photo from Pinterest ~idk
I love the architecture of this tiny body
and the genius that drives it to fly
wonderful insignificant design
these guys are a dime a dozen and almost too tiny to notice
... amazing

It snuck up on me this year ... I wasn't prepared.  Summer.  The two youngest are out of school and I haven't given a thought to how we might spend our extra time together.  I have gotten used to spending lots of time alone.  Alone like no one else is anywhere around.  Alone like I know when Sammy moves from the back porch to behind the shrubs ... to that hole the size of a wheel barrel that we both pretend he didn't dig.

So here we are in the season when I will hear "Moooommmm" quite a bit more often then I am used to.  Four is giving swimming lessons, and life guarding for a couple of weeks, hanging with friends, before she heads North to the wilds.  She's spending the summer working as a camp counselor ... no AC, no phone ... laptop only in the mess hall and only during a specific time of day ... yes to hiking, kayaking, ropes courses ... ponytail fun.  I'll see her a few times on the weekends ... pretty much how it normally goes even when she's snuggled in to her own bed at night.  She, more then the others, texts me throughout the day ... pictures and words.  I'm going to miss her phone especially!  I really want to do that screaming eagle trip with her this summer ... zip lines we like.

V, with her pesky sister soon to be totally out of the way, is amped for my full undivided attention, she wants to flip it off and on like a switch.  We are working on that ... the world can't revolve around her whims.  She gets huffy when I don't stop what I'm doing when she wants ... also, when I look in on her when she doesn't want ... hmmm, I am raising a kitty cat.  Now that is an interesting insight.  Last summer she was a little girl ... now at twelve, I'm starting to see the woman she's becoming.  I'm looking forward to showing her the stuff I do ... home stuff like cooking.  I think she and I will shop and cook together quite a bit this summer ... and maybe I can even get her to line the glasses and plates up in the dishwasher just so ... like I do, lol.  I doubt it!  Yesterday she reminded me that she loves yesterday's muffins sliced and reheated in the panini pan.  I see a summer of late breakfasts lining up.

L is out of the house at like five ... doesn't even want a cup of coffee before he's out.  He does an outdoor class with a handful of his best students every summer ... I call it field ops.  Last year I would drop by with Gatorade or Popsicles mid morning, about the time of day when the students felt they had done a full days work ... oh ... I had forgotten ... he swings by the donut shop on the way out there and picks up sugar bombs for all.  Uh huh ... now I see how it is ... (I'm not a fan of donuts though I do find it almost impossible to say no thanks to the perfect banana nut bread under the glass at Starbucks.)

I did fly yesterday ... this guy is going to be okay to work with some.  He is, by his own account, stubborn and impatient.  I am not sure that those are desirable traits for very graceful flying.  He doesn't trim at all ... never.  I told him he could really smooth out his landings by trimming out to stabilize final.  I actually told him if  we fly together again that that ... trim ... will be what we are working on.  He knows he flys  an altitude that jags like an AC/DC induced sound wave.  He would be so much happier with his flying if he'd trim.  I can live with with the idea of working on that ... what might get to me pretty fast is the stubbornness.  I don't dislike the trait specifically, plenty of place to dig one's feet in, but not where you say you want different results.  Retired Navy.  I haven't seen a lot of those guys, but I think I'm starting to see "a type".  Impatient can be channeled I think ... he says he pings the stall warning routinely on departure because he is impatient to get in the air.  That is ridiculous.  He shares the plane with another guy ... bet that guy trims his landings ... my guy is probably flying the same trim up.  I have enjoyed a lesson of returning to the airport, flying the pattern and landing with just rudder and trim.  I was surprised that it could be so sweetly landed thus.  I think that would be a good exercise at altitude for this guy, if he can visualize it.  Other thing was either too much rudder or none at all ... hmmm ... I wonder if he cares about tracking the center line as much as I do.  Winds were calm and our plane found herself over the grass to the right of the runway before we were 150' - 200' in the air.  I'm like, "Let's track the center line out on this one ... pick a cloud out there straight ahead and fly towards it" ... then, "Nope ... you're over the grass" and he said, "I'm flying straight at the cloud I'm looking at ..." I said, "Next time you better pick a cloud that knows how to behave then, 'cause we are nothing but green!"  He's going to hear that better if I say the plane is doing this or that ... and encourage him to provide "directional inputs" for "her".  Maybe ... well see.  We just need to get him stubborn about the right things.