Monday, August 5, 2019 (Court Day #292)
52nd day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow.
I woke up. My body was still fatigued from yesterday’s five hour pickleball ordeal. Play? Not play? I was strongly considering just going to work. But with a tournament this weekend, I should get out there.
I put on my shoes but with two layers of socks, it was a bit tight on my toes. I grabbed one of the pairs I’d ordered recently. I removed one layer of socks and slipped on the new pair. I went to lace up my left shoe. What the heck? There was a knot in the lace that prevented me from tying the shoe. Grrrr. And it was a bugger of a knot too. Begrudgingly, I took off the shoes, put back on the second layer of socks and reverted back to my old pair. *sigh*
After my shoe adventures and moving slowly, I arrived at Brommer Park about 9:30. A couple of the eight courts were still empty. Leslie asked me to come be their fourth. I played ok. Missed a couple of serves and drop shots. Nothing to write home about.
Cal reaches for a ball at the net with Barb S. looking on. Binh and Olga are seen on the far side of the court to the right.
Chris and I played an early game against Jean and Judy. We were down a bit, but decisively came back and won the game. I played better as the game progressed. I told Chris so. “You know why right? They were hitting everything to you!”
Shawnte and I played a rotten game together. I think we lost 11-3 against Gregg and his partner. Shawnte enjoyed the game though and we played another against Tristan and a woman whom I forget. Going into the game, Shawnte and I agreed to try to hit almost everything as drop shots. Yeah. While it may have been ok practice, we lost 11-0.
At this point in the morning, my drop shot was horrible. Sometimes, the ball would even land somewhere between my feet and the net. The ball landing in the top half of the net was almost a victory. It was bad. If I play like this at the tournament, it’ll be a very short day!
The best game of the day was the last. Binh and I against Jean and Olga. Jean and Olga won gold in the women’s doubles last month. I think they should be in 3.5 but have been playing in 3.0. Olga said her rating is 3.4-something. Binh and I lost the first few points then had to battle back from an 1-5 deficit. Eventually, we did win 11-9. There were some very good battles at the net. “When your right hand is better, you are going to drive your opponents crazy being able to play with either hand.”
Binh suggested one more game. I saw Olga was wearing a device on her write that would probably give the time. “Olga. What time is it?” “11:40 . . .” . . . I got excited . . . “no, 12:40.” I turned to Binh, “I gotta go. It’s half an hour later than I thought it was!
Of note, I played much better when stacking. It felt “right”.
Righty-Lefty
Today, I continued to experiment a little bit with using my right to return serves coming to my right side. Switching can be confusing. On one right-handed return, I hit the ball into the net. Unheard of. With more practice, I got it down though. I probably half a dozen to a dozen returns I did with my right hand.
Evening
Tonight, an email came out from the club that someone had their bicycle stolen at Brommer today. The bike was locked by the picnic tables. Even with all the activity, a thief brazenly cut the lock. Santa Cruz. Such a bummer. My son Nicholas’ bike was stolen right out of our open garage door during broad daylight. The perpetrator had ridden up with a junker bike and hopped on my son’s which had been a nice gift from his grandparents. These days, we vigilantly keep our garage door closed. Such a shame. Santa Cruz has a inordinately high level of property crime. Especially bikes. Bikes are turned readily into cash for drugs.
Tuesday, August 6, 2019 (No Play)
I’m trying to figure out what to make of my right arm. It’s not painful. Maybe it’s a bit more “off” than normal, but it’s hard for me to put my finger on it . . . no pun intended. I shook a person’s hand today with no pain. When I tried righty a few weeks back in Scotts Valley, the next day, shaking hands hurt. But I also limited my play quite a bit more this time. At the bottom of the humerus (upper arm) bone at the outside of the elbow is a round bump. Right in front of that is where some of the tennis elbow pain would manifest itself. It’s still ever so slightly sensitive to pressure. I didn’t notice my tennis elbow until late in the day when I was lifting and swinging something with my right arm, then it was unmistakably still there. Not bad, but residual.
Carrie texted me. She’s a good soul. She was getting nervous about not doing well at the tournament and letting me down, I told her it’s only a game and no one will die if we get “slaughtered”—her choice of wording. I’m just happy to be able to play at all!
Number of days on a court: 292
Number of total hours: 807.5
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