accomplishing things.

I always intend to accomplish a lot of things with my days off. Sometimes I get sidetracked. Usually I get sidetracked. Almost always I look for other things to do except for the things I planned to accomplish. So when Gary asked if I wanted to come out to the air field and help him wash his airplane before he showed it to a potential buyer, how could I refuse? How often do you get to wash an airplane?

Baby airplane, after its bath.

We had to taxi the airplane over to the wash rack which, just like preparing for take-off, requires headsets and communication with the tower and all sorts of radio lingo. First we had to back the plane out of its parking stall. (They literally have parking stalls. They are just T-shaped instead of U-shaped.) If you've ever watched at the airport, for commercial liners they use a big truck to push the planes out. This plane is small enough we pushed it out ourselves. Then we climbed in, tested the radio, and started the engine. Gary let me steer the plane which is much harder than you might think. When you are on the ground, you steer with your feet. Tricky. And not helped by the fact that I was sort of nervous about the idea of being in control of the airplane, even though I really wasn't because Gary had his own set of pedals to take over when I drifted.

Sneaking a self-timer picture with my radio gear while Gary was hunting down another headset so as not to look childishly over-excited in front of him.

 While we were out and about, Gary taught me all sorts of things about flying - what all the buttons and levers do in the plane, things you have to do before you take off, how the steering works, altitude restrictions, etc. I may never have the courage to be a passenger in a plane this small, but it was cool to sit in one and learn about it. Definitely not something you get to do every day. And so, that was my miniature getting-out-of-accomplishing-things adventure last weekend. I thought it was pretty great. Thanks Gary!

And just in case anyone was wondering, if you leave a pop-tart in your glove compartment in 90 degree weather for three weeks, it's still edible. It's just kind of like you put it in the toaster. For three weeks. So if you don't have a toaster...