Thursday, May 26, 2022 (Court Day #500)

I arrived the Skypark at about 6:45 p.m. under cloudy skies and moderate temperatures—not overly warm, but not chilly either. Maybe slightly humid . . . though humid for Santa Cruz County is very mind compared to elsewhere in the country!

There were five courts with games already going, but there were three people waiting to play. One was Sam, who I asked about a game. I asked Mark Dettle if we could set up another net and he pointed and said that there was a bag already sitting on a court. Sure enough, the court right next to the gate.

Harry’s Back!

Harry, who hadn’t seen for quite a number of months, was there with a woman who I didn’t know. He introduced me to his friend, Leah. Sam, Harry, and I set up the temporary net making a total of six pickleball courts. Leah said she would just get in the way so she stayed off to the side and let us set up the net.

Leah turned out to be decent, getting all but the hardest shots from Sam or me back over the net, though Harry is the much better player. The game was a bit back-and-forth, with Sam apologizing to me a few times for errors. But Sam and I got things dialed in with us winning 11-5 or something in that ballpark.

I played a game with Kristin L. against Mark and young Asian David. David is very quick getting around the court and played well, outperforming Mark. We did win that game, but we had to come from behind and then we stretched out a lead.

Spider

Kristin showed a photo on her phone of a massive black widow spider in a web which she found tonight in the locked pickleball bin with all the nets and gear. That’s a bit unnerving! She said she saw one crawl out of one of the temporary net tubes here one time, but was able to step on that one…though she said she’d gone to show it to someone and when she got back, the spider was gone! Crawled away? Yipe! Resilient!

Games of the Night

The games of the night were Matt and Paul against me and Casey. In the first game, Casey and I lost by about a two to one margin. It was the same side of the same court where Matt and Paul beat Tim and me 11-0 in recent weeks. I felt I made an extraordinary number of errors in this game. When Casey and I switched sides and Matt and Paul went to the darker side, that’s when we performed better and went on to win the game in a fairly lopsided fashion. I made far fewer mistakes in the second game than the first.

Young Lucas

Matt had brought his son Lucas to the courts, since his wife (“Spring”, I learned) was out of town. Lucas spent nearly all the session playing video games on a portable gaming device with headphones covering his ears. (It helped him miss some swear words later!)

The last two games of the night started with Paul and me taking on Lucas and his dad. Then the second game was Matt and me taking on Paul and Lucas. Lucas, for being a slight nine-year-old, played pretty well. Sure, he made errors, but also made some pretty amazing shots. Some of them were so good they had me laughing in surprise!

We finished our game about 9:20. Then we talked for about 20 minutes. Paul’s wife’s name is Sara. Matt said that he and his son were going to Arizona to hotel with 17 pickleball courts and will have training sessions as well as a lot of Pickleball and they would be there for a week, with his wife and daughter joining them.

Recap

Tonight, I was not thrilled with how I played overall. I hit 9 shots into the white tape of the net. I do this far too many.

It turned out to be a fairly warm night. When I left at about a quarter to 10, it was still about 60°.

Heel Injury?

Midway through my first game with Casey, my right heel had some kind of pain going on with it. This is unique, and something that I’ve never experienced before. I was considering playing at Brommer tomorrow morning but the pain in my ankle is making me question that. We’ll see. I’ll also share that when you are tired and crawling into bed and get warm, one of the last things you want to do is strap a cold pack on your arm! But I know it helps.

500

Tonight was my 500th pickleball outing. And I completely forgot to mention it to anyone! I thinking playing with a 9-year-old was a fitting way to spend part of it.


Number of days on a court: 500
Number of total hours: 2,332

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