Wednesday, September 25, 2019 (Court Day #310)

I walked out my door and my first thought was, “Oooo. It’s going to be hot today. Usually it’s around 60 when I walk out. Today, it felt like the mid-70s. I arrived at Derby Park a few minutes before 9. Dave Allenbaugh was still setting up along with a few others helping him.

I played right-handed all morning. If I’m going to a doctor far outside my area for tennis elbow, I don’t want all the symptoms to be minor. I need it to be noticeable.

My second game was with Bill against Ted and Wayne. With Bill being a fairly weak player, I was expecting us to get wiped out. But I played very well and we scored 5 or 6 points. It would be the only game of the day I would lose. Bill is playing better. He’s not fast and doesn’t bend over, but he can get the ball back over the net and sometimes can even make an unreturnable shot.

John P. and I played a game against Ted and Tony. Mid-game, John said, “There’s the old Andrew we know!” It was a lopsided win. 11-3, maybe? As we walked off, John said, “You are on fire!” And Tony and Ted shortly after, almost in unison: “You’re playing great!”

Tony was impressed with my right-handed playing, “I feel like we’re breaking in the new stallion!”

I was sweating. It was hot. Only four courts were in use by 11:15, which is unheard of. Players were bailing out in the heat. It had to be in the 80s, easily.

The last game was Ted and me against Tony and Walker. I had come off the bench after sitting down waiting for a game to open up on one of the two remaining courts in use. I was a bit “cold”—obviously not in the literal sense—and missed a number of shots in the early part of the game. They pulled out ahead, something like 10-3. But Ted and I clawed back. It was quite the game—sure, there were lame points, but there were also 15+ hit rallies. Soon it was 10-10. Then 11-11. Then 12-12. Finally, we won 14-12. Jazmine and Deshen were enjoying the game from the bench. (Especially Jasmine, I think, since this level of play is well beyond her at this time.) A flurry of volleys would break out followed by a reset and some dinking, then another flurry of shots. It was impressive. Walker said he was impressed with all of our play. We all played a reasonably solid game overall.

One notable comment by Ted was, “You like those low shots.” He was referring to me taking balls as low half volleys—half volley, that is, by definition, hitting after the bounce but before the ball reaches its peak height. Only sometimes for me, it’s before the peak but really before the peak, like an instant after the bounce, just above the ground. An example was Walker hitting a dink crosscourt from my left to my forehand. Only it’s fast and deep to the sideline. To get it higher on the bounce, I’d need to shift out and a touch back. That’s hard, but sometimes that’s the best that some can do. I’d rather take it low from where I am and get it back over that way. I have the understanding of where the ball will be and have the skill to do that very low half volley. And it usually works. (There was one that I hit past the sideline, but no one is perfect!)

Dave called over partway through my last game and said, “Congratulations! You’re closing up!” He saluted and I acknowledged. And so I did.

12:03 and I was out.

Later

While at work, I shook an applicant’s hand. Oh, oh. Some pain.

I left work about 4:15, on my way to Walnut Creek to stay with my mother-in-law (who lives nearby) for my tennis elbow appointment tomorrow morning with the Witch Doctor. I hope he lives up to his name!

Number of days on a court: 310
Number of total hours: 864

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Sunday, September 22, 2019 (Court Day #309)

First day back playing fully right-handed.

I was at the courts early, a little after 8:30. Walking in, I noticed that they’d trimmed the edges of the grass growing over the walkway. It looked very nice! As I stood in front of the storage bins, the lids were covered with little gravel-like rocks. I’d never seen this before. When I walked into the courts themselves, the courts were covered with an amazing and frustrating amount of little jagged rocks of all sizes. I did my best, but my battery died before I got all of them off. I can only figure that the edge trimming and the rocks all over the place are related.

Newbie Jan (black) Tom B. (nearest), Art (white) partially blocking Dale from Santa Rosa, George (purple), a couple newbies, a regular whose name I forget, Rick, Patty, woman sitting, Bruce (yellow), Ray (blue), and Maria who regularly plays in Scotts Valley.

Tom B. and I played a game against Tristan and Cal. Tom and I had a solid lead, but ended up losing by a few points. Hats off to Cal and Tristan for a good comeback. It was a fun game. Tom didn’t play his best as the game went on, but those game happen. Just look at my game with Grita recently where I made a ton of mistakes. I will say that my tracking placement was off a bit. Cal hit 2-3 winners down the middle off to my left. With the paddle in my left hand, I would have had the reach, but with it in my right, I left a hole!

