Friday, March 9, 2018 (Court Day #133)

I changed and headed out the door stopping only to read the temperature gauge. 62 degrees. I didn’t bother with a sweatshirt. As I drove across town, the sky grew darker under solid gray clouds. I arrived at Brommer Park a couple minutes after 9 and one game was already underway. Later in the morning, it would lightly drizzle for a very short time, almost heavy mist, but it didn’t interfere with play. Overall, though, it was a pleasant morning with the sun peeking out by around noon.

New Faces

There were a number of new players today. George, the 70-ish tennis player, on his first day out. There was an older woman who arrived who had also never played before, but she played with others. Rob—not the firefighter Rob I., but he was there too—plus Wheeler, Josh, and another younger fellow. Rob I. had never met Josh, but both are firefighters and, astonishingly, share the same unusual last name, “Iranda”.

Eric and I played only one game together today and it was against Karen Long and a short woman with short grayish hair that I recognized but don’t know. It was a back and forth game. We lost by a 2-3 points. That was a good one.

I played a game against Tom from Palo Alto. Dan Bliss was his partner and I had James as my partner. Aside from me, a fairly high powered game of advanced players. I was happy to be part of it! James and I won fairly handily. It was about a 2:1 score ratio at the end. Afterward, Tom said, “I can see why you won that gold medal, you are easily a 3.5. You’ve improved a lot. I’m a high 4.0 player.” Then again, James can make many a partner look good!

Uli and I played a game against Jane and brand new Rob. So, strong/weak against strong/weak. Jane was serving very well and I was just not dialing in and I failed to successfully return several of her serves. Embarrassing. It was a problem I had more today for some reason, it wasn’t just that game. Uli was a weaker player than Rob. Rob, while a rank beginner at pickleball, has tennis background and has youth on his side. He’s learning quickly.

I was a bit tired today. I wasn’t recovered from pickleball last night. Still, it’s always great to play.

The Last Games

There was a man named Lou who was visiting from Phoenix. It seems that the Longs knew him. (Terry and Karen had just gotten back from a big tournament in Arizona.) Chris and Jen—the husband/wife tennis pro couple—played against Lou and me. We got toasted. It wasn’t even close. My play was miserable and so was Lou’s. I gave Chris a few pop ups which he easily put away. Humbling. Thankfully, Chris is a fun guy. It’s a game that I desperately wish I had recorded to analyze later—it would have yielded a lot of areas to improve.

The last game of the day was Rob I. and me against Steve (the strong lefty player) and Josh. So, Steve and I both had relative newbies at our sides. It was back and forth, no team leading by more than 2 points. Steve has really cranked up his serve in recent months. I think I got them all back, but boy, it keeps you on your toes, they are very quick. Rob and I won that one, but it could have gone either way.

Someone asked, “What time is it?” “1:00” Holy cow, 1 p.m.? 4 hours? That went fast!

Today was a day of ups and downs. A little rust, a little soreness. Still far better than I was a year ago!

Number of days on a court: 133
Number of total hours: 378.5

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