We were invited to attend my niece’s wedding last weekend:

So the forecast for the arrival airport that we needed to go to on FRIDAY was low ceilings and Low IFR with poor visibility. Since the airport is surrounded by hills, we left the afternoon of Thursday, where it was supposed to be clear-ish (less bad than Friday, anyway)

Forecast for Thursday afternoon at our arrival point was Marginal VFR, ceilings 1500 or a bit better and haze, with a visibility of 3 or more miles.

We left my airport and flew to the arrival one in moderate IFR conditions. Scattered clear but mostly cloudy. Departure folks were good and the en-route ATC folks were on their game, with great vectors and even better descents. Later it became mostly clear but layers that made it IFR:

Arrived, parked the plane, got an Uber to where we were staying, and had dinner with other family (more on that later)

Got up the next day, Friday, to clear weather, no low clouds, no poor visibility, pretty much decent flying weather…Oh well, better early than late, amirite? The weather stayed good for flying all day too. Oh well, one can never trust the metorologists, but they are right about half the time (maybe)

The dinner Thursday evening was rare steak with fried potatoes and vegetables…..and I think it gave me Food Poisoning. I dunno for sure , but it is likely. Either way, that made for an interesting weekend….

I got up Friday not feeling my best, but we did family stuff until it was time to get ready for the Rehearsal dinner….at a taco (Not Mexican mind you, but rather a Taco) restaurant)  and that’s when things got somewhat ……bad. I wasn’t feeling well all day, , and by the time we got home after dinner, I was downright ill.

Friday night was just bad. No sleep, ill in ways I hadn’t been since my drinking days, if you get my drift.

Saturday morning everyone went to breakfast….everyone but me. I stayed near the room all day, and simply lost weight…..and I drank Gatorade brought by MC…By the quart.

Saturday was the wedding. I saw my niece get hitched (to a pretty good dude, she got lucky there), and again, I left the festivities early and let them party while I went home to rest…Because the next morning I had to take the bride and others to a super-secret location way north in the Allegheny mountains.

(more on that later).

Stay tuned for more.

The Media is all about it:  Blathering on an on about the “Heat Dome” that is making for “Dangerous Heat” in the Midwest and East.

Imagine that, it is the end of June/Start of July…And, oddly enough, it’s gonna be high heat and humidity.

I cannot believe that it is warmer weather in Summer in North America.

This is really strange.

(yes, that was sarcasm)

I’ve stacked bales of hay as they came out of a baler onto a moving wagon in weather worse than this It’s noting unusual, it’s SUMMER.

Been gone since Thursday, on a multi-state trip that included seeing a niece get married, delivering her to a secret mountain hideout (and one of my most challenging landings), a bout of food poisoning, more than a thousand miles of flying and a wild road trip ride home.

More later as I have the opportunity to recount the adventure.

For the folks in Venezuela.

Their country took a major hit from TWO 7+ magnitude earthquakes.

They are saying thousands dead,

“The people who talk the most generally know the least”

“He who has never failed has never tried”

“You will know the worth of water when the wells run dry”

“If they act like they don’t care, believe them”

“Life is hard enough, don’t help it be harder”

“Understand the difference between being looked at and being seen”

Keir Starmer is leaving as Prime Minister. 

I doubt anyone will be sorry for him to go

Y’know, England could one day be great again….

If they got their shit together and decided to be the people they once were.

Currently they kowtow to foreigners and the EU, and elect losers to govern them. And it is killing their country.

Happy Father’s Day!! (Thanks Dad!)

(There are reports of massive confusion in the South Side of Chicago and in nearby Gary Indiana)

and:

Happy Solstice.

The days only get shorter from here.

“The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” (Chief Justice John Robers)

Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes raced-based scholarship program:

“Giving benefits based solely on race presumes someone has individual personal characteristics simply because they belong to a race category,” Wimberger said. “That is stereotyping and racism at their plainest and simplest.”

Who woulda thought that preference in scholarships based on skin color and ancestry was racism?

At least without having to huff oxygen from a mask…

The 340 pressurization issue is fixed.

Turned out is was a sticking outflow valve.

Simple soap and water, some compressed air, and a tiny bit of LPS fixed it…which is good because there are none available and we could not find anyplace to buy a rebuilt one.

4.2 psi differential, a 9000 ft cabin at 25,000 ft. At that altitude we can go pretty fast and cover some ground if the winds are right.

The weather was gorgeous for a flight: Severe VFR, clear and smooth: The view out the windows on the test flight as we turned back north at FL22 (22,000 ft) was spectacular though.