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Postseason tennis is back

July 21, 2024
fun, photos, sports

We took one of the two spots to advance out of the USTA Sectionals this weekend. I was only available to play one of the matches, but we won our line and the team won handily. This is the same kind of thing we did a few years back when we went out to USTA Team Nationals (as 3.0 players, “the best of the worst”).

The weather had been dodgy all weekend so we played an adjusted format that greatly shortened the match, in an effort to get as much tennis in before the rain as we could. It wasn’t a crushing physical task, thank goodness, but it was still muggy enough to get up a good sweat.

We go again in three weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Home crow!

July 15, 2024
food, photos

This is the most bold of the crow gang at the house. This was after the morning batch of crackers and peanuts, so I think maybe they were hoping for one more shot before I left for work (they got another handful of peanuts).

There are a couple of bald crows in the gang now. The internet suggests that it is just normal molting, so maybe they’re juveniles?

Dunno.

Office crows

July 12, 2024
photos

These are the crows that have taken to the outdoor space (patio? veranda?) outside of my office window at work.

It looks like one adult and a couple of juveniles. I know this because I put some peanuts out the other morning and three of them absolutely harangued the other one to be fed. It was pretty funny.

I don’t have any good photos of the crows from home yet. They’re still skittish when I’m outside. I can get close with the office crows because they can’t see me through the windows.

Strong Sunday Candidate

July 8, 2024
photos, sports

Sunday started with a customary coffee with the gang. I like to keep it iced in the summer. It gets hot here.

Morning tennis was in the 3.0 league and we won our match 6-1, 6-4. The team won on a deep tiebreaker, keeping some postseason hopes alive. It’s been a rocky one for us. Afterwards, I had a small meal, a shower, and a nap, all in preparation for evening tennis. Unlike my misadventures on the 4th of July, there was room in the day for a recovery plan.

Unfortunately, I didn’t play as well in the 3.5 evening match and we lost 6-3, 6-4. I’m still new at the higher level, so I’m okay with the loss/lesson. Our opponents were decent dudes, so it softens the blow a little. A couple of post-match cold ones (not pictured) completed the picture for a top-5 Sunday in July.

Halfway to the goal

July 5, 2024
photos, sports

As I’ve mentioned, I’m moving into the old-guy sports of golf and tennis. I harbor aspirations of getting back to the gym, but it will likely be in a maintenance rather than competitive vein. Tennis is good for me because it’s a decent runaround in a tight 90-120 minutes. Golf is much more of an investment, in $$ and in time. Because they’re both sports you can play when you’re old, though, I’m cool with the spend.

I played for the third time this year and, I have to say, it was a lot of fun and I was better than I expected. I still scored for shit, but I was hitting the ball well. If I had gotten there early enough to get some time on the putting green I could have save myself a bunch of strokes. A bunch, in this scenario, is 4-5. It was an after-work round on a hot afternoon and my watch suggests it was definitely exercise.

If I can get 6 rounds in this year I’ll seriously consider upgrading my irons, which were 12 years old when I bought them 21 years ago. My golf friends tell me that the technology in modern clubs makes the game so much more accommodating for the enthusiast (“bad”) player that I’m cheating myself by not making the move. It’s just too expensive right now for something I might do 6 times this year. I’ll surely be shopping used, in the hope that mid-2010’s golf tech was good enough to keep me in the fairway in 2025.

Also, the golf club parking lot has some treasures.

Summer Adventures 2

July 3, 2024
fun, photos

A crucial discovery of my mid-life has been the concept of “friend with a boat”. I’m definitely a “land” guy, but I can see the appeal of having a boat to go out and do water stuff. I certainly don’t have the resources (or temperament) to have a boat and all that boat-owning entails, but we have friends who do, and it’s a credit to them as people that they’re willing to invite us out on the water in the summer.

Sometimes you see pelicans.

Sometimes you see a forklift putting a boat away in the barn.

Other times, you spend 4 hours casting lines trying to catch bluefish, but the only thing you hook is a floatation cushion that blew off of some boat.

It’s always cool to grab a Maps screengrab so see where you were, though.

Also, boat dogs!