Monday, March 10, 2025 (Court Day #778)

Yesterday was the time change, which involves getting up earlier. Yesterday, I was feeling fine. I gone to bed early on Saturday night. There wasn’t much of an issue getting up to next morning. However, last night, had a really difficult time getting to bed… finally falling into a deep sleep around 2:30 in the morning. Then I woke up again about 5:50 a.m. and was awake for a couple hours before I fell back asleep for another 90 minutes. Overall, I was a miserable night of sleep.

Pick-le-ball!

This has been a weekend of what feels like nonstop pickleball.
• Thursday morning, Mark Dettle and I were out the Warriors arena in the morning to scope out things and do some prep for the halftime show.
• Friday itself was leaving work about an hour before closing to get ready for and then go attend the basketball game plus participating in that demonstration during the halftime break.
• Saturday night was confirming and coordinating replacement students so that I would have two full courts. (And it was successful. I had two full classes.)
• Sunday morning was pickleball play followed by a stop at my house to eat and grab my things then to Scotts Valley for 4 1/2 hours for teaching.
• Today there was some play in the morning, followed by the board meeting.

Games

I played an assortment of unmemorable games.

Tony Sloss and I played against Steven and Laura (the one who moved here from Visalia). Steven is Eddie’s brother. Months ago, I’d heard that Steven has aspirations of going pro. Tony and I found ourselves down by a wide margin in the game but clawed our way back tying up the game 9–9. I hadn’t played with Steven before. Steven is an exceptionally good player. Aside from making almost every shot look effortless, he hit some shots back over the net that a normal player would not be able to get. He did a behind-the-back sideline dropshot that dropped perfectly low into the kitchen. Maybe it was luck, but it was really good! When I was on the right side across from Steven, he attempted a speedup at me and I drove the back between the two of them for a winner. He gave me a big smile and pointed at me. Yeah, I can have quick hands at times. Tony and I lost 9-11. As you’d expect, Laura—who is not a bad player—let us stay close.

Meeting

I didn’t get to the picnic tables for a board meeting until 12:26 p.m. Val and her husband Stan plus Mark Dettle were sitting there waiting. Not too surprising, George was deep in conversation with someone a little bit away. Jackie had arrived at the park but was off in the bathroom. Soon we were into our meeting.

More Games

After our board meeting ended at 1:54 p.m, Jackie asked if I could stay and play one game. As it turned out that one game was very short so we rolled it into two. Jackie and a regular named Bob who wears a visor played against Mark Dettle and myself. In the first game, I hit a shot and lost my balance and stepped into the kitchen. While I was in there, the next ball came back at me and that rally was over. I can’t remember the last time I did that. It’s been years and years.

At 2:20 p.m., it was time to go.

I have not been happy with my last outings. I’m hoping that I will play better soon.

Number of days on a court: 778
Number of total hours: 3,100.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 120.5

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