Rant #3,962: Cloud Nine

I don't know about anyone else, but I am still relishing in the glow of the Knicks' run to the NBA championship ...

And couple that with my son's team's championship in their bowling league on the same day--

Well, I am on Cloud Nine right now.

Physically, I am feeling much better--and much more positive--about my health, too, and yesterday and today were important days in my recuperation.

On Monday, I had a KUB scan, to determine that what was supposedly removed from me is out of there.

And things appear to have looked good on that scan.

And today, I will have another procedure to bring me back to, hopefully, where I should be.

But the entire hoopla around the Knicks really has made me more positive in myself.

In fact, while I don't yet feel 100 percent, on Sunday, I went out, among a myriad of minor errands, to get a Knicks championship T-shirt for myself.

I had already ordered shirts for my wife and son online--they will get them sometime in July, as the demand is overwhelming what they have on hand--but I figured since I was out, I would drive over to a local sporting goods chain store to see what was available--

Or really, what was left.

I got there, the parking lot was full of cars, and I kind of knew there would be slim pickins, if anything at all, to purchase.

And I was correct in my assumption.

The store had one empty table after another of Knicks championship merchandise, and it wasn't just me that was looking--

Plenty of people in the store were looking for the same thing that I was.

I meandered about, and then I came to an area--not a set of tables--that had Knicks merchandise--

The operative word is "had," because it was just about all gone too.

But toward the back of the section, I saw three championship shirts hanging there.

Some people looked at them and walked away, but when I got there, I found gold.

The three shirts were the same, but were listed as XXL--extra extra large--and they were long-sleeved.

They had the requisite logos and everything else on them, so I picked one of the three and went with it ...

Knowing what a lot of people apparently don't, that "XXL" is not what it appears to be.

With so many items like this being made overseas, today's "XXL" is really nothing more than between a "large" and an "extra large," which is perfect for my body, even though I have lost nearly 25 pounds over the past couple of months.

So the shirt would be perfect for me, and I grabbed it, paid for it, and I was out of there, successfully.

I wore it on Monday, and it was as I expected, maybe at best an "extra large," and after it gets washed ...

I do expect shrinkage.

So I got what I came for, and it made me feel even better--

Although the prices are ridiculous, but that is another matter for another time.

And remember how in yesterday's Rant I bemoaned how Newsday treated the Knicks championship on the cover of its Sunday edition, pairing it with an X-rated topic piece that kind of made their cover a bit embarrassing?

Well, they atoned for their sins on Tuesday, with a four-page wraparound cover that was all about the Knicks.

I don't recall them ever doing that before, so I am sure that I wasn't the only one who was not happy with the Sunday cover.

See the photo above.

So right now, all is good, I am getting better myself, and if everything goes according to plan, I can put what ails me fully behind me and move on to something more positive.

Of course, the operative word is "if," but right now, the Knicks' win has forced myself to believe that anything is possible--

So maybe I, myself, can finally shoot a winning three-pointer and get my life back to where it should be.

Let me get through today, and we shall see.