Sunday, July 6 — In at 8:30. Calm and sunny, Beech 18 on the ramp. Had a terrific day. Dale J. made s surprise visit with his vacuum, cleaned the floors in the office and upstairs and made the first contribution to the Chronology of Flight model room upstairs, bless him. He borrowed my slides of F-16s and C-130s and took some pictures of model kits while I processed pictures in the office downstairs. He left about 12:30. New visitors in a Cherokee Warrior flying from Kentucky to Minnesota with their 4 year old daughter Brittany visited the office and showed me their plane. Took pictures of them and Warrior. 
For the first time in the history of AKM, the mother called out to me as I was taking pictures before engine start, and called “Britta
ny asked me to wave goodbye,” and she waved. I called “Do it again and I’ll take a picture.” And she did. It was a beautiful visit. Worked on models the rest of the day, enjoyed it a lot. Departed for home at 8:05 after posting the “goodbye picture” as my parting shot at Facebook. . Tomorrow I resume interfacing with the real world . . .
Monday, July 7 — In at 8 :25, calm, overcast and muggy. A ragged start. Had intended to deposit a check at the bank today so I stayed home until 7:55 to get to the bank early . . . but I couldn’t find the check, so out to the AKM office . . . where I found the check. Processed pictures and worked at employer from 9 to 5 for the first time in three weeks. I had been coming in late until he paid me what he owed me and gave me an accountant’s statement for last year’s income. It was uncomfortably HOT all day in the showroom, but I was busier than usual with customers, and I made a modicum of progress sorting AKM clippings. Went to a “gallery” showing at Gallina’s Pizza downtown about 6:30– I had promised her I’d come, and I did despite the nasty heat. Went home and ate dinner, to bed about 9:30. Slept okay.
Tuesday, July 8 — In at 6:00 sharp, cool, calm still wet all over from last night’s rain. Processed pictures all morning. No ramp action at all before I left for work at 8;50. Work went okay. I’ve come to the end of the scrap and clipping sorting that I can do at “employer,” and I MUST find another project for the joint. Probably indexing av mags, dull and meticulous, but essential to the AKM mission. Another quiet evening at the airport after. Processed MORE PICTURES — editing and identifying them using the abbreviation system I created. I want to get down to just a past week’s run of photogs to process every week so I can share some of the previous week’s pics in the AKM blog and then process them through to the Airplanes file on the hard drive before transferring THEM to CDs. It’s all logical enough; it just takes time. Worked in Intake Room 7:35 to 8 and went home, satisfied with the day.
Wednesday, July 9 — Trimmed overgrown greenery in the yards 6:15 to 7, showered, to bank and deposited a pay check, paid house insurance bill, bought $30 of fuel and went directly to work where I had an upset stomach most of the day but made very good progress re AKM. Started indexing some recently donated av mags. Processed pics on return to AKM and was involved with the model club from 6 to 9, frustrating because one fellow has a LOUD VOICE AND CAN”T CONTROL HIS VOLUME. Impulsive and effusive, wants to SHARE EVERYTHING HE KNOWS in spurts. Most of the time he’s pretty quiet, and all of the time, he’s a gentleman. I made progress with a few models, but it was NOT FUN. I said nothing to him. Next meeting I’ll sit farther away. That should work. Back to office at 9:05, headed for grocer and home at 9:15. WHATAWHATA DAY!
Thursday, July 10 — In at 7:05, cool, sunny & calm. Brought a box of kits delivered to home yesterday from Squadron Shop. The passengers of the PC-12 that came in last night visited the office briefly: a John Kaminski and his son. Gave a brochure and they promised to visit again. Work was absolutely miserable. Nobody talks to each other unless we must. I came perilously close to walking out the door for good. I could have packed all my AeroKnow project material into the truck. There was room for it. I simply kept calm — miserable, angry, depressed — and stayed. Later, George and I talked calmly about me getting some more time away from the showroom and working more here at the museum at the airport. He agreed. I’ll go to “employer” Friday and work noon to 5 and have Saturday off. THANK GOD. Later, after George departed for the day, since all my sorting that CAN be done there IS done, I took all of that to the truck and left the area around my desk clean as a whistle. I BET George thinks I’ve quit when he sees the area tomorrow morning. All I left are a few av mags to index and a homebuilt aircraft names on nostecards project, and all of that material is in desk drawers. Back at AKM, I fiinished proofreading the next FlightLine — American Aviation Historical Society newsletter — wrote suggestions for corrections and e’d them to the editor. Finished logging in kits from Squadron Shop July 4 order. Worked in the Intake Room until 8 and departed for home at 8:10.
Friday, July 11 — In at 6:45, calm, cool and sunny. Brought four mouse traps and peanut butter to process a mouse I saw in the office yesterday. Saw one a few months ago too. MUST fix this. Had a terrific visitor who flew several Soviet aircraft, including an Mi -24 and MiG-29 and now flies a Cessna Citation X. He visited the office and upstairs, showed me the X in and out. I gave him a Springfield Air Rendezvous program with my writeup about “Tiger Ted Claussen.” Work went okay. Back to airport and photo’d two T-45s that had just landed. Departed for downtown to see a friend play harmonica with a jazz group at Robbie’s.
Saturday, July 12 — To bed last night about 2:00 after throwing away tour hours of my life surfing the internet. Up about 8, cleaned up and in at 9:25. Discovered a dead mouse in a mouse trap, took him directly to the dumpster outside with the trap. Set another trap where it had been. The AHEC meeting at 10:30 was a drag, but I was happy to add my presence to the meeting of the minds. Right after, I saw an IA( Westwind on the ramp, and the crew showed me in and out. good men. Interesting airplane, built in 1977 and still going great. Later met the crew of a Cessna Citation Encore PLUS and learned how to distinguish the difference between an Encore and the Encore PLUS: just a single static wick on the top of the vertical stabilizer of the E PLUS.
Cessna Citation Encore Plus of NetJets
Note the single wick on top of the vertical stab that confirms this Citation is an Encore PLUS.
The plain vanilla Encore has TWO of them. GOOD VISIT. Processed pictures from last night at Robbie’s and aircraft pics taken yesterday and Thursday. In office all day when I wasn’t on the tarmac. Very hot upstairs, dang it. Worked up there 15 minutes at the end of the day and headed home at 7:30. A terrifically PRODUCTIVE DAY. Tomorrow I WILL, WITHOUT FAIL spend TWO HOURS or more on the JOHN THORNTON WALKER BOOK. I hate being so far behind, but with no volunteers here and so much going on, all I can do is try to do better!
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Abe Lincoln's Air Force 