Sunday, August 9, 2026 (Court Day #953)
I was awake for about three hours in the early morning dwelling on work. It was miserable. I eventually went back to sleep shortly after 7 a.m. Later, I woke back up shortly before 9 a.m. then lounged around groggily in bed.
Pickleball Dream
It’s funny, when I was driving to go play, I remembered a snippet of one of my dreams. This dream involved me arriving to play pickleball and discovering the soles of my shoes being mostly detached and flopping around unusable. I have little doubt that this was work stress manifesting itself in my subconscious.
Injuries
I wake up every morning with very degrees of tightness in my left foot from plantar fasciitis. My right knee has very degrees of pain with each step. It’s usually maybe a 3 out of 10, but sometimes it’ll creep up to a 5 or 6 out of 10 in terms of discomfort.
Brommer Park
It was sunny and 63°F at my house, but Brommer was under fog when I pulled in at 9:55 a.m. The parking lot was completely full. There was a soccer game going on, which is very unusual. I ended up having to park down the block and around the corner and walk to the courts.
It wasn’t a huge delay, I was still walking into the courts at 10 a.m. sharp.
I went from game to game to game today, which was great, and most of the games were at least somewhat challenging. Though there were a couple that were not as much.
Games
My first two or three games were pretty rough. I was not playing very well.
Dieter and I played a game against Mickey and a woman named Tracy with a thick Irish accent who I don’t believe I’d ever met before. Dieter and I were initially not expecting much from her. She turned down to be a good player with quick hands.
Mickey and I played it against a middle-aged man named Greg and his friend, also a middle-aged man. Initially, it was close, but then Mickey and I got dialed in and won 11-4. They wanted to rematch, but Mickey was not interested and told them straight that he was interested in playing a higher level game.
The fog burned off and then came back again. It got a little breezy, that was likely pushing the cloud cover around.
Shawnté and I played against Mickey and Jordan Rein. It was back-and-forth game with a lot of rallies that went more than just two or three shots. Shawnté and I lost but the loss wasn’t just on me. Throughout a few games, Shawnte was complaining about his paddle. It’s a year-old Gearbox paddle and Mickey was saying that when Shawnté hit the ball, it sounded inconsistently bad.
There was a guy who came who had not seen for quite some time. Maybe an inch taller than I am, tan and stocky with a Star of David tattoo on his shoulder. His name is John. I told him that I hadn’t seen him for a number of months and he said that it would’ve been a year since he lives in Arizona and he only comes to visit annually! We played against Mickey and Shawnté. We were leading most of the game, but they came back and won.
It was 11:57 a.m. and time for me to get home, eat, and get ready to teach.
Tuesday, August 11, 2026. (No Play)
I didn’t play pickleball tonight, instead I got invited by my brother to go see the new SpiderMan movie (“Spider-Man: Brand New Day”) in the theater along with his son Patrick and daughter Gigi. I was kind of wondering why his two other kids weren’t with us, then I learned that Patrick and Gigi had already seen the movie and this was their second time around. I would give the movie a thumbs up.
Doctor Visit
Today, I had my annual physical with my GP, Dr. Atkinson. Years ago, I suggested that he take up pickleball and it turns out that he finally has. He says he meets up with a group of other dads on Saturday mornings at Derby Park to play. Good for him! We talked about the plantar fasciitis in my left foot and also the pain in my right knee. You recommended some foot stretches and demonstrated one of the ones that he does. He said that he’s been dealing with plantar fasciitis for years. And he said, “You know what makes plantar fasciitis worse? Pickleball!” Well, he has firsthand experience with that!
He recommended an inoculation which I opted to get. The nurse came in later and asked which shoulder I wanted the shot since she said that it would hurt for a few days. Of course, I said my left. I don’t want my swinging shoulder to be hurting!
Thursday, August 13, 2026 (No Play)
Mark Dettle forwarded an email announcement to the pickleball club board from Scotts Valley Recreation explaining that the lights at the Skypark Courts will be turning off at 8 p.m. every evening from Sunday, August 17 through Friday, November 13. We knew it was coming, but it’s a disappointment nonetheless.
Friday, August 14, 2026 (No Play)
John Kew in this video explains the paddle wear “cliff” that he discovered:
https://youtube.com/shorts/qfBbLEdwUBQ
Fascinating stuff.
I had a nonprofit board meeting last night so I didn’t play at Skypark. So neither of my traditional Tuesday or Thursday nights this week.
After optimistically changing into my pickleball gear, I left work around 5:30 p.m. and headed to the big field at Skypark to set up a canopy and table so that our family business could participate in the annual Scotts Valley Art Wine & Beer Festival to be held tomorrow and Sunday. We’d have art activities for kids. One of my staff, Ariana, would be manning the table both days.
After getting everything set up—which took about half an hour—I drove around to the courts on the far side of the field. As I slowly rolled through the courts parking lot, I spotted two tennis players and two sole women hitting a pickleball back-and-forth at the far end of the court. Very slim pickin’s! Well, that wasn’t going to fly! I simply continued through the lot and headed home. Fridays are apparently not the nights to try and get pickup games!
Pickleball History
One version of the naming of pickleball… it’s the one that I like to believe myself:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcE6dWUyMZg/
The other version is that the sport was named after the family dog, but one of the founders explained that the dog wasn’t around until later and was named after the game, not vice versa!
Number of days on a court: 953
Number of total hours: 3,515.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 225.5
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