Monday Monday

Steve and Kaylee went hiking on Easter Sunday because that's when the weather was nicest. I tried to sneak her Easter basket over at midnight but she was still up and her door was open, so I went to bed, woke up at 5 am, walked it over then, then went back to bed. lol She appreciated it, it made her smile, and she came over for awhile and played with some of the stuff I put in it. She told Steve she has a couple of friends whose moms still do that and they roll their eyes at it to her, but she thinks it's sweet and great and it makes her happy. If she was rolling her eyes at it, it would most definitely be the last time I'd be doing that. ;) They wanted me to go hiking with them, but they still did 5 miles, and my stamina is not there yet. I'm still working on it. About every other day I'll do some fast-paced sprint-walking. Test my time, distance, all that stuff. Everything is slowly improving. Nothing record shattering, but improving. I think I found the fastest I can walk without jogging (3.7 mph), and I've been covering more distance, and while I'm still pooped at the end of it, I'm recovering a lot faster too. So slowly but surely, but I'm getting better there.

Monday...this morning I had a few errands to run. We had a package delivered to the Post Office Smart Locker 3 days ago, but no QR code to open it. So I stood in line for 30 minutes and the lady behind the desk had to walk me out to the smart locker and open it manually. That was more efficient than just putting a slip in my PO Box, right? ;)

Next up I went to Palmer's Jewelers. Kaylee's silver birth stone ring broke at work on Friday. The silver snapped and the stone fell out, and she kept it all together and brought it to me. Palmer's said they could fix it, and it'll be ready in 2 days. And I had to parallel park downtown right in front of a coffee shop, and I nailed it, so I rewarded myself with a hot vanilla latte with oat milk.

I hit the car wash and we went to lunch early, as the plan was for me to fly the Sonex at 1 pm with Morgan. I was just hoping that I could get back out of it. But the winds kicked up too high, so the Sonex flight got cancelled. So instead I went out to the airport where I test flew the Aerostar after they worked on the hydraulics again (it's STILL not right, nose wheel won't come up until you get good and slow). Then John R got out there and we took up his C-421. I hadn't been in it for more than 5 months and only a couple times in the last several years, so it was good to get a refresher. It felt pretty good, and it was John's first time flying in the last 5 months too. He loved getting back up in the air too. It was good, and now I'll probably have my first 421 trip on Thursday. As long as I can get it started and hot started and don't have any terrible weather out of the gate I should be in good shape. lol

After John and I flew, Steve, Kaylee, Morgan and I went to Olive Garden for dinner. After Steve left, we girls stayed and just hung out and talked for awhile. We are all so alike in some ways, those two are super alike in some ways, and we're all so different in some ways. It's funny.

Steve talked for a long time to Ethan, who is halfway looking at a jet now, but I won't hold my breath, and to Glenn O who is talking about the Air Power Tour. Most of our pilots have dropped out for this year. We have two who may save the day if I can get them checked out in time. One guy is too fat and old and can't handle how much hard work it is. One guy only got checked out for 10 hours to look good so he could move into the B-29 as fast as possible. Another got checked out and 10 hours but backed out because he wants to be on the B-24. So basically you have the users and the moochers and the ladder climbers who take my *donated* free time and effort and don't give us even one tour stop or assist. But as soon as the plane is back up and running, hopefully by the end of next week, I'm going to jump in with both feet on getting the training and recurrents in. JP needs a checkride as he's expired, and then he'll do my checkride, as I expire in 23 days. Then I'm going to start in on Doug L and Mike M who are going to be the two guys we hope can take on a giant portion of the Tour. Glenn can only do a little, JP can only do a little, and Morgan and I don't know when we can do things, so...I will work to get these two guys checked out thoroughly, how I like it done, and then hopefully the Tour can make it with very limited pilots this year. 

We are not going to Sun-n-Fun this year. We were going to, but with everything going on, the plane is barely going to be ready, it's going to cost money to go down there and we are super tight right now, the plane needs to make money and we lose money at SnF every year because it's a terrible place to give rides (but it's good for other reasons), Morgan and/or I need to be here to do work flights both to keep them happy and to make money, and I have to get at least 23 hours of training in asap starting that week. So there is no scenario in which it's a good idea to take BOB to Florida in a week. So I get no sun, nor fun, but I also don't feel any real regrets right now. I feel peace at the decision--it's the correct one by far for this year. Maybe next year we can go back down, lose some money and be fine with it, and enjoy the night laser/firework/airshow event on the ramp down south and relax in the sun and the fun. It'll also give me some space from the last time I was down there where first I was in some of the worst pain of my life with no relief, then almost died because I was trying to wait to get home, then I was in a hospital for a week, then my life was upended for months, then I had to fight to get my medical back for the last 3-4 months. 'Cause those are some great memories. ;)

Morgan signed her lease for her apartment in Cicero, IN, and will start moving in on Friday. She's nervous about it, but I think it's for the best for her. After she spends a year there, she's looking to maybe even get a house of her own. But first she's going to move in with her friend Shaye and hopefully make enough money to support herself.

Guess that's about it.  I have nothing on the schedule for tomorrow, then I have a flight Wednesday and Thursday. It's weird being so slow right now, and I can't even do paid warbird checkouts because the T-6 is still down, and has some parts that need fixed, and can't do free C-45 checkouts because that's in maintenance too, so I have...nothing. I was going to take an Instrument student in the 172RG tomorrow because I was free and everyone else was so busy. But he canceled tonight because of his schedule. So I'm back to... a day off. I should appreciate it considering how busy I get sometimes!