Turning the Page

 

The Gonzaga gear has gone to the closets for another few months.  

Even after the season, I'll always wear my white Gonzaga bling hat.  If we make it to Ireland this fall, I'll leave it at one of my favorite public places to remain on display forever. 

That will make three ZAGS hats left at pubs in the motherland. 

When next season rolls around, I'll purchase a new ZAG hat and wear it proudly until the last Dance. With luck, it, too, will go to Ireland.

The Dance ended far too soon for those of us in the ZAG nation, but, as always, we remain proud of the team, their coaches and staff and the wonderful university.  

I'm an Idaho grad, but knowing what I've learned about the Spokane-based Jesuit school over the past 30-plus years of watching the ZAGS,  I would have given anything to attend Gonzaga University.  

It's a place with a proud tradition, a firm, well-established foundation, and an impressive overall resume for educating all who wish to learn.

Plus, it has an amazing basketball team, which for years, has inspired admiration from a worldwide and always growing fan base. 

This year's team kept us cheering, unified in our enthusiasm and entertained throughout the season. 

We are also always grateful that expectation of upcoming ZAGS games helps us through the winter.

And, each year, when the last Dance ends, we turn the page.  With daylight still in full force at game's end last night, the TV went off, and Bill, the dogs and I headed outside to enjoy a spring evening. 

We have trained ourselves over the years to simply move forward almost the second our ZAGmania ends. 

They have once more done their job entertaining us, and now it's time for us to focus on what Mother Nature does to entertain us with a different kind of expectation, awe and beauty---just like the ZAGS. 

It could not have been a better day for the basketball season to suddenly fall short because the season of spring is revving up quickly with some beautiful warm and sunny weather. 

Yesterday Bill visited his favorite fishing spots south of town while I pulled out a paint brush and a bucket of white barn paint.  As dogs rested nearby in the sun, I finished dressing up a few sections of board fences. 

Oh, they glisten so when a new layer of paint covers up the blemishes and the dirt! 

This will be an ongoing job for me throughout the spring and summer, but I felt great accomplishment yesterday in getting as far as I did.

With luck, today's efforts might even finish off a fence south of the house. 

So, yes, the page has turned.  

While doing the time-consuming work of painting or mowing lawn, I'll be thinking occasionally about the ZAGS and smiling once again about the great memories and inspiration they provided for so many of us. 

Happy Sunday, and thanks, ZAGS!

It's my friend Ann's birthday today, so for this year's birthday picture, I tried some AI to improve our looks cuz we're both old.  

I told Ann that AI worked harder on her appearance than they did mine because she's older----by three months.  

Happy Birthday to a lady who has a very healthy and always enthusiastic sense of humor.