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
Saturday started off busy – we fit in a lot before we left!
I started the morning with a run. I tried to pack light since we have weight limitations in the plane, but I still ended up with two pairs of shoes – some Skechers BOBS and my running shoes. All that to say, I feel really good when I actually use all the things I bring with me on a trip and I did use those running shoes… once. That still counts! (And I used all the shorts, jeans, tanks, t-shirts, and hooded sweatshirt because I kept sweating through my clothes in the plane, then it got cold.)
Steven had plans to meet his college friends for breakfast, and on the way (actually out of the way but it doesn’t matter) he dropped me and his dad off for breakfast with his longtime friend Eric’s parents.
Steven’s Kansas City friend group goes all the way back to kindergarten, so those friends’ parents were like second sets of parents to Steven growing up, meaning as soon as I met them (in the early aughts!) they were like a second set of parents to me too. All that to say, it’s not odd that I had breakfast with Eric’s parents without Steven (and Eric?)!! We had a wonderful time catching up!
We hung out with them a bit at the house, then when Steven got back we went into flight planning mode, which included figuring out where the heck to get fuel (and calling and confirming they could provide said fuel). Then we headed to 0N0 in Roosterville (ha, I forgot to mention in the Friday post that none of Steven’s friends at the reunion knew where this airport was), did preflight, etc. etc. and took off to GPH, which was only 6.7 miles away!
The flight was basically go up, descend to pattern altitude, and land. Seems easy, right? What we realized after this trip is that these short flights (this one was 9 minutes) don’t give us the time to plan in flight for landing like we usually do – check the field elevation, confirm pattern elevation, elevation to be at on final approach, if it’s left or right pattern, how to enter the pattern for the runway we are using, etc. Oh, and there is the task of FINDING the freaking airport at all, which is harder than you’d think sometimes.
It’s a lot. Too much to do in that amount of time. Next time, we’ll figure it all out before and just be confirm it in the air.
Also, this airport became super busy right before we entered the pattern. Someone was taking off, then after we called out how we were entering the pattern and what we were doing, two other planes confirmed they were right behind us (and the order we’d all land in). This was a non-towered airport, and everyone communicated really well, including helping us out when we misspoke on something.
When we landed we were like, “we need to go in, sit down, and refresh.” Yes, from a 9 minute flight.
We had them fuel the plane, and enjoyed the snacks and drinks (and air conditioning) at their FBO (Fixed-Based Operator). That was another learning lesson on this trip – we need to pack lunches if we’re flying through lunch time! We took off for that flight at 1:07 pm and for our next one at 2:05 pm, landing in 4M1 around 4:00. We were HUNGRY, especially for something more meal like and less snacky.
But I got ahead of myself. While at the FBO, we also did a debrief of our GPH to 4M1 flight, which of course, was going to have another headwind. We checked the fuel (each wing holds around 26.5 gallons and we had them add about 15 each – we didn’t want them too full since we were planning on flying with two more people the next day) did run-up, and took off.
It was neat flying out on the east side of Kansas City. We saw the lake Steven’s maternal grandparents lived by (small C-shaped lake near center of photo below):
Right after we took off, there was traffic that didn’t look like it was going to be an issue, but kept turning to be pointed at us. It obviously wasn’t an issue (we still exist) but it was annoying “WHY DO YOU KEEP CHANGING YOUR HEADING TO POINT AT US?!?!?!”
This flight was HOT. It was in the 90s when we left GPH. The AC is the Cessna is vents letting outside air in – there is no AC. Ha.
We actually went up from 5,500 MSL (mean sea level) to 7,500 to try to cool down and see if there was less of a headwind. That’s the highest altitude we’ve gone up to in the 172! It was kind of cooler? We are technically cooler now for having a new max. HAHAHAHAHA just seeing if you’re still reading.
We didn’t do flight following for this flight since it was short (180 miles) and not in heavily trafficked areas, so we felt free to chat and catch up on each other’s mornings and discuss the trip so far (without radio interruption).
When we got closer to the Missouri border the terrain changed quite a bit and we had some baby turbulence from thermal lift. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
(Edited to add: when we got close to 4M1 another plane was on it’s way to land there, I think from the east, and we were coming in from the north. We communicated with them and did a 360 to give them more space, even though they said they thought we were far enough apart. And we did a teardrop entry to the pattern, which was interesting – Steven hadn’t done many of them before this trip but did one then, in the morning at GPH, and the next day at HRO.)
