1. I medicated Copper and Luna for fleas after I fed them and gave Luna her insulin shot and her dose of antibiotics and then I headed to Yoke's for a quick trip. I volunteered to bring baked beans to family dinner on Sunday. I found a recipe for crockpot baked beans -- a convenient recipe to put together while watching 150,000 college basketball games -- and needed to buy some bacon and onions.
I'd soaked a pound of navy beans all night. I drained them, put them in the crock pot, and added a chopped onion, a quarter pound of bacon pieces, molasses, brown sugar, and a combination of freshly produced chicken stock and water.
The chicken stock had been bubbling away since Saturday and was ebony, flavored with parsley, celery, bay leaves, onion, and cilantro. I strained the stock, put it containers. One of the quart containers was only half full and I used that stock in the beans.
Now the beans just had to slowly cook for about eight hours or so and early in the evening I added in a tablespoon of Dijon mustard. I let the beans stay warm overnight and I'll check to see if I want them to be thicker when I wake up in the morning.
2. Inevitably, watching hoops all day meant that I experienced one disappointment, but a lot of real pleasure. It disappointed me that Virginia Commonwealth Univ had to forfeit its game against Oregon because of Covid infections in their program. Oregon was scheduled to play late in the day and I was really looking forward to seeing how they would perform.
But, I experienced some deep enjoyment. Eastern Washington University played a strong game against the mighty blueblood Kansas squad and it was fun to see the two Shadle Park graduates (from Spokane), brothers Tanner and Jacob Groves, play so well and to see EWU make this a highly competitive game. I guess I'd have to say that I never expected EWU to win it, but that the outcome was in doubt for about 75-80% of the game was a fun surprise.
When I was in junior high through my college days, I was a dedicated UCLA men's basketball fan. It all started because classmate and close friend Terry Turner's half brother, Denny Crum, was an assistant coach at UCLA until the 71-72 season and I loved how UCLA played under Coach John Wooden.
Well, it's been many, many years since I felt any excitement about UCLA, but I felt some of it again on Thursday when they defeated Michigan State and felt some of that old invigoration of my youth tonight as UCLA battled BYU and defeated the Cougars, 73-62.
A new experience for me, since I lived in Maryland, is to get excited about watching the Maryland Terrapins play basketball and I loved how they played tough defense, deliberate and disciplined offense, and defeated UConn, 63-54.
I stopped watching Gonzaga waltz to its 98-55 victory over Norfolk State because on another channel the Wildcats of Abeline Christian, a school that's only been playing Division I basketball for about seven years, was playing a nail-biter with Texas, the champions of the might Big 12 Conference Tournament. My imagination was insufficient to even imagine that Abeline Christian could win this game, but by forcing tons of turnovers, playing a slow down style, keeping the game ugly, and thanks to a couple of game winning free throws in the game's last second, the Wildcats defeated the Longhorns by a point, 53-52.
I could hardly believe what I witnessed.
3. I wondered over the last couple of days if, when Byrdman and I lunched at MickDuff's, I might have picked up a bit of the Covid virus. On Thursday and Friday, I had slight discomfort in my throat, I was coughing about two or three times an hour, my nose was a little bit runny, and I felt some chest congestion. (Could have been allergies.)
I wasn't running a fever, though, and my taste and smell were fine. No headache. No nausea. No real feelings of fatigue. No malaise.
My rational mind trusts that if I was exposed to the virus, the vaccination helped my body fight it off.
But, my rational mind also knows that if I did pick up a bit of the virus, it's possible that I could spread it.
I decided to lie low for a few days and, when I go out, I'll cover my mouth and nose.
I'm not concerned about getting sick myself. I trust the vaccine.
But, the jury is still out regarding whether vaccinated people might spread the virus -- and, so, I will be mindful of protecting others, especially at family dinner on Sunday and at the auto repair shop on Monday.
Oh! By the way, I felt fine today. No hint of a sore throat, no cough, no sinus drip, no tingling in my chest - and my energy was good.
I just thought, so when I look back on this blog one day, that I'd establish a record of what the days after Wednesday's road trip looked like and how I was thinking about my health and, more important, the health of others and what I decided to do.
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