Wednesday, August 23, 2017 (Court Day #60)

I arrived at Derby Park at 9:10 a.m. Cloudy skies.

I caught myself daydreaming in several games today. That’s not good for scoring points. And I guess it means that those games must have been a little boring to lose my focus. I’m somewhat distractible, but if it’s a challenging game, I’m naturally going to be more “in the moment” and paying attention. It was really bad in some games, I had no idea who just served or what was going on. I just had to shake my head at myself.

I played an assortment of routine games. Nothing of serious note. Terri and I did play a game against Jerry Louis and Cathy and lost 11-2. We got clobbered. I was hoping to get a rematch and almost got it, but Jerry left the court just before the first serve to play with a fellow named Paul whom Jerry said would be his partner in a tournament coming up and they wanted to get reps together.

My play the last two outings have been bland. I’m in one of those plateau stages again, I guess. I’m hoping my skill level will start to take another climb soon. I have recently been attempting more drop shots. Some are good, some lead to winners for the other team—either I hit it into the net or give them an easily volley shot—but if I were to drive the ball those might lead to winners too, so not much is lost by attempting a third shot drop against good players. With weaker players, a third shot drive can be a winner right then and there . . . but I want to develop that third shot drop, hence more attempts.

Play wrapped up at 12:20 p.m. Ted, John P. and I headed to Mexican food after and talked about bicycling accidents, sailing, the solar eclipse that happened on Monday. Then it was time to head home, shower, and to work.

I noticed my paddle wrist hurting a bit in a few games. That and hips a bit. My softball team’s playoffs are in two days in the evening. I’m going to skip playing pickleball tomorrow night in Scotts Valley both because I don’t want to be fatigued for the game plus my daughter Charlotte leaves for school on the East Coast on Saturday. There are only so many days she’ll be home.

Oh, and the sun peeked out just as I pulled up in front of my house. Summer still.

Number of days on a court: 60
Number of total hours: 173