Author: andrewlenz (Page 183 of 329)

Friday, October 8, 2021 (Court Day #418)

It’s been a very long time since I’ve played at Brommer on a Friday morning. Fortunately, we had enough staff at work to allow me to take the morning off and attend the Santa Cruz Pickleball’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) . . . after playing some pickleball first!

I was going to get there by no later than 9, but my daughter needed a ride to work, so I dropped her off and didn’t get to Brommer until about 10 minutes before 10 a.m. The courts were all full, including all the temporary net courts.

More the Merrier

There was about as much waiting as they was playing today. Carol (Shawnte’s mom) said she would normally be playing at Skypark but had come for the AGM. Normally, I’d be working, so, yes, there were a lot of extra people at Brommer today.

Games

My first game was Steve B. (who is on the SCPC board) and me against Dan Bliss (also on the board) and a woman who I’d seen before, but didn’t know well. In the middle of the game, I turned to Steve and said, “Have you been in a game that you just want to flush?” Yeah. I wasn’t playing the best. Sure, it was my first game, but . . . man. Steve and I did end up winning, but ick. I made far too many bad shots.

I played a game with Dave Cox—who had signed up in red/advanced—against Hemi and her friend Brendan. It was a very contested game. I think we lost, but regardless, it was close. I didn’t play my best in that game either. Today was one of those “down days” on the skill growth curve. I don’t consider any of us as 4.0+ players, we’re all more blue/intermediate players.

After me playing what I felt was poorly in that game, I signed up in an intermediate box. I won’t mention any names—they are players I barely know anyway—but I played lefty and slaughtered them. They weren’t true intermediates. That’s the challenge of a signup board . . . people invariably sign up in a skill level above what they are. No one wants to sign up as the bottom skill level. Shawnte and I were talking about it. He’s contention is that we should have four skill levels for signup since no one will ever use the bottom skill level! In the meantime, we have three levels and people sign up in two.

Migrating

It was funny, I’d barely seen Terry and Karen Long—maybe once in the last six months—and I asked Terry if he just got back . . . there was some snickering by someone next to Terry . . . no, they were just about to leave for Arizona! If I’d thought about it for a second, I would have realized that with the weather in each area, they are in Santa Cruz during the summer and in the hotter desert during winter!

Group Photo

At noon, Leslie immediately started taking down the club nets to prepare and signal the pending AGM. I helped take down a couple myself. Once that was done, Karen Long corralled the herd for a big group photo to use on the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club website for the next year or so:

The AGM

We gathered over in the picnic area right after all the club nets were removed from the courts at noon. Some players continued to play on the permanent courts, expressing no interest in club plans for the area, officer elections, etc. New SCPC officers were elected by acclamation as they all ran unopposed. John Pacholski took over from Dave Witte as Treasurer for a two year term, Mark Dettle took over as President from Karen Long who was leading this meeting. Tony S. took over as Secretary from Dave Allenbaugh.

Dave W. gave a report on the state of finances of the club which is good.

Rick A. was announced by Karen as the new site coordinator for Derby Park on Wednesday and I was announced as the Derby Sunday site coordinator. Since it wasn’t clear that I was resuming my role, I proclaimed, “I’m back!” to the group for the benefit of those people whom I didn’t know. Jim D. was announced as the site coordinator for Willowbrook.

The meeting concluded about 1 p.m. Two years ago, the AGM included a potluck, but with the pandemic limping along, they kept it simple this year.

My Play

It seems that this past week, I have been more frustrated and disappointed in my play than anything. My forearm is holding up but it’s still a touch sore. It really needs a break of about a week to heal up, I think. But I doubt it’ll give it that.

Number of days on a court: 418
Number of total hours: 2,089

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

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 (Court Day #417)

I arrived at Skypark at 6:35 p.m. and the sun was setting. There was a tennis couple on tennis court that we used as overflow for our portable nets, but fortunately it wasn’t as busy as some nights and the four permanent courts was just about right.

I had a number of games with Mike Ballard, Sharyl, Kristin L., Mark Dettle, and John A. It was a very fun and challenging evening. I’ll admit that in the games later that I played right handed, I was frustrated with some of my shots . . . mostly the failure of my drop shots. I missed far too many of those. That and I hit several would-be winners too far out past my opponents baseline—you get excited, right?

