Mom Hits The Skies!

Let me start off this blog with a cat photo from a perspective you’ve never probably seen before.  Introducing, Boo from behind:

You are most welcome!

I told her about the picture I took of her from that angle and offered to show it to her.  She responded with “You’re about to get a back-paw to the face!”

I looked over to Pinky to see if I had a witness to what was happening between Boo and I….especially her threat of violence!  That wasn’t going to happen though.  Out like a light:

I’m quite sure Pinky was like that while I was out this morning.  Jan came by and we headed to the airport to go for a local flight.  It was a bit windier that I would like for flying with Jan, as she gets mad at me whenever we hit even the slightest bump.  It was a little bumpy up to around 2000′, but then it was very smooth.  We headed south to Port Colborne then east along the Fort Erie shoreline.

We continued on to Fort Erie.  My mother loves being near or seeing the water.  The Peace Bridge was looking like it was flowing nicely:

It was a great flight!  It had been a while since Janski had been up.

Once we landed though, that was a different story.  I realized that I hadn’t put Donkay up on the door handle, where he usually sits for my flights.  No Donkay.  We thoroughly searched the plane, my friend searched the hangar plus we looked through the car.  Nada.  I suddenly thought “What if he fell out while I was climbing into the car?”  We were going to head to Timmies, but decided to go straight back to my place to see if he was outside.  Unfortunately, where I climbed into Jan’s car was right at the main door so a lot of traffic.  We parked and quickly got out.  We searched everywhere.  I was just about to give up when I saw Jan still looking toward the back of the car.  I then looked at the large planter next to the door and there he was!!!

I feel HORRIBLE!  Worst Donkay mother ever!  I’m so nervous someone is going to call FADS on me (Family and Donkay Services).  I’m so glad there was a decent person there at that time to pick him up and set him on the planter edge.  Phew!  I will NEVER let that happen again!  I swear!

So it turned out to be a wonderful day.  Mike and I are now trying to figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow.  Hmmmmmm……

Today’s symptoms: It was probably my best day of the week, symptom-wise.  Nerve pain issues didn’t start until around 5:00, so that was pretty sweet!  It usually starts before noon.  Fatigue was lessened with my medication, but of course, I always crash after – much more than I would on a non-med day.  I know less humidity and lower temps have helped with this.  I hope it’s not going to be Sweatember like they’re forecasting!

Fantabulous Flights

The MS Bike Ride fundraiser was today. As with the Walk for MS, Rankin Cancer Run, and various other charity events throughout Niagara, I flew overhead before head out.  I entertained everyone for a bit then took some aerial pics:

I headed back to St. Catharines and touched down just as my passenger arrived. He will be going to school in September to become a commercial pilot, and wanted a try aerobatics. We first had a nice flight over the Falls:

Then we headed up Niagara River to check out the Forts then back overhead the airport for some stunts. He did very well handling many of the maneuvers in my inventory. We both rather enjoyed the flight – he was a great passenger. I’m sure he’ll be an awesome pilot.

Needless to saying, I’m completely drained so thereby just chilling all day. I’ve found lately, more this year than I’ve ever experienced, I’m taking far longer to recover from doing things that expend energy, like shopping, flying, going somewhere unique like a festival, etc.  Over the last two or three months, it’s been taking me almost two days to recover.  What the heck?  I’m hoping at least a part of it is from the high heat this summer.  I guess we’ll see how things go in the cooler weather.

I was at a BBQ a few weeks ago (Mike’s parent’s place) and it was requested (by a cute kid) that I sit in one of the kid’s chairs.  I’m kinda embarrassed to say I fit.  It was a little snug though:

For the last couple of weeks, my little Pinky has been sick and hardly eating.  She goes through this once or twice a year.  It’s really hard to watch.  Fortunately, she’s a bit of a porko so she can spare a little weight loss.  I’m so glad to see that her appetite is returning and she’s a tad more active.  She has been enjoying breakfast in bed the last couple of days:

Everyone else in the household seems to be doing well.  A winking Zim is demonstrating that here:

Other than that, life has been mostly pretty good.  I’m getting quite sick of this heat, as I’m sure everyone else is.

Today’s symptoms: I felt quite good this morning and thoroughly enjoyed my two flights.  I’m still experience much more nerve pain, which seems to be getting a bit worse and more frequent.  I think all of my MS symptoms get worse when my fatigue increases, so I just need to stay positive and get through to Fall. 

Annual Flight to Edenvale

Had a wonderful day, flying north to Edenvale (near Collingwood).  The weather was perfect, so we headed to the airport around 9:30.  I decided to make a little detour along  Lake Ontario and fly through downtown Toronto.

 

You can see the Edge Walkers in red.  I did the Edge Walk a few years ago and it was pretty cool.  They had to cancel the group after us because the winds went quite above their maximum limit, which was great for us!  I quite enjoyed being up that high in strong winds.  Made it more exciting!

