Monday, May 29, 2023. (Court Day #599)

I left my house at 8:30 a.m. under overcast skies, and it almost appeared to be threatening light rain. I arrived at the Brommer Park at 8:45. It was going to be a busy day being a holiday and soon the courts would get full. (Indeed, when Dave Debiasi intentionally arrived later at 10:45 in order to get a parking spot, the parking lot was still full. I told him he should expect that on a holiday! He forgot it was a holiday . . . it’s nice to be retired!!)

New Players

There were a bunch of new people who I didn’t know that Brommer Park—heck, I think it’s been since February since I was last there—but it was nice to see some known faces like Leslie and Dean, the other Andrew (McLeod, SCPC board member) whom I’m starting to get to know, Pam (also from the board), firefighter Matt Smith whom I hadn’t seen for probably a month or two, and some others.

Poking Fun

Matt Smith was giving me a ration today, as they say. It was about me missing a shot as his partner or him making a really good shot at me that I couldn’t return. It was hysterical. Of course, I would tease him back. All in good fun.

Holding the ball, Matt Smith was quietly chatting strategy with his partner before they served to start the game. When they were done he saw I was watching him from across the net. “Don’t worry, I was complimenting you.” He wasn’t poking fun. Matt knows I can hold my own. The previous meet up at Skypark, I played very well against Matt and his (good) partner and they lost.

Toe

In the first hour, I tweaked my left big toe. That flares up now and then. Fortunately, it gradually got better over the morning instead of getting worse.

Level of Play

Today was generally better skilled games than not. However, I was definitely in some games where better players had to split to help balance the teams. It’s nice when you have four really good players and I might’ve had only one, maybe two, games like that today, but all the rest we had to try to balance the teams.

I left Brommer Park at 1:50 p.m. There were a couple of courts with players drilling I with two to a court and there were a couple of doubles games going, but there were no games where I looked and thought, “Boy, I really wanted to join in with those players.” The drilling? Those were Jon Barlow and Pauly, and Patty with tall glasses Mike.

While driving home, the inside of my right knee was aching some—probably at 5 or six 6 a scale of 1 to 10. Surgery is only four days away, later this week on Friday.

Overall, I feel pretty good about my play today , it wasn’t perfect but aside some from a few runs where I was making a series of silly mistakes. I played fairly well. My drop shots were solid. For every failed drop shot I hit into the net today (1 or 2), there were as many or more that my opponents returned one of my drop shots into the net.

My right wrist held up most of the day without too much trouble, however, I do remember a backhand shot where it hurt quite a bit.

SCPC admins event

Pam asked if I was coming to the pickleball outing at Willowbrook this week for which board members and site coordinators are invited. I told her my plan was is to be there. (I’d RSVP-ed online a few weeks ago when the announcement was first made.)

Number of days on a court: 599
Number of total hours: 2,638.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 2

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