Wednesday, July 25, 2018 (Court Day #174)
I’m an optimist. A drop-down drag-out optimist. Today, one department at work would well-staffed with a fully-trained employee to answer tough questions. The other department would have two fully-trained staff members plus with one clerk with only four weeks experience but is knowledgeable and competent. As a backup, we have our bookkeeper to open the store and I checked remotely and our business alarm was off, so she was there early. No one texted or called in sick. We were covered, I could go play.
I arrived at Derby a few minutes after 9 and it was already warm—and even a touch muggy. John P. appeared not long after and I gave him my charged blower battery for Sunday since I’ll be at the tournament.
I got in some fun games. No really hard ones. Mostly ones where you either intentionally hit to the stronger player to make a game of it or backed off a lot and served or hit easier shots.
Lo and behold, the young couple from last night at Brommer appeared. Dan and Sara, they said. Both seemed very nice. It was their first time at Derby. Dan has further to go than Sara, but the basic skills are there. They both need tactical advice about when to advance to the net, keeping the ball low—typical beginner stuff. A lot of potential. They might be really good in 12 months.
I had signed up with Eric and Rob and a fourth for a hard game. I grabbed my iPhone to take a photo. (Notice there is no photo with this entry.)
#$@^%&!
There were a bunch of missed phone calls and texts. And several voice messages from an over an hour earlier. (It was now shortly after 10:30.) It turns out that one key holder at work texted me just 15 minutes before opening that she couldn’t come in and was going to the hospital. An assistant manager didn’t swap her day off and took her regular day off even though the other key holder who I thought was working was, in fact, taking an additional day of vacation beyond what was originally written on her time off request—leaving only one key holder to be responsible to open . . . the one that went to the hospital! But there was a backup: the bookkeeper was onsite. But it didn’t occur to her until about 10 minutes after opening time that no one had collected the register drawers from her office!
I didn’t know all the details when I grabbed my iPhone. All I knew is that even if the business was already open, it’d leave one department with a single person with four weeks training! (Granted, there was a second partially trained cashier to help from the other department.) I immediately left the courts—after telling Eric and Rob—and listened to the voicemails in the car. The store was now open at least. The morning usually has fewer customers and I was sweaty—it had already been 72°F by the time I left my house for the courts—so I drove home, showered very quickly, then dashed out the door for work.
I was overly optimistic today. I wanted to play and bypassed some safeguards. There was a perfect storm and I ended up with a parking lot full of employees standing around for 20 minutes getting paid to do nothing. The challenges of running a family business. Your life is never your own. You go on vacation—rarely—with your cell phone on 24/7 and check your emails regardless of the day or hour.
Pickleball can be like work sometimes. If you leave the door of disaster possibility slightly ajar, too often, you’ll get burnt. You need to plan ahead, be wily, don’t depend on others to make good things happen for you. You have to keep control and keep bad things from being a possibility at all.
Rob asked if I could play at Brommer on Friday morning. I said I’d have to check. I don’t want a repeat of this morning!
Paddle Crack
I noticed on Tuesdsy night that a crack had developed in one face of my paddle. When I press around it, it seems solid. But it does make me nervous. Will it get worse?
Number of days on a court: 174
Number of total hours: 481.5
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