Monday

First thing went to get the ultrasound of my gall bladder.  That took most of the morning.  As best I can remember, that was the first ultrasound I've ever had.  The technician didn't offer any comments, so I am assuming there was nothing exceptional.  I'll find out in a couple of weeks when I have the follow up appointment with the gastroenterologist.

After returning home, Jeanie and I drove to Jacksonville Beach to pick up my mother from the hospital and take her back to her place.  My mother seemed to be doing remarkably well, and it appears that most of her recent "back pain" was in fact pain from her gall bladder.

Got home around 6:00 PM and headed off to bed pretty soon after that, as both of us were beat.

Tuesday

Jeanie took me to the hospital for my Upper GI (EGD).  We got there a bit early, but the wait wasn't too bad, and they took me back right on time.  The staff was friendly and efficient.  The actual procedure was a non-event for me.  Last thing I remember was them wheeling me into the procedure room and having me bite down on the plastic mouthpiece that serves to protect the patient's teeth and the endoscope.  Next thing I knew, I was in recovery being offered a tasty muffin and some juice.

I am not sure exactly when we got back home, but I had no after effects from the anesthesia or the procedure other than I was a bit tired and spacey for the rest of the day.  As such, I chose to take the day off.

Wednesday

Worked from home in the morning.

In the late afternoon, I went flying with one of the other flying club members.  He just wanted some company while he did some touch and goes and some air work, and I was happy to just sit in the right seat and enjoy the beautiful day.  It still amazes me how much more of the scenery I "see" when I am not the one actually flying.  I did do a little flying from the right seat which I found very interesting, as while it's not that different from the left seat, it's just different enough - in sight picture and in the fact that you "switch hands" (i.e. left hand on the throttle, right hand on the yoke) - that it was interesting.  When we got back, we decided to switch seats so I could do a few touch and goes myself, which I did.  I was pleased with my landings.  It was a very nice afternoon.

Thursday

Worked from home.

In the evening, I installed the new CSH Inc. FCA2-05 Failed Circuit Alarm I had purchased from Amazon.com. 

I finally broke down and purchased one after Jeanie discovered last weekend that the GFI outlet had once again tripped (most likely due to a power "burp" caused by high winds) and the refrigerator/freezer in the garage was without power.  Fortunately, it hadn't been without power for too long, and it was during the cold spell, so nothing spoiled, but still.

Overall, I am pleased with the alarm.  It is well made and well thought out.  Even the way the screws affix the cover to the rest of the box are well engineered.  Two of the screws affix the box to the wall, and then the other two screws affix the cover to the box.  The unit has an on/off switch and a test switch, and plug that goes into the wall outlet is of the piggy-back variety so you don't lose the use of one of the outlets.  The only complaint I have about the unit is that the alarm could be louder - it is just barely audible when standing in the kitchen.  It is not at all audible in the bedroom.  I think it would also help the alarm be more easily heard if it were a warbling type - like on a home smoke alarm - rather than a constant tone type.  The cost was $29.95 plus $7.49 for shipping.  Given the quality of the construction and design, and given that it probably only has a modest market so it doesn't enjoy huge economies of scale in manufacturing, I guess $30 is reasonable, but definitely not "a deal."  Because I really do think it is a good product, and the one "issue" I have with it is the alarm, I did something somewhat unusual (for me) and wrote an email to the company providing my feedback.  I was extremely impressed when I received a response to my email within two hours thanking me for my feedback and suggesting a possible adjustment that might increase the volume of the alarm and also offering to send me a new buzzer.  I haven't gotten around to trying their suggestion, but I am very impressed with their responsiveness.

Friday

Work from home.

Saturday

Went to the Doo Wop Diner on 14th street on-island.  Doo Wop's had formerly been in Yulee, but had closed a number of months ago.  Jeanie had a stack of blueberry pancakes and I had two eggs over easy, toast, hash browns and coffee.  The food was tasty and served hot, but I felt it was expensive at $14 for the two of us, and the service, even though they weren't that busy, was mediocre at best.  Decor was cute, and the music was enjoyable (50's standards, as you'd expect) but a little loud for my ears.

