Sunday, November 5, 2017 (Not a court day)

As I type this, I’m 30-some-odd thousand feet in the air flying back from Louisiana–New Orleans to be exact–when I was for work. Trade show. Most of the time was spent inside listening to sales pitches. But the host distributor fed us well in the evenings. Last year, I made my first trek to Bourbon Street. Some people love it. To me, the smell of vomit and urine and the tourist trap shops made it a “one and done” experience, so, after a fun dinner on a paddleboat last night, I gave the after-party in the heart of the French Quarter a miss and headed back on the 10:30 p.m. chartered bus back to the hotel.

About two weeks in advance of this trip, I posted on the Pickleball Forum on Facebook asking about playing in New Orleans. The response was underwhelming, so my paddle and gear stayed in California.

The night before flying out, I got a message from Beth Black asking if I wanted to play the next morning with her along with Kevin and his wife Bev. This is a nice little feather in my cap. Beth is a 4.0 rated USAPA player—though she considers herself more of a 3.5 these days as tournaments have drawn stiffer competition—and Kevin and Bev are both strong intermediate players. To be invited means I’ve garnered some respect for my play. Or maybe everyone else was busy, but still, I’ll take it.

This month-old 737-800 (or 737-MAX8, not sure which) aircraft is noticeably quieter than other planes. Though maybe it’s because I’m sitting in front of the wings for a change! But I suspect it’s overall quieter.

I may play tomorrow morning, it’ll depend on when a sales rep is showing up. I’m waiting to hear back from her. If not tomorrow, then Wednesday, though we’re expecting rain mid-week. Dave Allenbaugh sent out a club email on Friday morning saying that Brommer was being delayed an hour back in California due to rain. It getting to be “that” season. We’ll see how this goes. Given that I’m only 9 months plus a week into pickleball, I haven’t experienced a full year of seasons yet.

Monday, November 6, 2017 (Court Day #91)

After a week with no pickleball, I was really looking forward to getting back on the court. Today, I wore shorter socks for the first time. This is to make my wife happier with my distinct tan line and move to farther down my leg—improving the “chicken leg”!

I arrived at Brommer a few minutes before 9. Leslie had the backpack model blower on and was going to town clearing leaves.

I got called over by Mike to fill out four for the first game of the day. Oy. My day started with some subpar play. I was rusty.

I played a couple of games with a woman named Tricia who is from Los Gatos. She was a solid player. I think she’s a little but better than I am. I served 3-4 balls long in a game with her as my partner. I think the Onix ball was newer and we had the wind at my back. It was a bit frustrating. We ended up losing 12-10. That game was my fault. Bad serves, a few hits too high that got slammed back. Rusty. I was worse play than typical of me.

The game of the day was Grita and myself against Kevin and Chuck. Grita was signed up in red, as was Kevin and Chuck in intermediate blue. I asked Grita if I could join their game. Within a color group, you just sign up and no one will complain. Sign up above your color group without asking, that’s trouble. Grita said, “Sure!” We got a court and Grita said we’d play together. She followed with, “They’ll be a tough match.” But I played my best of the morning and Grita was her normal self. Midway through the game, Grita made a comment that reflected her being impressed with my play. The game was never in question, Grita and I won 11-4 or something. I did play well. For one brief shining moment, one could argue I played the best on the court in that game.

The last game of my day was Lauren and me against Alan and Tom S. They pulled out ahead by a couple of points, then we battled back to a solid lead, only to lose when they made a long run at the end. Lauren has been not playing for some time—a few months—due to some health issue. It’ll take her a while to get back in the swing of things.

Shortly after 11:30, I departed for home then work. I got quite a few goodbyes from people. That was nice. Being part of a community. Beth asked if I wanted to play tomorrow morning, but I told her it’d depend on work. I do have to put my hours in to get work done. It already piles up as it is. I have a lot of pending projects that need to get done. Still, I’m tempted to play anyway!

Today? Ok play. Started poor and got better. I was a bit tired at the end. I think the time change, the jet-lag, the fire alarm going off at 5 a.m. in the hotel—all took their toll. 2.5 hours of playing was plenty today. Though I want to get back out already!

Number of days on a court: 91
Number of total hours: 256

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