Author: andrewlenz (Page 149 of 328)

Friday, July 15, 2022 (Court Day #517)

Last night, my wife, daughter, and I took a trek to a local landmark, a huge roadrunner made from recycled materials—old shoes, computer keyboards, tires, random junk. It’s pretty neat, I’m glad that we took the time.

Today, I woke up 5:54, before my alarm set for 6 a.m. local time. I got ready and was out of the 3rd floor hotel room by 6:15. I wanted ice for my water bottle today, and since the ice machine on my floor wasn’t dispensing any ice, I headed to the 2nd floor—which was working yesterday. But today, it was empty. Begrudgingly, I headed back up to the 3rd floor but that machine was still empty. So, I headed to the 1st floor and walked to the end of the hallway to find that floor’s ice machine and—finally—I was able to top off my water bottle. Sheesh.

The Park

I arrived at Apodaca Park at 6:30 a.m. sharp, but this time, there were half a dozen cars in the parking lot, unlike yesterday.

There were a number of people warming up. Alicia was the only one I recognized from yesterday. Later, Virginia, Pat, Jeff, Laura, and Richard came too.

Games

My first game was with Ernesto (a fellow Raiders fan) against a tall woman named Kathleen and a man named Robert…pronounced ”row-bear”, French for Robert, he said. We won.

Today, there were some stronger players. Mike in particular.

Next, it was Mike and Ernesto against Virginia and me. We lost. Both of them played well. Then Richard wanted in. We played against Mike and Ernesto and lost in a lopsided fashion. Richard wanted a rematch and the results were worse.

The Ladies

I played a game with Laura against Julia and Alicia. Then we switched and I played with Julia against the others. I overheard the two talking at their baseline. “Andrew is a good player.” Laura replied, “He’s a VERY good player.” Though I felt I was playing subpar and was dragging today. Less sleep, playing two days in a row, and heat I wasn’t used to was making me fatigued. After about 90 minutes, a voice inside my head was suggesting I go rest…but that was not going to happen!

When Laura was leaving, she said if I ever wanted to play in a tournament together, regardless of where it is, she’d be willing to join me.

The Boys

The last couple games of the day were Jeff and myself against Mike and a man named Buddy. Those were more challenging games. Mike likes to rocket drives but has a decent soft game too.

I felt much better about my showing against Mike at the end of the session than the early games.

It was 10:22 a.m. when I got into my car and headed back to the hotel. It was about the same hot temperature as the day before.

Of note today, there were four passing shots made in different games between me and the sideline. Virginia, Jeff, Mike, Buddy. I need to do a better job covering the edge and trusting my partner to handle the middle. Something to work on.

As I was leaving, Jeff pulled his car around. “If you daughter ever needs anything, have her give me a call.” And he gave me his full name and cell number. Such a nice guy.

Number of days on a court: 517
Number of total hours: 2,382

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Thursday, July 14, 2022 (Court Day #516)

My alarm went off at 5 a.m. California time, that is, 6 a.m. local New Mexico time. I quietly got up in the very dim hotel room and got ready trying not to wake up my sleeping wife. I was out the door and arrived at Apodaca Park a few minutes before the start time of 6:30 a.m. given to me by USA Pickleball ambassador Laura Smart. The courts were deserted. I got out and walked around. There were eight permanent courts that appeared to be in very good condition.

When I returned to my rental car, I started composing an email to Laura asking for clarification since I was alone. But then a car pulled up. This turned out to be another player, Mona, a recent transplant to Las Cruces from New York via Southern Florida. (Coincidentally, our rental car license plates are from Florida!)

Mona and I warmed up for about 10-15 minutes then Alicia arrived and added her in our continued warm ups. When a man named Pat arrived, we had ourselves a game.

One of the local players said that they play during winter too and they break a lot of balls in the cold. Las Cruces gets some weather extremes, apparently.

The local convention is the two losers leave the court, the winners split, and two new players join one each of the winners.

As time went on, additional players arrived peaking at about 15 players. An early arrival was retired university history and wildlife professor Paul—I learned later that Paul is 80-years-old. Big credit to Paul! Jeff arrived and Pat warned that he’s a good player.

I won my first three games, then with Paul as my partner against Virginia and Jeff, we lost 12-10, my only loss of the day.

Ambassador

Laura Smart arrived mid-morning and introduced herself from across the divider. She later said she was also a referee. I asked her if she knew Maree Creed—a Santa Cruz-based ref who travels nationally to officiate tournaments—and she said that she did. I told her that Maree was one of the first people to teach me pickleball five and a half years ago. Laura broke into a big smile no doubt about how small the world is.

I went on to play more games, rotating players in and out and with only one loss, my time sitting and waiting was minimal.

Compliments

I received a couple of nice compliments. Jeff said, “You are always were you need to be.” And after one game, Marty observed, “You played what was the most mistake free game I think I’ve ever seen.”

Laura asked if I’d consider playing up in a tournament with a local female player. (I’d told Laura in my original message to her that I’m a 3.5 tournament player.) That local player is 4.0 60-year-old. Maybe it’d work out, though a bit of a long-shot. That’d be a first, partnering with a non-local player that I don’t know. Regardless, it was a nice compliment.

My last game was with a man named Marty against Laura and Virginia. Marty and I gave them a bunch of points—I probably gave them three myself, nothing like a compliment to make you lazy and over-confident!—and we fell behind significantly. But I got a bit more focused and we came back and won.

It was 85°F when I left the courts with Laura and Virginia at 10:15 a.m. It was indeed warm today, but not as bad as I was expecting—granted, it was still early morning.

Number of days on a court: 516
Number of total hours: 2,378

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022 (Court Day #515)

I’m leaving for New Mexico with my wife tomorrow morning for my daughter‘s “white coat” welcoming ceremony at medical school. As a result I needed to stay a little bit later at work to finish some administrative tasks.

It was overcast there still a little warm in Santa Cruz, but the clouds gradually disappeared as I drove to Scotts Valley and the sun popped out.

Skypark

I got to Skypark in Scotts Valley a few minutes after 7 p.m. It was striking to me that there were three tennis players on the two tennis courts and there were 35 players plus myself using the eight pickleball courts.

My first game was with TK against Matt and his friend Paul. TK made a lot of errors including driving a lot of his serves into the net, and that made it a much closer game.

You Owe Me $5

TK has a great serve when he gets the ball in. Before we started one particular early game together—we played several as partners tonight—I told him, “For each serve you hit into the net you have to give me $5.” He smiled, “What do I get?” “You get to play with me! I’m kidding!” He did do better.

Overall, I played pretty well tonight, so I did miss maybe 4 to 6 drop shots over the course of the two and a half hours that I was playing games tonight.

The last game was pretty fun. It was myself and TK against his friends David and Minori. She’s actually becoming a fairly decent player. She got a number of shots back over the net that I was not expecting her to get back, and they were not easy shots to return.

That last game ended about 9:25 p.m. and sure enough the clock flights clicked off five minutes later at 9:30.

I’m looking forward to play in Las Cruces, New Mexico, though there’s a prediction for temperatures is about 100°F. There they started playing outdoors at 6:30 a.m. to avoid the heat. The courts are about seven minutes of driving from the hotel where my wife and I will be staying, so pretty close.

Elbow

I’m feeling some pain where the bones meet are my right elbow. Not good. I haven’t been icing my elbow after play the last few weeks, but I did tonight.

Number of days on a court: 515
Number of total hours: 2,374.5

To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.