Toronto Island Airport was off to our right.

Then we passed Canada’s Wonderland.  Man, the last time I was there, the housing was nowhere near as close it is to the park now.

Then we veered over Downsview Airport then north to Edenvale:

There are specific instructions on how to land there, since there is so much traffic.  We joined the circuit behind a few other planes, then lined up with the runway.

 

We parked Vyctor with all of his buddies, and then wandered around the venue.  There were plenty of nice cars and planes on display.

We wandered around for about an hour, and then Mike noticed the soft pretzel stand.  He ordered a blueberry and white chocolate, freshly heated.  Holy cow, it was amazing.  We drooled over it while wandering around some more, then we decided to get some lunch and eat under Vyc’s wing.  It was very hot today with only a slight breeze.

I had quite a few families with kids come over, yelling “It’s Dusty!”  Tee hee.

It was a nice flight home, a little shorter because we didn’t detour through downtown TO.

Once back home, we didn’t have the energy to do much other than to lay around like blonde blobs.  The kitties did the same:

Pinky, who has permanent bitch face, sure can make some adorable faces:

Seeing her sleeping next to Abby on the chair on the balcony was quite nice to see:

I had a bit more to say but I’m getting a wee bit weary.  Thus, I shalt bid thee all adieu!  Word up.

Today’s symptoms: I had to take my wakey-up pills today, since the flight, walking around then flight home was very tiring.  I’m going to have to just rest tomorrow to recover (which doesn’t happen with MS folks overnight, like it does with normal people).  Then I’ll be all spiffy for Monday.  Woot!

Canal Days Fly-Over

What a glorious but stupidly hot weekend. On Saturday, we hit the skies and flew to Brantford for brekkie.  Floated by the Hamilton Airport:

The Brantford Airport has such a great restaurant.  We’ve never been disappointed with a meal.  Little Vyctor waited patiently for us:

With full bellies, we hit the skies again and close to Hamilton, raced this bad boy:

I’m afraid we didn’t win.  All dejected over the loss, we headed back to St. Catharines.  Chilled with the kitties for a bit and then wandered over to Montebello Park for Rib Fest.  We attended last year too and weren’t disappointed.  We ordered our noms from one we didn’t try last year.  We ate at home – the walk in the heat alone almost caused us to go unconscious and we knew we couldn’t sit in it.  He got a 1/2 rack of beef ribs and I got pulled pork sammich.  And of course, corn bread.  The food was good, but not memorable.  I was watching Mike eat his, thinking that there was no way he was going to eat all that, and was surprised to see him pick up his last piece.  He said after that he ate too much.  Well duh!

Sunday, we visited with Jan in the morning.  We chomped down our Timmies then just browsed some shops in the new plaza.  After we bid her adieu, we went back home and relaxed.  The heat was bad again so we didn’t have much energy for anything.   However, we had to head back out around 4:00 because we needed to support Rib Fest again.  We went to one his boss recommended, and it was also one we ordered from last year.  Bone Daddy’s has amazing noms.  He ordered 1/3 pork ribs, I did the pulled pork sammich again and corn bread.  Holy moses, everything was great.  Far better than the first one we went to.  Plus, the corn bread was huge:

Today, Mike went for a flight and then I went for my own around 11:00.  I wanted to fly over Canal Days in Port Colborne:

I’ve never actually attended the event, but flown over it a few times.  I then headed east toward Fort Erie.   I flew over some beach goers:

I made a few passes.  I couldn’t believe how many people were there:

Then some sailboats:

Here is Point Abino Light House:

I then did something that I do very rarely (almost never), I took a selfie.  I don’t like pictures of myself so I asked Donkay for some assistance:

Back over the St. Catharines airport, I tried once again to do a snap roll on top of a loop.  I did it!  The first couple weren’t pretty but the last two were nice.  Woot!!!  Then I headed down to land, behind a couple Flying Club planes.  Once we were both ready to rock, Mike and I met up at the Timmies for some noms and post-flight natter.  Once back home, we watched some shows, played Forza on the XBox.  Then we did something we’ve never done before – we went to Rib Fest!  Tee hee.  We went to the same one (Bone Daddy’s) and got the exact same thing as yesterday.  Man, that was some healthy eating we did over the last three days.  I’m really trying hard to adjust to my third chin.

Today’s symptoms: I’m quite drained after a busy weekend.  The heat sure doesn’t help either.  This summer has been pretty cruddy, but at least we’ll appreciate Fall much more!  Quite a bit of nerve pain and been dealing with some bad spasms in my back all the way down the right side.  It’s all good though because I had a great weekend!

Please note that there are many sentences starting with “We”.  I spent a couple minutes trying to lessen the number, but I’m too tired.  Please accept my sincerest apologies for my appalling grammar.