Wednesday, October 11, 2017 (Court Day #81)

I arrived at Derby at 9 sharp. Dave and John P. were setting up. Wayne arrived a few minutes later and we all warmed up for a while, followed by a game of John P. and me against Dave and Wayne. 11-1, John and me. One thing I’ve noticed is that it’s taking me a lot less time to get “going”. Sometimes, I can play very well right off the bat. Right now, I’d say my biggest Achilles Heel is hitting balls that would otherwise go out. I need to let more go sailing.

The second game was me and Wayne against Stuart and Dave. We made it a few points in when I tweaked my back. I made it through one more point then yelled over to John to take my spot. I took an ibuprofen (I’d taken two before I left the house) then sat on the bench and did my best to stretch out my back. After about 15 minutes with no improvement, I called it a day at 10:00. Home, then an ice pack. Followed by a day at work.


Bye, bye pickleball courts…

The big question is how much better will it be by Sunday?

Tournament

The organizers of the Los Gatos tournament sent out the brackets today. Exciting! I noticed two—or three—things. Most of the last names I didn’t recognize. But there were some that I did. Connors was on the COURT 1 list: “Connors + Oliver”. No doubt John Connors, the medal-winning 4.0 player. And on COURT 2 is “Black + Black” . . . David and Beth Black. Also 4.0 players. None of the other names mean anything to me. But, then again, most players I only know by their first names! Of course, the most important names are “Lenz + Schmidt”—yep, me and Eric! 1:00 p.m. Playing time, COURT 1.


I would not give us good odds of getting past our second game. It’s the winner of the Connors + Oliver match. If Brodine + Brodine wins against the Connors team—watch out!

Fire

I suppose I should count my blessings that I wasn’t playing this afternoon. There is a really bad series of fires going on north of the San Francisco Bay Area. Santa Rosa has lost thousands of homes and at least 21 people have died. The photos are stunning. Neighborhoods as far as you can see are simply burned to the ground. Block after block after block. Anyway, this afternoon the sun was orange and it smelled like smoke. I figured there must be a local fire too. Nope. The smoke has traveled over 100 miles!

Number of days on a court: 81
Number of total hours: 231.5

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