Monday, July 24, 2017 (Court Day #48)

A couple of Aleeve for my back and also somewhat for my right knee and I arrived at Brommer Park at 9 a.m. sharp. There were already about 15 people there. I’ll have to remember to come earlier next time.

Janet was there and we set up a net then warmed up. Then we played a game against Dan Bliss (a site coordinator) and a woman—who I’m spacing on at the moment. Janet and I won the first few points then we got clobbered the rest of the game!

The multiple colored pens were already out, so there wasn’t any “mixed skill level” play. I think the Longs are good about trying to get players mixed . . . both for development of new players as well as developing friendships amongst all the club.

Janet and I played a game against Rich (bum shoulder) and Sandra, I believe. Rich served an ace against me—not something that happens often. It was low fast and right down the middle off to my right. I wasn’t even close to returning it. What I didn’t do was adjust for his position. He had lined up very close to the middle of the court giving him an excellent angle down the middle. I should have adjusted to my right to compensate—which I did later. That was his only ace, all the rest were returned—though there was another that only got back into my side of the net. Rich has one of the best serves that I’ve been up against. There was also the short fellow, Tom, who had a killer serve, but he was my partner!

I played a few games with Roy and his wife Janie from Auburn, CA. It gets hot in Auburn—well over 100 degrees. Like Santa Rosa. It seems it’s not uncommon to have visitors to Santa Cruz from hot regions, such as Arizona too. Anyway, Roy and Janie were pretty good players—not 5.0 but on par or maybe better than me. I was happy to be playing against them. There were rallies at the net where I expected certain shots to be winners but they surprisingly came back over the net! I played against them with a local woman named Bev and won. Then we when back into the queue and played a rematch where we lost to them. I played a third game against with partnering with an older fellow named Paul (I’d seen him before I believe, but I don’t know him) and we won.

I checked the time—11:11 a.m. Time to leave to get home, shower, change, eat, and get to work by noon.

I didn’t do any video today. It’s practice at Brommer to shift games down as a court opens away from the gates. It allows a new game to start without stopping all the rest twice—once for the players to leave and once for new players to come. Instead the games stop once to shift over and continue. It also means that time on the pretty permanent courts get equally shared with temporary courts.

Shoes

Later in the day, at work, I took a few minutes to get some very strong double-sided tape that our framing department sometimes uses on certain fabrics. Once I install it in the shoe, those wandering inserts shouldn’t go anywhere!

Evening

While I never expect to be a pro-level pickleball player, I do want to improve. I’m a perfectionist. I want to do well. I spent about 10 minutes in my garage drilling dinks in my makeshift NVZ/net backboard . . . until my back got tired. Oh, and my shoes insoles are now finally secured! Life’s simple pleasures!

Robin

Oh, and I got word back from Dave Allenbaugh about Robin. She’s got a cast from “her fingertips to her elbow”. What did I say? Pickleball is not for wimps! I hope she gets better soon! At least I know that it’s not my fault—I wasn’t anywhere near her when it happened! Thank goodness!

Number of days on a court: 48
Number of total hours: 139