After breakfast, we went downtown and strolled the farmer's market, then walked down to the marina, then stopped by Publix on the way home.  Jeanie bought a couple of loaves of bread - one cranberry walnut and one peasant boule - and categorically demonstrated that any basic white bread (artisan or not) will start her coughing in no time.

We went home and started "Duplicity" with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  Jeanie fell asleep part way through, so I switched to watching the premiere of "Caprica" on Syfy.  There is a great article on Wikipedia on the show here.  I really enjoyed the show.  I find it to be less dark (literally and figuratively) than Battlestar Galactica and I think I am going to enjoy the moral and ethical questions it appears it will explore.  While in some scenes it still is easily apparent that computer graphics (CG) are being used, in some scenes - especially ones with Serge - I found myself forgetting that "he" wasn't "real."

Sunday

I went to coffee at the airport.  After about an hour, I had to go to the car to take a work teleconference.  After the call, I went back to the coffee for another half hour or so.

While I was gone, Jeanie did some laundry and made a homemade vegetable soup and a really yummy vegetarian (of course) chili.

The plastic had ripped away from the staples in a number of places on the lanai, so, taking a suggestion from my brother-in-law, I used strips of wood, in the form of some wide thick wooden tongue depressors, as sort of reverse furring strips.  I would have used real furring strips, but I didn't have any, and was too lazy to go get some whereas I had a bag of the tongue depressors.  So far, they seem to be working okay.

Jeanie and I were supposed to take all of the Christmas decorations back to the storage unit, but both of us were feeling really tired, so we gave ourselves the rest of the day off.

We watched the rest of "Duplicity" which we both thought was okay at best.  The interplay between Julia Roberts and Clive Owen was cute, but the movie had lengthy slow portions and the plot twists were a bit too convoluted.

I continued to wrestle with my esophageal discomfort all week.  It wasn't horrible, just mildly annoying.  Still, I'd prefer for it to go away.  Hopefully, when I see the doctor week after next, he'll tell me it's nothing major, and be able to prescribe something to resolve it quickly and easily.

Monday

Didn't sleep very well.  Got up at 3:30 AM and exercised.  Was pleased to be able to do 3 pullups.  Went back to bed at 6:00 and slept for about an hour.  Got up and headed downtown.  On the way, made a couple of bank deposits.  Primary purpose of the trip was to get the sticker for the license plate on Jeanie's RAV4 straightened out.  Somehow, we never renewed the sticker last year, and we had been driving the vehicle for a year with an expired sticker.  I have no idea how much was for the sticker and how much was fines, etc. but the bill was just under $100.00  Went by Staples on the way home and purchased a new 4 phone DECT 6.0 telephone system for the house.  It was on sale, plus I had a 20% off coupon, plus it had a rebate.  Net cost will be about $60.

Did some work work, then got a call that my mother was being taken to the hospital.  We've seen this drill before.  In the past, it has usually been dehydration and/or a UTI, so I didn't worry too much about it, and didn't drop everything to run to Jacksonville Beach.  I did make a number of calls during the day to talk with nurses at the hospital - first in the Emergency Room and then on her floor after she had been admitted.

Around 1:00, I got a call from Dave Kicklighter, whom I had been trying to coordinate with to go flying in his clipped wing Cub.  He said that he had some time this afternoon, and given that the weather was beautiful and nothing was pressing at work, I seized the opportunity and scheduled to fly with him at 3:30.  Since I hadn't slept well the previous night, I decided to take a nap.

Here's a representative photo of a clipped wing Cub that's similar in appearance to the one I flew:

The flying was fantastic.  Dave is a great instructor - possibly the best I've ever flown with.  He spent at least half an hour talking to me before we got in the airplane going over what he planned to do with me.  We then got in the plane.  Well, technically I got in the plane, as the plane has no electrical system and thus no starter, so he had to stay outside to hand prop it.  Cubs are flown solo from the back seat, so that's where Dave had me sit.  I was apprehensive at first due to yesterday's experience in the Citabria where when sitting in the back seat, you really can't see well out front when landing at all, but for whatever reason, it wasn't as bad in the Cub.  While he was standing outside, but before he propped the engine, he had me apply full brakes.  This was interesting, as the Cub has heel brakes rather than toe brakes, and they are somewhat inboard from the rudder peddles.  After I had (what I thought) fully applied the brakes, he pushed the strut a bit to demonstrate that I had to push a LOT harder than I realized to REALLY have full brakes applied.  Only then did he actually prop the engine.

