Thursday, December 28, 2017 (Court Day #107)

My wife called me in the afternoon and played a message from our answering machine. It was the Livermore Parks & Rec department seeking my date of birth. Well, that’s good news, they received my envelope. I called them and provided the required information. I also checked with Eric and they had called him too. We are all set!

I spent a few minutes here and there over the course of the day nursing my poor shoes. I chiseled off excess epoxy then sanded the remainder down. Then I epoxied the insoles again, but this time walking around with them before it set. Much better!

Off to Skypark

I arrived at Skypark at 6:34 p.m. The car read 59°—it had been an unusually warm December day. I pulled right into a parking spot next to the courts. Did this mean no pickleball again? Nope. Just a light tennis crowd. And a light pickleball crowd too, it would turn out. With me, there were only 8 people. Jerry Louis was in a game with Mark Dettle, Janet, and Kris. I found myself in a game with Maria against Larry and his wife Sue. I think Maria and I won 11-2. I played really well. Jerry’s game was still going so we played another game, this time with me taking Sue as my partner. This time I didn’t play quite as well (hitting a shot wide, or slamming a winner into the net) and Sue wasn’t playing her best, so we lost that one.

Jerry headed out very early. He said he’d been at the courts at 7 a.m. using a ball feeder in tournament preparation and needed to give his body a break, he said. With Jerry gone, that left only 7 people.

2-on-1 Game

Of note was a “2-on-1” game with Mark and Janet and me as we waited for the doubles game. One person would serve solo to the doubles side normally but the the doubles team could only return the ball into the server’s original service court. If the server won the point, he/she would move to the second service court and serve to the other partner of the doubles team. This would continue until service was lost then the solo player would move to right/receiving position, the right partner would move to the left position, and the left partner would move to the solo position then start serving right to left. Points were only won when serving. Soon, I found myself up 10 to 3 (Mark) to 1 (Janet). Mark worked his way back—he got two points from me when I returned the ball yo the wrong service court!—up to 9 points and Janet gained a couple more when the doubles game ended and we were up. I was actually kind of sad abandoning the 2-on-1 game. It was a fun drill.

The last game was Kris and me against Maria and Janet. Mark (the closer) waited patiently for us to finish. It was a fun game with a lot of laughing.

Things wrapped up shortly after 8:30.

It was an ok performance by me tonight. Not stellar but not rotten either.

The shoes held up great. Finally! And it looks like I’ll easily break my goal of 300 hours in 2017.

Number of days on a court: 107
Number of total hours: 299

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