I have so many little stories I keep meaning to write down. Let’s just get them all out!
Are you moody or just tired?
Well, the title gives it away, but the trainer jokingly asked me that at the gym Monday morning and I was like “Yeah, valid question. I’m just tired.” I’m not sure I’m fully awake until I leave the gym, most days.
(And I was ill or something that day. I got horrible cramps in the morning and took the afternoon off and SLEPT THREE HOURS then NINE MORE that night. I was tired!)
So that’s why I was never sore…
I’ve come to realize I use my back for basically everything I do at the gym and that’s why I’m only ever sore when we do chest presses. I just haven’t figured out a way to use my back to do them.
All joking aside, I’m relearning how to lift, which means going really light, and pretty slow. It’s getting better, and kind of nuts how different certain moves feel WHEN YOU’RE DOING THEM CORRECTLY. And yes, I used to be a certified personal trainer (many years ago). Eek.
I’m an artist, respect my craft
^What I wish I had jokingly said
When we voted last Friday I was STRUGGLING to get my signature to match the one I used 4 years ago. After about 6 tries, they accepted it. It was hard to use the stylus and screen at the angle they had it, and my signature isn’t always the same. When I told this story to Val and Tiff in Marco I said I should have said “I’m an artist, respect my craft! My signature has changed since 4 years ago!” Ha.
That’s a woman’s job
When we were in Arkansas, Steven was on his phone looking for our new friend Kevin‘s last name*. I (kind of jokingly but not really) told him “that’s a woman’s job – we can find ANYONE on the internet!” Then I went on with whatever I was doing.
The next morning I asked if he ever found Kevin, and he told me no (he hadn’t really looked that far into it), and I was like, let me see if I can find him, and FOLKS! I found him after ONE google search. ONE!!!!!!!!! I was pretty impressed with myself. Pro stalker level over here.
*The funny thing is when he introduced himself he actually said his last name but neither of us heard it! And it made me think about how I usually just introduce myself with my first name. Hmm.
It’s that time of year!
Time to start thinking about holiday gifts! The older I get the less stuff I want and the stuff I do want is sometimes pricey. When I’m making a holiday or birthday wishlist, what I generally do is just stop buying things I want/need for a couple months before and put them on the list instead.
Anyway. What’s a nice way to say “can we not do gifts?” Not because I’m cheap, but because I don’t want anything (I’m happy to buy something for someone else)! Unless it’s a plane. We are looking at Cessna 310s but if you are buying it for me I’d be happy with a 172 or 182. Or a Diamond DA40. Can you throw in the hangar too? Thanks!
Happy Halloween! In case you’re like me and are well aware today is Halloween, but are generally confused about what month it is, I’d like to remind you tomorrow is November 1 and DST ends on Sunday. I know. Nutso. Time flies when you’re having fun.
It’s been two weeks and Penny is still obsessed with the cat house. Even though it’s been hot some days (yesterday it was in the low 80s), she’s still hanging out in there, even going up to the mezzanine level! I’m glad she’s getting used to it, with winter on the way (and that she’s moving farther into it, so Snow Jr can come in as well). Good job Pennifer.
I really wanted to do book club at the gym last month but it was a Colleen Hoover book, so it was a hard pass. I told myself I’d do the next one, no matter the book, and it’s a kind of self help book that I started yesterday and UGH, it’s just NOT for me. So much repetitive fluff! But folks on GoodReads said there is useful information at the end so I will stick it out.
Have I mentioned I host a lunch break movie club at work? It’s like a book club, only we watch a movie on our own, then discuss it. It started out in my branch, but now it includes folks from all over the company. Yesterday we had our 16th meeting and chatted about The Shining. Here are the movies we’ve reviewed and next month’s:
I’m in a phase right now where most (social, but a little of work too) digital communication feels overwhelming. And by phase I mean I have felt this way for most of the year and don’t see it changing. It’s me, not the people contacting me.