I looked at John A. as Mike and Mark left . . . “Singles?” But he was too tired. We were done and out at 8:48.

Death Threat

John shared that more happened with that park neighbor who confronted us in the parking lot on Thursday last week. After I got into my car that night, the guy followed John to his car and asked, “Are you planning to do this again?”
John avoiding furthering the unwanted conversation, didn’t respond.
“If you do, I’ll break your f–king neck.”
At this John replied, “Then you really will be breaking the law.”*
“I don’t care about the f–king law.”
*This was alluding to the guy’s ridiculous suggestion that we had tried to break into his house because his automatic yard light went on earlier.
Sounds like a real jerk. Too bad he lives right by the parking lot entrance. And there is no small irony that he called law enforcement to report people staying 10 minutes past the park closure time (when the lights didn’t go off when they were supposed to).

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Wednesday, October 6, 2021 (No Play)

This morning at 10 a.m. was my last PT appointment. I met with Casey, whom I’d met for my first PT appointment those so many months ago. My timing was good, Casey is leaving Precision Physical Therapy for a new job working for Kaiser and his last day is in about two weeks. Going forward, I’ll be on my own with my exercises.

After what John told me last night and since I was in Scotts Valley anyway for PT, I stopped by the SVPD and explained what had transpired to the uniformed woman behind the glass. She suggested it would be good to have the threatened individual report it—I was there for advice, not to make a report, since I knew I’d just be hearsay. I’ll leave it to John’s comfort level if he wants to do anything about the incident. But that threat does make me uncomfortable.

My right arm is bugging me. Both the inside of my elbow and the outside. I keep a bagpipe practice chanter—a wind instrument much like a recorder—on my desk at work. After closing, I played a quick tune and could feel the sore muscle in my forearm.

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Thursday, October 7, 2021 (No Play)

My right elbow is a bit sore. It’ll be a little bit of pain with random things, like certain positions on the steering wheel, or moving my arm while doing things at my desk at work. Regardless, I’ll be playing tomorrow morning at Brommer Park. It’s the day of the Santa Cruz Pickleball Club Annual General Meeting which will start at about noon. I’ll go play, hopefully more lefty than righty, if I can control myself!

Number of days on a court: 417
Number of total hours: 2,087

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

Sunday, October 3, 2021 (Court Day #416)

I walked out my front door into already warm temperatures. When I got to Brommer Park at 9:30 a.m., the four permanent courts were full and three players were sitting on the wall, Allan K., Jean, and a visiting woman, Elizabeth from Portola Valley. I walked up and said, “I have a portable net in my car, if you want to play.” Jean was quick with an answer, “We can’t. Tennis players.” I looked over and, sure enough, rare as they are, there was a woman and a man over on the tennis court playing. That wipes out the four dual striped pickleball courts. But it would be a lightly attended day—there was a tournament going on this weekend.

Renee made a nice comment, “You are playing well today.” She was in some games where I was playing right-handed. That’s a whole different animal than me playing lefty.

Harry and I played a game against Beth and David Black. That was a fun one. Harry played badly, which I’m sure he’d readily admit. We had a rematch and before the game I told Harry, “You owe me a dollar for every missed serve!” He did much better in this game and we won.

I can’t remember who the last game was with but I was dragging badly. I was very tired and dehydrated even after drinking a big water bottle full of ice and water—well, just lukewarm water after the ice melted away.

I finished up at 1:30 p.m. after four hours and called it a day. I went home and iced my right arm. Strangely enough, I was feeling it more on the inside of my elbow than my outside.

I felt I did ok today. Not great, but not horrible. Serviceable.

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Monday, October 4, 2021 (No Play)

I can feel my right forearm. It reminds me of a quote from a Batman movie, “Have you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?” Recovering from tennis elbow, every game playing righthanded is like a dance with the devil. Will you be fine this time around? Will the game push it over the edge? How often before a major relapse?

USA Pickleball Cards

My ambassador business cards haven’t arrived yet. It’s only been a couple of weeks, so I’m not worried. Plus I got a confirmation that my order had gone in, so I’m sure they’ll eventually show up.

Number of days on a court: 416
Number of total hours: 2,085

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