Thursday, July 13, 2021 (Court Day #392)

I wasn’t decided if I would go to pickleball tonight, though . . . geez. My dog just passed the most nose-curdling gas ever. *cough* *gasp* At least I have the windows open!! Anyway, as I was saying . . . boy, that smells so bad. Arg! Ok, as I was saying, I went home after work, did a few things, then elected to go play. I did get out of work relatively early tonight, so even going home first, I got to Skypark not that late. I was walking into the courts at 7:08 p.m. . . . and things were jumping!

A crowd of players. Less than half that I knew!

I opted beforehand to play tonight entirely left-handed. I didn’t even put on my forearm strap for my right arm and didn’t even take one shot righty. I’m going to let it rest.

I walked in and with no open courts, was on the bench waiting. I had barely sat down when Mark Dettle called me over. A woman in his game had to leave and I jumped right in without warmup as Mark’s partner with the game tied up 2-2 against Kristin Long and Sharyl. I think we lost, but it’s was close.

A surprising win was me and Larry’s wife Jacquie against her husband and Christina. Wonders never cease. But that said, I’d never played with Jacquie before. She doesn’t hit a lot of great shots, but does a good job simply getting the ball back over the net. Larry is sometimes his own enemy. He loves to intensely spin shots, but occasionally overdoes it and a ball sails out. We won 4-5 rallies with Larry hitting a ball out due to trying to do too much spin.

Janet

Janet was playing like a rock star tonight. She has come so far since her skill level a few years ago. She was making some really, really good shots. A couple of outings ago, after she hit a control shot into the net, I suggested that she consider replacing her old paddle with a new one. Then, last time, she told me, “Andrew, you were right! I needed a new paddle.” Larry is a rep for Gearbox so that’s what Janet happened to try and replaced her old paddle with.

For the last game and the last players still there, Janet and I played Kristin L. and Mark Dettle. It was a back and forth battle. I think Janet served 10-9-1 three or court times in a row! We finally won 13-11.

At 8:59, Kristin was done. She said her hip was bothering her. Aches and pains are common in pickleball! We all called it a night. I really enjoyed the evening and felt good about my play.


Number of days on a court: 392
Number of total hours: 2,016

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