George asked if I was getting good hip rotation now that I was back to playing righty. I thought so, but George is good at objectively spotting that. I did tell him about the tracking problem and he commented on needing to relearn hold to play right-handed.”

Cal and I played a game against a couple of players. I can’t even remember who they were. Ted and Tom, maybe? In any case, it was a good close game that Cal and I won. The frustrating thing about that game was my errors. My spin serves are not working—I’m missing probably 3-4 out of every 5. I also slammed a ball into the net. Two of those today, unfortunately. And a couple of shots that I hit too hard/too long in other games. I need to work the rust out of my shots.

I expressed my frustration at one point on the bench. Mark G. had some good perspective. “You haven’t been playing with your right hand for almost a year, it’s like starting over. Think of that.”

Cal started his class with about a dozen students. He told me he’d need three courts, so that’s what I arranged for. Two of the city-provided nets and one club net until we got around to swapping it for his personal net.

Around 12:30, Tom B. dove for a ball. He cut open his hand pretty good and scraped his knee. Shawnte is a paramedic for a living and asked Tom to stay where he was, instead he walked over the bench, dripping a trail of blood from his hand. We got the First Aid kit from the storage bins and I just got out of the fray and let the pros go to work.

Tom B. getting treated by Shawnte and others. Bihn, a RN, stood by.  Eddie (white visor) helped along with the woman whose name I can’t recall!

Tom rode off on his bike once he was all bandaged up.

12:45. Cal leading a clinic on the three far courts. The three near courts are regular players still at it. Binh checking his phone. We’re waiting to get on a court to continue to play.

Binh said he was very happy to see me playing right-handed again. Maybe we’ll do some more tournaments together.

I was finally off  and walking to my car at 2:01 p.m. Five and a half hours, but I’m calling it four and a half for my record keeping. There was a fair amount of waiting around today and some of the time was prepping the courts.

On the upside today, about half a dozen of my serves were not successfully returned. That was exceedingly rare when serving left-handed!

Later

Tonight, I filled out the new club injury report form and emailed it off to the SCPC board. Karen Long followed up and emailed Tom to make sure he was ok. He replied that he “some road rash, or court rash” but that’d he’d be fine and he closed his email with a link to a YouTube video:

Monday, September 23, 2019 (No Play)

I’m down to one more day of antibiotics for my abscess tooth. The pain is subsiding. So good there.

The bones right at my elbow are a little tender and sore, but not super bad. There’s not much pain in my forearm, so that’s a delight. Though shaking hands causes a wee bit of discomfort but no tears in my eyes like months ago. Pressing on the tendon does give a “charlie horse” sensation, so something is going on there.

My right knee is back to bugging me, just to the inside of the kneecap. Lying down, it hurts when I move—like when I’m trying to get to sleep!

Number of days on a court: 309
Number of total hours: 861

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Sunday, September 15, 2019 (Court Day #308)

67th day out playing lefty. Tennis elbow. (With some righty.)

Last night, my wife’s mom, Bonnie—known as “Grammy” by my kids—said she’d like to come see pickleball. When I asked my son Nicholas, he said it’d be good for him to get out. I told them we should leave the house by 8:15. My insoles have been slipping in my Costco athletic shoes—I didn’t glue this last pair—but I bought a separate pair of insoles. I installed those last night. Fingers crossed.

Pickleball Time

My elbow was feeling almost normal. I was thinking of playing right-handed, but after I woke up and I tried to raise the fingers on my right hand under my pillow palm down—essentially trying to raise the pillow—that hurt a bit. Not totally healed yet.

This morning, Nicholas opted to sleep in, but Bonnie was up. Once she put on her shoes, we were ready. She followed me in her car so that she could leave when she wished. Bonnie lived in San Diego since the mid-70s up until my wife’s dad (and Bonnie’s husband) Ron passed away. (He’s been mentioned in this blog before.) A few months after he died, the family home was sold and Bonnie moved up to Northern California to be closer to her two daughters. She’s been down visiting us the past few days.

We go to the courts a little before 8:30. It was overcast, but it’d burn off to be a beautiful day. Bonnie and I started off with dinking. A woman appeared who had never played at Derby before but had played at Willowbrook in Aptos. I forget her name, it’s something not super common. Janet appeared and offered to blow off the courts, I took her up on it so that I could continue with Bonnie. Bonnie had played tennis some decades ago. Bonnie is 75, but she’s a very fit 75, she still goes jogging. She did pretty well, that hand-eye coordination was solid.

