Kitty Status

Duchess: blood drawn today to check for problems related to Hill's m/d food; will also check for diabetes status.

Jackie: blood draw was also her first visit to this vet. She displayed enough of the signature Jackie attitude that they actually put a muzzle on her. She brings it on herself, she really does. Fortunately she seems fine & doesn't even need teeth cleaning.

Little Girl: no vet visit today. Blood work clean, biopsy negative, incision neither red nor puffy. This morning I saw her in "Playing the Cello" position (one rear leg pointed at the ceiling, head down) industriously grooming the inside of her Elizabethan collar. She's gotten very good at cleaning the inside of that collar. By the time she goes back to get her stitches out, that collar will have been cleaned so much that it will be utterly disgusting.

Flying!

This morning I was scheduled to go flying with a friend of mine who has had his license for months and has as yet taken not one passenger. But weather nixed that plan. Maybe we can go tomorrow.

Inatead, both of us piled into rfrench's Saratoga to go IFR for lunch somewhere. Then we waited forty minutes for IFR release. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, when PAO is taking off southeast and SJC is landing southeast, there just aren't many spaces in the traffic.

After we were finally airborne and talking to Bay Departure, we changed our destination. We no longer had time for the original trip. Fortunately the controller was totally cool with that.

Flying above a cloud layer, the views are really really pretty. :-)

Sacramento Executive Airport is a fine place for lunch. :-)

Hayward Tower: Cleared to land.
Rob: Now that we've broken out of the clouds, I'm heading off for Palo Alto instead. Bye!

Palo Alto Tower: Make left traffic for Runway 31.
Rob: With the smoke from that fire, I can't see the field from here. I'm going around to your other side via San Carlos instead. Bye!

San Carlos Tower: Sure, you can cross our airspace, just come over midfield and turn down along 101.
Rob: Nah, I'll cross down here at the south end of your airspace instead. Thanks! Bye!

Palo Alto Ground: Taxi to parking via Delta row.
Rob: I want to taxi via Echo instead, because that's where we're parking. Thanks! Bye!

Okay, I'm exaggerating. Each time, he acknowledged the original clearance, and then he asked rather than told, getting permission for his changes. But it was funny. I guess you really do need to know how to work the system.

That fire was really something. It looked like one enormous pile in a junkyard had spontaneously combusted. The torrents of water from the fire trucks looked puny and useless compared to the size of the blaze. The smoke plume went at least as far down the bay as Moffett, and it was opaque enough that from the sunken ship we couldn't see Palo Alto. Didn't smell too good when we got out of the plane, either. I wonder what was going on.

Yay flying!