Thursday, May 3, 2018 (Court Day #147)
Work has been seriously short-staffed, especially short on experienced staff in our framing department. I’ve gone from acting as a consulting master framer for trickier projects to that as well as being on the front lines answering the phone and waiting on customers. As a result, it may be some time before I get to take time off during the day for pickleball. It was god while it lasted. *sigh* But evenings and Sundays when our family business is closed are mostly fair game for pickleball.
Night Ball
A few minutes after 7 p.m., I pulled into Skypark in Scotts Valley. Tennis was hopping, including on a court lined for pickleball. I plopped myself on the bench and put on my right ankle brace. Then marveled at the fact that I was once again the only person sitting out waiting for a game. Alan called over. “Andrew! Are you just going to sit there or are you going to join us?” Well, what do you know? Not all the four pickleball courts were full! I was a third, joining Alan and Lauren (petite, dark hair). After doing some 2 on one points, we eventually, we got a fourth and had a game.
Alan and I played a game against Oleg and Lauren. That was a challenging game. Fun.
Unfortunately, the city had changed the lock for the court lights control box and Mark Dettle didn’t have a key. We’d have only until the natural light failed.
Olga and I played a game against Janet and an older woman I’ve seen maybe once before. Nice lady, just not very skilled. Janet wasn’t too keen with the teams—rightly so—we had the best to players on one side, but it offered to play left handed. “Only if you do that the whole game!” Which I did. Serving was the hardest part, followed by a lefty backhand-—both something I’d never use in a real game. Even with that, Olga and I fairly easily won.
The last game was Rob (firefighter) and me against Mark Dettle and Janet’s husband Bruce. Rob and I took a quick and solid lead, 7-0, before they scored a point. We had moved the last net under a feeble light next to the gate nearest the pickleball storage box. At 6, we’d switched. Rob and I managed to allow our opponents back in the game. (Ok, Rob would admit it was more him than me!) They nearly tied up the game before service went back and forth a few times before Rob Andy I wrapped up the win. That was a fun one in the deepening darkness.
It was shortly after 8:30 when that last game ended.
Insights
That tournament gave me a new perspective on competition. Eric and I rarely face competition as strong as what we faced at Paso Robles. It was a more powerful game than we typically see. Oleg is the closest we’d typically play against in terms of ball accuracy and speed. Even then, I’d rather face Oleg than Vinny and Kevin, who we faced in our first match in Paso.
in one of the games, I felt pain in my right ankle. It’d been a while since I’d expericned that, but it goes to show that there is still healing to do there, My back was still tight and sore. Boy, it’s taking time for things to get back to normal. I don’t feel old really, but my body is telling me that I’m solidly middle-aged!
Number of days on a court: 147
Number of total hours: 413.5
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