Love is in the Air

And I should be, too, come Tuesday. The title of today's long-overdue post, however, takes inspiration from the sudden and overwhelming appearance of what the locals call "love bugs" which, by my scientific estimate, have taken over the entire state of Florida. These bugs fly around all day, well, let's just say, in VERY close formation. The trouble is, in this state, they lose any semblance of maneuverability and frequently collide with people, cars, other bugs... everything. It's annoying, at least, and kind of disturbing...

Anyway, in other news: I've officially jumped through every hoop to start flying. Friday I did my "Fam Zero" with my "onwing" (the instructor I'll have for 9 of my first 12 flights) and now I'm ready for "Fam 1" as soon as the schedule clears up. My instructor was unavailable to fly me tomorrow, so instead of just giving me the day to study and adjust, they scheduled me to stand watch as Squadron Duty Officer from 8 in the morning to 8 at night tomorrow. For 12 hours, I'll be sitting behind the front desk at the squadron, in khakis, and not doing much more than answering the phone. I'm really not excited about it at all. But, it's better than getting the PM shift (from 8 at night to 8 in the morning) so I really shouldn't complain too much. At least I'll have plenty of time to study and maybe even do some recreational reading.

Friday night I went camping. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it here or not, but I was asked by my church to be scoutmaster when I showed up and they found out I'm an eagle scout. Friday was the second time I've been camping with this outfit. It was a good time. The boys are all really good. The other leader is a salty retired firefighter known to his friends as "Butch" and to the boys as "Brother E." He's a great guy and he's been doing a phenomenal job with the scouts, but he's getting older and has trouble keeping up with them. That's where I come in. I've committed to take them camping on the third Friday of every month. It's tough to spend a Friday night away from my wife, but it's a good thing for the boys and it's a good chance for me to pay back some of the good I got from my time as a scout.

This time I messed up and accidentally took my wife's toothbrush camping with me... I was sure I'd be in the doghouse when I got home, so I stopped at the store and got here a new toothbrush and stuck it in the middle of a boquet of flowers. By the time I got home late in the afternoon, though, she'd pretty well gotten over it and we had a good laugh. And, after hardly seeing me at all for the last six days, it was finally her turn to have me for the rest of the weekend. Today we spent the afternoon cooking an Indian feast of beef-and-spinach curry, naan, and mango lassi. We emptied the dishwasher before we started and had to run it, jammed full, as soon as we were done. But the apartment smelled like a five-star Indian restaurant, and the meal was phenomenal- well worth the effort. Once again, life is good.