Sunday, October 27, 2024 (Court Day #733)

The right back side of my neck is still sore from Thursday, but it only hurts when turn my head quite far… so I try not to! But it’s not enough to keep me from playing.

I arrived at Brommer Park at 9:23 a.m. It was 63°F and sunny with scattered clouds and a hazy cloud bank hanging over the seashore and beyond.

First Game

My first game was Trevor and me versus Cassidy and Jay, which we won. Jay played pretty well. 

Jay, Jordan, Trevor

Jay and I played against Jordan and Trevor. Jay and I were down, then came back to lead, but then lost by 2-3 points. Jordan is always a good opponent.

We had a rematch and Jay and I won the second game 11-8.

By this time, it was only 10:29 a.m. and I still had plenty of time to play. Today is a break between my 4-week Sunday classes, so I had extra time.

René and I won a game 11-3 over Trevor and Kirk. Maybe we should split up to balance the teams, but René picked.

I was paired with tall lefty Greg. We lost 11-8 against René and Kirk. René made an effort to target me when Greg and I were way down to keep the game more interesting. 

Josh serving while I wait on the wall for a game.

Dave Cox

Dave Cox mentioned earlier in the morning that he wanted to play with me. Later, we teamed up against Josh (Bruce’s son) and white-haired mustache Chris. Chris is tall and probably in his 60s. I don’t remember ever meeting Chris before.

Dave and I went up a lot. But they came back and went ahead 9-8. But in the end, we won 11-9. Afterwards, Chris said that it was a really good game, and I know I certainly enjoyed it too.

‘Eh’ Game

At noon, Mustache Chris and I played against Asian Dave and René. René is still nursing a bum right shoulder. When they started falling behind, René lost interest and focus. And Dave, as a result, was also not totally into it and was playing a little bit lazy. Chris and I won in a lopsided fashion, it is something like 11–3 or 11–4. Too bad.

Beefcake

Mike O’Brien—who seems to have been nicknamed “Beefcake” by some of the girls lately—and I played a game against Kim and Alessandro. It was a fairly close back-and-forth game that Mike and I won.

Last Game

The last game was Mike and myself playing against Marco and a thirty-ish Latino guy named Matthew. Pleasant guy, Matthew. Mike and I lost 11–6. Marco was fresh off a tournament over the hill this morning and was playing very sharp. He said he filled in for Spencer there.

Afterward, Mike shared, “You are really fun to play with.” Nice to hear.

Time Conflicts

I left about 1:15 p.m. I would’ve stayed longer, but there was a man and his sister who were coming from Salinas to buy my daughter’s red Chevy Spark plus the Raiders are playing the Chiefs at 1:25 p.m. I watched the game live for a change instead of watching it on digital delay. (A perk of not teaching pickleball classes this weekend!) The man for the car ended up canceling out due to an emergency with his sister. Too bad, I probably would have stayed to play longer. Ah, well.

And?

Over the course of the four hours of games, I hit one serve long (after some distractions) and one serve into the top of the net.

I slammed one high shot into the net. I hit one backhand volley intended for outside of my opponent’s low backhand about a foot out outside the sideline.

Some of my drops were too high and resulted in a winner for my opponents.

Overall, though, I was happy with my play today.

Ouch

In the last game, the interior of my right knee was giving me mild pain with certain movements.

Monday, October 28, 2024 (No Play)

I must have tweaked my right knee a bit since it was aching a little this morning, though it didn’t bother me at all while I was out walking the dog. Whatever I did, it seems to be mild.

I may just crack 3,000 hours of time at a court at my next outing. That will be a big milestone!

Number of days on a court: 733
Number of total hours: 2,997.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 87.5

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