So Kathie and I decided to go camping in Big Basin over the weekend (yes, in the rain). It was a blast. We learned just what level of grade you can pitch a tent on and still be comfortable. We learned how much “kindling” really is “included”. We learned that my hair really doesn’t let go of campfire smell. And I learned what coyote shit looks like (near miss…whew).

So after we had a nice hike to a cute little waterfall Sunday morning, we started heading out of the park and I decided we should lunch at China Grade. Well I remembered exactly where China Grade road was, but couldn’t find the spot. On the third mis-trek into the bush, I called Dad and asked if he could give any hints. He got us up farther to the top and we managed to find it from there. The rock’s still there. The face is still the same. Though any path that may have taken you from the rock to the face is totally overgrown, you basically have to go back to the road to get between the two. Unfortunately, I had forgotten a camera so there aren’t any pictures of the weekend, but I thought I’d offer up a couple more landmarks for anyone trying to find this spot.

Once on China Grade Rd it’s long ways up the mountain. You’ll pass Trey’s Ranch on your right. You’ll then pass a triple madrona (3 trees basically growing out of same spot) on your left. Then look for two wooden posts (6″ × 6″ x 2 ft tall) that mark an entrance to a “trail” on left. Park there (just room for one car). Just to the right of the “trail” you can go up to the rock. Or follow the “trail” (a bit overgrown) to get down to face.

Good fun.

It’s a pretty nice fall in Kansas so far. We had a cold streak for about a week, and then it warmed up. This weekend was absolutely perfect weather, and we did almost nothing to take advantage of it. Well, I mowed the yard, of course. We took a walk. The Baldwin Maple Leaf Festival was a week or two ago, and we missed it.

Been working on another website: Douglas County Bar Association. I couldn’t believe we didn’t have a website, so I put one together.

Cinnamon is doing okay. She seems like her old self except: tips head to the side almost always, demands expensive soft dog food, falls over occasionally when excited, farts a lot from the expensive dog food. But, she runs the yard like before, and likes to play keep-away with the tennis ball or chew-toy.

Interesting timing on a new judge’s slot opening up. I’m afraid I’ll have to go for it again, gang, but I expect it’ll be like always before. I just don’t have the connections.

Meeces. Yup. Uh-huh.

So, other than that, how was your day, you ask?

Well, this afternoon I had to run over to Olathe to hand carry some court documents through the system over there. It’s a twilight zone. Well, they all are any more, but Johnson County is the most bizarre. I knew there would be some glitch. And there was. The court clerk wanted $5.00. I wasn’t supposed to have to pay $5.00, because I already paid it before. But I knew it was no use arguing. Better to just give her the 5.00, right? So I got out my billfold and laid a five dollar bill on the counter. She said, “It has to be a check.” How do you respond to that? It can’t be right. Hallucination. Reality check: “What did you say?” “It has to be a check. Five dollars.” Unfortunately, I didn’t have my checkbook. It took 15 minutes and two supervisors before they decided that cash would be okay.

I’m not even going to tell you rest of the story. I’ll just summarize: it gets worse.

Yup. Just another typical day.

We saw Bill Cosby at Allen Field House last night. I was a fan even before he did the TV series, I Spy, with Robert Culp, back when spy shows were big (Get Smart, Man from UNCLE, The Prisoner). As I recall, there was an I Spy movie a few years ago, which wasn’t much better than the movie they made out of Starsky and Hutch. Anyhow, the Coz is still great. What a talent. The only disappointing part was that an hour and half only seemed like a half.

Cinnamon is doing pretty well. She still stumbles and falls occasionally, and her head’s still tipped to the side. But she navigates okay, and can run across the yard and do most everything she did before, except eat her old Science Diet dry dog food. I guess we’re stuck with canned glop from now on.

Life is largely back to normal with Cinnamon, except for diet. She still turns her nose up at the Science Diet she’s been eating for the last 13 years. However, if mixed about half and half with Alpo or some other soft and “tasty” dog food, she’ll eat it all. For a while, she would actually manage to spit out the Science Diet pellets while eating the other. Maybe she’s getting hungry enough to eat it all now. Thing is, those “gourmet” dog foods are a heckuva lot more expensive. She still stumbles now and then, but she’s mostly back to racing up and down the stairs, and in and out the back door, although you can tell she’s paranoid by the way she’ll stop and think twice at certain spots. Still veers off a straight line, but now sometimes overcompensates, veering too much to the left. The head is still tilted, but I haven’t noticed her eyes flicking back and forth for a few days. So, status is good and prognosis looks good.

Other than Cinnamon, we don’t have anything to report. That’s pretty pathetic! I’ll have to start making things up.

Oh – and this is true – I quit taking Vioxx a month before they recalled it. I sent faxes to my doctors a month ago asking if they remembered I was taking Vioxx and pointing out the recent studies indicating potential issues for cardiac patients. They weren’t too concerned and left it up to me whether to switch. So, I switched to Celebrex. What’s troubling is that I can’t see any real difference between Vioxx and Celebrex that would make Celebrex safer. But, that’s what the studies seem to indicate. They’ll probably implicate Celebrex in a few more months. Becky’s Blue Cross plan just sent home a notice putting all the Cox2 drugs in a “managed care” category – meaning they won’t be covered by insurance unless approved in advance by Blue Cross, or something like that. It appears to me that the strategy is to discontinue coverage of pain prescriptions; covering drugs that save your life, but not drugs that save your quality of life. Well, that’d save them about $700 a month in my case.