Thursday, November 30, 2017 (Court Day #97)

I slipped out from work at 5:55 p.m., raced home, ate a snack, then out to Skypark in Scotts Valley just before 6:30 p.m. The parking lot was fairly full but I parked in an overflow spot along the fenced off flowerbed. A lot of tennis people were there tonight. Usually, it’s only 2-4, but it was 6-8 tonight. But there was some dinking going on at the far end. Surprise! I wasn’t the single odd man out! I was the fourth on only court in use. I joined Mark Dettle (a SV site coordinator), Kris, and little Marie. (The other Marie and her husband Mark who were regulars only play in Palo Alto these days.)

I realized that in my haste to the courts, I neglected to take any Advil. I usually take two to relax the muscles and ward off any pain. Boy. My back was feeling it. And my hip. And my knee. But mostly my back.

Jerry Louis appeared for a bit and played a few games. He’s got such placement accuracy. You have to be on your toes not to get walloped.

Rolando is coming along. He has a little bit of a soft game now and is quite good at getting the ball back over the net. Plus he’s a really nice guy. I almost wonder if Rolando would make a good tournament partner if Eric continues to be not super interested in traveling to tournaments. We’ll see.

Larry served an ace against me. What’s funny is that my own earlier serve just like it was about two inches wide (fault). Later, he got his in! It was good for a laugh!

Attendance topped out at just 14 people. It was a dark and chilly December evening.

Oleg and his wife Olga showed up a little later on, maybe around 7:30 or 8 p.m. My last two games were Olga and me against Oleg and Terry (Laura’s husband). Olga and I made the first game a challenge though we lost in the end. We got clobbered in the second and last game of the evening.

After the last game wrapped up, I checked the time. 9:01 p.m. Oleg said, “It’s in the 40s right now.” I could see my breath. I checked the weather app on my phone. 45°F. Yep. Maybe the cold was part of the reason my body was an assortment of aches and pains!

My play was subpar tonight. This was one outing that I’d like erase!

Number of days on a court: 97
Number of total hours: 274.5

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