Sunday, February 8 — In at 9, overcast & cloudy with airbrush taken home to use on models but not because it’s better used here. I will do preliminary construction at home work room and finish things here at the airport; makes more sense. Worked on JTWbook. I can’t find a lot of the scans Richard sent me! I THINK I have enough on hand here from what he and Connie donated to make this work. Went looking for JTW pics on the computer upstairs and found none. Worked on models about an hour up there. ALMOST totally ignored the ramp and had no visitors. Did phot a Citabria through the fence and said maybe five words to the pilot, but I wanted to get upstairs to look for and process pictures. “Semi-grouchy” comes to mind; felt I was being pulled in five different directions by five strong horses roped to arms, legs and neck. Right arm: JTW book (serious work done over three hours) Left arm: February Lincoln Flyer; left leg: processing and DELETING a BUNCH of pics from poetry and art events from upstairs computer since no one from that community has spent significant time out here Right leg: model building — did okay with a few models, but really a drop in the bucket. It’s too cold for me to use the airbrush up there, so a lot of needed work is on hold until it warms up; Neck — everything else that needs to be done here. I MUST BE BACK before sunrise Monday. Went home at 5:30.
Monday, February 9 — In at 9:10 after a ragged night dinner: nap, up at 10 and back to bed about 3, awake at 7:30 and out of bed at 8:35. A SAD outlook, chilly and overcast! Worked on JTW book. Was visited by Martin M who wanted to volunteer a few hours. I told him I had nothing prepared for him to work on, but he could spend time browsing upstairs. So we went to the Research Room and he looked through files while I worked downstairs. Was also visited by a Major Coble with the Illinois National Guard, about to fly out for something. Had a terrific visit. He will return. Didn’t accomplish all I wanted, but I made some good impressions. I was RESTORED by the visits to a state of contentment I did not feel when I arrived. At my employer I decided to begin to cut and paste text and pictures into LARGE (8 x 10) pages, the format to make maximum use of pictures. It’s something productive I can do at employer, even though I don’t plan to do much with them when I take them back to AKM; too many other priorities. Work went fine. FINISHED sorting foreign ac scraps! YAY. Back at AKM FINISHED the February Lincoln FLYER. YAAAAAAAY. Went home at 8:55.
Tuesday, February 10 — In at 7:45 but I wish it was 5:45. I need to resume early arrivals at home and NO NAPS AFTER DINNER. Didn’t nap last night after dinner, but I was still up until midnight. Overcast, cold and calm outside. Nothing on the ramp. Arranged postcards on the rack so visitors see horizontal images with the rest of the postcards behind, vertically. Tweaked Lincoln Flyer 2. Proofread it at work and sorted more scraps there. A challenging day dealing with the owner, but I made it without breaking any bones, his or mine. Back at AKM made corrections to the Flyer and LABORED through the email lists. I’m going to simply make a list of Flyer recipients on paper and then mail from those names on my broader Contact list. The groups are getting screwed up, and I don’t know why. Sent everyone out I’m going to send. Some came back as undeliverable and I will take care of all that Wednesday morning. Went home at 8:15.
Wednesday, February 11 — Inf at 9:25. Rough night last night, Had about 7 hours of sleep but it came in pieces: 10 to 2:30 and 4:50 to about 7:30, more or less, with lots of introspection and dread during the in between awake time. Overcast and calm on the ramp. I have to get used to this. Apparently this is a natural way to sleep. Accomplished a lot before employer (sending Lincoln Flyers to people not sent to last night) and received some positive feedback, including a new friend in Switzerland. At employer, a customer recognized me right away because he used to be with the IL Army NG and has visited AKM before; a retired Major UH-60 pilot. Nice fellow! FINISHED all the scrap sorting. Will begin pasting them onto paper Thursday. More progress with processing pictures and sending out more LincFlys after work here. Went home at 8, satisfied with the day.
Thursday, February 12 — In at 7:50, Very cold, sunny, windy. Worked on finances and tidying the office and from 10 to 10:40 worked upstairs doing the same mostly in the research room. Had 50 February Lincoln Flyers printed ($70) and began pasting foreign aircraft scraps from envelopes onto 8 x 10 paper to file later. Decided to do this at employer because I can make some headway there between customers without bringing too much clutter to the effort. The day was okay until the last half an hour when two couples came in and kept me occupied until after 5 and GJ called and wanted me to FAX the log of the day to him, and I HATED to stay LATE, even though he’ll pay me for the time. To the nearby hobby store and bought an apparatus that holds small pieces and magnifies them, and two jars of paint. The traffic was terribly congested on Dirksen Parkway as the daylight was fading, I was anxious to get to the airport fast, and it only further upset my applecart. Made it to the airport okay . Posted a status report at Fb that said “If YOU had the kind of late afternoon at work I had, the only thing I can say to you is “DON’T JUMP! PLEASE DON’T JUMP!” I’m too flustered to stay here and work much. Left AKM at 6:40 for grocer and home.
Friday, February 13 — In at 6:50, calm and 13. Worked on finances and did more cleaning up, made a new list of CURRENT Abe Lincoln’s Air Force MEMBERS and will have to print certificates this weekend and mail them Monday. Work went much better, pasted a fair amount of scraps to paper. Model club really started closer to 7 and after attendees four and five and especially after six the collective sound of mouths in nearly constant motion must have sounded something like a hive of bumble bees from 20 paces, but it was all convivial. I worked on the Spirit of St. Louis 1/48 kit and contributed my share to the bumble bee hum. Talked all I wanted to talk. The meeting ended about 9:30 and I got out of AKM about 9:45.
Saturday, February 14 — I was feeling fine last night at home, had a nice salad for late dinner but I became obsessed with browsing the internet, a negative turn, and I didn’t get to sleep until after 4 am. Arrived AKM at 10:25, the latest I’ve arrives since December because I’m in the habit of taking the prescriptions at about 9:00. I took them anyway at 10:30. Cold and very windy out, leaves blowing around after very light snow earlier today. Clearing sky. MAJOR PROGRESS with scanning and orgnizing the Process Room today despite a temp of about 50 degrees up there. Went home at 5:30.
Abe Lincoln's Air Force 