Monday I checked in with my Doctor who said my recovery is on track. I'll check in again next Monday (the 4th Feb) and, baring something odd, she'll clear me for going to court again starting the 5th. I'm looking forward to it, as you can imagine.

I was released from the hospital the afternoon following the operation, and given antibiotics and pain pills. I'm not a big fan of pain pills, so I didn't take any. As with my previous operation in the 90's, no pain after I was released. Perhaps they had me doped up enough that for the 1st day or so I was coasting on prior pills, I don't know. In the hospital I was awake for a few minutes each hour, then fell asleep again. By the afternoon I was staying awake, so perhaps the drugs were wearing off.

Today I'm in the office, but on a restricted schedule. My first "hearing" will be a telephone call from the DMV to defend a DUI client's license at his Administrative hearing, this Friday. Don't have to leave home for that one. Meanwhile I'm thinking about the cases a lot. Got a great new theory for two of them but if you want to hear it you'll have to attend the trials. They'll be in Ukiah and San Rafael later this Spring. I'll let you know.

Thanks for the good wishes. All is going well.

I thought it was the stomach flu, but it got worse over 48 hours. The pain on the right side of my abdominal area was the most intense I have ever experienced. (Hospitals ask you to give them 1 to 10 severity where 1 is low and 10 is high. This was a definite 10.) The ride from Alderpoint to the Garberville hospital ER was long, although it is amazing how suffering pain can condense time, at least in retrospect. I thought something had burst inside me, but at the ER I remembered that I had gall stones. They had been inactive and some time back I turned down an offer to remove them (and my gall bladder) Now that changed, they were active and I was sorry I waited for it. I got enough demerol to numb me out and an ambulance ride to Fortuna where I had an operation to remove my gall bladder. Much better. I was back home the next day.

But I'm grounded until a week from Monday, so don't look for me in the halls of justice this week. I'll be in the salons of medicine instead. The good news is that they can do the operation with several very small incisions, so recovery is quick.

I won't go into tedious detail but let me make this suggestion. If you find that you have gall stones, don't wait for them to act up before you get the operation. It is really not much fun when they do act up, and it can play havoc with your schedule. I knew I had gall stones but I didn't know that was like having a bomb in my gut that could go off someday. Now I know. Now you know.

Today I left home early in order to get to Eureka before the mountain became too dangerous from the hail and 1500' snow level. I felt like a fool as I passed the late Paul's house about 1/2 mile from mine and the rain and hail stopped and the road was perfectly dry. These are showers, and very limited in scope. No problems over the hill, as we say. But 101, well that's a different story. I went around one bend and there was this white stuff by the roadside. Looked like snow to me and I slowed way down. The road suddenly was wet and slippery and there in the SB lane was a truck parked parallel - ie in the ditch. Another turn and we're back on dry road. But perhaps a mile further and there are just black tracks through a white roadway, and there in the SB lane is a car upside down with lots of emergency vehicles flashing their lights around it. These showers of snow and hail are tricky things, and they were so localized that you could easily think nothing could happen to you on 101 - after all you're in the river valley and its a freeway. But, two accidents in one mile. I drove really slowly to Eureka.

Here for an early morning court appearance. Dinner at the Cafe Waterfront - its Monday Meatloaf night. Generous servings of pure comfort food. With enough left over for Tuesday lunch. (It wasn't bad cold, much to my delight and surprise). Good house red, too.

But the walk home. Spooky even without the fog. Old Town is deserted after dark - maybe before, who knows. F street has a couple of places oriented to the young and there were lights and people hanging out (3 or 4) but the rest of the area: whew. You walk alone up the dark and deserted street, pavement damp from the fog, rather hoping that no nutcase will siddle up alongside of you and hold a one-sided conversation that grows increasingly loud, animated, and perhaps angry. No, better to walk alone. Perfect crime scene except there's no one there to attract the criminals.

Mary Alice has pneumonia, not the cold from hell. She had no fever which was confusing to me, but I took her to see the doctor and she had pneumonia which they treated with good old western medicine's favorite: a shot, inhale some meds, and take some pills. Worked like a charm, too.

I still have the cold from heck.

Patronas, my fave restaurant in Ukiah, still makes a great burger. After changing the name of their pizza to "flatbread", which makes me expect some sort of scandinavian cracker, I was afraid the burger title would go upscale too, but so far so good.

If you're like me, a road warrior, you probably eat some meals in the car on the road. Here's where i stop for a quick sandwich and coke. Willits Safeway, Peg House, Rays in Garbervile or Redway Liquors in Redway. The Eureka co-op makes good sandwiches but its not always fast.

BTW after railing mentally at the Eureka Co-op for labeling cokes as a boycotted drink but still selling them, I got my comeupance when I last went there because there was not only no label, there were no cokes. I had to buy my sandwich from the co-op and my coke from the liquor store by the Townhouse. Next time its probably the Hole in the Wall, which makes an excellent sandwich if you can stand the incessant questions about ingredients. Like Subway its "have it your way" carried to an extreme. My way is this: they make a good sandwich and I buy it.