I always forget nautical miles (which is how airplane mileage is measured) are 1.151x road miles. So when we have a headwind and it shows 90 kn, it’s 103.6 road mph.
We’re not anywhere close to buying a plane but I have a tail number in mind! And it’s available! The last time it was used was Nov 2007 and tracking shows it “landing” on an island somewhere well off the coast of Portugal. Steven doesn’t really care for it, but this is just an imagination game, so it’s all good.
Gosh, I don’t remember the last time we carved a pumpkin before this weekend.
And I didn’t carve it! Steven did! I drew it for him though.
My mom asked if we could come to town for the family holiday photo, and my snis had already invited us to her pumpkin carving party, so this weekend made sense. Plus, it was my brother and aunt’s birthdays!
On Saturday we went to the Farmers Market, got donuts,
hung out, (I) painted, did the family photo,
hung out at the park (and drove RC cars), had dinner together, carved pumpkins, then went out to a bar (all the siblings).
I hang out with people to chat with them, so I really struggle in loud bars. I couldn’t hear much. Still fun though.
On Sunday I painted a bit again (the kids did crafts) then snis and I got Starbucks, we all ate breakfast, and we drove home. Short but good trip!
(We would have loved to fly there but it’s a big ask to reserve a plane for the whole weekend and since we just had two weekends ago we didn’t want to ask again.)
Last week when I was running that all day meeting I kept using “f/u” to mean follow-up and was snickering in my head about another thing f/u could mean. Buah ha ha. It’s the small things that keep me going, folks.
I think my fave keyboard trick I’ve learned this year is ctrl+shift+v for pasting without formatting. This is LIFE CHANGING. How did I not know about it until now?! It’s saved me SO MUCH TIME!
Some of my coworkers don’t understand why we’d want to use ChatGPT. I always tell them it’s to help me make writing go faster and here’s a perfect example. I sound way too casual in my work emails and appreciated the corporate jargon (I used some of it).
I helped one of my coworker’s use ChatGPT to make something more concise and she said “Kim – I think I may like this program.” Heck yeah, girl (ha, I think that was my exact response to her).
Lots of thoughts this week, so you’re getting two Random Thoughts Thursdays posts. I put all the “fun” stuff in this one, and tomorrow’s will mostly be work stuff and a photo of my mani.
I hope you’re sitting down because this message is going to be shocking. My Garmin actually showed me a NICE message on Monday. My mind is STILL blown.
I’m kind of sick of getting up at 5:00 am to lift weights at the gym. It’s weird – I don’t have a hard time getting out of bed, I’m not tired during the day, and I enjoy class, I think I am just over… having something on my calendar. Hmm. Today I didn’t sign up for class until I woke up naturally and saw I had time to go. Maybe I should try that more?
I saw a gorgeous sunrise yesterday morning and it made me think about how I used to feel like I needed to be running during those, to fully experience it. I also felt that way with “good” running weather. It’s one of the few areas of my life where I feel FOMO – missing out on a weather occurrence. So strange. I finally stopped feeling that way after years of telling myself there will be other opportunities. There are going to be more sunrises. There are going to be more nice running days. All this to lead into me sharing that I can see myself feeling that way about flying – “we should be flying now because the weather is good!” I need to make sure I don’t get mentally hung up on that (even though it’s way more true – I can run through shit weather, we can’t fly through it).
It never looks as good in the photo!
I finally painted last weekend after 3.5 weeks off. It’s normal for me to go through phases like this, and it felt good to “get back” to it!
I forgot to mention in my Kingsley Airfield post that I hid a rock there and it was reported found twice (by the person who found it when I hid it, and by the person who found it after that person hid it). It’s always fun when that happens. It’s rare if I hear back at all, so twice for the same rock in a span of a few days is neat!
One of my favorite stories about Steven (that was in the vault until last night!) is from MANY years ago when we were eating at a Chinese restaurant with his entire family. At the end of the meal the waiter brought out fortune cookies and I grabbed one, and after I read my fortune Steven proclaimed that I took “his” fortune and grabbed it from my hand and ate it. The paper, not the cookie.
