1. I managed to slip in a quick nap after breakfast with my buddies at Sam's this morning. Thankfully, I didn't sleep through Christy driving in front of the house to pick me up so that she and Carol and I could enjoy a Sibling Outing together. We went to CdA and had breakfast at Jimmy's Down the Street. I was pretty full after having eaten breakfast shortly after six, but I ordered a bowl of oatmeal and ate most of it.
Carol had a doctor's appointment and Christy and Carol wanted to shop at a nursery in Rathdrum and I decided to break off at this point and spend some time alone. I leapt out of Christy's rig near the corner of Northwest Blvd. and Government Way (apologies to my siblings for calling it Lincoln Way) and went into the Cd'A City Park, walked along the lake shore, walked along the Spokane River, strolled around the North Idaho College campus, and sauntered up and down streets in the Fort Grounds neighborhood with my Nikon in hand, snapping some pictures.
It's been forty-four years since I graduated from North Idaho College and today was the first time I walked around much of the campus. I visited the Student Union, read the plaques in the NIC Sports Hall of Fame, and generally marveled at how the campus has been transformed since I was a student there. I didn't photograph any buildings, but many of them were new to me or had been significantly remodeled. I hope the quality of education is still really good at NIC and matches the campus's gorgeous setting and attractive buildings.
I'll post pictures once I've processed them.
2. Back in Kellogg, I bowed out of Beer Club and didn't make my usual Friday trip to the Lounge because I wanted to focus on writing about my visit to Sacred Heart in my blog and in a letter to the Deke, Christy, and Carol. It looks like the four of us will get together soon, before the Deke takes off to her job in Eugene (which starts Oct. 29th), and discuss how we'll ready ourselves in case a kidney becomes available -- whether a live donor comes forward or the kidney of a deceased person becomes available.
If this surgery were one that could be planned for, I wouldn't be concerned. We could schedule the surgery according to when the Deke and my sisters would be available to provide the two to three weeks of supporting me a transplant requires. But, unless I were to receive a kidney from a living donor, making scheduling possible, the availability of a kidney is entirely unpredictable and plans need to be in place before the kidney is offered. I'm grateful that two friends have said they would help out and when I send in the paperwork regarding who will be available for support, I'll let the social worker know this.
By the way, I am fully aware that a transplant might never happen and I know that, if it does, it could be any number of years before it does happen. Or a kidney could pop up sooner than later. But, as Hamlet said, "If it be now, 'tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come -- the readiness is all."
3. I love watching runs scored in baseball without a home run being hit. Yes, home runs can be dramatic (I'm looking at you Carlton Fisk, Bucky Dent, and Kirk Gibson), but I love it when struck balls stay in the park, runners take risks to advance a couple of bases or to score, and outfielders and relay men have to make pinpoint throws. Tonight's National League playoff game got underway with Dodger leadoff hitter David Freese bombing a home run, but Milwaukee answered in the bottom of the first inning with a base on balls, two singles, and two doubles (not in that order) to manufacture four runs and establish a lead they never gave up on their way to a 7-2 win. It was a great night for the Brewers. Their bullpen dominated the Dodgers in relief of starter Wade Miley and they didn't use their premier reliever, Josh Hader. But, most of all, I enjoyed how the Brewers' batters didn't overreach but spanked hits to the opposite field, hit balls in the outfield gaps, and scored seven runs without a home run.
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