HerdingChaos

Today I called a seller about a plane.

Today I called a aviation medical examiner and made an appointment to update my FAA medical.

Today I called for an insurance quote on 2 different types of planes.

Today I put together a spreadsheet with a breakdown of expenses, investments, and rates we need to reserve per hour of operation for the plane.

Today I still have not flow since I put .6 on a Piper Warrior on Jan 7th 2003.

Today two of my children are old enough to go flying with me, and the third can come if I have mom along to help.

Today I resume my course because now I can take my family along.

Tomorrow (well not actually tomorrow.. I mean the figurative tomorrow); Tomorrow I fly.

I waited until Friday this week so here is a double feature. It was getting really dark so these are a bit blurry.

And the master S’more maker.

I am actually going to try and bring back the picture of the week. My last was from September 2005.

This was taken while on vacation last week.

I am now 10 weeks out from my jaw surgery. I can now eat pretty normal again. I still avoid anything hard to chew. In the last 2 weeks I have really started to feel like myself again. On Monday, the surgeon told me things were looking great. I saw the orthodontist a little over a week ago and he said I would be able to take off my braces in about another 4 months. I would have never thought that a softball to the face would cause 3 years of recovery work.

I expect I will be very pleased with the end result. But I sure wish none of this had ever happened. Like my friend Derek told me, “You should just kickbox, it does not hurt as bad.”

I am just looking forward to not having crap glued in my mouth anymore.

Becky and I just went to the US Virgin Islands. It was the first trip without the kiddos in a while. We flew into St. Thomas but spent the entire time at St. Johns. The vacation was the best ever. I really enjoyed the snorkeling and floating in the water on the beach and partying with friends. We did some mild hiking, lots of swimming, and a ton of partying with friends. We were there for a wedding. The groom and his family are long time friends. Having them on the island made the trip that much more enjoyable. Becky and I had some great couple time with just the two of us. Then at night we would typically head over to the other villa and party with the groom’s family until the wee hours in the morning. Then sleep in until 10 (or later), rinse, repeat.

Things to remember for next time:

• When snorkeling you must reapply the sun screen.
• Rum is cheaper than bottled water on St. Johns.
• Get a 4×4.
• Drive on the left.
• You can show up at the 6am ferry at 6:10am and make it (this would have saved us 30 min of sleep on the return)
• Rent at Hertz, not Budget
• Do not expect anything or anyone to be in a hurry or on any time line other than “island time.”
• Once you are adjusted to island time you understand the beauty of the previous bullet.

I highly recommend Rendezvous Villa while staying on St. Johns. I also can recommend Capt. Phil on the Wayward Sailer for a good time of sail and snorkel.

In related news, you really cannot take less than a 3 week vacation from work and expect to actually get that time off. I have about 60 hours worth of work piled up waiting for me to tackle. I might get caught up in about another 2 weeks. A few years ago I took off from Thanksgiving to New Years and that was perfect. Not much was left for me since I was gone so long. I am not sure I want to do any more 1 week vacations from work. It is just not worth it.

We took the family out for a night of bowling with my brothers and my mom and dad. It was an early Father’s day get together since dad is doing some traveling this month. We had a great time. Loren is only 2 and used the handicap roller thingamabob to let her bowl. Loren beat both Becky and myself in two games.

Tracy holds on to the ball and runs for the lane. Then she just drops the ball in a such way as to avoid hitting her feet and jumps out of the way. Becky called it random placement of the ball. Becky and I just barely scored higher than Tracy.

Bowling genes must skip a generation.