Dave talked me through taxi (including gently reminding me to occasionally do S turns so I could make sure there wasn't anything directly in front of us) , run up and take-off.  The take-off was a little rough as I didn't anticipate the gyroscopic precession when I lifted the tail, and it took me a moment to get on the right rudder when the plane decided to head left.  On the climb up, Dave reminded me to occasionally lower the nose or do S turns  to clear the area ahead of us.  When we got to altitude, he first had me establish level flight so I could get a feel for the sight picture.  He taught me a trick which is basically, if the ends of the wings are level with the horizon at cruise power, you will most likely be in level flight.

One of the things I noticed right away was that whereas the stick forces were "very light" on the Super Decathlon and "somewhat heavy" on the Citabria, they were "just right" on the clipped wing Cub.  Also, the trim was much more manageable than it was on the Super D or Citabria; the trim on the Super D being much too sensitive in my humble opinion, and the trim on the Citabria not being easily accessible from the rear seat.

He then had me do some banks without applying rudder so I could get a feel for adverse yaw.  In level flight at cruise speed doing gentle turns, it was hard for me to see/feel it, so he had me slow the plane down thus increasing the angle of attack and had me use more enthusiasm when making the banks - that did the trick and I was able to finally really see/feel what adverse yaw is all about.  In the Cub, it wasn't so much that the nose truly moved away from the bank as it was the nose initially not moving in the direction of the bank.  The adverse yaw was actually more pronounced coming out of the bank than when going into it.  He then had me use the rudder to make coordinated turns.  On some, I did pretty well, on others, I was either too heavy, too light, or ill-timed on the rudder.

Then we did some stalls.  He would have me hold the stall, rather than immediately recovering, which was quite challenging, as the clipped wing cub tends to want to drop a wing when stalled.  One of the big "aha" moments was him pointing out that rather than applying and holding rudder, I needed to make quick, forceful jabs of the rudder as soon as I sensed a wing was wanting to drop.  When I applied and held the rudder, the low wing would pick up, but then the other wing would drop and I was constantly behind, with the wings dropping back and forth in an oscillating fashion.

Next, Dave had me do a maneuver where I would bank the aircraft and then raise the nose to lose airspeed, then drop the nose while still banked, and then recover to straight and level.  Either due to training I don't remember, or to instinct, I would level the wings first, then pull out of the dive.  Dave complimented me on this, which made me feel good.  He then demonstrated what happens when you try to pull out of the dive and level the wings at the same time (which is apparently what a lot of pilots do)  - you end up generating about twice as many "G's" and you loose a lot more altitude before you recover.  It made total sense to me why this would happen, which was also cool.

Then, we did a spin entry and recovery.  We did the classic spin entry - slow to idle while maintaining altitude, then apply full rudder right before the stall.  While I was a little slow to get full rudder in, I was quite pleased, as I was able to consciously ensure the stick was centered prior to applying the rudder.  Dave told me we did about 1 3/4 turns.  I guess I am fortunate in that I actually enjoy spins - I guess many pilots either hate them or are terrified of them.

We then headed back to the airport and Dave had me fly a pattern without telling me what the appropriate speeds / RPMs should be.  Much to my delight, I did pretty well, even making a decent three point landing which even appeared to catch Dave a bit by surprise.  The only thing that I did was allow my speed to get a little low right at the end, which caused me to start sinking a bit.  The timing of my flair was just right, so the landing was good, but because I had gotten slow, I had no margin for error.  I also noticed that the pitch angle of the approach is quite a bit steeper than on the Citabria, which affords a much better sight picture from the rear seat.

