Coasting

Sunday, August 27, 2017 (Court Day #61)

I left my house and the car thermometer read 66 degrees. Since it is regularly 59, and there were no clouds today, I figured we were in for a hot one. As I drove down to Derby Park I was delighted to see coastal fog over the courts. We’d get at least some reprieve from heat. I pulled up a few minutes after 9 a.m. Dale from Santa Rosa was also parking and walking in.

There were some of the advanced players there today. Terry and Karen Long, Dean, Stuart and a woman who showed up later whom I’d never seen but was obviously a very good player—she was always on the move and anticipating the opponents’ shots. She was quick. I’d love to play against her skills someday. Playing against better players makes you better. (Later that evening, I emailed Karen Long and she said the woman’s name is Lori Dunn and she’s from Livermore and plays as 4.5. Lori won a silver medal at the Bay Area Senior Games.)

Lori Dunn (pink) and friend Chuck take on some local opponents.

A new player named Janet arrived today. Maree was showing her the ropes. Dave (a different Dave, a regular, but I don’t think we’d played together before) and partnered up against Maree and Janet. Janet was very green. Unlike Rolando—who was there today—who came in with a fairly solid skill set, she has probably the longest way to go that I’ve seen. But we each have to start somewhere! I have to give her credit for getting out there.

I got a compliment from Allan today. He was critiquing Rolando’s serve. He wasn’t hitting it underhand. I was Rolando’s partner. Allan said, “Andrew, show him how to serve. You have a nice serve.” I’ll take that any day! 

So how did today go?

Grita asked how I my morning was going. I told her it was kind of up and down. I told her that learning was full of climbs and plateaus—I demonstrated with my hand—I’m currently on a plateau.

While I didn’t embarrass myself too much—a few shots went wild—it was a “eh” kind of day. I’m putting in my hours—that can never hurt. I can say that my drops shots are continuing to get better. I still miss too many, but the ratio is improving.

One quick thing I try to remind myself of. Those points where the ball goes back and forth and you exasperatingly lose a hard-fought rally? At the end of the game, those lost points are valued exactly the same as messing up a serve. Serve a ball into the net? Too long? Too wide? Same as a lost long rally—but totally preventable. It’s better to simply serve the ball into the center of the opponent’s service court and work your way into the point than to “get tricky” and blow the point before it begins.

The last game was Jeff (relatively new guy with strong forehand and wicked backspin) and me against a tall linebacker guy, Rich, and Wayne. We lost 11-9. But a good game though and I played pretty well.

At 12:30 it was time to head home.

Warm Skin

I was trying to figure out why I felt so warm in the late afternoon. Duh. I forgot to put on sunscreen! I have fair skin (it’s the Irish, German, English/Scottish blood—the Italian didn’t come through so much!), so 3 1/2 hours in the sun means sunburn for me. But it wasn’t crazy bad, but definitely some pink! Gotta remember that.

Softball

Oh. And our softball team lost in the playoffs on Friday night. We took a 10-0 lead in the first inning but the other team had a couple of good innings later, with lots of solid singles that were indefensible.  Then, in the top of the last inning the umpire called our runner out at home plate even though the catcher dropped the ball. Season over. I was base-coaching 3rd and had an excellent unobstructed view. The ump said the catcher picked the ball back up before the runner crossed the plate, but it wasn’t even close—she had cleared home plate easily by a few feet by the time the catcher recovered the ball. I was really confused when the other team started celebrating. Huh? Then I got the word. Unbelievable. Those watching while waiting for the following semi-final game said we were robbed. Would we have made up the 10 runs with the bases loaded and two outs? Probably not, though we did score 10 runs in the 1st inning. We’ll never know. But it stinks to end a season on a very bad officiating call. We’ll have to wait until June next year to wash that loss out of our mouths!

At least I have pickleball!

Number of days on a court: 61
Number of total hours: 176.5