We had a nice buttery smooth landing when we got to 4M1. Courtney and David were waiting for us at the airport, and as we unpacked and walked to the car I noticed the fuel system at that airport was also out of service. WONDERFUL.
We went back to their place and immediately scarfed down the delicious food they’d made us – smoked tofu burnt ends, potato salad, and cookies.
Then we just chatted for hours and hours (until after 11:00?). We hadn’t seen them in person since last October! Courtney and I text every day, but some stories are just better told in person. We never seem to run out of things to talk about!
The beautiful view off their back deck! The bugs ate me alive but it was worth it!
Penny hadn’t voluntarily gone into the cat house since she showed up in June and we were worried she wouldn’t use it when it got cold out (a heater turns on in the house when it hits a certain temp). Every time we showed it to her (with the door open), she would go in then immediately leave. It was cold and rainy Tuesday, and we put her in, this time with some food, and she stayed half in/half out to eat it, then I kept putting her in there and it finally stuck! Now she doesn’t want to leave. Aww.
I’m always excited when I see my peers in leadership roles at work. Like, “Wow, we did it, guys!” Also, “I have no interest in having that much responsibility” ha ha ha.
I had to check in on an issue yesterday at work and it was very clear it was a space problem. I was a space planner for 12 years of my federal career, and there is so much comfort in solving a space problem. My mind started to do it and I was like “nope! not my job to solve anymore.” (And I really need to set those boundaries – people bring many problems to me but I am often not the solver, I’m the person who brings the right people to the table to solve it.)
Here’s my new spoopy mani. I went pink so it would match a pink blazer I am wearing to work today. Today is the day of that meeting I’ve been doing all the prep for!
We had a super fun (long, and at sometimes crazy) flying adventure this weekend and you get to hear all about it in FOUR SEPARATE POSTS. Yes – it’s your lucky day!
Ha ha ha.
Alright, so last month I asked Steven if he wanted to try to fly to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in October to visit our friends Courtney and David. I suggested this weekend because I had Friday and Monday off work.
Then it clicked for him that this weekend was also the weekend of his high school reunion and annual college get together – both in Kansas City (his college friends pick a different city each year and this year happened to be in KC). So we decided to “kill many birds with one stone” and stop in Kansas City and see his dad and brother, go to the reunion, see his college friends, maybe even see his friend Eric’s parents, travel on to Arkansas for the original purpose of the trip, and find a new-to-us airport to checkout on the way to and from Arkansas.
All weather dependent, of course. And obviously, the weather worked out!
We left at 3:05 pm on Friday from Waukegan (UGN) airport. Because it was such a long flight in distance (353 miles) and time (we landed at 6:46 pm), we used flight following. Flight following is basically air traffic control (ATC) watching you on radar and letting you know about traffic, weather, and temporary flight restrictions. They pass you along from tower to tower until you get to your final destination, or cancel flight following.
Crossing the Mississippi River at the IL/IA border
Flight following worked well, once we figured out which approach to call to request it. It’s nice to have a third set of eyes on your flight, warning you about things!
It’s so cool to see the terrain change as you travel south
There was A LOT of chatter though, especially with St Louis and Kansas City Center and Kansas City approach. So you are constantly listening for your tail number and it disrupts conversation a bit. But, it’s also good to listen to other pilots and learn. We heard some interesting things too, like a Wu-Tang checkpoint and Mahomes approach. LOL, whut?
Anyways, the flight was approximately 5 million hours long (really, 3 hours 41 minutes). It should have been faster but we had a freaking 16 knot headwind GAHHHHH.
I was properly dehydrated and felt fine. Steven… not so much.
But we made it! And saw a beautiful sunset.
We chose to land at 0N0, a small airport in Roosterville, Missouri, because it was the same driving distance from his Dad’s house and less stressful then flying into MKC, the downtown airport we flew into last December.
This airport is interesting, to say the least! The runway is 20 feet wide. TWENTY! That’s it! Some new friends we made there told us it’s the narrowest paved runway in Missouri.
We tried to fuel the plane up after we landed so it would be ready to go in the morning. The fuel was locked, and Steven called the number and they came to help but could never get the fuel to work. While that was going on I talked to Jeff and Isaac, a local father son duo who keep a few planes there. We talked for a long time while they tried to figure out fuel. I felt bad Steven’s dad and brother were waiting for us, but they couldn’t get the fuel to work.
The finally gave up and parked the plane and said they’d try to get it to work that night so we could fuel in the morning (spoiler: Steven got a text later that it was broken and he’d have to fuel elsewhere).
