Silent Night Holy Night

Saturday the 3rd of January. My son wants to travel tomorrow back to school in Carolina. He sleeps all day and stays up all night. He just got back from an all nighter that had him at Times Square on New Years Eve. But the weather tomorrow looks pretty bad. Low ceilings in the forecast. Now, my Cher OH kee is instrument legal. And I suppose I am too. But I'd rather drive the eight hours than try to slog down flying in crappy weather. So we wake up His Majesty and ask him if he'd rather fly down tonight in pretty weather, or drive through rain and mist for eight hours tomorrow. Next thing I know he's up and showering and will be ready in "fifteen minutes". Meanwhile, I am not dressed, the plane ain't ready, the hangar doors are closed, I need to do a pre flight, the plane is very low on gas. But I get an adrenalin rush because it's a real pretty afternoon and I'm goin' flying. So I throw on the clothes I wore to the restaurant last night which are strewn on the chair. I grab an overnight satchel which is sort of always loaded with underwear and socks and a spare shirt and a flashlight and shave kit and other junk. The plane already has in it a small chart pouch and a small flight kit. I keep the dogs in the house and I go out to the plane. It's 4PM. Cambridge closes for fuel at five. I get the doors open. I get the airplane rolled out. I sump it. I call my wife in the house on her cell. "Honey tell His Majesty to take the Toyota to Cambridge and I'll meet him there. I'll get the car on the way home tonight". Then I take five minutes to spray silicone on the right seat tracks to fix a sticking seat. It works great. As I warm up the engine, I am able to reboot the apollo GPS which had quit working again. Sometimes it just won't compute. I "tricked" it into finding itself. Now I have two GPS's again. I take off in the beautiful cool clear air. With just me and no fuel I'm a fricking Super Cub off in 500 ft. I make Cambridge in time for fuel. My son is there at about the same time. We head out while we still have a bit of daylight left. We get almost down over Richmond before it is completely dark. A beautiful ride. His buddy is there to pick him up for a ride to campus. The airport is quiet. I call wife/mother at home. I climb back in the plane and taxi out. A T-tail King Air lands. I taxi out and pop my second diet coke. I havn't enough fuel to go all the way home, but I know exactly where I'm going. I take off and start climbing on my 60 degree heading. I settle into a nice 400 ft./min climb towards 7500 ft. I watch Durham go by. Then Danville. I program FCI into the GPS's. FCI is just south of the Richmond Class C. They have expensive 100LL but they are open till 10PM. I get there at about 9:30. Off again with full tanks and a quiet flight to Cambridge. I get to see some incredible shooting stars as the Geminids are active. I see smoke trails and hang time and bright lights from these meteorites. My final decent into CGE has me with full flaps trying to keep the engine warm. I tie down the Cher OH kee. I walk a half mile to the terminal where son has parked the Toyota. It's pretty cold and quiet. 25 degrees. I drive home. So as not to wake up six dogs and wife I use the runway instead of the driveway. I drive the Toyota right into the hangar. As I shut off the car, the oldies station known as "The Beach" is playing a song about a guy who says you may be right, I may be crazy, but it might be a lunitic you're lookin' for. After the car is off I still hear the song. It's because of the radio in the "man cave" in the back of the hangar. It has played 24-7 since the solstice party. I get out a beer right there and just look at the M-10 Cadet and my wife's 350Z and reflect. In an epiphany I realize...... that neither of them are paid for.