until it's over with successfully, hopefully.
Yesterday Morgan asked me if I couldn't be a pilot any more, what I would do. I really have no idea. I don't want to be a sim instructor. If I can't be in the airplane, I probably don't want to be around aviation any more, because I think it would hurt too much. I can't think of what profession I would take over at this point, at 53 years old. Too young to retire, too old to start over, right? So what? Go be a cashier or secretary again? *sigh* That was an uplifting thought experiment. ;)
Yesterday was a long but not bad day of going out to Colorado. I took Stephen, Nick, Tell and Morgan and we went to Ft. Morgan, CO first. They had a job to look at there, while she and I drove around hunting for coffee. They got back and brought with them a huge guy who came along with us to Colorado Springs, to look at a job there for a couple of hours. She and I went to a restaurant on field that was inside a giant airplane. I don't even know what it was, but you climbed up inside it and the fuselage had been redone to have a bunch of tables to eat at. The cockpit was intact and you could climb up in there and mess around. It was weird and different and interesting, and the food was good too. The waitresses were all in pilot uniforms with 4 strips, and they took the flying motif very seriously. ;) We also drove to the WWII Aviation Museum on field there, but it was $20/person, and we would be out of time very quickly. Sure enough, they were back in less than an hour, so it would have been too close.
We were at the airport by 7:45 am, and got home around 10 pm, so like I said, long day, but interesting.
I'm home now from Illinois. That was a long day. There was one small pilot lounge with six seats in it, I was there for 8.5 hours, and all the seats were full most of the time, in a tiny hot room, with nobody saying a word, in a dead quiet room. I was able to leave and go get breakfast, but after 12 I wasn't sure when they'd be back, so I had to stay there, and there wasn't anywhere else to stay. So me and a bunch of quiet jet pilots sat there in silence for H-O-U-R-S. I couldn't nap, because...crowded room full of men I don't know and I'm not going to doze off in front of them. I got something around 2 hours of sleep last night and was planning on napping. There was no water or snacks there, at a towered controlled airport even. It is frigid, and 35 knot winds for awhile, and I had to get the plane out myself early this morning, and...there are a couple other things that are issues I won't get into. So I spent most of today tired and I guess a little sad and disgruntled. So I was glad to see that the airport manager had stayed late tonight and was there to help me put the plane away so I didn't have to do THAT in the dark and cold by myself. :) Today took 12 hours door to door, and only my breakfast and the quick 30 minute flight each way was enjoyable. ;)
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