Tag Archives: ping pong

Ping pong weather

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ping pong table in backyard. This photo is from last year. Unfortunately there is a mega mansion being built blocking this mountain view.
This is the view of our ping pong table from last Spring. This year, a McMansion is being built blocking part of the mountain view! What were they thinking!!!

The weather is perfect for ping pong. We had the ping pong table folded up and stored away because our weather was wild this winter with tons of rain, wind and even snow.

Every time I thought the winter weather was over, I’d ask hubby to get the ping pong table out. Guess what happened? It would rain. It would pour. There’d be thunder and lightening.

So we’re a little late in the season for ping pong. But we started playing over the weekend.

We’re competitive with each other but silly, too. My husband commented yesterday that he only has fun if he wins. I guess when I win, he doesn’t view it as that much fun. I have fun regardless. That’s how we’re wired. I didn’t play competitive sports growing up, while he ran track, played football and wrestled. I golfed and skied and was out for recreation.

As for silly, when we first got the table, we immediately ran to our offices (separately) and began viewing youtubes on tricky serves. We laughed when we found out we were up to the same antics.

When it’s my serve, I bend at the waist and mimic Michael Phelps on the blocks doing his routine where he flaps his arms up and down — but I have a paddle in one hand. My objective is to get my husband laughing so hard he can’t return my serve. It still works!

Michael Phelps on the blocks.

It feels good to add a moments of playtime throughout the day.

This is the home being built that cuts into our view. It’s in a separate neighborhood than ours that has golf courses. We’re on the other side of the wall.

What do you do for fun to break up your work each day?

Is it ok not to go?

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swimming pool in Palm Springs
The 50-meter pool in Palm Springs that was one mile from our old house.

I have a reservation to swim in an hour. I don’t feel like going. I swam two days ago and I felt wonderful during and after my swim.

But today I’m weighing the idea that I don’t HAVE to go. If I decide to stay home and read a book in my back yard, I’m not any less of a person. But I’m torn. I feel guilty for not going. I know I should go. I remember I wrote about something similar years ago in a post “I don’t have to, I get to.” It was about appreciating what we have and that we are able to do things.

Every morning I walk, then I either play ping pong or pickleball a few times a week as well as swim. At my age is it okay to slow down and say no thanks, not today? Or should I say “I get to swim today” and just go?

What are your thoughts? What would you do?

An attitude of gratitude

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Olive cat
Olive giving me that look before she jumps in my lap.

After my free one-week trial, I decided to join the local YMCA. I made my reservations for a lane for three days this week and I felt obligated to go. It’s a quick drive from home, so even if I’m not feeling it, at least I get there and jump in.

I am sleeping soundly thanks to swimming — and being off prednisone. The combination of the two is amazing.

I’m feeling grateful for many things today:

Warm weather and no wind.

Sitting in the back yard reading my book club selection “The Old Man and the Sea.”

My cat who is strangely affectionate this week.

My husband for playing daily ping pong with me. Yesterday I won three zip.

Being off prednisone and the tinnitus is gone. I’m no longer crawling out of my skin from the medication.

For new friends and I’m grateful for the old ones who have reconnected.

Cooking on our gas range. We got rid of the electric stove top.

Every day I’m amazed by the beauty of nature around me.

Im grateful for my new readers and bloggers who are friends and make up a supportive community.

What are you grateful for today?

The world came crashing down

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ping pong table in backyard
Right where the crash happened.

We played a lot of ping pong this past weekend. Perhaps too much. We also ran errands like going to Costco, looked at art galleries and planned a trip to the Musical Instrument Museum.

It was Sunday afternoon when we really got into ping pong and didn’t stop playing. We had completed three matches, where someone needs to win three out of five games. We were pretty much tied on each game and the matches went all five games.

So that was a total of `15 games played when we decided to play a fourth match. All of a sudden the world came crashing down and I was laying on the concrete.