It was hilarious. I wish I could remember what the fortune was!
Ever since then I let Steven distribute the fortune cookies. He says there’s a method that must be followed. I trust him. Ha.
So last night we got Chinese takeout and Steven’s fortune was “It’s time to rekindle an old friendship,” which lead him to joke about how he doesn’t have any friendships to rekindle.
Which lead me to (jokingly) tell him he needs to make friends and (seriously tell him) I want him to find love again/remarry if I die before him so he’s not alone.
I know, probably not where you thought this was going.
So we were joking about potential people he could ask to marry him and I told him to practice a pickup line on me.
“Does your face hurt?”
“No… why?”
“Because you look like you fell from heaven.”
FOLKS, WE DIED LAUGHING. I am writing this from the beyond and this is a moot point now because we died together. Aww.
But really! What the heck is that pickup line?
He eventually realized it’s supposed to be “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” Then we kept laughing and crying and my nose got stuffed up and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard.
He looked up different (better?) pickup lines and my second favorite (the first is too inappropriate to share) was “Did you sit in a pile of sugar? Cause you have a sweet ass.” HAHAHAHAHAH
He said he’ll be practicing pickup lines on me. I’m pretty excited to hear what ridiculousness he comes up with next! (This morning he interrupted my shower to say “I’m jealous of that water because it’s all over you and I’m not.” hahahahahahah)
Almost caught up, a week later! Last Monday we flew home from Eureka Springs, AR (4M1) with a stop in Jefferson City, MO (JEF). From Instagram:
On Monday we left 4M1 after noon and stopped at JEF for a short break. We saw the Missouri state capitol (from a distance), flight planned, and made a new friend John who let us sit in the cockpit of his Citation (have you ever seen Steven smile that big?!).
It was clear skies all the way to JEF then some clouds showed up. I’m so glad we were able to make it back in time!
It was so much colder than the rest of our trips. I had to figure out how to turn on the heat! We were underdressed when we got out of the plane at UGN!
Monday stats: 4M1 ➡️ JEF ➡️ UGN 4.6 hour total trip (includes run-up, taxi, and flying) 2 takeoffs & 2 landings 1 new-to-us airport (JEF) 1 new friend made (John)
We had a chill start to Monday – figuratively and literally – we relaxed all morning at Courtney and David’s (except for flight planning), and it was much cooler than it had been the three previous days. We wore pants instead of shorts for the flight back! It was 60°F when we left Arkansas and 46°F when we landed in Waukegan at the end of the day! Brrrr! It felt cold when we got out of the plane!
Courtney and David took us to the airport and hung out until we left at 12:35. It was much clearer out than it had been the previous two days (there had been a lot of local haze because of a fire, and then general haze from hot air, but I think the cold front pushed it out?).
We planned to stop in Jefferson City, Missouri to fuel and take a break. It’s a Class D towered airport and stopping at a towered airport was very appealing (to me) after three days of non-towered. I thought it would be really nice to have someone tell us what to do and watch for nearby planes.
Weird cloud shadow and … trail?
We’d never been there before and played “where’s the airport?!” (successfully)
I forgot Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri! We could see the capitol building from the ramp (between our heads below) and from the sky when we took off.
Someone from the fixed-base operator (FBO) met us on the ramp to greet us, ask how long we were staying, and what services we needed, which as nice (we requested fuel). When we walked into the FBO several folks told us to help ourselves to the food in the fridge, which was also nice (I had a roll. Again, we need to get better at planning meals for long flights.).
We reviewed our plans for the second leg of the flight and realized we needed to leave ASAPy to get the plane back by 6:00 pm, when our rental ended.
But on the way out we talked to the same folks and their pilot offered to show us the jet they were flying (Cessna Citation).
I thought he meant show it, like, look at the outside, but we went in and sat in the cockpit and talked to our new friend John for a while (Steven said he knew what John meant!). It was fun. He was really encouraging, telling Steven that flying a jet is just like flying a prop plane. Is it though? Ha.
