The Sun, The Sun

8:25

Well, it's 8:50 and I slept in until 8:20, for reasons I will explain shortly.  I woke to a room filled with sunlight, a shock and when I went downstairs, the lake was filled with sun, not a cloud in the sky, the lawn a brilliant white reflection of snow crystals.

March Madness With Three Buddies

Yesterday morning  I skipped yoga, because of a strained, uncomfortable iliopsoas muscle; I like spelling it out because I really had never heard of this muscle before having it explained to me in yoga class.  Nothing of note took place in the morning, just a typical yogurt and granola and blueberry breakfast, then a good lunch of matzo ball soup and a cheese sandwich.  Neither of us were interested in doing something outside although Evie 'thought' about going to workout.

Afternoon At The Lake

So, after my nap, I took a shower around 3:00 and at 3:30 I said aloha to Evie because I was going to Buffalo, to attend my first ever March Madness tournament games since my Ohio University team beat Kentucky in the Regionals in 1964.  Sorry for bragging.  I drove to Fredonia, about forty five minutes, met a friend, Greg Prectl, AD at Fredonia State, switched cars, and he drove us to Buffalo, after briefly losing our way.  We got there about 5:30, for the 7:10 game,  parked about a ten minute walk from the center.  We decided to have a beer and a hot dog, tried the 716 bar and were told the wait would be two hours.  So we decided to enter the arena and have a beer there, waiting for the game to start.  Well, first, we had to wait for the arena to empty from the previous games, then get our bags, pockets checked before we got in. And we found out that beer is not sold at NCAA games, probably because college students don't drink beer.

Nose Bleed Seats

So we had coke, sat down and relaxed until the game started at 7:10, Villanova/Mount St. Marys.  We sat with two other buddies, Randy, a fledgling brewer, and Jack, my hops buddy who got the tickets.  We sat in the nose bleed seats, so that the most fun was just being part of the pageantry and crowd.  Villanova struggled the first half but easily beat Mt. St Mary's in the second half.  At half times and in between games all four of us would walk the perimeter of the arena, getting in a good hike, stretching our legs.  Prices for anything were exorbitant, of course, so I limited myself to a bag of peanuts (stale) and a coke.  The second game, Wisconsin/Virginia Tech was better but with ten minutes to go, Greg and I realized we did not have 'a dog in the fight,' could care less who won and decided to head home.  We had had enough b-ball.  Greg dropped me off in Fredonia at 12:15.  I was happy to see Mc Donald's was still open, so I got a double cheese burger, to keep me alert on the way home, a half hour drive through moonlit fields.  From Fredonia to the bridge, I did not meet a car.

I was home at 1:00, tried to take a photo of the moonlit lake, then went to bed at 1:15, read for ten minutes and then had a restless night, not really falling into a deep sleep until early morning.  All in all, it was a fun day, good friends, b-ball, an experience.