Family Mellmann

At the Trinity Baptist School Christmas concert, there was a bit of a Mrs. Mellmann farewell.  It was announced that the school yearbook, which is dedicated to a teacher or staff person every year, was being dedicated to me. This morning - at 8:30AM Vermont time...which means 6:30AM Montana time! - was the final school assembly and the yearbook reveal.  I was invited to Zoom in to the event so that the students could say their goodbyes and make one final plea for me to return (nothing like a little stroke to the ego).  It was fun to see all those faces of my students.  They were animated and energetic, and all too happy to sit in front of the computer and wave at me. After the event, in an email exchange with an old friend and fellow teacher, I learned a little bit of back story.  When the School Administrator announced to the assembled students that I would be joining them by video call, the auditorium erupted in cheers (now, it is important to remember t...

Now that we are in Livingston and settled for the duration (roughly a year), I have started hunting for a local church to call "home" until we move to Absarokee - and begin this process all over. Today I attended Livingston Bible Church.  It is about two blocks from where we live and has a very friendly, if small, congregation.  Biblically sound, nothing crazy.  I attended a Sunday School class and the service. I met several very friendly people, some local and some in town for the high school graduation.  One young woman overheard me to talking about being from Vermont and asked what part of Vermont.  It turned out that she had attended college in Middlebury (where our rental properties are) and has an uncle who lives there.  What a small world.

After four years of college, thousands of hours of flying and training, and spending the last two months in fairly demanding technical training, Patrick successfully completed his "final" (pilots continue to train throughout their career) check ride.  He is officially a First Officer with Sky West Airlines and will soon be flying with actual passengers (besides his mom and dad). I suppose it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway since it's my website, that we are extremely proud parents.  Patrick has worked hard, studied hard, and now he gets to enjoy the career that he chose as a junior in high school.  Way to go, Kiddo.  We're super proud of you.

Joerg and I were sitting in "my office" catching up on the latest news and stories when one of the neighbors stopped by to say "hi".  Mule deer are very common around here and they are not afraid of us at all.  If the door had been open, this one may have just walked right in.  

Since Patrick is busy learning, studying, and training, I thought I might post a little photographic update of his progress. His uniform arrived.  He was fitted for it at one training location and then received it at the next.  His training has taken place in Texas, Utah, Colorado, and Missouri.  It's amazing that it didn't get sent to the wrong destination...like my luggage did once. 🤪   The only thing he's missing now is the cap...which is ordered. I believe these are the helmets that they wear if they have to fight a fire onboard the aircraft...but don't quote me. The rest of these images are of his various types of flight deck training including procedures and systems...and everything in between.  I'm not sure that they are in proper sequence to his training, I just thought it was interesting how they have varying degrees of detail and likeness to the "real thing". (I'm not certain, but I think I recognize that right arm as a Patrick arm. (below))...

Today was a productive day.  I have checked out our trailer (the primary reason for returning to Vermont) to make sure the tires are good (flat tires won't travel well on the interstate) and that I have all the right keys for the locks (well, maybe I thought I had lost them while we were in Grand Rapids and wasn't sure that the keys I...found...were for the locks on the trailer...maybe, could be...but I'll never tell).  I took care of some rental business.  And I got an oil change to keep my car happy for the journey west. The highlight of this day, however, was lunch with some friends.  Katherine came along (a requirement for being fed) and spent the entire time in a shady spot outside reading while I did some major league chatting with some very dear friends.  Oh, and for those of you who like to keep up on what the family pilot is up to, I received word this evening that he (successfully) completed his "maneuvers validation".  It's back to the simulators...

After four months of "crashing" with my mom and Marc in Grand Rapids Michigan, Katherine and I are back on the road.  We took the Canada route this time as we journeyed back to Vermont and during our second break at an "OnRoute" pit stop, we realized that they are all designed the same way.  When you're doing long travel days, this kind of consistency is surprisingly helpful in keeping your stops quick since you don't have to hunt for anything. We made it to Vermont in time to check into our hotel and relax for a bit before turning out the lights.  Tomorrow I start on the checklist of activities to accomplish while in Vermont for what is likely to be the last time for quite a while. As for Grand Rapids, my time there was wonderful on so many levels.  Spending time there came on the heels of five months of hard driving schedules as we tackled rental projects (one renovation and the sale of a unit), not-so-little property projects (have you ever painted a five...

Happy Mother's Day! (for what it's worth, I think every day is a good day to appreciate one's mother) I know that this post is a bit delinquent but I was scrolling through the photos on my phone and found this great photo from Mother's Day in Grand Rapids (and, NO, that's not me on the edge of the frame with all that grey hair!  Why would you think that?!  😳😆)

While things are generally quiet and fairly normal in Livingston MT (where Joerg is) and in Grand Rapids MI (where I am), Patrick has been “flying” through his SkyWest onboarding and training. He has been through corporate training, systems training, and procedures training (he sent this picture from systems training) bopping from Dallas Texas to Salt Lake City Utah to Denver Colorado…with short jumps back to his Tempe Arizona home here and there. The last leg of his training journey is to St. Louis Missouri for simulator training. He and his training partner have done well so far and should be done with this wave of training (pilots are regularly required to do “continuing education“ training throughout their career so this is just the beginning) by the end of May.