Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Three Beautiful Things 11/26/18: Paying Bills, Walking for Stamps, Bloggin' and Zaggin'

1. Yes, quite a bit of money flowed out from the Deke and me today, but I am relieved to have our home and auto insurance paid off for the next year, our property tax bill paid, my glasses paid for, and medical bills paid off. Since moving to Idaho, I've decided to return to paying a lot of bills by check. I like having the record of my payments on hand and paying out money is more tangible to me when I write a check rather than depend on automatic electronic withdrawls or paying with a bank card.

2. Because these days I like to pay bills with checks and mail them out, I need to have postage stamps on hand and I evidently recently misplaced my envelope marked STAMPS in huge black Sharpie letters. I always keep my STAMPS envelope in my home business basket, but it isn't there. I lost my stamps. Okay. No problem. I wanted to get in a good walk anyway today so I slipped on my back pack and walked down Cameron to what used to be Sunnyside Drug and bought a packet of file folders and a box of Kleenex. My hope to buy stamps at the drug store was dashed so I headed south on Hill Street and bought stamps at Yoke's. It wasn't terribly cold out, but a little chilly, and I decided a hot drink would be satisfying. So, I skipped on over to The Bean, ordered a Chai Tea Latte, put stamps on the envelopes I was carrying, enjoyed my drink, and, before long, dropped the bills in the mailbox in front of Stein's and walked on home. I almost got in 4000 steps, almost walked two miles. I sat in our comfortable chair in the living room, was going to briefly rest my eyes. Instead, I fell asleep.

3. I have been tardy in completing the Sibling Assignments Carol and Christy gave a while back and I hadn't even made my own assignment. I determined that today I was going to get my assignment out and write up the posts I hadn't even started yet. I was so determined to get this done that I stayed home during the Zags' game instead of going over to Christy and Everett's. I spent several hours writing these assignments today and I completed one, wrote a draft of another that I want to review and revise, and figured out what I'm going to write in response to my own assignment.

I also kept an eye on the mismatch between Gonzaga and North Dakota State. Gonzaga dominated the Bisons and beat them 102-60. When I flipped the game on at around six o'clock, I heard the disheartening news that Zag guard Geno Crandall broke a bone in his right hand during a defensive drill in practice on Sunday and will be on the bench for 4-6 weeks. This injury hardly stymied Gonzaga tonight. Gonzaga Prep might have given North Dakota State a good game. But, with games against very strong teams coming up -- Creighton, Washington, Tennessee, and North Carolina -- in December, the Zags will miss the depth Crandall gives them and will have to be more careful about players getting in foul trouble and Mark Few will have to figure out different ways to give his starters occasional rest during these challenging games. Will Mark Few chisel out more playing time for youngsters Greg Foster, Jr. and Joel Ayayi? Will he trust them with more minutes against such elite teams? I'll be fascinated to see how the Zags deal with this situation and will be even more fascinated to see what happens when Geno Crandall and Killian Tillie return from their injuries in January or February. Stay tuned.

During the game, I mostly thought about two things: this game must have been much easier on Christy's nerves than the Maui Classic was (!), and, because he loves the Zags to score 100 points in games, it must have made Everett pretty happy when Gonzaga hit the century mark.

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