We are back from a camping trip to Spring Mill State Park, one that started badly and ended badly, but everything in the middle was great. We left town Wednesday by around noon, after exhaustive preparations consisting of nothing at all, but we managed to get everything into the back of the truck and not even have to open up the camper at all. And we only had to stop to buy something we forgot...all our pots and pans...once. We got there around dinnertime, and it was wet, gray, humid, and a bit drizzly. And the campsite we got was not level. Well, not level we can deal with, but this site was so not level that we used up all our firewood (scrap lumber) trying to level the camper. We had a layer of 2x4s and 6 boards under one wheel, and a stack of 2x4s six high under the tongue and still couldn't get it level, and we were already afraid of it rolling all downhill during the night, so were we able to switch sites. At the new one the camper was leveled by the simple act of unhitching it. Anyway, we were late for dinner because it took so long to set up so we ate at a pizza place. By bedtime, all the windows were open because it was so muggy and stuffy, except for the roof vent and in the beds because it drizzled some. But Thursday morning, the sky was crystal clear and it was sunny and 72, and it was like that until Saturday evening. We spent a lot of time at the pool at the campground, which was VERY nice, better than a muddy lake with a gravel beach. We visited to pioneer village (didn't spend as much time as I would have liked), toured Bluespring Caverns, went on a hayride, I did some geocaching, went to the pool, we had some great camp food (tinfoil dinners...mmm,mnmm), spent half a day at a water park in French Lick, went to the pool...THEN, after the campfire pizzas and hot dogs, it suddenly clouded up. We started putting some things away in the truck (the bikes, firewood etc) but as distant thunder started, we thought maybe we should pack up and head home early. Then the thunder got closer, fast, and we put the kids in the truck and started just throwing things anywhere they would fit and trying to get it all packed up as fast as possible. We were about halfway there when the rain started...HARD. And the lightning and thunder got REALLY CLOSE. And the wind came up awfully hard and blew the awning up over the top of the camper. And the camper wasn't even halfway down, but past the point where we could just stop. Beth and I were frantically trying to get everything packed and closed when the lightning was actually in the park and we had to jump in the truck (with two terrified kids) and wait for a bit while it poured buckets on our half-put-down camper. When the lightning slowed down we managed to get everything packed and closed up, even the awning, but we were both drenched to the bone and so was the camper, at least as far as we could tell. We did get everything packed except a small cooler that we could find no room for. And we hitched up with some assistance from our neighbor (he shone his headlights towards us) and hit the road by around 9:30, home by 2:00 am. I spent the morning getting the camper opened back up and unpacked, luckily it's mostly sunny and warm so things are laying out in the sun. The camper interior is pretty dry now, it didn't get as wet as I'd feared; mostly it was the cushions that got wet. Those are drying out pretty well. Overall, however, this was an awesome camping trip.

Today the softball season came to an abrupt end. Since we were the lowest seed, we played in the first game against the second-lowest seed, a play-in game if you will, and we lost fairly handily, something like 28-13. But we scrapped and we kept chipping, and I was proud of us. So we played the first losers' bracket game two hours later as well, and lost that one too something like 18-12. In that one, we almost kept up with them for a while but eventually they pulled away. Again, I was proud of us. Compared to where we were when the season started, I tell ya, we would kick our own butts if we could play us from then. But anyway, I'm going to try to get a co-ed team together and see if we can keep playing, because it's been a lot of fun this season even with all the losing. I didn't keep track of my own batting average this year but I think it was actually over 0.500.

Looks like we have another home improvement project in our near future. I've seen water stains appearing on the ceiling tiles in the downstairs bathroom for a little while now, but today I was down there while one of this kids was taking a shower and it started coming down in torrents. Looks like it's coming from the shower faucet, no surprise, the same one that's been fixed for leaking a couple times before. Well, fixing it is over, this is going to be a replace. I did some poking around and found several places where the drywall was not so dry any more, pretty rotten behind the tile. Especially where the soap dish was, because that fell off and has been covered with plastic sheeting to keep it dry for a while now. No longer dry. Water has gone under the floor tiles and pretty much destroyed the particle board (shaking head) underneath it. And I can tell there is a lot of mold under the shower tile. This is going to be a big job. I knew it was coming, I guess, but have delayed specifically because I knew that there was going to be no patching in there. In order to replace anything, it's all going to have to go. I've known it had to for a long time. Now it's time. Need a contractor.

Today I had the day off, obviously. Since that exhibition of life-size bronze statues has been scattered all throughout downtown for a few weeks, Beth & I & the kids & Mom & Dad went on a walking tour of the town, checking out the statues and re-creating the poses. With mixed success. We even got Mom & Dad to hug to re-enact the 'reunion' statue! But anyway it was a nice day for a walk downtown. And we had lunch at the Korner Grill, which we keep saying we ought to try one of these days, and everyone really liked it, even the kids! We all took in the fireworks show from a spot on the grass between the Village and Grace College, but I think the vantage point is better from the fairgrounds. But, they don't have ice cream there. Heh, Mom was the only person there wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. Afterwards, we set off all the fireworks we bought yesterday at home. We learned a couple of things, too: one, those fly-up-and-explode parachute-launching firworks make a real mess, because the parachutey things go everywhere, and two, sometimes the emits-showers-of-sparks cannister things just explode all at once with a huge report.

Today we bought an obscene amount of fireworks from the place downtown. We are going to light things up, fo'sho'...

Our dear sweet kitty Iris went to the vet today because she has been wheezing ever since we came back from the trip to Indy. We had assumed it was just a respiratory infection or something, but she turned out to be worse than we thought. Her lungs were clear, but she was having labored, shallow breathing and the vet gave us two possibilities, one being asthma, and the other, confirmed after an x-ray, was that she has a form of congestive heart failure. Her heart is about 30% enlarged, and there apparently isn't much to be done about it. She got a steroid shot, and she can be kept comfortable and cool to help her breathe, but the prognosis is not good, and she will probably last a few weeks to a few months.