Lots of news

To start with, as you have most likely seen on Nathaniel's blog, the surgery went really well. It was, by all preliminary indications, very successful. The doctors are hopeful that the surgery has taken care of all the epilepsy problems. It's quite possible that, after a few months, he'll be totally off the anti-seizure medication. Even if that doesn't turn out to be the case, it will almost certainly work to take a very low level of the medicine, a much lower dosage than what he's been on for a while.

Our entire experience up at the Cleveland Clinic was wonderful. The people there were simply amazing. Everyone seemed to be smiling all the time... everyone was willing to help you if you were lost or needed anything at all. It was great.

So, that's it for Cleveland. Let's update everyone (if anybody still reads this) on some other stuff.

I'm down near Kingston, OH, between Circleville and Chillicothe. It's south of Columbus, OH. The reason I'm down here is that I'm at my uncle and aunt's house for Christmas. Because of a few schedule conflicts, the big Christmas dinner and gift exchange is later today.

Our immediate family already gave each other stuff. So, what I've gotten so far is a Land's End microfleece jacket/shirt that is sooooooooo nice. It's a 1/4 zip that so far, I've worn about the whole time since I unwrapped it. I also got a nice book, and a Leatherman Micra multitool. The latter is a small thing... about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. It has about 10 different tools in it. It's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally nice. :D

So, that's my update for now. I'm going to a presbytery high-schoolers' winter conference next Monday, and getting back on Thursday. There probably won't be any more posts until after that. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Update on Nathaniel

We're all up in Cleveland tonight. The plan is to be in at the Cleveland Clinic by 1030 tomorrow for pre-surgery. Not exactly sure when the surgery itself will take place, but it will probably start before noon. It's supposed to take around 4 hours total. So... that's the latest. His blog, which is here, will have updates when we have them. I most likely won't be updating here much until everything is over. As always, prayer is appreciated.

The LORD's will be done!

New developments

Well, I finally did something this morning that I could have done for something along the lines of the last two years and five months. I finally got my permit. I spent a few hours yesterday reading through the "Digest of Ohio Motor Vehicle Laws" and then went into the BMV this morning. After spending a little while filling out another temporary permit package, I went to take the test. I was anticipating it to be pretty easy.

It was. :D It took me around 5 minutes to answer 31 of the 40 questions. Only a 75% average was required to pass, and they stopped the test when I could no longer get below a 75. I ended up missing one question. Oh well. :P

I haven't actually used the permit yet. But, it is in my wallet, ready to get used soon (hopefully). So, that's been most of my morning.

In other news lately, Nathaniel is back home. All of us went out to Pennsylvania yesterday to pick him up, came back (same day) and went to a Scout event. Dad got a couple awards, which was nice. :) I ended up more or less babysitting 7 Cub scouts to keep them from going completely crazy. I nearly went totally crazy, but not quite. :D

The weather has not been cooperating of late, so my latest flying lessons have involved either ground lessons or else simulator time. I've been learning about instrument approaches, such as how to interpret the depictions of different kinds of approaches, learning to fly the different kinds, learning what to do when the weather still is too bad to complete the approach... that kind of thing. If you're curious, I have a couple links here for approaches into Bellefontaine. The first one is a GPS approach, or as the FAA calls it, an RNAV approach. It uses position information from geostationary satellites to figure out where the airplane is, and I use that information on a moving map display in the cockpit to shoot the approach.

The other kind of approach is a VOR approach, which uses a ground-based radio navigational aid for the approach. Basically, the instruments figure out what heading I am from the station, and I use the GPS to figure out how far away I am. Using that information, I can make the approach safely.

The other main kind of approach that I've been learning is the ILS: the Instrument Landing System. Not many small airports such as Bellefontaine have this kind of approach, since it's quite expensive to set up. I shot this ILS at Dayton the other day on the simulator. It uses two different components of a dedicated radio navigational aid on the ground to give me vertical and horizontal guidance down to the runway. It's very precise, so much so that special categories of the ILS approach are approved for flight down to the runway with zero visibility. It's a fun approach, since it's (most of the time) rather easy to do, and it's kind of hard to screw up. Approaches, so far, are pretty fun. Hopefully I still think that by the time I'm done with them. :D

Well, I think that's about the end of this post. I have a lot of stuff to do this evening, and I need to get going on it. Hopefully, it won't be quite so long until the next post. I'll be up in Cleveland almost all of next week, and I'm not sure if the internet up there will let me post on here. If I can, I will. If not, I won't. :P

I am still here

Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten about the blog or anything. I'm still here. Will most likely post tomorrow. Well... erm, today. Something.