Then on the ramp we talked to an instructor and his student for a bit. Everyone was so friendly! We wondered if they usually see the same people all the time and it was unique to have someone different (us!) there. I love talking to people but I felt bad we were on a timeline.
I put my sweatshirt on for the flight back and am glad I did! It got cold enough in the plane that I had to figure out how to turn on the heat.
We did flight following on the way home since we were flying through an MOA (Military Operations Area) and figured they would tell us if we weren’t supposed to enter it at all. We didn’t have any issues, but I was scanning for military traffic the entire time and was exhausted by it and happy when we got out of there!
Crossing the Mississippi RiverMississippi River floodplain
We were cruising at 5,500 MSL but descended a few times to avoid clouds. There was an icing warning at our altitude! Ice can form on the leading edge of wings (and other parts of the airplane) if you fly through clouds with water droplets and your plane is cold, etc. etc. and we definitely wanted to AVOID that.
It was a mostly uneventful flight! Just a bit of traffic, and changing altitudes to avoid clouds, and avoiding the ORD bravo airspace when we got back. We were pretty tired and happy to land at UGN and get the keys back right at 6:00 pm. Woo hoo!
We got home and fed the cats, fed us, and called it a night super early and I was asleep just after 9:00 and slept until after 6:00. We were so pooped! Next time we have to stay for a few more days when we fly that far, because the flying is tiring but mostly to spend more time with our friends!
Something I wasn’t expecting to be thinking:I wish we were flying today!
I thought I got my fill with the 13.9 hours last Friday-Monday, but seeing all the plans fly over the preserve as we were running made me wish I was up there. Maybe a flight to see some fall foliage.
Something I’ve been talking to a lot of folks about lately:What I’m doing to try to be present in the moment.
This has come up so much lately!
Last week I was telling Sharon how my big 2024 goal was to “do less” and “waste more time.” She’d asked if I was cycling much this year, and I told her no – only once! Because I usually cycle on Sundays and I chose to sleep in and have a slow Sunday with Steven instead of rushing around, working out. Usually by the time I get to Sunday I’ve been working the last 6 days and just want to CHILL. It’s been nice.
Tiff posted on Instagram saying she is struggling to be in the present moment and asked if anyone else feels this way, and I commented that I used to struggle with it a lot more but the less time I spend with technology, the easier it is. And I don’t just mean the distraction of my phone, but releasing myself from expectations I had put on myself on how responsive I need to be. When we travel I try to only be on my phone to take photos, for essential communication, and to look things up. It’s freeing.
This week at happy hour I was talking to a client about how as we age we figure out what brings us joy, what is important, and what’s worth our time. And that helps be in the present too – when we actually want to be there.
You all know this. I’ve just been thinking about it more. And I acknowledge this is much easier for me than for someone with more family responsibilities.
The preserve where I was running (photo from Aug 18)
Something I’ve realized about myself:I’m very suspicious of encouragement and compliments (in certain situations).
I received a lot of encouragement for my big all day partnering meeting at work this week and I found myself thinking “Are you only telling me this because you think I need to hear to do well because you don’t think I will do well without encouragement?” What the heck kind of thinking is that and where did it come from?! I know people were just saying that because they believed in me and wanted to share it but my brain was being so weird.
People were also very genuinely thankful and complimentary of it all and I found my brain doing weird things there too. I worked hard on it. I should be proud!
Something that fluctuates:How communicative I am.
A friend was telling me they’ve been so drained from communicating all day at work that they are struggling to find energy to communicate with friends and I 1000% get that. I’ve been so focused at work lately that I hardly chat during the day then at night I’m just in zombie mode. I’ve actually been surprised I’ve been able to be “on” when I’m at social events (that Celebration of Life, Steven’s high school reunion) or with people all day long. Maybe going into zombie mode is storing energy for later. Who knows. It upsets me when I’m with people I’ve really been looking forward to seeing and feel drained from life and it takes me a day or two of being together to feel like myself… then by then our visit is over. That happened a few times this summer and I’d like to do everything I can to avoid that.
