Thursday, September 27, 2018 (Court Day #204)

I awoke with a rather sore back. In particular, near the small of my back on the right side plus my right glute muscle. It was enough that I was wondering if I should take a few days off from pickleball. I took an ibuprofen and went to work.

Tournament

John P. FaceTimed me, “I need to get your number so I can just call you instead.” We talked about the tournament. He hadn’t received the message back from the director, so I forwarded that to him. She had said we’d have five teams in our round robin and maybe the advanced (4.0) team would be added to our group. So John was a firm “go”. (Tomorrow would have been the last day to cancel and get a refund.) John also asked about us playing in a tournament in San Juan Batista the following weekend (October 14), saying it might be too much. But I said, “Sure!”

Skypark

A couple of my staff wanted to meet with me after work without any notice, but this was unusual and obviously important, so I agreed. It took about 45 minutes and made me fairly late to Scotts Valley. I don’t recall the precise time, but after a pit stop at home and a couple ibuprofen, I arrived around 7:15, I believe.

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On the far side of the net: Larry, Bruce (dark), Allan, Olga, Oleg. Near side: Sharyl, Terry, Wayne.

Aside from missing a few balls due to being unable to judge depth under the lights, I played pretty darned well. Sure, I messed up some shots, but far more were solid.

Kris and I played my first game against older Chris (tall tennis player)—not Chris Yoder—and a woman I don’t know. Kris and I won 11-4, if I recall correctly.

Wayne and I played a game against Oleg and Larry. It was a good combination for me, I got to play against the two strongest of the three. We lost, as was expected, but it wasn’t a horrible loss.

Olga and I played against Beth Black and Bruce. We won.

Terry (Laura’s husband) and I played against Beth and Olga. Olga has improved a whole lot lately. Sure, she has off games, but she continues to improve. Terry yelled to Olga, “You’re like playing against a backboard!” It was close, but I think we lost that one.

The last two games were Mark Dettle and me against Oleg and Olga. Mark and I won both games. I was playing extremely well. Oleg is such a competitor, he wasn’t happy with the loss. He’s always such a challenge to play against.

I was pleased with my performance tonight. It was a bit surprising given my back. But it loosened up over the 100 minutes of play or so. And it was an evening of all  good games.

I was in my car just before 9 p.m. I drove home content.

Number of days on a court: 204
Number of total hours: 565.5

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