After another 5-10 minutes, I went to assist setting up nets and getting things ready. I left Bonnie with a group to continue hitting a ball around. I came back and she was sitting on the bench. There was the newbie woman warming up on a court with Janet, Adrian, and a man. I encouraged Bonnie to play, but she was hesitant. I called to Adrian, “Hey, Adrian, come play with me over here!” And he did, making space for Bonnie. I later found out that Bonnie ended up playing a couple games with them.

Bonnie left mid-morning, maybe around 10, I don’t know, but she liked it enough to consider doing it again according to my wife.

Ted (red) and Patty on the far side of the near court, playing against George (nearest) and Grita.

I played probably half a dozen games left-handed. Grita and I played a game against Ted and Art and lost 11-0. (Ted and Art signed up in red—goes to show the “advanced” category is a bit flexible at Derby!) I made a surprising of mistakes, and Grita made more than her normal share. Sometimes this just happens. A weird collapse.

As I sat on the bench between games, I pondered my elbow. It’s been getting better. I have that appointment with Chris Yoder’s “witch doctor” in 11 days. What if my elbow is healed and I don’t need the appointment? Should I cancel?

Playing with the Big Boys

Beth and David Black were signed up in a box in red along with Cal. They had no fourth. I asked Beth, “Can I sign up with you in your box?” Noncommittally, she replied, “It’s up to you. Do what you’d like.” This is one of those nebulous answers. Now, Beth is super nice. But after I lost 11-0 with Grita, I was a bit hesitant to subject any partner to that again. I debated for a minute. There weren’t too many on the courts who were better players than me, even with me playing left-handed. I made a decision. I’d join that box. And I’d play right-handed to put this somewhat recovered elbow to the test. Crazy, right?

So Cal and I played a game against David and Beth. It was great game. Cal must have told me “nice serve!” at least 3-4 times in this game before he got tired of saying it. Serving right-handed is a completely different story for me. I was serving low and fast and deep. A few serves with spin. (Though one attempt at a spin serve sailed a few feet wide of the service court! Rusty.) On one point, David attempted to lob me. I jumped up backward and slammed the ball into his chest. Woops. “Sorry, David!” A touch embarrassed and courteous, smiling, he replied, “I deserved that!” Cal and I won 11-9. He and I made about the same number of errors. I made very few errors and Cal made very few errors. Walking off, Cal exclaimed, “Andrew is back!” I replied, “We’ll see…ask me after tonight!”

I went on to play right-handed the rest of the session. It was great.

Art and I played against Tristan and Cal. Lost 11-6. Good game though. A handful of points into the game after I’d won a rally at the net against him, Tristan said, “Can you switch back to your left hand?” Funny!

It was 1:40 by the time I left. I asked Janet to lock up after her game was done. Cal was doing yet another class but that didn’t involve us.

Later

As I watched the Oakland Raiders give up a 10-0 lead on their way to a 28-10 loss, I iced my right elbow. About six hours later, I did it again. My elbow hurts when I straighten my arm. As always, time will tell.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019 (No Play)

No pickleball today. I had to conduct an interview for work. (It went well, we hired him!)

My right elbow was hurting by Sunday night and still continues to hurt now, several days later. It’s less in the forearm and more at the elbow bone.

Monday night, one of my upper teeth was hurting while eating. No big deal, often things like that just go away. Tuesday morning, it was the same or even worse. Mid-afternoon Tuesday, I called the dentist. They saw me right away. An X-ray later, abscess tooth. Drat. They sent me for antibiotics then to endodontist. A CT scan later, it might be a crack in the tooth and might need “extraction”—yeah, pulled out. They called this afternoon and I have a Friday 7:45 appointment to make the determination and treat appropriately—fix or send me off to the oral surgeon for yanking the tooth out. *sigh* I doubt I’ll be playing pickleball Friday morning. And tomorrow night is in doubt since I have a board meeting at 6 p.m. The universe is conspiring against me!

Saturday, September 21, 2019 (No Play)

My 7:45 a.m. DDS appointment yesterday got bumped to 10 a.m. They drilled through my crown, drained the infection, added medication and temporarily closed it up. She gave me a prescription for strong pain meds, but I doubt I’ll fill the prescription. The last thing I want to be is loopy. I’ll get by with over-the-counter painkillers. It’s hard enough remembering to take the foul-tasting penicillin pills four times a day.

My elbow bone is a still a bit sore, but it’s not bad. As of tomorrow morning, it will have been a full week between playing. Too much work to play.

Number of days on a court: 308
Number of total hours: 856.5

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