I don’t think we left the airport until well after 7:30 and Steven’s reunion started at 7:00. We got to his dad’s, dropped off our bags and went to the reunion from about 8:30 to 10:15. I had fun chatting with his friends that I know and meeting and chatting with some new ones, including the “Steve” that made Steven “Steven.” (He had a substitute teacher in the fourth grade who said they couldn’t keep two Steves straight so one got to be Steve and one got to be Steven. It’s his Steven origin story!)
I felt like I was doing really good staying awake and engaging and not being raging hungry until about 9:45 and I started to feel dead tired. I’d been up since 5:00, hadn’t eaten since I had a snack in the plane at 4:30, and had spent the morning working, getting the house ready, then all that time somewhat focused in the plane (there was some texting to make plans for the next morning, I won’t lie).
Anyway, we said our goodbyes and went to Burger King and we split the best vegan whopper and fries of my life then we went back to his dad’s and hung out with them until midnight. What a long day!!!!!!
(Ahh! I almost forgot, while I was waiting for Steven to get gas Isaac asked what we thought of the airport code “Oh, no.” I thought of it as Zero November Zero so “Oh No” never occurred to me ha ha ha. Love it.)
[64] You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, heard about from Jamie on The Popcast, Kindle
Synopsis: Meredith was a well known influencer when she took Aspen under her wings to show her the way to social media fame. Now Aspen has surpassed Meredith in followers as an “authentic” momfluencer, and ditched her. Meredith is spiraling and when she finds a way to mess with Aspen’s success, she takes it.
Review: This book was a fast, fun, somewhat twisty read. I enjoyed it, but it also made me feel ill over how much some people care about fame, and how miserable your life can be when you’re doing everything for social media. I liked the conversational and casual writing style of the book – it was very readable. There was odd timing with something in the middle – I thought I missed a jump in time because of it – but that was the only issue.
Recommend? Yes
[65] The Housemaid by Freida McFadden Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, available on Kindle Unlimited, Kindle
Synopsis: Millie is desperate to get ANY job – she just lost her diner job, is living in her car, and has a criminal record. The Winchesters hire her to be a live in maid and she can’t believe her luck. Sure, the creepy attic room is, well, creepy, and Nina Winchester seems crazy, but Nina just needs to stay there long enough to make enough money and get a good recommendation for her next job…
Review: Another fast-paced, fun, twisty thriller. With some truly creepy parts to it, but nothing unstomachable!
Recommend? Yes
[66] You, Again by Kate Goldbeck Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, read with Val and Tiff, Audio
Synopsis: Ari and Josh live in NYC and randomly bump into each other throughout the years, and despise one another. After they both go through breakups, they meet by chance again and become friends.
Review: I could write so much about how much I absolutely disliked this book. Listening to it actually made me angry. I just finished it because it was a group read with Val and Tiff.
This is a cheap When Harry Met Sally ripoff without any of the redeeming character qualities or humor from that film. These characters, and most of the ones in their universe, are extremely unlikable (and unrelatable). I didn’t want them to get together. I didn’t want to know anything about their lives. I wasn’t invested or interested at all. I was just ANNOYED. I listened to this on audio, and there was a weird narration style where it went back and forth from Ari and Josh’s characters’ point-of-view within paragraphs. It was sometimes confusing. I wonder if I would have hated it less had I not listened to it on audio? Some of the voices were terrible. Just blah, all around.
Apollo was such a good boy at the vet Friday and the staff kept commenting on it – I felt like such a proud cat mom! Apollo was eager to get out of his carrier and explore and roll around on the floor. He even tried to get into the back office of the clinic. Ha. I wonder if he remembers it from when he was a baby and that’s why he was so comfortable? (He was born there and lived there for about 3 months!)
We moved his annual appointment up a few weeks because he’s had some infrequent bloody stool (the asked how we knew it was his – cause he’s the only one who does naughty poops outside of the box and that’s where we see it). The vet prescribed more fiber (pumpkin). So far, so good!
The vet jokingly called me a crazy cat lady while I was there, which he also did last time, when I brought Penny in. Both times were in reference to caring for outdoor cats. I really like our vet, and we joke around, but I let him know I hate being called a crazy cat lady. Just cat lady is fine, but please don’t call me crazy. He was like “yeah, you aren’t crazy, crazy would be [situation I am not going to write out].” I could write a lot more about this (he’s not the only one who has called me that). But guys. How often do you see me even mention our cats on here? I talk about flying more. And I don’t blab about our cats in real life either. I know most people don’t care. I am somewhat self-aware. ANYWAY.