Afterward, Dave gave me a thorough explanation of gyroscopic precession that made total sense to me.  He educated me to the fact that as the angle of attack increases, the big determinant with P factor is actually the speed of the relative wind on the downward blade  - which is higher since the "wind" is coming up at an angle relative to the propeller blade compared to the blade going up which is going in the same upward direction.

I had an absolute blast, and didn't have even a hint of motion sickness.  It was a fantastic experience.

After I got home, I learned that my mother had been admitted to the hospital, and later in the evening, learned that she would need surgery to remove one or more gall stones from her bile duct.  I asked the doctor if lithotripsy was an option, but he said it wasn't for her situation.  At least the surgery won't require cutting.  Instead, they will do an ERCP procedure where they use an endoscope that is placed in the mouth, down the throat, past the stomach and into the duodenum, where it will then be snaked into the bile duct to get at the stone(s).

Jeanie is still away, although at least she's now heading in the general direction of home.  She'll spend tonight at her parents, then come home tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I'll head over the Jacksonville so I can be there for my mother's procedure.

Tuesday

Spent all day at the hospital with my mother.  The doctor was not able to get to the opening of the bile duct using the endoscopic procedure  due to modifications to her anatomy in that general area due to a previous surgery.  So, long story short, they ended up scheduling surgery.  They had hoped to be able to perform the surgery laparoscopically, but were unable to do what they needed to do with the scope, so they ended up having to do an open surgery.  The surgeon couldn't find any gall stones in the bile duct, but said that my mother's gall bladder was in bad shape and showed evidence of a long history of gall bladder disease (Cholecystitis), so he removed it.

I was quite impressed with Baptist Beaches hospital.  They appeared to be efficient and attentive.  During the surgery, they moved all of my mother's stuff from her room on the general ward that she had been on to a room in the Surgical Telemetry Unit.  The STU is a new unit, and I was quite impressed with the room.  It was relatively large, and not only had a recliner, but also a little couch that pulled out into a bed so that if a family member wished to spend the night, they could be at least moderately comfortable.

Jeanie got back home around 4:00 PM and offered to come to Jacksonville, but I told her to stay home, as I knew she was tired and still not feeling well.

I ended up getting home around 10:30 PM.

Wednesday

Went to Jacksonville in the morning.  Stopped by the Toyota dealer to get the oil changed in the RAV4 as we were already a 1000 miles over.  I was very impressed - from the time I walked into the waiting room until the time I drove off. 22 minutes!  Then went to visit my mother at the hospital.  She was in a lot of pain.  Didn't stay long, as I had to get back to the island for a doctor's appointment for me to see what's up with my stomach.

After the appointment, went to the airport to work on the CAP airplane tug.  Put a toothed washer on the side of the handle that didn't already have one which I hope will fix the problem of the level popping open unexpectedly, releasing the lock on the nose wheel at inopportune times.  It was late, cold and getting dark, so I didn't want to hassle with actually opening the hangar doors fully and trying the tug out.  So, I guess I'll have to do that some other day or let someone else in the squadron do the testing.

Thursday

Went to the hospital to do my pre-procedure paperwork.

Unboxed the new home phone system I had purchased on Sunday at Staples and got all of the handsets plugged in so they could charge.

Jeanie went to the doctor as she still isn't feeling well, and then went to do her volunteer thing at Barnabas.

My stomach wasn't feeling too hot, so for dinner, Jeanie had some leftover soup, and I had cream of wheat and a toasted bagel.

Friday

Jeanie went in to Jacksonville to visit my mother and to go to Costco.  I stayed home because I wasn't feeling great, and to try to get some work done.

At lunch time, I got the new home phones installed.  This was more involved than you might imagine, as not only did I have to set up the new answering machine including setting the system time and recording the greeting, but I had to program each handset to set the ring tone and activate the message waiting light.  The main problem with the old system was that the batteries no longer held a charge for as long as we preferred.  Unfortunately, purchasing name brand replacement batteries is just about more expensive than just buying a new setup!  Even if I bought the batteries on eBay, because Staples had the phone on sale, and had a rebate, and I had a 20% off coupon, I really didn't spend much more for the entire new system than just buying batteries.  Part of the impetus for purchasing a new system was also that I needed to replace my work phone in the office, as the headset jacks in both handsets had gotten to the point where occasionally the phone would make a horrible squeal that not only did I hear, but that was heard by everyone else on the call, effectively disrupting it; bad enough when I was just one the phone with someone else, but really bad when I was on a teleconference.   I had tried to fix the jacks, but was not able to.  So, in addition to installing the new home phones, I cascaded the old system into my office and cascaded my old work office phone to be my new personal home phone in my office.  This cascading meant that I had to do some additional setup on the old system to deactivate some functions to allow proper operation with my work phone director features.

