Can’t stop, won’t stop, Dog Dental

Last night on the way home I made a snap decision that I was going to play pickle ball at Veterans Park with my buddy and coworker Rich.  Doing so meant I had to fly around the house.  My dinner was fast but sort of ridiculous, two Pop Tarts and a glass of almond milk.  On the way there the weather was good, except one large gray cloud I spotted off in the distance.  You can imagine my joy when I turned into Veterans Park just as rain from this one cloud let loose.

The rain was enough to send almost everyone that was there scrambling.  Rich had gotten there earlier and had already played a few games.  He was going to bail with the rest of the people but I told him I was going to wait a bit as it seemed like after this cloud passed we should be good, well sort of.

As I hoped the rain did stop in a few minutes but the court was drenched.  However when I walked on the surface it did not feel too slippery, except for the painted lines which were like ice.  They had a big court broom so we used it to push some of the water off the court.  By the time we were done it wasn’t too bad.  I did not slip once.  A few other people resumed play as well.

So we had just started playing with a couple women when another round of rain came rolling through.  At first I conceded that we just were not going to be able to play.  Rich got back in his car and had pulled out but I stayed, looking at my Dark Sky app that showed rain was ending in 7 minutes.  The rain did stop in more like a minute.  I texted Rich and told him I didn’t leave yet and that it stopped raining.  He turned around and came back, he really loves pickle ball.

So once again we took the brush to the courts to clear the water and started playing. It was so humid, I was drenched not from rain but from sweat in no time.  There were even fewer people left this time so Rich and I played three games of “skinny singles”.  In this variation you are only playing on one half of the court at time.  It is a way to not kill yourself as much as regular singles and with the wet courts it made more sense.  This style of game is good for working on your skills but far too often I forgot that I could only use half of the court and hit out.

We then played two doubles games against a pair of very good 18 year olds.  They both are on the high school tennis team and play club level pickle ball.  The first game we were somewhat competitive, the second game they smoked us but it was still fun and a good way to improve by playing better players.  Rich and I did a couple more skinny singles matches before we wrapped it up a little before 9.  It was awesome to get some playing time in when at first it seemed those hopes would be washed away.  I don’t give up easily.

I actually got an invite to go hang with some friends on the way home at a bar.  This is something that I would have never considered on a Tuesday evening for the vast majority of my adulthood.  However I have been making conscious efforts to keep pushing beyond my norms and saw this as another opportunity to do so.  I got home very, very late and am running purely on caffeine at this point but it was worth it.  I had a really good time.

This morning I dropped off Elsa for her first ever dental cleaning.  She was not very happy that I refused to give her breakfast.  The vet gave me a couple pills to calm her down prior to the visit but she threw them up after eating grass out in the yard, which annoyed me.  When the vet assistant came out to get her it broke my heart to see Elsa’s face full of fear as she was lead into the back office.  I will pick her up this afternoon.  From here on out I will be diligent about doing dental care at home, something that has been more or less absent since Elsa joined the household.  I don’t want her to have the same sort of mouth issues as Sadie has had over the last 6-7 years.