As I left you faithful readers yesterday I was on my way for a dip in the pool, but I never made it. Instead I created a masterpiece of a salad with Feta cheese, Kalamata olives, etc. Jumped into the shower and arrived with a soaking wet head at the Cocktail party preceding the Awards Dinner. Kay and I sold raffle tickets for the prizes, i.e., bottles of wine, gift certificates at Total Tennis, a tennis shop in the village, etc.
Dinner was great. Lots of scalloped potatoes, potato salad, corn bread, pasta, sliced ham, baked beans which I can live without, great salads, etc. The review after the show was entertaining. Lots of singing and dancing by residents and renters here in The Cove with Sid playing the piano after writing the lyrics, rehearsing the participants for the past month or so.
When I returned back in the condo after 9 p.m. BBT (Bed by Ten) is the rule for many people here, but not for me. I stayed up to watch SNL. For a change I had heard of both the host and the band. Jude Law and Pearl Jam. Great bit with Jerry Seinfeld and News Update guy ( his name will come to me eventually, I'm moving on for now) Really? (Seth?)
Anyhow I turned the clock ahead to 2 a.m., set the alarm for 7:30 a.m. and woke up at 8:50 a.m. I guess the alarm did not go off. 8:50 a.m. is the time I was supposed to be on the court. "Players will arrive 10 minutes prior to play" from the rules handed out last Wednesday.
I splashed water on my face, jumped into some tennis duds, had a swig of grapefruit juice and made it onto the court at 9:00a.m. just as I heard someone say, "Norma isn't here."
Luckily the only thing I had to drink last evening was sparkling water. I find red wine, white wine, or alcohol in any form really, alters my sleep. I sleep better when I don't have a drink. Not that I drink much when I do.
Occasionally I will have a Light vodka tonic. As much as I like the taste of a strong, dry, red wine like a Shiraz or the maligned Merlot, I find I sometimes have a slight headache after one glass or I wake up in the night rather than sleep straight through. A Bass Ale, my favorite, or a Sam Adams larger does not give me any problem, other than - if I am tired, have a beer before or with dinner and sit down to read, I find myself out like a light. How much fun is that? None really.
So, although I've read that tea-totalers are less healthy than people who drink in moderation, meaning one drink per day for woman, two for men, depending on body weight I suppose, I find myself drinking less than one drink a day. In fact I find myself drinking less than one drink a week. An occasional drink seems, to me, to be a much healthier habit than a drink a day which some doctors prescribe, but I'm not worried about high-blood pressure or heart disease or anything, really. When the next study comes out perhaps tea-totalers will fare better or not. ( I know the word is not tea-totalers, but I like it)
Anyhow, an amazing thing happened today to Team One. We were doing such a great job of holding down last place. Today, without fanfare, and with only a couple of people realizing, Team One, the team I played on, swept or I should say, crept, into third place. We did not get the Booby Prize. There was no Booby Prize.
The Final numbers, I'm told, were: Team One, 76 points, Team 2, 74, Team 3, 79, Team 4 96. How did that happen? On our team we all improved. The last match of the tournament, I felt, I played the best tennis of the three day event. George I and I beat two men, who shall remain nameless, 6/2. Boy, did that feel good! Somehow, and I'm not sure how, we managed to win enough points to come in third if we had.... shoulda, coulda, woulda... won three more points we would have tied for Second, but we didn't.
This sudden and rather drastic turn of events did nothing to change the course of the Tournament. Team Number 4, with 96 points was clearly the winner. I collected the 25 cent bet I won from Jack, the fellow who ran the Tournament. You'll recall the nature of the bet - So, we could have stopped playing yesterday and Sandy's team would have won or we could have stopped playing after Day One and Sandy's team would have won. Or we could have, and did, play the whole thing to its conclusion and Sandy's team did win.
The Good News is: Going out playing well, if even just one match, eight games, felt better than all the other, 7 matches, 56 games, felt good. I'm not sure if it felt good enough to ever play in another Sun Rise Cove Tennis Tournament. I'd rather simply play three times a week at the round robins and hope to play continuously. This playing 8 games, sitting down for 8 or 16, getting up to play another 8, etc., isn't the best way to play tennis. At least that is my opinion.
With that behind me, I put on a bathing suit, took a swim in the 88 degree water, reclined on a plastic chaise lounge chair and started another book while Kay and Skip watched Ohio State's basketball team play Minnesota, I think. The sun felt good. Temperature around 70. Very little wind today. It almost feels like Florida in March. Not quite up to seasonable temps., but very pleasant.
Did I mention the pool is heated by geothermal energy? I've got to find someone here who can tell me when and how the condo association made that switch. A good move, I would say.
Enough about me. I'm getting a little tired of writing about me. Surprised? Perhaps I'll turn my energies to meditating, birding, reading, sitting by the pool, a little tennis, more Yoga and QiGong and improving my watercolor technique. It's unlikely that I will stop writing though. Without having any old friends around to talk with or much time to myself this blog serves me well. It gives me some time to think out loud, tell my faithful followers what's going on in my life and consequently tell me what's going on in my life, sometimes indirectly, sometimes not.
It's always a good idea to know what's going on in one's life. Wouldn't you agree? Good to know, often not that easy to know. A little meditation, reflection, reading, introspection and, of course, mindfulness. Awareness. Being Awake! Enjoying life. Right here. Right now. Yippeee!
Gotta go. FAN
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