Tuesday, July 28, 2026 (Court Day #947)

I was about to leave work at 6:15 p.m. and head to Skypark, but when I asked my nephew if he’d be willing to close the family business, he said that he wasn’t feeling well. So instead, I stayed to close up and then gave him a ride home, then I left his house at 6:30 p.m.

It was a warm 70°F. It has been warm for the last week and a half or so.

Injuries

My right knee continues to bother me. As a matter of course, for as long as I remember, I typically take stairs two at a time, but that’s not something that I can do right now. There’s too much discomfort.

The plantar fasciitis in my left foot seems to be very mild right now. As is the tennis elbow in my right arm. I only notice something in my elbow for very specific and, not particularly common, movements.

Weight

I’ve decided that I am on a diet again. Over the weekend, I weighed in the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. Too many sweets! I should lose at least 40 pounds, and 50 would be better. There are downsides to being an adult, such as they’re being no one there to tell you you shouldn’t have that second piece of cake or that large Slurpee or a couple of those big cookies at work brought by someone.

Teaching

I have two 4-week pickleball classes starting again this Sunday. I really enjoy teaching, but at certain point I may value my free time higher. I could see doing coaching after I retire. But there’s no telling how many years away that will be. Probably 6 to 10 years.

I hadn’t shared it before, but every time I drive into the Skypark neighbourhood, I start playing paying very close attention to empty parking spots along the way in case I need to go back out and find a spot.

Games

Alec and I won 11-0 again two very young guys Blaine and L-something. We almost had a ‘golden pickle’ but I hit a ball into the net.

Then we won again 11-0 versus Adam and short lefty Eric. This time Alec hit the ball into the net though we weren’t the first servers anyway… so no chance at a golden pickle regardless.

I was chatting with Adam after that game, “Alec only made one mistake that whole game… wait. You made NO mistakes. He hit it into the net!”

Aaron’s Brother Mike

Aaron Hicks brought his brother Mike. Mike says that he moves a lot for work in various states in the country but is currently staying with family between his mom’s house in Soquel and Aaron‘s house.

Mike has pretty good hand eye coordination. He hasn’t developed a good strategy and tends to be on the wrong place in the court. He doesn’t come up to the net and doesn’t cover the middle properly.

I was being a bit lazy while also not hitting optimal shots to try to keep the game challenging. I was also doing a little bit of testing with slice and spin on some shots.

Don’t Fall In!

One funny moment was when I hit a shot and was pinwheeling my arms to keep from falling into the kitchen. Matt Babb saw that and when he got the ball next, he hit it to me. Fortunately, I was able to handle the shot and still get balanced and not fall in!

We finished up the last game a few minutes before the lights went out.

Tonight was one of those nights where you could just not get all four players to be good enough for a challenging game.

Teaching

It’s kind of funny, yesterday I discovered that I was missing one of my students in my beginner class in advanced beginner class. They were both sold down quite some time ago. But now with class starting this Sunday, I saw that I had a spot open in my beginner class. What’s crazy is that I receive no notification from the City of Scotts Valley that I now had a vacancy again in my class. It was pretty much happenstance that I noticed. I had a browser tab left open at work in one of my various browser windows and I just happened to see it while closing up various tabs. Jenn, one of the staff there, said that she would look into it and get me the current rosters for the classes. Today, I checked the class again and it said that the class was full. I sent her an email asking about an updated roster that included the new student, assuming that it wasn’t some weird software glitch.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026 (No Play)

I woke up this morning and the plantar fasciitis in my left foot tight was mildly, very mildly painful.

This business, Dope Pickleball Co., has come out with glitter pickleball:
https://dopepickleball.co/products/high-roller-gold-glitter-infused-pickleball-ball-40-hole-dpb-40x
A sure sign that the game has progressed… getting more and more weird stuff!

Number of days on a court: 947
Number of total hours: 3,502
Number of paid coaching hours: 221.5

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