Nathan has a school project due… tomorrow. So I dug real deep and found the energy to walk down back through the crop fields and locate some tracks to cast with plaster. My health has not improved and I have all I can do to walk to the kitchen for food.
We located deer and turkey tracks and selected the best ones for casting. The plaster set fairly fast even in the cooler temps and Nathan had enough samples to pick from to use for his assignment.
Nate, mixing a batch of plaster
It came on almost out of nowhere. A fatigue so debilitating its hard to explain. There’s tired, then there’s “I’m so tired I can’t open my eyes”. And the so tired you can’t speak. This fatigue was so exhausting, it hurt to hear… yeah, just to listen was like krypton to Superman. I felt like I might die of exhaustion. It’s time for a Rip Van Winkle snooze.
[UPDATE: After a battery of tests and Dr's visits over the next 6 weeks, on May 4th, I was finally diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome. My adrenal glands were failing to produce the right amount of adrenaline, affecting my cortisol levels, wreaking havoc on my sleep daily life..]
..that have a lot of meaning to them.
Like this compass (on the left). I bought this compass while I was an intern in Vermont. Whoopitee Doo right? Well, a little more background might help. I’m not looking for pity, it was just a tight time. I was living in an “efficiency”, sharing a bathroom and eating pasta with butter most nights. I couldn’t hardly afford lunches. I certainly couldn’t afford to do laundry, that I took home to Mum (4+ hour drive). Sure there was gas involved, but also “free” food. (Thanks M&D).
Anyway.. point is.. this compass was the only thing I bought for myself while in Vermont… OK, an a USGS map of the area. But that’s it, so it holds a sentimental value above your typical compass. And so here we are, starring at this 15 year old compass and writing a blog post about it. Oh, and that one on the right, of course that’s the replacement.. the old compass wasn’t pointing where it should be, so, even though I have a GPS on every digital gadget I own it seems.. I still like to carry a compass every now and then. So that’s it… enjoy the simple things in life.
Old and New
Turns out my instructor finally needs me! He asked if I’d ride along with him and be his “Safety Pilot” while he did instrument only approaches to get his IFR currency back. Hmm, fly around for free for a couple of hours… sure. I asked if Nathan could tag along and so we both had a good long (3 hr) flight today.
Captain Ron
Well, sorta. The moon of course doesn’t change size.. just the appearance of it. I guess this was the night it was to appear largest in quite a few years to come. So hey, lets take a photo.
Big Moon
Boys will be boys. But this was actually not playing. I was filling some cracks in the old pavement and gave Nathan a chance to run the torch. It was a slow process so it got old fast.
Slow work.
Finally! It’s been a long winter. I pretty much was resigned to the fact quite a while ago that I wouldn’t be flying during the Winter months. But I did squeeze in one “Winter” flight. The hangar doors thawed out and it warmed above 50F for a couple days. I called my CFI and we climbed into the Piper Cherokee. The battery wasn’t strong enough to start the airplane, so I got a chance to use my Piper cable and boost box. It worked awesome! I got my three take-offs and landings and was “current” again. Now to get the Cessna started and we’ll be flying again.
At the controls of the 1967 Piper 140
Clean runway, still some snow.
It had been a while since I’d been to the hangar. I’ve been trying to get over there after these “Spring” snow storms so that the doors will be exposed to the sun and melt away sooner rather than later. The bottoms have been frozen in so until those thaw, no one is flying.
I shoveled out the front, just enough to get the snow away from the door and the plow could take away the rest. The planes sat there all winter, no one flew. But they look like they could stand a flight.. maybe later this week. Both batteries are dead so maybe I can try out my booster cable.
Foreground: Piper Cherokee; Background: Cessna Skyhawk
And another thing to connect to the WiFi. Jess thought it would be nice to have a “window” to the south side of the house. It didn’t take too much arm twisting to get me to buy an IP camera. Controlled from any computer, smart photo, or iDevice. Pan and tilt too, remotely.
A southern view.. watching the driveway.
Quite honestly its a horrible name. Apple TV. Confusing really. But I guess if DirecTV does it with their “box” and Google TV followed suit.. whatever. It obviously didn’t stop me from buying one. For $99 it was worth the price. One more gadget attached to the WiFi. One more gadget that does 60% of all the other ones, but adds that one more feature that you think you just need. The biggest thing it does for us is brings our iTunes libraries (all three) to the living room audio system. I can show off my home videos a lot easier also. iTunes Movies, Netflix, MLB.tv, YouTube, etc.. we’ll see if it’s really worth it.
About the size of a large mans palm