Tuesday, September 22, 2026 (Court Day #969)

This is one of the reasons I wear eye protection every time that I play:
https://fb.watch/v/3M4-EOo74/

It was 66°F with clear skies when I left work at 6:25 p.m. The sun was already below the trees on the horizon, not a huge surprise given that today is the first day of fall.

Skypark

I misplaced my Kitchen Blockers glasses so I end up using a pair of slightly scratched clear plastic safety glasses. It wasn’t too bad. At least they didn’t fog up tonight, which sometimes happens with clear lenses.

Games

I was asked by three women—regulars—to play with them. I played with Melissa against Maria and Karen G. We won a close game. I was warming up and I made fewer and fewer errors as the game went on.

I played with linebacker Hispanic Mike against Aaron Hicks and Jess. We won a lopsided game. 

Alec and I got into a game against lefty, talkative Michael and Ashley. Alec and I won the first game in decisive fashion then we played again and won that one decisively as well.

Singles

I played two games of full-court singles against Alec at his prompting. It is literally been years since I played singles. (Skinny singles for drilling, sure, but full-court, nope.) And even then, I had maybe played singles half a dozen times in my decade of pickleball. Regardless, he beat me twice 11-0. There were sideouts, but they were mostly from self-inflicted errors from him and not so much me hitting winners. Singles is such a different game.

Jess and Jerry were playing a singles game next to us. After our game was done, Alec went to go play Jerry. Jerry said that he is playing in a singles tournament this weekend because he couldn’t find a doubles partner. Jess asked if I would play singles with her, and I agreed. I went ahead 4-0, and after a few sideouts, I found myself ahead 10-1. Jess scored a few points, then the lights clicked out a few minutes after 8 p.m.

It was a bit wild, there were three singles games going on the courts as time was expiring on the lights. There were no doubles games going on. This is supremely rare!

And?

I felt good about my play tonight, that’s unusual for playing under lights.

Number of days on a court: 969
Number of total hours: 3,548.5
Number of paid coaching hours: 237.5

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