I quite like the new phone system.  It is a Panasonic KX-TG1034.  It uses the new DECT 6.0 Digital technology, the handsets have big, easily visible buttons and a decent sized backit  LCD, everything is RoHS compliant and the system is Energy Star rated.  The primary base unit is quite compact.  The handsets have a jack for a headset, which is important to me.  The menu system is reasonably intuitive, and the caller ID feature allows you to easily change the format of the calling number to include/exclude the "1" and the area code when calling the number displayed - something our old system did not.  I also like the fact that phone book entries can be easily copied from one handset to another.  The feature I like best is that the handsets use standard rechargeable NiMH AAA batteries, so when the batteries wear out, it will be simple and relatively affordable to replace them.  The only two things I am not crazy about are the ring tones - I'm not crazy about any of them (but they're tolerable) and you can't associate a custom ring tone with a caller ID/phone book entry.  That was one feature I really liked on the old system - for certain people, it allowed us to "know" who was calling without even having to get up to look at the caller ID.

Saturday

Slug day at home.

Sunday

Went to the coffee at the airport, then returned home for another slug day.  About the extent of my productivity was to re-staple portions of the plastic sheeting on the lanai that had become detached due to the high winds, take down the portion of the plastic sheeting that went from the screen door to the house since it will be above freezing and much of had some detached from the ceiling anyway and water the plants on the lanai.

We toyed with the idea of going to visit my mother in the hospital, but neither of us was feeling great, and we figured my mother would most likely be released tomorrow so we'd have to drive in to transport her back to her place and we'd see her then.

Watched Julie & Julia which Jeanie and I both thoroughly enjoyed.

While I was at the coffee, Jeanie made bread pudding using raisin bread and some individual ramekins of egg custard.  It was yummy.  In the evening, I made some sugar glaze (a little bit of warmed milk, a little bit of vanilla extract and enough confectioners sugar to achieve the right consistency) to drizzle over the bread pudding.  Double yum!

Monday -  Wednesday

Worked from home.

Thursday

Worked from home in the morning.

It was an absolutely beautiful day - temperature in the 50's, crystal clear skies and air smooth as glass.  It had been about a month since I had done my proficiency flying, so I seized the opportunity and scheduled the CAP C-182.  It never ceases to amaze me just how much rust can form on my flying skills in just a few weeks.  Fortunately, I can usually knock off the rust in an hour or so, but while I find that I feel safe even if I only fly twice a month, I don't really feel proficient unless I fly at least once a week or more.  Needless to say, that means I rarely have ever felt proficient since obtaining my private certificate many, many years ago.

After flying, I decided we should go out to dinner.  I was in the mood for pizza, so we went to Tony's on-island.  They have recently hired a new pizza cook, and I haven't been as thrilled with their pizza since - last night was no exception.  I don't know if it is the cook, or if they are cutting back on the ingredients, but the sauce didn't seem as zesty and the crust didn't rise with a nice puffy edge the way I like.  Jeanie had a veggie sub that she thought was very good.

After returning home, we received a call from Jeanie's mom to let us know that Jeanie's aunt Janie had passed away unexpectedly.  Janie had been ill for many years, but she had just spoken with Dad that morning and had seemed fine.

Jeanie and I discussed options, and we decided that it would be best if she drove to Milan to meet her parents and drive up to Hickory with them so she could help her dad with the driving, and for me to stay home to work and take care of the dogs.  We spent some time getting her ready for the trip, then went to bed.

