Sunday, February 26, 2017 (Court Day #4)

My fourth day of playing pickleball!

I arrived about 5 minutes after “opening time” of Derby Park to find four players in a game and Mark (who helped mentor me the first day) zipping around getting the final things ready for the masses to arrive.

Tom L. and his friend Ileana, both 20-somethings, were at the courts today. It’s nice not to be the youngest person out there! Tom is the better player of the two and shared that he (or maybe both of them) were playing pickleball other days of the week beyond just Sunday. Unlike some of us . . . namely, me!

My first game or two were disappointments, but as the day progressed, the rust on my paddle wore off and I got back into the groove.

As people departed for the day, leaving courts open, a woman named Lara—who I’d played with—and I did solo drills, dinking the ball left down the net then back right down the net. Then we did another drill, starting close to the net then hitting ground strokes working our way back to the baseline. Lara asked if I had tennis background since I was doing well for only my 4th day on the courts.

As nearly the last to leave—minus one doubles game on a court—Eric stopped me and said he had a net and a friend who plays and he was looking for another person to play during the week sometime. I put my contact information into his phone, explaining that my life is not always my own and work demands set my availability—if someone calls in sick, I’m often trapped and end up working a 6-day workweek. I’d be nice to get in some extra playing time. Maybe I’ll arrange some time off from work during the week so that I can play some mornings, we’ll see!