Two Pilots & an LSW: Down

Down south, down weather, down health, I guess!

Welp, my birthday passed under grey skies and a nasty head cold. Such a great present from Steve. :D We'll celebrate when we're both feeling better. We'll go to Angry Donkey, I love their salad, their deviled eggs, and their desserts. The steak is fine too, but the others are killer. ;)

My trip on the 9th ended up being pretty convoluted. I'm going to write it out simply because I was a serious taxi driver and it was non-stop, but I don't expect you to be interested in it. ;) I was also coming down with the cold pretty well, so I was fatigued all day anyway. My head was a little blocked up, but mostly I was just really, really tired. I didn't talk to any of the guys I ferried around, either. I just focused on what I was doing and said hello and goodbye. lol Fortunately the weather was mostly really nice, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

So here goes. I woke up Monday morning bright and early, and tired, and had the first three legs planned out down to the minute. Drove out to Kokomo Airport, took the 340 over to Delphi and picked up Clay, Stephen and Tell. Dropped Clay off over in Danville, IL. Took Stephen and Tell down to Henderson County, Kentucky. Put gas in. Turned around and flew back to Danville and picked up Clay. Dropped him off in Delphi, and he was done for the day. I was close so I stopped back in Kokomo, topped off the plane and grabbed Wendy's for a drive-through lunch, before hopping back in and running down to Kentucky Dam, KY airport of all places. I was there for awhile, and I self-serve fueled there too. They got back and I flew Stephen and Tell back to Delphi and dropped them off, then hopped back to Kokomo, and finally I was done for the day.

Because I was tired and it was "sky clear" all the way, I just went VFR, the first three legs, and I didn't talk to a soul. And then I'm 10 miles away from the first Kentucky airport, listening to their radio, their weather said "sky clear", their traffic is in the pattern, and suddenly there are clouds. Like a lot of clouds. I get on the ground and fog just rolls in, out of nowhere. It wasn't in the forecast, but that area suddenly just went down. Students were up soloing and had to hurry in, one guy was taxiing out to take off and had to turn around and come back, and I just barely squeaked in before it got gnarly. It was really weird. So I had to file IFR to get back out of there, but the rest of the legs were clear. When I went to go back into Kentucky Dam, they now have an instrument approach, but it doesn't go very low, for good reason, considering the big power line structures and towers around there, bridges, all sorts of stuff. So I did have to wait for that to lift a little before I could get back in. But other than Kentucky, there was not a single cloud in the sky all day and I didn't have to talk to hardly anyone. Worked for me that day. I came home and was So Tired. I went to bed early and and woke up on my birthday...sick.

Morgan and I had planned on flying the Cirrus with her doing a cross country that day, but I told her I was 'out' on flying. She still wanted me to come down with her to Indy and look at these two apartments she and her friend Shaye are considering getting. I figured I could sit in a car and do that, so I went. I took DayQuill and Claritin D both, and felt puffy and pale and swollen and stuffy and bleh, but I made it. Morgan had crocheted a chicken for me for my birthday, from a side joke, and gave that to me for a laugh. We stopped at a coffee shop on the way home and got a tasty butterscotch mocha with creamy oat milk, then back home. It was a fun afternoon.

After that, Steve and I drove down to Tipton where I officially bought my car. It'll be easy to remember when, because it was on my birthday, so hey. lol They kept wanting to shake my hand and I kept saying "I have a pretty good cold" and keeping my hand behind my back.

My car has worn rotors, which weren't covered under their lease warranty or under our extended warranty either. So we just took the car to Mark's for the first time, and he replaced those, for like $275. He then mentioned my struts needed help. Well, now the car belongs to me, not the dealer, but I looked up our warranty and THOSE should be covered after my $100 deductible. So I scheduled an appointment for that for next Wednesday. Other than that, my car is in excellent shape, which it should be for only being 3 years old. We'll keep this car at least until it has 75,000 miles on it, when this warranty expires, and then see from there.

Steve still can't believe I dislike the 2026 Charger so much that I didn't want to at least drive it for a couple of years on a lease. He is confused on why I wouldn't just drive that new car instead of buy this 'old' car, mostly because of the maintenance contract, and I get that. But I think it's ugly, it's 2 door, I hated the colors they had, and I just don't want to drive it around for 2 years. I like my car. It feels like my car. That feels like a frat boy car. Steve did tell me he asked the guys at the airport if they liked the back end, and they said no, too! He said he told them I said it looked like a dude car, and that they said "Doesn't Laura like dude cars/airplanes anyway?" No, my car isn't a dude car, it's a Laura car. ;) But anyway, so far not too many people have actually liked the back end. Maybe they'll change it in the next couple of years and then in 3 years or so when this warranty is running out, I can look into those.

I spent the rest of my birthday wiped out on the couch until I crawled back into bed for the night. Kaylee forgot today was actually the 10th and saw/remembered around 9 pm and panic texted me, but I told her not to worry, we were going to celebrate my birthday later, when I was better, and I'd make her tell me Happy Birthday then. lol

Today I planned to be completely off. We called off the guys who are working in our crawl space, and just Steve and I are sitting at home working on stuff, or not. I actually felt a little better this morning, at least my head sure did. I haven't actually taken any DayQuill today, just a Claritin D and a nasal spray, and I'm resting, and working on simple stuff. Throwing away some clutter we don't need, washing the blanket and towels, pillowcases and clothes that Steve used while he was sick, answering folks on Facebook who wished me a happy birthday, getting my car set up to get the struts checked/fixed/replaced. Helping Steve set up a rental car for Kaylee while her car goes into the shop to be repaired from when the truck slammed into the back of it a couple months ago. That's been a bit of a saga too, but insurance is covering it nicely, including the rental car while it's out of commission.

I don't know what else I've done, just stuff, but I have done stuff. Not too much naval gazing going on today. Just hoping I wake up okay tomorrow, as I have things to do tomorrow and Friday both.