Another thing I could write more about: me being friendly and funny isn’t always well accepted at work with certain clients, and I have to be so serious, and it’s just NOT ME. UGH. I know we don’t get to be 100% ourselves at work all the time but UGH UGH UGH.
I am still struggling with typing on my phone. I generally can’t stand it. Insert old lady emoji here.
Alani has this caramel apple flavor drink called Witch’s Brew that apparently only comes out once a year and it’s my favorite and I can’t find it anymore and I only have one can left (saving for a special occasion). WAH!
Ha! I forgot I had this down here. Another thing I could write more about: sometimes I have to wait to make decisions about doing things until I am in a different mindset, otherwise I will just say no. Anyone else?
Would it surprise you to read that I don’t identify as a planner? When we were traveling to Iowa this summer with Tiff and her family I told them I’m not a planner and Tiff was like “Yeah, but you have a spreadsheet of ideas for things to do/places to go, and places to eat”* for every trip we take.
Okay. That is true.
But hear me out! I despise planning so much that I don’t consider myself a planner.
It’s the responsibility of it. That it puts you in charge. The weight of trying to find things to do and eat (and where to stay?!) that one or more people will like. I don’t want to be the cruise director.
Sigh. But I do it.
And what have I learned?
That it almost always has a great outcome.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
So why am I talking about this today?
I have a really big all day partnering meeting I am hosting with customers next week in person in Chicago. I have been dreading it so spectacularly hard. I’ve had to give myself so many pep talks and do so much freaking work to get ready for it. I think by the time it happens I will have put 40+ hours of prep AKA planning into it.
And what did I say to Steven yesterday (in google chat)?
I am hosting this all day partnering meeting in Chicago with customer on 10/17 and I am putting so much f*cking work into it (and I have a ton of help; not complaining about only me doing the work) is this… what it feels like to plan and be prepared?! This is what I meant when I told Tiff’s husband I am NOT a planner. I usually fly by the seat of my pants.
Shocker among ALL shockers, doing all this planning is actually making me feel less anxious and more… prepared?! WHO KNEW! I am actually kind of looking forward to it now? WHOA WHO AM I.
Will I remember this moving forward? Gawd, hopefully.
*My regular days are so structured and on the minute that I want my time off NOT to be, so this list of ideas is always a starting place, and not a whole day of scheduled events. Ideally no more than one scheduled event a day on a day off. That is just where I’m at right now.
Yesterday’s flying adventure was to the Burlington (WI) Fly-In, which also doubles as a German car/plane show. Three thoughts:
1. We need to arrive at fly-ins toward the beginning. This one was from 10-2 and we couldn’t get the plane until noon (funny enough, the person who had it before us also went to this fly-in). It was around 1:15 when we got there and a lot of the planes (and cars from the car show) were already gone.
You can see a lot of the cars were already gone from the ramp (parking area) when we arrived
The Abel Island Fly-In (our only other fly-in experience) was similar. You know how sometimes you imagine how things are going to be in your head and don’t realize you were doing that until they didn’t go that way? That was me with that fly-in. It was from 12-3 and I figured people would land starting at 12:00 and leave starting at 3:00 but it was more land by 12:00 and leave by 3:00.
I’m not sure if they’re ALL like this, but 100% of my experience with them has been! Ha.
All that being said, we are just flying to fly (so Steven can keep learning) so we weren’t upset that a lot of the cars were gone and we still got to see some cool stuff!
2. I am so freaking impressed by Steven’s flying. That goes without saying and I’ve said it before, but it’s a level of awe that grows the more we fly together and I learn and understand more about all the things he is doing and thinking about while flying.
It was windy yesterday. Of course. Steady winds over 10 knots, gusting in the 20s. I won’t get into the maths behind which runway you depart and land on based on the winds and what the crosswinds end up being (in knots) based on the angle they hit the runway but we took off from UGN with a crazy crosswind. Like really pushing us across the runway (off the centerline) as we were leaving. And Steven handled it like a pro! Constantly adjusting the rudder and ailerons and whatever else for a smooth as possible departure. Like I said, I was impressed!
