Crew Solo (45 years Later)

 As most of you readers are well aware, a little bit more than half of my Air Force career was as a pilot flying F-4's, AT-38's and, that wonderful airplane, the F-15 Eagle.  

 

Gratuitous Airplane Picture

Source

Then I had to pay my dues and fly a desk.  However, that career also had one additional, wonderful advantage.  I met and married my wife.  That was a little over 40 years ago.  During that 40 years, as did most folks, we had a few ups and downs.  On our first try, we had Little Juvat, our son.  We then went through a few miscarriages trying to bring him a sibling.  Finally, we managed to have MBD, our daughter.

Both have done well at their missions in life, not the least of which is marrying wonderful spouses.  MBD was the first to bring a grandchild into the world.  Now about 15 months old, she's a lot of fun and can run an old Fighter Pilot out of airspeed quite quickly.

Little Juvat and LJW also have a wonderful daughter.  Unfortunately, Miss B was born early and required hospitalization for a few months.  She's doing well, but requires some special care and attention.  With Little Juvat in HK, LJW has her hands full with Miss B.  Mrs. J and I have been helping as best we can, Mrs. J more so with the child care.  Me?  Well, more brawn than brains means I get to schlep and carry a lot.

But...LJW asked if we could take over for a weekend as a couple of her friends from College wanted to get together in Houston.  Miss B's personal logistics made it unfeasible for her to go along. So we said OK.

 It's now Friday and we load up the stuff we need to keep Miss B breathing.  (IIRC from High School Health Class, that's somewhat important.) LJW brings her up to our house and drops her off.  

Mrs. J and I are now flying solo.  

Get It?

Takes us a bit of time to pick up "the Routine".  There's feeding time, nap time, play time, and, of course, changing time.  Rinse and repeat several times each day.  But, Miss B's a lot of fun to have around.

Most of the time.

Feeding time is complicated by difficulty in trying to get her to take a bottle.  So she's got a nasal-gastric (NG) tube that feeds her.  This would be a tube inserted into her stomach through her nose. 

Replacing that tube when Miss B accidentally pulls it out?  That would be the cause of  the aforementioned "most of the time". Holy Crap! That was officially "Not Fun" for all concerned.

During feeding time, the NG tube is  attached to this device which controls the amount of formula and its flow rate.  The switchology of the device is about the same complexity as the switches needed to launch an air to air missile in the Phantom.  In other words, easy to screw up.  Which when the baby is fussing and hungry adds a bit of tension to the crew.  

And, to make it perfectly clear, while I was the Aircraft Commander in the Phantom, I most certainly am NOT in this particular situation.  

That would be Mrs. J. (as if there was any doubt).  My role?  Stepin' Fetchit.

 It takes about 45 minutes for each feeding to complete.  And because of Air intake, Meds and a whole slew of other reasons, an attendant has to be in very close range to provide assistance in the case of a "Spit Up".

Miss B can be very prolific at that.

Yes, Beans, our washer and dryer got a lot of work in this past weekend, both for big kid and little kid clothing.

All that having been said, Miss B is a lot of fun to be with.  

She got a bit fascinated with my finger.  Don't know why and didn't mind.  It occupied her for a few minutes.  She also liked her ball.

But, the 4 feedings, especially the 2359 and 0400 ones, and the need to otherwise be constantly close, took a lot out of the Staff.

Fortunately, my easy chair, not only pulled duty as a dinner table, but as a bed also.

Which allowed me to do a quicky wood working project for Mrs. J.

Got the idea here

It's an acoustic cell phone speaker.  Based on Bean's commentary the other day about "computerphonecamera", I thought including this picture today a completely appropriate way to remind him that a cell phone also is a "stereo".  

Surprisingly, especially surprising me, it works quite well.

For some reason or another, Sunday Evening was quite short and Monday Morning Reveille was sounded quite a bit later than usual.  The Crew Solo mission for Mrs. J and I was completed with a few bumps and bruises, but, all in all, successfully.

Peace out, y'all!