An Implosion Before My Match (Literally)

Sets 120-121 (of 365):

Stuart vs. D. at Connally High. Winner: Stuart 6-2, 6-3.

My Mojo: Average

I'm doing pretty well toward my goal, I think. I thought I would get 100 sets by the end of this month for sure and maybe 110 if I pushed it, but I'm past 120 now, and I just set another match for later today.

This morning my daughter and I got up early to watch them blow up the Intel building. My daughter said the night before that she wanted to see it, so I said I would get her up early to go there. I had a match set for 9 a.m., and with the demolition set for 7, I figured we'd be able to make it. When we got downtown, it seemed that just about all the parking close by was taken, so we had to park about a mile away. We barely got there before 7, but it worked out OK, because they didn't end up imploding it until around 7:45 anyway. There were a huge amount of people down there checking it out. Since it happened so late, and since I told her we would get bagels afterward, I barely had time to get her back home, get my wallet (which I had forgotten, and I had been driving around without my license), and get to the north end of town to play tennis.

I got there with about five minutes to spare, and my opponent was there just a couple minutes after me. Most of the courts were taken, but I was able to grab one. In the first set, he took an early lead, winning the first two games, but I won all six after that. I was throwing in the new serve occasionally (at least some of the components of it that I could handle--I'm trying to ease in parts of it at a time), but falling back on Old Reliable when I got behind. I am starting to understand that while my old serve is a nice trick against those who are not prepared for it, when I play a really good player, it is totally inadequate and I do better with the new one. But right now, my old serve gets in the box more often, so I fall back on it when I feel I need to.

In the second set, he seemed to put up more of a fight, and he came to the net more successfully. He was up for the first part of the set, but after I brought it up to 3-3, I won the rest of the games after that and took the match.

"When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again." --Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black