What would these posts be like if I just pasted my Instagram caption? I feel like that’s what I did for my Europe recaps, then I expanded on it? Too lazy to look it up. But let’s try that (again?):
Sunday morning was fun! We took Courtney and David to Hangar Kafe in Miller, MO to eat lunch and watch the skydivers! What a cool place. We loved sharing flying with them (it was our first time having two passengers in the back)!
On the way back to 4M1, we flew over Eureka Springs, AR and over Courtney and David’s house
After we landed we decided to get fuel because it was so low. We thought it would take an hour max, but the engine was being a bit touchy to start because it was hot. So we gave it a rest and spent quite a bit of time talking to a local, Kevin, and seeing his planes. We had a really good conversation (mostly in the hot sun, eek!), then went and got fuel and came back more than a couple hours later (because of course the stop at the airport included talking to the guy running the FBO about the other business there and the Cessna 206 in the hangar…)
Sunday stats: 4M1 MO9 4M1 HRO 4M1 2.3 hour total trip (includes run-up, taxi, and flying) 4 takeoffs & 4 landings 2 new-to-us airports (MO9 & HRO) 1 new friend made (Kevin)
ANYWAY! We were freaking exhausted when we got back (and guilty we took so long) and were happy to spend the rest of the day chilling with Courtney and David!
And now, for the extended version…
We knew we wanted to take Courtney and David on a flight (that’s why we didn’t fully fuel on Saturday) but we didn’t know if we’d do it right after we landed Saturday (nope, too hungry and sweaty and the place we wanted to fly to was closed for the day), on Sunday (too windy?), or on Monday before we took off.
I’m grateful our friends understand how flexible (with your schedule) you have to be for flying. Mostly because of weather, but also because of our poor meal planning. Courtney and David were so great about this trip and understanding we wouldn’t know at all if we were coming until we were basically on the way there. Safety (avoiding bad weather) takes top priority!
I’m really glad it all worked out!
So back to what I was saying, we discussed a few flight options, and when we got up Sunday Steven checked weather and saw it was going to be getting a bit windy around noon and discussed flying Monday instead, then was like “F*ck it! Let’s go!”
And we went!
We have a spreadsheet of ideas for places to fly to, and I’d added MO9/Kingsley Airfield in Miller, MO because it had this restaurant that looked so darn cute!
And it was!
I mean, come on! Adorable.
We knew it was a skydiving place too and could hear on the radio that it was active, so I was excited to watch the skydivers.
Our flight there was pretty straight forward. We found the airport, talked on the radio to confirm there was no skydiver traffic, landed, figured out where to park, and ordered breakfast/lunch.
The food wasn’t anything to write home about (for a vegan, ha) but I was there for the experience! Steven said his eggs and pancakes were good, and he liked the fried okra, and Courtney and David liked their sandwiches.
After breakfast we watched the skydivers for a bit (gah, we saw one land so hard in the parking lot! ouch!). Before we left, we did some flight planning to fly by Courtney and David’s house and near downtown Eureka Springs, then Steven talked to the skydive place owner to confirm it was okay for him to take off. He said yeah, then before we did Steven checked on the radio with the other pilot (who dropped off the skydivers) and he assured Steven he had at least 5 minutes before the skydivers came down, so Steven took off, then shortly after we got off the ground I pointed out this skydiver who was doing 360s to spiral down fast and Steven had to turn at a much lower altitude than he would have liked to to give the skydiver as much space as possible.
Lesson learned – don’t trust anyone. Just kidding, the lesson is to wait until the skydivers are on the ground (and not trust anyone).
We flew back and went over Courtney and David’s house, and the downtown area:
Then because we took a few diversions and didn’t do a straight course to the airport we came in kind of high and Steven did a fun slip to lose altitude fast. It wasn’t enough so halfway down the runway he put more power in and we climbed and did the pattern again then landed.
