Thursday, July 4, 2024, Independence Day (Court Day #682)
There was a mild ache on the inside of my right knee as I walked around getting ready this morning. This is a common state of affairs that simply comes and goes, but, fortunately, it doesn’t seem to bother me on the courts except in rare circumstances.
I left my house at 8:45 a.m. It was already 66°F and I was betting that it was going to be in the 80s today . . . but I’d rather have hot than get rain on a holiday!
I arrived at Brommer Park right about 9 a.m. and there were about half a dozen parking spots left.
Game
My first game was with a man named Tom, whom I’d never met. He came with a group, but the rest apparently weren’t ready to play. We took on Tony Sloss and Alan Cable. Tom and I lost. I wasn’t playing great, but Tom made some shots where his inexperience or lack of strategic acumen showed. Afterward, Tony told me that he was making an effort to hit to me to keep the rallies going. I told him that I hadn’t noticed, but I believe him.
Better games
My second game was with Alan against Tony and Paul, a regular at Brommer, bit older, whose last name I don’t know. Alan and I lost. Alan and I were both not playing our best.
We played a rematch and while it was much closer, I believe we lost that one too . . . after having a significant lead, to boot.
Alan had to leave, so we all left the court and went to get hydrated along the wall.
Patty
Patty D. showed up and there was an empty court at the end. Patty asked if I’d help warm her up and I agreed.
After about 10-15 minutes, we went back to the wall and Patty asked Pauly and Mike O’Brien if they’d play. Mike said he wasn’t here to play but we got Ofer instead in addition to Pauly.
Patty and I lost our first game against Pauly and Ofer. It was close, but we lost.
We played a second time, but this time the outcome was very different and we won 11-1. Patty was getting warmed up! A scary moment, I hit Ofer in the face and knocked his glasses off onto the ground. He—and his glasses—were ok, thankfully. While the speedup was intentional, hitting him in the face was not, believe me. Ofer is a nice guy.
Patty and I went on to also win the third game 11-6.
It’s only 70° but it felt really warm in the sun.
Laura
At this point, we all headed back to the wall to mix things up and also get water. It was warm on the courts.
I got into a game with René against Pauly and a woman named Laura. Laura is a good player.
That first game Lauren and Pauly went up by a few points, but then René and I went on a big run to take the lead. Serving swapped back-and-forth then René and I pulled off the win.
We played a rematch and again Pauly and Laura went up with the lead, 5–1. René and I came back to win 12–10.
It wasn’t until I was about to leave when René said that Laura had just moved here and I realized that Laura might’ve been the woman who played a couple weeks ago at Skypark who was also a strong player. I caught up with Laura in the parking lot and confirmed with her that she had just moved to our area. Then I asked her where she was from, and she answered “Visalia.” I remembered that being the exact same city of the other other woman was from, so the “other” woman was also Laura! So I explained to her we had actually played together Skypark a couple weeks ago and that I didn’t recognize her today either . . . she had not recognized me when we introduced ourselves on the court before our game across the net from each other.
At 12:05 p.m., it was time to go and get ready for the big annual holiday gathering at my parents’ house. Unfortunately, my daughter Charlotte will not be there today since she is shadowing orthopedic surgeons up at UCSF for the rest of the week. She’s heading into her third year medical school and UCSF is great experience for her.
Overall
I didn’t feel that I was playing stellarly today, but I felt I was playing reasonably well and definitely not poorly.
While I have some execution errors today, there were also shot selection errors. Shots that you would get away with while playing weaker players, but not stronger players.
Number of days on a court: 682
Number of total hours: 2,879
Number of paid coaching hours: 49.5
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