Sunday, March 21, 2021 (Court Day #363)
A couple of days ago, the Airfeet insoles that I’d ordered on eBay showed up. The first thing that struck me is how heavy they were. But it shouldn’t have surprised me. They are gel, not just mostly-air foam like most others. I’m going to hold off trying them out until after I get back from North Carolina and visiting my son Nicholas.
I’m hoping to arrange some games on my trip and so I don’t want to be out of state and have to be messing with my shoes! I am hoping the insoles may help with my knee(s), I want to avoid any surgery as long as possible. Today, my right knee was doing pretty well. Not great, but only very slight pain with certain unique movements.
My Protégés
Yesterday, I asked Brett at work if he wanted to play pickleball again today, but he said he wanted to go hiking instead. No accounting for taste! Ok, seriously though, how can you blame someone for wanting to get into nature and tromp around in the woods? Charlotte is out of town and Alain didn’t make an appearance, so I was 0 for 3 today.
Brommer
I arrived at Brommer Street Park at 9:10 a.m. I was doing some last minute computer testing stuff at home so I wasn’t there at right at 9. It was clear skies, if a bit cold—it was 44°F in the shade at my house when I left. I wore a sweatshirt, though it came off before the first game.
Binh and Shawnte were standing near the wall when I walked in the gate. The three of us warmed up. Dave Cox appeared not long after and we had a foursome. It was a good game. Dave and I won 13-11.
Jason showed up and he teamed up with Shawnte against Binh and me. It was a close game, but they won 12-10.
Next, it was Jason and me against Dave and Binh. Another close game, but we lost 11-8.
There was a woman I’d never seen before, Kirsten (or “Kirstin” or variant, not sure the spelling). Watching her play, I thought her a weak player. But I was paired with Richard in a game against her and Allan K. Kirsten is a banger, she just hammers shots. It showed a weakness in my game. I could handle 2-3 hard hits in a row while I was at the net, but sooner or later, the ball would come in an awkward location and I’d hit it into the net or out. Richard is a weak player, but I made a lot of mistakes in this game too and we lost 11-2. Clob-berred! I really, really want to get a rematch against Kirsten, but alas, it was not to be today. Had I been playing righty, I could have taken advantage of her banging.
I played a game with David P., it’s always weird playing with a lefty. We didn’t have to stack, of course!
Wai and I were paired against Rick and Renee. Wai did make some mistakes but they were less common than mine. He can hit some wicked spin shots.
The last game of the day. David and Beth Black offer a game to Binh and Binh called me over. I was delight to play against the Blacks. They are solid players with tournament experience. Binh and I stacked during this game, and the game was back and forth. Late in the game, we were winning 9-8, but they came back and tied 10-10. We went on to lose 12-10.
I left at 1:44 p.m. 4 1/2 hours! No wonder my legs were starting to fatigue!
I felt really good about my play today. There’s that voice that says maybe I played better because I had good partners to cover my mistakes . . . maybe it’s right, maybe it’s not.
I posted in the Pickleball Forum group asking about playing in Durham. Normally, I’d just use the USAPA’s Places 2 Play, but with the pandemic still hanging on, I figured I seek a human’s current advice versus a possibly outdated online resource.
Mon, March 22, 2021 (No Play)
I didn’t have any responses to my post about playing in Durham. I’m surprised, but it’s a busy group, so posts get buried on the feed quickly. I did find a link to a Google group which I requested to be added to and I was. It turned out to be just for announcements so I reached out to the posting email address and then heard back from “Mesa Somer, durham pickleball ambassador.” Mesa recommended that I check out the Ephesus courts in Chapel Hill, about 20 minutes from Durham. It’s a bit further than I was hoping, but still a reasonable distance. I found this link chapelhillpickleball.org, which has useful information.
Flying out tomorrow!
Number of days on a court: 363
Number of total hours: 1,029
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