Month: July 2019 (Page 3 of 4)

Sunday, July 14, 1967 (Court Day #282)

42nd day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet and probably the flakiness of WordPress, my draft of this entry disappeared. Maybe it was boring anyway, right?

I opened the courts, it was all pretty routine. We had a couple of visitors from Texas.

The nearest fellow I’d never seen before. I think his name is Brad. The man to the far right in the tie-dye is an older newbie named Bill.

It was busy day with about 20 people waiting to play at times. Leslie is the one in white just right of the middle.

Leslie came again this week. Two weeks in a row now. Later, she wanted to make an announcement and asked my permission as the site coordinator. Heck, in my book, she’s on the steering committee that runs the club, she can announce whenever and wherever she wants! Of course, I didn’t hesitate and gave my permission. She promoted the new yearly membership and encouraged people to sign up.

One of the regulars, Charles had stopped in at work yesterday to shop and we chatted a few minutes. He said he’d stumbled upon this blog and read some. (Hi, Charles!) I got to play against him in a game today when partnered with Binh. Charles is really tall with a lot of tennis experience and a big wing span which makes him formidable. He’s still an intermediate player, but a pretty strong intermediate who takes advantage of your mistakes. With weaker players, you can get away with balls that are a little too high. Not with Charles, he’ll keep you honest!

I was more frustrated with my play than anything today. Binh and I got to play a few games together. It’d been weeks. We stacked, practicing for our tournament next month. I did better stacking than the typical switching left and right courts. Binh is getting noticeably better. It’s good. He’ll make a good sparing partner when I’m back to playing right-handed, helpfully in the next six months—but who knows.

I had to leave early, a few minutes after 12. My wife texted, anxious to leave town. I asked a Janet to close for me and she was willing.

I spent the afternoon with my wife and son in San Jose co-signing for him purchasing his first—used—car. With car payments, there is even more incentive to for him to start his career! Not that he needs any incentive. He’s responsible and level-headed. And with a UCLA applied math degree and cum laude to boot, I can’t see him not landing a good job.

Number of days on a court: 282
Number of total hours: 776

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Wednesday, July 10, 2019 (Court Day #281)

41st day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I arrived at Derby Park at 9:05. I was the fifth arriver. Dave Allenbaugh was still setting up. My son Nicholas had an appointment this morning and couldn’t join me. And good thing too, read on.

I warmed up well. And played ok for the first few points. After that, not so much. I played ok, but too many balls flying long. A couple serves out. It was frustrating. This was not a good day. I was not even playing playing at a low 3.5 level.

At 9:45, I got a call from work. Staffing drama. *sigh* Every number of years, some part of the staff doesn’t get along. Someone is sarcastic. Someone can’t handle being directed by a manager. Arguments over the radio station. Something. Today, I had two of my employees were threatening to quit over each other. This was essentially a work emergency. It was the end of pickleball for me today. Often, these things are simply communication issues. Regardless, it required my immediate intervention. Such a bummer.

Afternoon

With three hours of personnel meetings, it appears things are worked out and everyone is getting along. Disaster averted. Almost all the staff gets along great, so, fortunately, these incidents aren’t common.

Number of days on a court: 281
Number of total hours: 773

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Sunday, July 7, 2019 (Court Day #280)

40th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.

I woke up my son Nicholas at 8:30. “Do you want it get some exercise or sleep in?”

”I thought you said we had to leave at 8:30?”

”It’s ok, we have 10 minutes.” To my pleasant surprise, he threw aside the covers. I was opening Derby Park today as site coordinator.

We got to the courts at 8:53. Tom Sherwood was already there and was opening the bins with his key. I thanked him for getting things started. I had Nicholas help set up as I got to blowing off the courts. Wayne and a few others were also already there early.

A man named Kevin showed up sporting a Tres Palapas T-shirt. He said he was on staff at a pickleball resort in Mexico. Yes, Tres Palapas. I’d heard of it. He said it gets too hot during the summer so they shut down for two months. He said he’s working his way up the coast heading toward Canada. Starting at Bobby Riggs Tennis Center, Kevin has stopped and played at 15 venues. He found us through our club’s website.

There were about half a dozen people who were either playing for the first time or had only played once or twice before.

Bruce and wife Janet partnering for a game.

Nicholas and I didn’t get all that many good games. Either people wouldn’t sign up with us—silly, because we weren’t any worse than them—or they’d strand weaker players so they wouldn’t get to play so I’d sign up with them. But we got a few solid games.

Leslie, of the club steering committee, came and played. Dean came too. They played a lot with visitor Kevin. It was nice a nice surprise to have Leslie at Derby. And Dean for that matter.

We had a family day trip planned to the Bay Area, so Nicholas and I headed out just after high noon. Janet kindly agreed to take care of closing. (She’s a backup site coordinator.)

Number of days on a court: 280
Number of total hours: 772.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.