Brackets

The NCAA basketball playoffs, March Madness, has always been one of my favorite sporting events.  As part of the experience, I fill out the brackets, not to compete, but for the enjoyment.  I usually fill out the ESPN brackets, but this year it was the NCAA brackets.  At this point in the tournament, I’m at the 27th percentile, 1,500,000 people ahead of me.  Now that is terrible.  Any five-year-old who has never seen a basketball game could beat me.

So what’s my winning (not) strategy?  I pick my favorite teams and teams from my favorite conferences.  I used to analyze teams and pick ones that I thought would win.  But, I found myself rooting against the teams I like.  That wasn’t fun.  So this year I picked teams from the ACC and Southeast Conference.  They mostly bombed.  And I usually don’t pick teams from the west coast.  This year they have been brilliant.  In fact, Michigan was the only team east of the Mississippi River in the Elite Eight.

I’ve watched most of the games on TV, but It’s not as much fun when my teams lose in the early rounds.  Next year, I'm going to find a five-year-old to help me with my bracket.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

COVID-19

 We made plans to go to Florida for 2 ½ months in 2021 as we did in 2020.  But, then came COVID-19, and we weren’t sure whether we should go this year or not.  We decided to take a chance.  We stayed in one motel on the way down.  Aloma had her cleaning supplies handy, and she gave our room a good cleaning.

Once we were in our condo in Naples, we mostly stayed home and ate out once a week, but always outdoors.  Steve did the grocery shopping early while there were few people in the stores and was back home by 8:00 a.m.  We didn’t go to the pool, just walked and watched the wildlife from our lanai.

We thought we could get our vaccines in Florida and read they were available to everyone.  Florida residents complained, and it was announced you had to have proof of Florida residency to get a vaccine.

Most of our friends back in Cary had gotten their vaccinations by the time we got back home.  We immediately started looking online.  For the first few days, nothing was available.  Then we found an opening about 30 minutes away, so Aloma got her shot last Thursday.  We found another opening an hour away for Friday, and we grabbed it for Steve.

Neither of us had any reactions from the shots, although we were tired for a few days.  Our second shots are scheduled for the first week of April.

Hooray!  We feel lucky and blessed.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Wildlife

 We spent January and February in SW Florida again in a condo with a lanai overlooking  a small lake the size of a football field.  With nothing to do because of the COVID restrictions, we spent most of our time on the Lanai watching the lake, the fountain in the middle of it, and the wildlife.

Birds we recognized were:  ducks, anhingas, herons (baby blue and great), egrets (medium and great), kingfisher, osprey, mockingbird, woodpecker, vultures (circling overhead), and one of our favorites--ibis, with their beak curved downward, pecking at the grass..

Other than birds we saw rabbits, squirrels, turtles, and best of all, two lake otters that came out of the lake on the bank just 20 feet from where we were sitting.  No snakes, unlike last year.

Our best wildlife experience was watching eagles on a 24/7 camera in Ft. Myers 30 miles north of us.  We watched two eggs hatch in the middle of January, and we’ve seen them develop into healthy eagles, now 5 ½ weeks old.  They eat whatever their parents bring them including fish (occasionally still alive), small mammals, birds, and un-identified roadkill.  Some of it is pretty gross. An unusual development occurred this year.  Both babies got an eye infection.  They were removed from the next for about a week, treated, and then returned.  Their parents accepted their return immediately.  The website is:  https://dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com