Woke up at 8:54 A.M.  Ate a quick breakfast, then headed off to church.  Not even time for a shower!  Nothin' like rollin' up 8 minutes late...oops!

The service itself was kinda slow today...it's kinda funny to me...I had to ask myself again this morning why I stay with this church!  I mean, frankly, the services are not really geared towards an excited and eager 25-year-old guy (so many churches seem like that).  The songs are older, slower...the service is kind of routine (even after only my third time of goin')...and it's just kinda "churchy."  Not necessarily my cup o' tea.

So literally during the service, I ask..."Why am I here"?

I guess I partially found my answer about 30 minutes later.  The service ends, and two old ladies behind me seek me out and thank me for coming.  Another middle-aged lady shakes my hand and says she's really glad I'm there.  Before I can get out of the pew, an old man (70's??) comes up and shakes my hand.  "Please come back..."  Who are these people?!

And then I head downstairs for cookies and coffee.  And I talk with Evan (the guy that went to Dallas with me) and the others, and I meet some new faces.  I meet Luke...a rather funny young black man with a bubbly personality.  "Wassup man"?  "Hey."  "Hey, you're the pilot guy, right"?  "Um, yeah..."  So I guess there's been some talk about me behind the scenes!!!  That's kinda funny to me.

And then a mom comes up to me and says that she missed me last week.  I say thanks.  Then she says again...no, we really missed you!  Wow.  That would've been my third week there (I had flown to Dallas that morning)...and they're already appreciative of my coming...even noticing when I miss.  Hmm.

And then I go to a class with 19 other people...and we talk about the nitty-gritty stuff.  The good stuff...the stuff past the sermon.  So this mornin' the topic centered on the dangers of bein' rich...though the wisdom of preparin' for the future financially, etc.  That bein' rich isn't bad, but that it can be.  The balance of doin' things well here on earth but knowin' that it can be taken away at any time (as a man who has lived through countless accidents, I find myself repeatedly thinking about losing a limb or some other ability and how my pilot career would be totally wiped out in the blink of an eye).  I don't really worry about that stuff, but the thought has crossed my mind a time or two.

And then I was invited to Mo Gedi's Steakhouse with eight others after church.  And we had a great time of talking over some amazing fettucine alfredo.  And the food is cheap!  I even scored two of the girls' dishes afterwards...they weren't takin' it home, so I volunteered to do just that!

And then tonight I spent a few hours tucked way back in some house in the middle of nowhere.  Seriously.  Go five miles west of Chanute, then go four miles south on a gravel road.  The middle of nowhere.  I ate someone else's food, played someone else's game, and laughed at someone else's jokes.  We ate a ton of food and laughed our faces off with some guy playin' custom songs on the guitar.  We played a rousing game of Pit.  And we joked about everything from Rocky movies to burning fields in Kansas.  I had a blast.

And then it hit me...it's the people that keep me goin'!  I love these people!  I seriously don't know that I've met any nicer bunch of people.  When my car died, they offered me one.  When I go out to eat, they often buy my food.  I get invited to get-togethers frequently.  They ask me about me.  About what I'm doin', about what I like.  They show a GENUINE appreciation to me.  It's hard to beat.  Even tonight, I don't know that I've ever seen such a hospitable place!  My house is your house.  I've just been overly impressed with the people here in Kansas...and frankly in the church, in particular.

So today was a good day.  I had a 2-hour nap (those are becoming more and more frequent...not good), I ate a ton of food, and I hung out with people quickly becomin' some close friends.  And to think I've only been here for 3 weeks.  It's kinda nice.

Switchin' gears a bit, this week is goin' to be interesting with flying.  Tomorrow looks like showers and thunderstorms all day, Tuesday might be more of the same, and I'll be out of here for Easter weekend (I hope to fly over to Missouri to visit the fam).

But before that, I'm shootin' to get that written out of the way.  I watched more King videos today.  I'm 60% done with the questions.  Agggh!  Only 60%!  There is so much to know!  I stuffed my brain with weather today.  Cold fronts, advection fog, temperature inversions, stable air, unstable air, Coriolis force, and on and on and on.

Will the madness ever end?!

Went to bed at 1:00 A.M.  (Oh, and I hear the helicopter landing right now outside my window!  As long as it's before bedtime, that is fine!).