The "The Brackets of March Madness", edition.

It looks like a sunny cloudless day out here. I need to get the chairs for the balcony porch. I'd like to enjoy it before it gets too hot out here. I'm taken aback that the temps are expect to reach the 90s next weekend. Unseasonably warm, they say.  I found a farmers market. There is supposed to be one downtown, but I guess it hasn't opened for the season?  I don't know. The one I went to was in downtown Summerlin. Don't be fooled by the name. It's an open air mall that resembles a small city downtown. You can drive through the shopping area and park on the street. But it's still a mall. Anyway, the farmers market was similar to what we found in the much smaller city of Springfield, Illinois, except Springfield's was better.  It was mostly vendors selling stuff like sauces and oils and stuff. There was one produce vendor and the prices were high but the produce looked Bleah. I have no expectation of Eastern Market, but come on...throw me a bone!   Lol.  We left with some good popcorn. 

So March Madness. When I worked we had a pretty nice bracket going. Players from City departments participated and a guy in accounting tracked the brackets, bless his heart.  We'd have up to 50+ people in the pool at a cost of $10 per person. Yes, I won one year and Brian won once also. Once I retired, Brian, Shawn and I would do our own little bracket pool at $10 per sheet. (Yes, we fronted Shawn the money). This year I asked Dad if he wanted to do the brackets. We had to explain it to him. I'm going out on a limb to think that brackets were really starting about the time he retired in 1988.  I don't mean brackets didn't exist back then, but I think they really took off in the 90s. 

Dad filled out his brackets and I explained how it was scored. Shawn also emailed her picks to Brian and we were off!  We had to explain the difference between how the betting on the brackets was different from the sports books out here. Such as, if Kentucky wins the whole thing, its not a bad thing for the brackets. The line for Kentucky is 6:5. Meaning if you bet $600, you win $500. Huh?   Lol. 

Well Dad was glued to his sheet all weekend. He really got into the brackets. He started studying that sheet to see possible combinations. We were all good after day one despite a few upsets. After round one, I had 27 points, Dad had 24 and Brian had 23. I'll tally round two points today. I think Dad is (im)patiently waiting for me to tally.  Lol. He's really into this and it's fun walking past him room seeing him with the bracket sheet in hand whiling checking the scores on the computer!  Lol. He'd pop into our room every now and then to give us an update on scores. :-)

On the dialysis front I had a TB test last week and had to get it checked on Thursday. I'm good. Also at my initial checkup with my new primary care physician I had an EKG. I need to see a cardiologist.  My readings were off. It was suggested that I may have had a heart attack. That may also explain my now low blood pressure. Believe it or not I wasn't surprised of panicked. Dialysis really beats up your heart. It's hard on the body. 

Also the Friday night dialysis was fun. It seemed as if there was an alarm, we got it. We experienced a few new alarms. To the point that we needed to call the manufacturer. But. We solved everything and got through the run. At one point I had to "flip" my needle. Flipping the needle changes  the blood flow. If the flow is too high or too low, the machine complains and the flow needs to be fixed. We successfully finished and we're happy that we didn't have to dialyze on Saturday!  Last night's run was uneventful. As it should be!

We go to water aerobics today. We'll be leaving this class at the end of the session. It's not enough of a challenge. The instructor gave me and Brian deep water belts to do the exercises in The deep water. Boy, the reaction of the other students was funny. They wanted to know why she gave them to us?  Ah. The catch is you need to not be afraid of deep water. Duh. Also when we told them we were leaving for another facility, we were warned that the water was colder. (!). Well I'm sure.  Thewater at this center feels like bath water.  Lol.  

Signing off. Have a wonderful day. Oh yeah. The other day I saw a Bentley convertible and a Maserati. Lol. Cars I didn't see back in Michigan.