75min

Thursday is tennis night, and I always look forward to it.  This was the next-to-last night of the season, with us almost to the time when we shift from indoors to outdoors.

The night started out great.  My ankle was wrapped again, and was doing better than last week — even after that forced march of a bike ride last night!  I was zinging the ball cleverly, and starting to get my serve back.

And then the third set came around.

I was guarding the net, and the guy on the other jumped high after a lob, and pummelled the ball.  It was a thing of beauty…. that zoomed squarely at my left eye.  Fortunately, I had good, solid, big glasses on — they were annihilated.  Anything less, and I might’ve had a severe eye injury.  As it was, I have a pretty good gash on the nose from the nosepiece, and cuts on my face the lens edges.  It could’ve been a whole lot worse.

I don’t know what it is about this crowd on Thursday nights — either I’m too slow, or they’re too dangerous.  Either way, I won’t be playing next week — I have no spare glasses — and then I’ll have to decide what to do about the future of my tennis career.  :-)  Sunday morning’s crowd isn’t this dangerous, and once we move outdoors, it seems like the competitive edge decreases a bit — no league, no points.  I might still want to play under those circumstances.

All I know is that I’ve destroyed two pairs of glasses and spent the afternoon in the x-ray machine this year from tennis.  Aside from court fees and rackets, that’s making this an expensive sport!