A Day Off

Presidents day! A day off!

Some History about the Day:

Presidents Day is the common name for the federal holiday officially designated as Washington's Birthday.It is celebrated on the third Monday of February. As the official title of the federal holiday, Washington's Birthday was originally implemented by the federal government of the United States in 1880 in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices. As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22.

January 1, 1971 the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. A draft of the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 would have renamed the holiday to Presidents Day to honor both Washington and Lincoln, but when signed into law on June 28, 1968 simply moved Washington's Birthday. In the late 1980s, with a push from advertisers, the term Presidents Day began its public appearance.

My lovely Bride had to work today, hey, someones got to bring home the bacon. I got up to feed the pups then crawled back into bed. I can honestly say I don't remember Mary leaving for work. I was later informed, when she returned home from work, that I was cuddled up with Rudder snoring to beat the band. Oh well, it's better then going to work.

I finally did get up and found something to eat, let the dogs back out and checked into the flying forums, it's a daily ritual. Some new stuff, some old and nothing new for this Saturdays fly in to 44N, Sky Acres. I decided to head up to Brandywine and get back on the schedule for flying. I need to tune up then schedule the check ride. I'm getting worried about timing since I see the Doctor tomorrow about my hip. I had the right hip replaced in October of 86 so it's about worn out. Did I mention how much I hate hospitals, doctors and pills?

Enough of the bad thoughts, I'm off to Brandywine KOQN. Not much school activity this morning but I did scribble in my info for the Saturday, February 28th, 11am -2pm time block. I need to knock the rust off and get this done. I watched a few planes come and go on runway niner. I should be flying today but have to many things on my to do list that need to marked off as done. My next stop is back at the house to pick up my travel companions. The trip to Wilmington KILG is on hold so I can reconnect the cables under the seat of my ML320, I can't get it to fold down. Forty minutes later the pups are happy little campers bouncing around the truck as I climb in. Maggie finds a spot in the back to settle in and the little guy is everywhere like a flea on a hot brick.

I make the call to AeroWays for fuel letting them know I'm about five minutes out on I-95. I pull through the Red Eagle gates and drive over to 679er trying to find a spot close enough but clear for the fuel truck. Previously, I had made the hop to Wings for the GPS test flight and flew towards Pottstown with Rob then home for a total of 1.9 hours. Prior to that I had the breakfast flight to Cambridge, MD for a round trip of 2.0 hours. This looked right to me since I was at tabs when we left for Wings. When all was said and done I took on 27 gallons to top off. That's a pretty good fuel burn and right on the numbers for 679er's normal performance. The fuel burn averaged 6.92 per hour which is the norm for my flying. I flight plan for 10 gallons an hour for my personal extra safety factor.

Finally heading home and the pups are now getting restless. I forgot dogie treats and I think they are expecting them. Hey, they have me driving them around what else could they want? right? or maybe not. We pull up to the house and there sits a big box. It must be my red dragon pre-heater! Everyone piles out, does the potty break, except me, and we all check out the box. Yep, sure enough, UPS delivered the Red Dragon unit I purchased from a fellow forum member. You should have seen this circus getting the door open, trying to carry the box, one big dog on a leash and one little dog running through all our legs. The keystone cops with dogs may be the best description.

The pre-heater was exactly as promised (Thanks Russ) and just needed a propane tank to be connected. I wanted to hit the hardware store to get some light sand paper and heat paint to repaint the main duct and then trim it in red to match the existing paint scheme. I once again loaded up the pups and hit the local hardware stores for my supplies. I'll follow up with some before and after photos in the next week. Upon my return to the house I remembered I needed to take care of some laundry and get the shopping list together. Well one outta two ain't bad and when Mary walked in she compiled the list and off we went.

I did manage to read some of the Garmin 496 manual and toyed around with all the different screens and buttons. A fun day off getting a few things done around the homestead. It would have been way more fun if Mary was off, I'm sure we would have been flying!