1. It was kind of a bad news, good news day -- but the bad wasn't that bad and the good news was unspectacular, but really good.
First, the (sort of) bad news.
I walked up to the Shoshone Medical Center to have a bone density scan done as part of last Monday's annual physical exam. While filling out a two page survey about my blood and bones, I indicated that earlier in the week radioactive material had been injected into my bloodstream as a part of a nuclear heart stress test. A couple of the staff in radiology huddled and decided it would be best if waited until next week to have this scan done, so I'll return on to SMC on Tuesday morning.
Later in the day, knowing that Nurse Sheri at Providence Sacred Heart had submitted the work order to the clinic uptown to draw a sample of my blood each month, I loaded my blood draw kit into my backpack and walked to the clinic.
Phlebotomist Tracy wasn't sure if she could help me out today. The lab at the clinic is now a full on LabCorp site. Protocols have changed. Tracy wasn't sure how to enter a blood draw for Inland Northwest Blood Center into the system. She is still learning. A phone call wasn't much help. The man who is training Tracy for LabCorp returns to the clinic on Tuesday, so Tracy asked me if I could wait until then, call her, find out if she can perform this service for me, and, if not, have my blood drawn at the Shoshone Medical Center.
No problem.
I'll let Nurse Sheri in Spokane know that things are uncertain at the clinic and that I might need a blood draw order submitted to the hospital.
2. The good news.
Nearly everyone I've talked with today, whether Ed, Buff, and Terrie at Sam's for breakfast, the people helping me at the clinic and hospital, Darlene, a checker at Yoke's, or Ron, John, and Jeri at the Lounge (Cas is in Nevada for the weekend), agree that this week's snowfall was probably our last storm, that the weather is going to gradually warm up, and, in time, the snow will melt.
In other words, the conditions are going to be improving all the time for walking.
So, even though neither of my medical visits worked out today, I got in nearly four miles of walking --- somewhere around 7500 to 8000 steps. I enjoyed a can of 7 Up at the Lounge, picked up a few groceries at Yoke's, and purchased a bottle of E & J VSOP Brandy at the liquor store.
My legs felt strong. I didn't get winded. I felt invigorated, especially after not walking this much for a few weeks during the recent cold snap and snow storms.
Furthermore, since I need to have the scan and blood draw done next week, I will have walking destinations built into my schedule then.
Next up? Getting my camera back out.
3. Back home around 3:45, it was time to dive into the March Madness of conference basketball tournaments. I opened my Fubo app on my tablet so I could watch the Big East tilts and, simultaneously, watched the ACC semifinals on ESPN on the Vizio. By the time the Ducks' game came on at around 8:45, I was able to watch that game alone. No simulcasts.
I love watching two basketball games at the same time and the viewing today was very challenging. All the games were close, riveting, dramatic, sometimes chaotic, and demanded my full attention.
Villanova scrapped back behind the steely leadership of Phil Booth and Eric Paschall and some clutch shooting by Jermaine Samuels and gutted out a thrilling 71-67 win over Xavier in overtime.
Meanwhile, the towering, lengthy, athletic, deep, and tough-minded Florida State Seminoles fought off every comeback attempt staged by the Virginia Cavaliers and very impressively defeated the nation's top-ranked team, 69-59.
In the other Big East semifinal, Seton Hall and Marquette squared off in an intense, bitter, emotional, physical, verbally aggressive, and bruising game. How chippy was this game?
57 fouls
9 technical fouls
3 players ejected
Even though the greatest rivalry in college sports, Duke vs. North Carolina, was being played at the same time as Seton Hall and Marquette, I was totally absorbed by the Seton Hall/Marquette game. The action was fierce, the players' faces were visibly drawn, the lines of fatigue growing, weary eyes sinking deep into sockets -- I thought I could tell some players had cried during this game --, but not one player relented. In the end, Seton Hall prevailed, 81-79.
Now these wrung out Seton Hall players have to rest and recover and within 24 hours give everything they've got in the tournament's championship game against Villanova.
The Duke/North Carolina game was close. It was intense. The game more than confirmed that Duke's freaky and superb forward Zion Williamson has recovered from the knee injury he suffered a few weeks ago.
The teams played hard, often played beautifully, with astonishing grace and speed and power.
But, this game didn't rivet me the way the Seton Hall/Marquette game did. You'd think it would. Duke and Carolina are college basketball's premier programs, the heavyweights of the sport.
My explanation? Seton Hall and Marquette are not elite programs or elite teams. They are underdogs. Neither team has a McDonald's All-American on its roster. Duke and North Carolina played hard. Both teams wanted badly to win for all kinds of historical reasons, state pride reasons, for reasons having to do with ascending to the throne of college basketball.
But neither team was desperate. They don't need to be. They have other noble motivations. They are pursuing college basketball's loftiest goals. But they aren't desperate for success.
Seton Hall and Marquette both struck me as desperate to advance to their conference's tournament final. No one assumes, as everyone does with Duke and North Carolina, that Seton Hall or Marquette will succeed in the national tournament, no matter what happens in the conference tournament. Seton Hall and Marquette were desperately battling for respect, for the chance to knock off Villanova (national champs two of the last three years) tomorrow, and to show basketball fans in Madison Square Garden and on national television, who might not have paid them much attention this season, that they play hard-nosed, passionate basketball with great skill and determination.
I enjoy underdogs. I loved watching Seton Hall and Marquette spend themselves right to the final buzzer in pursuit of intangible rewards exceeding the game's final score.
Oh. By the way, Duke beat North Carolina, 74-73. It was an awesome game.
Yes, I love underdogs.
Like the Oregon Ducks men's basketball team. They came to Las Vegas this week riding the wave of a late season winning streak, but were the lowest seeded team of the four semi-finalists in the Pac-12 Conference tournament.
Tonight, they raced to an early lead against Arizona State, but fell into a funk, a slump in the second half and fell behind by as many as eight points and looked worn out.
But, fairly late in the game, the Ducks stole the rock on consecutive possession from ASU and it fired up the Ducks. With a minute and a half left in the game, an Oregon senior reserve Ehab Amin hit a rainbow trey to tie the game, neither team scored again, and so we basketball fans got to watch some bonus basketball in overtime.
The Ducks scored the first eight points in overtime, dug in and held off ASU's spirited attempts to come back, and won the game, 79-75.
My thanks to Linda Schantol for helping me make it, via text message exchanges, through this nailbiter without cardiac arrest.
Next up? The Ducks square off against the conference tournament's top seed, the Washington Huskies. Just a week ago the Ducks upset the Dawgs in Seattle.
Can this upstart, underdog, scrappy Ducks team upset the Huskies again? We will soon find out.
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