Tuesday, July 2, 2024 (Court Day #681)
After driving from work, I parked at 6:45 p.m. It was sunny and hot in Scotts Valley.
Walking along the path to the courts from the remote parking lot, my right knee had mild pain with every step. Though once I was on the courts and playing, I didn’t even notice it, fortunately.
First Game
I immediately got into a game. Binh called me over before I even had time to hang up my backpack. They were two courts down and were missing a fourth. I don’t know exactly what happened but from what I understand fourth was a newbie and wasn’t comfortable taking on strong players.
Binh and John Funky are playing together in a tournament down in Newport this weekend, so it was Rachel and me. I got in about a dozen warmup shots, then we rolled right into the game. They scored a few points, we broke their serve, they broke ours, they added a few points . . . this repeated until Rachel and I were shut out 0-11. Ouch. It was miserable.
My next game was partnered with a middle aged man, about 5’11”, stocky but not fat, named Gabe. I had never seen him before. I played better in this game against Binh and John. We scored a few points, they broke our serve, we broke theirs, we added a few points . . . this repeated until Gabe and I won 11-1. Binh commented, “You feel better about this one, eh, Andrew?”
“Yeah!” Redemption!
After that game, while waiting, Binh told me that his fiancé Laurie enjoyed my pickleball class and even asked Binh to go to drill with her. Binh said that he was too tired after work to drill though. But that Laurie wants to drill is a fantastic thing to hear . . . especially given the fact that Binh had texted me before that class started, “Take you out to dinner if you can get her to like pickleball.” I think he may owe me dinner!
Tennis but no Tennis
While waiting for my third game, I noticed that both tennis courts had pickleball on them! There was a man and a woman hitting a pickleball over one tennis net plus there was a group of seven people who appeared to be family or friends on the other tennis court hitting pickleballs around. That was a first. I’ve seen folks use one court for knocking a pickleball around, but not both tennis courts!
I wrote my name up on the whiteboard and ended up in a game with Gabe again along with Mo and a tall woman named Christina. When we got to our court, Kristina asked who the best player was. Gage immediately pointed to me and unequivocally said, “him!” Christina said, “Okay, I’m not that good, I’ll play with you.” And I was perfectly happy with that. I think we lost that game 3–11. There’s only so much magic I can pull off!
The lights clicked off in the middle of a game at 8:30 p.m.
Mo and I had played a few games together and were walking off the courts after the lights have gone off. Marco convinced us to play a game with Ofer and him.
Marco and Ofer clobbered us in that first game.
Marco wanted to play one more. Of course, Mo and I said yes. Can you say, “Addiction”? It continued to get darker and darker. We came back and won that second game 11-9.
I played again with my Players Rogue 2 paddle tonight. As I drove home, my right elbow where the bones meet was stinging a little bit. I really didn’t like that, that’s worrisome.
I was not particularly happy with my play tonight.
Home
When I got home, I intended to ice my knee, which has started to bother me. But after a dinner, it wasn’t until I was snuggled in bed and my wife was asleep, that I remembered I was going to put the ice pack on my knee. Oh, well.
Wednesday, July 3, 2024 (No Play)
Driving to work this morning, my right knee was aching a little bit. Par for the course.
Holiday tomorrow!
Number of days on a court: 681
Number of total hours: 2,876
Number of paid coaching hours: 49.5
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