Friday

Jeanie didn't sleep well, and arose at 3:00 AM to do some last minute preparation for the trip.  I arose around 4:00 AM due to a disturbing dream (related to me not going with her to the funeral) and helped as best I could.  Around 5:00 AM we both went back to bed, then arose around 6:30 AM.  I packed the car while Jeanie dressed, and around 8:00 AM she headed off.

As I mentioned in the post about our vacation, the power adapter for the car for Jeanie's GPS (we call her Jill) stopped working on the trip.  Unfortunately, the connector that plugs into the window mount unit is proprietary, so I had to do some hunting to find a replacement.  The first thing I discovered was that the adapter Jeanie has is the Garmin GTMT 20 integrated traffic receiver rather than just a simple power adapter.  Even though the traffic subscription has expired, my preference was to replace the non-functional adapter with a direct replacement - until I discovered that they cost between $60 and $120!  While I was looking at other alternatives on the Garmin site and on eBay, I realized that the problem was that a few pieces had come off of the end of the adapter.   It just so happened that we had an extra adapter that wasn't being used that employed the same (or at least very similar) pieces.  So, I was able to repair Jeanie's adapter.

This is the adapter as it appeared before the "repair."

  This shows the pieces that were "missing."

This shows the adapter after the repair.

For Jeanie's trip, I lent her my GPS (which I am still trying to decide if I will call Susan or Tom (even though I have it set for a woman's voice).

As a postscript, I also discovered that Jeanie's GPS can use a standard mini-USB power adapter (of which we have many), if we are willing to plug it directly into the GPS rather than into the mount.  That's good to know "just in case."  As an additional postscript, you may have noticed that the silver "ring" is missing from the photos of the repaired adapter.  That is because after I assembled it, I noticed that the tip would sometimes "hang" when the ring was installed, and since the ring appears to be primarily decorative, I decided to go for function over form.

Got back on the exercise wagon.  I was amazed at how much strength I had lost after not exercising for two weeks.  I am back to barely being able to do one pull-up!

Worked from home.

Saturday

Went to the monthly CAP squadron meeting.  Came back home and talked with Jeanie on the phone for a few minutes.  Puttered around the house.

Sunday

Jeanie is still away.  Went to the coffee at the airport, then attended the monthly flying club meeting.  Since Jeanie wasn't home, I hung around the airport, which turned out to be good fortune on many accounts.  Keoki finally made an appearance (he had been MIA since we returned from vacation), which not only gave me the opportunity to return the aerobatics books he had lent me, but gave me a chance to talk about my experience flying in Savannah.  I felt a lot better after talking with him, as it appears that what I experienced (see this post) is quite common, and usually gets much better after five or six lessons.  Good fortune item number two was that Keoki introduced me to Dave, the guy I've been trying to coordinate with to go flying in his clipped wing Cub.  Even though we didn't get to fly today, I chatted with him for quite a while, and he echoed everything Keoki had told me and gave me hope that things would get better with a few more lessons.  Good fortune item number three was that after talking with Dave, I walked over to another flying buddy's hangar and he just happened to be getting ready to pull his Citabria out to go for a spin and he invited me along to ride in the back seat.  He did a few aileron rolls, and some other maneuvers, then offered to let me fly.  I tried a few aileron rolls.  The first couple were pretty bad (I forgot to apply rudder and pushed too hard when we were inverted) but the last couple were half decent.  I remembered to put on my Relief Band before we took off, but unfortunately, I still got a bit queasy.  At first I tried the relief band on my left hand (while still on the ground) but, not surprisingly due to the damage to my median nerve, it didn't work correctly on the left hand, but did function properly on the right.  I don't know if I would have been more queasy had I not worn it, but everything I hear is that over time, I will develop a tolerance that will reduce the motion discomfort.  I tried a landing from the back seat, but my buddy had to take over, as I just couldn't see the runway in front of me and so had all sorts of trouble getting centered and judging my height.  I didn't get bummed about the landing, and was actually quite excited about the overall experience.  The stick pressures were quite a bit higher than on the Super Decathlon, but I actually liked that at this stage, as it gave me some direct feedback regarding where the stick was.

After returning home, I got a few items knocked off of my to-do list, did lots of posts on Facebook, then went to bed.