It scared me so badly. My right hand and knee took the brunt of the fall. I literally was trying to return the ball to the right of me when I fell. I think what happened was my shoe got stuck in a space between concrete tiles. The patio is very bumpy and uneven.

Sitting on the sofa with my knee wrapped in a cold compress and my hand clutching a ziploc bag of ice, I was trembling.

If this is what getting old is going to be like, no thank you! I don’t want to be afraid of falling while playing a game of ping pong! I know I need to get back out there and play. But maybe be more aware of my feet or wear different shoes. Do they make ping pong shoes?

Have you ever had an experience where you got injured or fell unexpectantly? What happened? Did you feel unnerved?

What a week!

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I hit the halfway point of my writing challenge at the start of the week.

Actually, not much happened out of the ordinary. But compared to most of my weeks during the past year and a half COVID days, a lot did happen.

Here’s a quick rundown:

I hit my goals for NaNoWriMo this week.

I managed to fit in posting blogs and reading other bloggers worked around my novel writing.

I played lots of ping pong and I sense some improvement.

I went to the Podiatrist and found an In-N-Out only 30 minutes from our house.

I had my first meeting as the official newsletter editor for our HOA. I met three new people who will be working with me to get the newsletter written and produced.

I took Olive the cat to the vet for shots. I had to find a new vet, since she hasn’t been to one in Arizona. I am not a person who regularly takes the cat to the vet. First of all, Olive hates it. She cries incessantly in the car and then she shudders and shakes. She doesn’t need to go to the vet if she’s not sick. But I called the place we boarded her in August to make a reservation for a trip planned in December. They told me one of her shots had expired. We both survived the trip to the vet, barely.

I talked to several of my old friends on long phone conversations after reading the article I posted on the importance of friendships. You can read that HERE if you missed it.

I went to my first NFL game in person.

Today I’m headed to our farmer’s market to get treats for Thanksgiving-week guests and my dad.

cat on a patch of grass in the house
Olive cat on her patch of grass next to pots of cat grass.

Happy Friday!

Have you noticed your weeks getting busier? Is it because we’re leaving COVID behind us? What makes your weeks busier? Or did I just have a one-off week?

The great ping pong war

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ping pong balls above a keyboard
I found my missing ping pong balls in my husband’s office.

The friendly games of ping pong between me and my husband took a highly competitive turn with a sprinkle of shady dealings with ping pong balls yesterday.

I like the brand of balls named Kettler that came in the box with our ping pong table. They don’t have a lot of bounce. They are soft to the touch and I have a better feel with my paddle. I’ve mastered a serve that I discovered on the Youtube video on killer serves. It’s a tricky little serve that barely makes it over the net and bounces a bunch of times away from the opponent. It only works with the Kettler balls for me.

My husband likes ping pong balls from a brand called Stiga. They have a lot of bounce and I can’t control my shots as well. My return flies off the table without bouncing when my husband has a fast, strong serve. I lose a ton of points that way. In fact, I think I only lose because of the Stiga balls.

“That’s fine if you want to win that way,” I told my husband.

“What??”

“That you feel you have to play balls you know I have a difficulty with. If winning is that important to you.”

He switched to my Kettler balls on the next game and I skunked him 7 – 0.

When we finished the match, I had a plan in my mind. I raced to my laptop and ordered more Kettler balls on Amazon. When my box of 60 balls came in, I’d remove the Stigas and hide them in the casita.

My husband approached me while I was ordering and looked over my shoulder.

“Are you going to order my balls, too?”

I shook my head no. Definitely not.

He tried to log onto Amazon on his computer. But he doesn’t know the password. And no, I didn’t give it to him when he asked.

“I called our daughter and she is ordering my ping pong balls,” he announced.

We played another match, and my Kettler balls were missing. Later that night I walked into my husband’s office and found a nice little pyramid of them resting against his keyboard.

Stiga ping pong ball
My husband’s preferred brand of ping pong ball.

Do you and your spouse get competitive in sports or games? What games or sports to do you play together?