1. To meet my 8:00 appointment this morning, I walked back to the Shoshone Medical Center today, the radioactive material from last week's nuclear heart stress test flushed out of my system, and Sarah had me lie on a table and I submitted to a bone density test/scan. Sarah kept my mind occupied while machine hovered over the lower part of my body by telling me about her family's love for their golden doodle and the grief they recently suffered when a longtime family dog died.
Later, I called Tracy at the lab at the clinic uptown about getting my monthly blood draw done for the transplant program in Spokane and found out that, for the time being, she and the LabCorp trainer she was working with don't know how to enter a blood draw performed for a non-LabCorp entity into their system. I don't understand this problem, but I don't need to. I thanked Tracy for all her work on this, packed my blood draw kit into my backpack, along with my copy of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and took another walk to the Shoshone Medical Center.
I got right in and Geri told me about how much she enjoyed seeing Captain Marvel Monday evening while she drew a vial of blood, labeled it, packed it up, and assured me it would be going out in the mail tomorrow.
2. The back yard is Maggie and Charly's favorite place in their world. Over the past several weeks, the deep snow has severely limited the space they have been able to wander around in.
Today that changed.
There is still plenty of snow in the back yard. A frozen crust, however, has formed on the snow's surface, and today I watched Charly and Maggie walk on top of this crust and make their way to the fence over by Jane's yard, wander to the very back of the yard underneath the lilac bushes, and resume their love of strolling, sniffing around, and exchanging barks with Griz and the other dog staying at Jane's right now.
I came out to the back porch to check on them.
Maggie was back in the far northwest corner of the yard, and, suddenly, upon spotting me, galloped back to the house, as if she were five years old again.
Recently, Maggie has spent much of her time in the house resting. She's been eating eagerly, drinking plenty of water, and, once a day, continues to lick Charly's face and ears, taking care of her.
But, she's slowing down, and seeing her burst into this gallop and spring up the steps on the back porch and bound into the house made my heart leap up. I don't remember the last time I saw Maggie so animated, so energized.
Charly's hind legs are giving out on her, but, she, too, not only managed to wander around the yard, but also to sprint in her own way back up the steps and into the house. My heart leaped up again.
3. I checked in with Sally this afternoon to find out if she was about to watch Indiana's basketball game with St. Francis (PA) in the opening round of the NIT. Sally made me laugh when she replied, "Yes, with no stress" (because it's the second tier NIT, not the first tier NCAA tournament). I thought Indiana was sluggish, maybe disengaged, in the first half. They were behind, 40-34, at halftime, thanks, in part, to surrendering four free throws with a second left in the half, a consequence of Coach Archie Miller being assessed a technical foul for hectoring the referees. Indiana came alive in the second half and steamrolled the Red Flash on their way to an 89-72 victory.
While I watched the Indiana game, with the sound muted, on the television, I also watched and listened to the NCAA tournament's opening game, the Fairleigh Dickinson/Prairie View A & M tilt on my tablet. I was especially interested in this game because the winner plays Gonzaga on Thursday.
I loved this game.
Both teams wanted to push the tempo and, early in the game, Prairie View kept things sped up with a flurry of steals on defense and launched a blizzard of successful three point missiles. After the half, Prairie View cooled off a bit and Fairleigh Dickinson's flashy and gifted guards, Darnell Edge and Jahlil Jenkins, spurred a furious comeback and the taller and stronger Knights prevailed, 82-76.
When Fairleigh Dickinson plays Gonzaga, their front court will be overmatched by the quicker, more athletic Brandon Clarke and Rui Hachimura. If the Knights are going to compete with the Zags, it will because the guards who played so well tonight duplicate their effort against Gonzaga. But, when Gonzaga lost to St. Mary's, it was largely because St. Mary's executed a slowdown strategy and muscled up the Zags inside. I don't know if it's in Fairleigh Dickinson's DNA to play at a slower tempo and, while one of their forwards, Mike Holloway, Jr, is a muscular force inside, I don't think the Knights will be able to pack the key and collapse on the Zags inside the way St. Mary's did.
Over the last few years, I've been aware that Belmont University near Nashville has had a strong basketball program. I was excited to see them play for the first time this evening and their game against Temple was a lot of fun. Temple blanketed and shut down Belmont's best scorer, Dylan Windler, but Belmont proved not to be dependent upon Windler in order to score and win. Windler only scored five points, fifteen below his average, but Belmont intelligently exploited Temple's attention to Windler. Other players like Kevin McClain (29 points) and Nick Muszynski (16 points) were not guarded as fervently. They were either single covered or just plain open and they hit a high percentage of their shots and fueled the Bruins to a 81-70 victory.
Belmont's win lands them in a Thursday game with the young, strong, and often unpredictable Maryland Terrapins. Can Muszynski score inside against the Terps' Fernando Bruno? Can Belmont unleash Dylan Windler and still get production from Kevin McClain? How will Belmont handle Anthony Cowan? Jalen Smith?
Back to Asia: Only Time Will Tell.
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