The Week that was!

 So...There I was... * It's Thanksgiving week and the excitement level at Rancho Juvat is rapidly rising.  The youngest member of the juvat clan is approaching an important milestone (one month old) and is going to celebrate it with us.  

No, Beans, this isn't her first away from home trip.  The week before, she had accompanied her Mom and Dad to the DFW metroplex and assisted her Dad with a job interview.  The after action report says she wowed them.  Her Dad?  We'll see.

But this will be her first time at our place and we're excited. Lots of coordination has been made at command levels well above me.  Apparently, at MBD and SIL's wedding reception the two commanding generals got together and negotiated an agreement on holiday visitation principles.  Unless changed by prevailing circumstances or verbal agreement, whomever get's visited ON Thanksgiving does not get visited ON Christmas and vice versa.  

Mrs. J and MG get reacquainted

This works out well for us this year as Little J and DIL will arrive for their "Get reacquainted with the USA" visit the last couple of days of December.  So, we're celebrating Christmas on one of the 12 days thereof and since it's not being celebrated ON Christmas, we get to have them for OUR Christmas.

Win/Win!

Ain't Mrs. J smart?  

Because of the agreement, MBD, SIL and MG packed up on Friday and went to visit SIL's family. However, that personnel reduction was offset by the arrival of another part of the family, my Favorite Niece, her husband and my Grand Niece and Grand Nephew ages 5 and 3 respectively.  Good folks, in spite of living in Austin, but we haven't seen them since you know what hit.  

In another aspect of this past week, Mrs. J and I are working hard to bring our second cabin on line as a guest house.  It had been my sister's home for a bit before she moved into our old house when our new one was completed.  At that point, bureaucrats intervened and DIL had to move into it with their dog, TEX to keep him out of prison.

Bureaucrats? Prison, juvat?

Apparently, China has a law that if a canine arrives in China from a country that has a history of Rabies (Kuwait for example), the dog must go to quarantine for 6 months.  However, if he arrives from a country he's spent a minimum of 6 months in that doesn't have a Rabies problem (the USA for example), he can go right in.  So, she and he lived on our property Feb-Sep this year.  

That's a lot of wear and tear on the building so Mrs. J and I have been fixing things, refinishing wood floors, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  We were pretty well finished and wanted to have a fresh set of eyes live in it as guests for a couple of nights and make notes of things we missed or other suggestions.  My Niece and family worked perfectly.

Busy, busy, busy.

But, the day before Thanksgiving, I had a little extra treat.

Mrs. J's Christmas present to me last year was a ride in a Stearman.  I had misplaced the paperwork in the post move unpacking exercise, but found it a few weeks ago.  Got on their schedule and damn was that fun!

Photo taken after flight, notice bigger smile!

Prior to the flight, the pilot  was chit chatting with us while a mechanic checked something.  Asked me what I did, you know, the usual stuff.  What I knew he was really doing, because I'd done it myself many times when giving an incentive ride, was checking me out to see what the probability of me puking in his airplane was.

I told him I was retired and that the last aircraft I was at the controls of could accelerate straight up on takeoff and was capable of pulling 9 g's.  I also told him that the last time I was at the controls was 30 years ago.  (I didn't want to not have an excuse if...)

He said "Great, I'll give you some stick time."

We hop in, fire it up, do all the pre-takeoff checks, and because of a fairly strong crosswind, took off from the grass.  A lot less bumpy than I thought it would be.

We haven't even cleared the fence and we're maybe a hundred feet up when he wiggles the stick and tells me it's mine.  

I take the stick and level it off at about 1000' AGL, give it a couple of turns, realize that the torque of the motor requires a bit of rudder to compensate.   I also realize I don't know airspeed or G limits, stall characteristics, spin propensity or recovery procedures, so, I make an executive decision to stay as far away from the edge of the flight envelope as possible.

That having been said, we took a tour of the town, down main street.  Looks quite a bit different from above.  Then we flew out to our property and did a couple of turns around it.  We have the greenest pasture in the area.

It was getting to the end of the half hour Mrs. J had payed for, so I started pointing at the airport.  He then shook the stick and I stuck my hands in the air.

At that point, the Acrobatic phase of the ride started.  We started with an easy Chandelle which turned us away from the airport and gained us some altitude. We did a few clearing turns to insure no one else was nearby after which he demonstrated quite a bit more of the aircraft's capabilities.

My grin at that point made the Cheshire cat look like a grump.

But all good things must pass.  We re-enter the traffic pattern and do a spacing turn on downwind to allow another aircraft to land.  Then did a low pass to impress the crowd, pulled up and did a full stop, again on the grass.

Even now, I'm still grinning.

Hope your Holiday was as good as mine and MAN am I thankful for my wife!

Peace out y'all.  We're winning!

*Standard juvat Caveat