Just the beginning of how far to the left we were pushed by the wind
The two landings were great too – super smooth. Those runways were more aligned with the direction of the wind so there wasn’t as bad of a crosswind but there was still strong gusting. I learned that when it’s gusty like that you take the difference of the steady and gusting wind and divide it by 2 and add that to the normal landing speed to help prevent from stalling. Steven did that and flaps 20% instead of 30% so we’d be coming in a bit faster. Sorry – got a bit technical but writing that stuff helps me remember it.
Landing at BUU (this photo is a still from a video, hence the bad quality)
Anyway, I was very “wow wow wow” yesterday. I was also thinking other passengers probably wouldn’t enjoy those gusty flights (and Steven said they’d probably think he was a bad pilot from how much the plane gets thrown around). We had invited someone who had plans and I’m glad that’s not the flight we took them on. (We’d also invited Josh who also had plans and totally wouldn’t have thought anything of it.)
3. I wonder if I could ever do this. I’ve always wanted to be a pilot and this is the first time it really seemed like something I wouldn’t be able to handle (the coordination of – there is so much going on!). Granted, Steven has well over a hundred hours of flying (which I think is great for a new pilot who started in April 2023) and I know .01% about it, so I could be wrong, but I really wonder if my little pea brain could coordinate and get into enough of a flow state to handle winds like that and the constant adjusting. I’m sure it’s one of those practice, practice, practice things, until it becomes second nature and almost flow state. Or something.
This is 60% good stories and 40% me complaining so proceed with caution!
Good – Steven was able to do his night flight on Friday (after rescheduling from the Friday before) and is current for passengers. Woo hoo!
Good – We started Nobody Wants This on Netflix and I think it’s pretty cute!
Bad – When I started work yesterday morning I realized all the files I made last week were the wrong size and that I had to redo them all to get the work done I had intended on doing that day. GAH! I was so frustrated with myself. I ended up working all day (even a bit after dinner), just taking a break to go to a coworker’s celebration of life for her dad. Ugh. I won’t make THAT mistake in Adobe Illustrator again.
Good – I’m so glad I took a break and went to the celebration of life. It was a haul from the house (50+ miles one way) but I listened to a new book on the way there and back, and it felt really good to support my coworker, and mingle with other coworkers. I felt very “on” – connected with the conversation, in a good mood, people were laughing at my jokes, etc. etc. I hadn’t felt that on in a while, so that was nice. (Edited to add: I should note this celebration of life was at a bowling alley and it had a party atmosphere)
Bad – When I was saying hello to a walker in the preserve this morning, he responded with “Do you know running is bad for you?” I legit thought he was joking so I said “Oh yeah, why is that?” then he LEGIT gave a speech about all the forces on my joints, which particular joints, etc. And I was still running ahead and away from him during this time. I responded with “Guess I’m f*cked!” and thought that would be enough but he kept going on why hiking is better for me, why it is blah blah blah, just wanted me to know, have a nice day. I seriously considered flipping him the bird over my shoulder, but didn’t. Proud of me.
I understand he thought he was being helpful. But I just don’t want to hear that on my run. Reminds me of this other guy I’d run into at the park time to time and he’d lecture me about how I need to lose weight.
Could both of those statements be true? Sure. I know I’m in a bigger body. And I know that body won’t let me run forever. Do I need to hear them from random ass stranger at the preserve? Nah.
My Tuesday post wasn’t meant to alarm/worry you or make you think I hate my job. It was just me trying to express how busy I am at work and how it’s making the days fly by. And that I need to continue to focus on relaxing during my time off.
Sometimes at work customers will ask me if they are my only customer. No. I have 29. Eight of those are new-to-me as of October 1 (I dropped 2 and picked up 8). And some of those 29 have sub agencies/bureaus… ANYWAY. I hope when they are asking it’s because I provide such top level customer service they must think they are my ONLY one. Ha. That must be it, right?
I recently realized that Steven is the age now (43) that my Mom was when she first met Steven in 2002… when I was 18. That’s a lot of numbers. It’s mostly just another reflection on how fast time goes by. And that I cannot imagine being our age and having a kid in college.
Steven and me the night he met my Mom and her mom
I knew the date on that photo was wrong and that it’s from sometime in October 2002. 2002 planner to the rescue! It was October 30.
I’m trying not to focus on weight as a personal health metric, but it’s something I need to know for when we fly so Steven can do the weight and balance of the plane. So that’s… something. It doesn’t make me feel bad, just fights my “weight doesn’t matter” mentality with “well, actually it does for flying.”
Well, you saw it above, but here is my new mani from last week!
I have a few other random thoughts but I’ll save them for another day or their own post!
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 am employed by the federal government. 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! 🙂
