Thursday, August 1, 2013

Josh Has Another Trick to do me in

    Josh is a very competent and competitive tennis player. He spends winters in Arizona and plays tennis as much as he can . One spring he brought a ball machine back to Canada.

    I know about tennis rackets,  balls and court . I played with my son when he was a kid. I either hit home runs out of the park or smash the ball into the net. My tennis experience is very brief.

    I retired June 30 1997 and would receive my first pension check July 26.

    We went out to see Josh. He mumbled about the ball machine and that he had been too busy to set up  and adjust. So one day I offered to help him with the ball machine. So balls are shooting out on the opposite side of the net  so they have to be picked up. Then I thought it would be easier to take my racket and knock the balls back. Next thing I knew I was getting pointers on playing tennis. The ball machine worked  very well and getting a good workout. Somebody else was getting a workout.

    It was a hot muggy morning with a temperature of 35 C (95 F) in the sun. Finally I had to say that's enough. We secured the ball machine and went home. I we sweating profusely, weak and a little wiggly. I'd had more than enough tennis. I wondered if I'd live to collect my first pension check and ribbed Josh that he was trying to do away with me before I got my first pension check. 

   I wish it had been cool that morning. I may have stayed long enough to pick up some tennis skills to be able to play well enough to make it fun. Who knows ? My whole life could have been different.

23 comments:

  1. It is really interesting to think how one small change in an event could make a world of difference in our lives, isn't it? You made me think about things in my own life... :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's funny how some things we think about and make choices. Other things just happen.

      Delete
  2. It's not a game I've ever got to grips with.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Who knows, my friend. We might have been welcoming you over here at Wimbledon! But as a pensioner I am rapidly learning that the path of least resistance has a lot to say for itself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My session with Josh was too late in life!

      Delete
  4. That was an interesting experience. Can't imagine how you pulled that off in such heat. I would have been melting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, I was melting. I didn't have anything to drink!

      Delete
  5. Oh that is fun on a cool day but in that heat I can only imagine what you were feeling:) B

    ReplyDelete
  6. Its that walk you took, or the bus ride and chat with a stranger, or that tennis - for all the "I may's or mights or if's" in our lives - we could have walked in any direction and totally transformed our lives. Most of us have done that, eh, when you think about it. I do not have any "if's or may have's or maybe's", because I chose to take every open road and I gotta say life is a blast and still is - this is marvelous Red - you could still play tennis, maybe?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did what you did for a while and then iIgot married. That brought adventures to a screeching halt!

      Delete
  7. you're so cute. tennis is too hard for me - i'm not quick enough and have terrible hand/eye coordination.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tell me about hand eye coordination. It really deteriorated with age.

      Delete
  8. Indeed. I took up golf because I had no one to play tennis with in our little town. Games you can play by yourself keeping score like golf and bowling I came to hate because your competing against your own expectations. Later a tennis player came to town and we played for years even joining a club in Rochester thirty miles away. I love it and played till my knee went bad in my sixties...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I liked the aspect of golf where you played against yourself. I'm not competitive enough to go out and hammer somebody in tennis.

      Delete
  9. We seldom know or appreciate the importance of events in our lives at the time they are happening.I'm glad tennis didn't claim you as a victim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No danger about tennis claiming me . There were all kinds of other things waiting for me!

      Delete
  10. Ha! I love your stories. Enjoy your posts a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tennis is quite the racket I hear .

    ReplyDelete