Wednesday, January 1, 2025 (Court Day #753)

Last night, we found a paddle left at Skypark. It had Jane Prince‘s name on it which made it very easy to reconnect the paddle with its owner! (Far too many people don’t mark their paddles.) I got Jane‘s contact information from Mark Dettle and let her know that I had her paddle. I told Jane that I’d be at Brommer Park this morning, but we can connect up at some point in the future, if we didn’t meet there.

As a drove to go play, it was a chilly 46°F.

Brommer

I pulled into the lot at 9:37 a.m. and found plenty of parking. 

Aside from a couple of games early, I really didn’t get much in the way of strong games today. It’s just the way players came off the court and how they sometimes wanted to stick together… I’ve done the same thing. You get a good group, you want to keep it going.

Midmorning, Jane stopped by and I called across the courts from my game to tell her where to find her paddle. She pulled it out of my backpack, waved thank you, and off she went.

Rick and René came but I didn’t get to play with them. Young Kevin was there, but I didn’t get to play with him. Oscar was there too, but I didn’t get to play with him either. Same with some others.

Kind of a bummer of a day. I tended to be lazy in the games since they were less challenging. Not good for skill development.

When I was about to leave, I checked the time on my phone and also saw that I’d received a number of texts, including one from my brother John about two hours earlier…

He’s getting serious! Recognizing and appreciating the performance differences in paddles is a big step! Who knows, I might have enjoyed myself more playing in Scotts Valley today.

I left Brommer at 1:30 p.m.

Beach

One of those text messages I received just as I was leaving Brommer Park was from my sister inviting me to go for a walk on the beach with my siblings, my son, my nephews and my niece too. I don’t get to the beach frequently, so this was a good opportunity. It sad that I live a few miles from the ocean and rarely put my feet on sand.

After stopping briefly for a sandwich in my sister‘s kitchen, we filed into two cars and headed for the yacht harbor. We found a place to park on the street not too far away. My sister suggested I borrow her husband’s extra sweater, and I’m glad that I did! It was mildly breezy and a bit cool.

We walked partway out the jetty towards the lighthouse, then took a right out onto the beach. Something that I was not expecting was the incredible amount of large debris from the partial collapse of the wharf a little over a week ago. It shocking.

Wharf debris scattered across the coast for miles.

There were pilings scattered all over the beach along with partially intact sections of the wharf platform. Occasionally, you run into a small block of asphalt chunk, though generally no bigger and maybe one by two feet. City is going to have a big job clearing all of it. It also appeared that some of the debris—in form of various beams and pilings—got stuck in the giant concrete terapods comprising the artificial harbor jetty.

My nephew Paul found himself somewhere to sit for a few minutes!
2:44 p.m. We imposed on a passerby to snap a photo! Me, Jeremiah, John, Colette, Mike, Diane, Dominic, Matthew, and my son Nicholas. Yeah, most of the guys are over six foot! Not me!

It was just about the right amount of time walking down to the river-mouth and back. By 3:45 p.m. I was on my way home from my sister’s house. Pickleball may have been a mild bust, but a trip to the ocean with family was satisfying.

Number of days on a court: 753
Number of total hours: 3,051
Number of paid coaching hours: 99.5

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