Sounds strange but he’s been practicing maneuvers like that for well over a year for situations just like that. It’s amazing to watch him in action and see how he knows just what to do!
So we landed and that’s when things got a bit wonky. We decided to go get fuel so we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning. Courtney and David drove home (they live so close, I told them I’d text on the way back), and we went to start the plane and the engine was being touchy because it (the engine) was hot.
We took that as a sign to take a break and we were going to sit in front of the airport for a bit when a local, Kevin, came by, and we started chatting. Long story short, we chatted for a long time. He showed us his plane he’d just had the engine rebuilt on:
And the STOL (short takeoff and landing) plane he’d just built:
I was very excited to see a STOL plane in person! We watch videos of them all the time but I’d never seen one. This one was about to be inspected to get its airworthiness certificate. I wish it already had been so we could see it in action! Although I think Kevin said he didn’t even know how to fly a tail dragger yet. Getting sidetracked. Long story long. Oops.
Then we had a long conversation about the sustainability of farming and how it’s changed over the years. Kevin is a first generation farmer and had so many interesting things to share! (And he had an amazing accent that I loved listening to.)
He also gave us advice on a less windy airport (than the one we had planned) to go to for fuel, which was helpful, cause the winds had picked up and the airport we were planning to go to was on top of a windy plateau and would have had a crosswind. We went to one that lined right up with the direction of the wind – much better!
So we took off to HRO and had a similar problem to the day before with not enough flight planning (during flight) time, and we were tired and had just stood in the sun for a long time. So after we figured out how to get fuel (Steven’s first time doing it by himself, my first time EVER – not exactly intuitive), we went inside to cool down and do a briefing for our 9 minute flight back.
We also tried (unsuccessfully) to get a receipt for the gas. The machine was out of paper and the school takes what you paid for gas out of the overall rental fee. We never got a receipt but Steven was able to use his credit card record. ANYWAY. Wow, focus, Kim.
So while we were talking to the guy who runs the FBO about our receipt we started asking him other questions, like what the business was they are running there (Plane Spares), and about the Cessna 206 in the hangar. It turns out the owner bought it from a government auction from USMS and I was immediately like “CRY! We can’t do that since I work for the government!” But it was cool to see one in person – we’ve looked at them online but not up close! They hold a lot more weight than a 172.
Ha, completely random, while we were there we could hear the radios and this one local was saying the name of the airport (Boone County) in a super funny voice. The FBO guy was like “that’s just Dan Childs.” And I was like “cause he’s acting like a child?” Ha, me so funny. I told Steven he should do that funny Boone County voice when we left but he didn’t. Ha.
Moving on! We flew back and had no issues and Courtney and David picked us up and we apologized for being gone for much longer than expected. I’m blaming the plane and fuel but also that I keep chatting with so many people. That’s on me.
We had fun telling them all about our afternoon and talking more about the flight we did together. It’s nice they are both so interested because we love to talk about it! And I like sharing what I’ve learned and hearing all the things Steven knows, including some never before heard stories from his checkride. And Courtney was very complimentary of me and Steven’s communication skills while flying which made me feel really good, like, maybe I am actually a useful copilot? Maybe?!
We had a nice evening – just chilling and talk talk talking and having nachos for dinner. We called it a night at a reasonable hour (11:00?) since we had a big day ahead of us (and were exhausted), but I was bummed since I knew we were leaving the next day. This trip was much too short!
Could you tell ChatGPT wrote the title of this post? I asked it for recommendations and here’s what it came up with:
Sunday Skies and Skydivers
Fuel Stops, Fun Flights, and New Friends
Flying Adventures: Skydivers, Slip Landings, and Surprises
A Sunday in the Air: From Eureka Springs to Hangar Kafe
Planes, Friends, and Skydivers: A Sunday Well Spent
Flying with Friends: Fun, Fuel, and Unexpected Conversations
A Day in the Sky: From Hangar Kafe to Kevin’s Stories
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
