After nine days of entertaining guests, life is back to normal. I enjoyed seeing all my friends and showing off the Venice area, but I’m exhausted. Too much food and wine has me worried about stepping on the scale. Running with this extra weight only adds to this daily challenge, while swimming has been sporadic during this disruption of the routine. I’ve been to the ballpark, played pickle ball, been to a blues festival, ran a 5k race, went on an eco-tour, frequented  numerous restaurants/bars, sunned on the beach, sampled wine, and sat in front of the TV watching tournament basketball. In the process, I’ve also celebrated an IU victory, suffered through a miserable season-ending loss, and went to a Beauty and the Beast performance. This morning I slept in a bit, struggled through my run, and got back to swimming a few laps. 

It’s another day of round-ball action, as #3 Purdue battles #6 Texas for a spot in the Sweet 16 and a chance to spoil the Cinderella run of the St. Peter’s Peacocks. The Boilers knocked out Yale while the Longhorns overtook Virginia Tech. In other games of conference interest, Michigan upset Tennessee yesterday, while today’s slate for the other BIG survivors shows Illinois playing Houston, Ohio State meeting Villanova, Michigan State facing Duke, and Wisconsin tackling Iowa State. It’s a BIG day of basketball!

I’m back at the computer keyboard, banging out the highlights of the past week with friends. I missed a few events of the seventies in the process, with 1978 as the year smallpox was eradicated and 1979 was when the U.S.S.R. invaded Afghanistan, just like current Soviet aggression in the Ukraine.  I hope we can soon see peace and the end of Covid, as they both continue to haunt my life with higher prices and social restrictions. Last night at the theatre, a group of neighbors were having a conversation during the intermission. They had all lowered their masks for the discussion, but the guy next to them complained to me when I did the same. It’s rare when a Florida venue has a mandatory mask policy, but this was done to protect the unvaccinated children and apparently was part of the actor contracts. Yet, they weren’t wearing masks on stage. This didn’t make sense to me, along with $4.09 for a gallon of gas, but clearly told me that things were definitely not back to normal!