Emails from the Pickleball Ambassador

Barb and I get a laugh out of the emails the pickleball Ambassador sends out to everyone in the pickleball community.  They are very long and detailed.  She tries to micromanage things to the greatest extent we have ever seen.  She treats the pickleballers like children.

She organized a pickleball meeting at a church in Westboro.  She included a detailed description of the neighbourhood.  She told everyone where they could buy a cup of coffee and a snack (there were two or three places) and where they could have lunch if they wanted to (there were different places depending on what you wanted to eat and how much you wanted to spend).  Then she said you can either eat before the meeting or bring your lunch or snacks to the meeting.  There will be tables set up in the meeting room. 

Barb was laughing at first.  Later, she was just annoyed.

Barb went to the meeting and got roped into being on executive committee of the Pickleball Association.  So now she will get more emails like this one.

Barb’s Pickleball Frustrations

Barb played in a few pickleball tournaments this summer in Southern Ontario.  She was particularly frustrated with her partners.  In one tournament, her women’s doubles partner took some Benadryl before the finals because of a small injury.  When the game started, her partner was too spaced out to play.  Barb didn’t know what was wrong with her.  She thought her partner was nervous and choked.  When she found out her partner had taken Benadryl before the finals, she was very frustrated.

In another tournament, her mixed doubles partner took the first game of the round robin to warm up.  They lost and since only the first place team in the round robin advanced, they were eliminated from the playoffs.  Barb didn’t know if she was more frustrated with her partner or with the tournament format.

Barb in the Garden of Eden

I like to take afternoon walks.  Usually I walk somewhere such as the library or a store or the bank.  But if I have no place specifically to go, I walk on the bike path along the railway tracks.

Barb and Julia decided to go for a walk today.  Julia liked to walk along the trail in the Jack Pine conservation area.  Barb and Julia went out at around 4 pm.  They drove to the trail.  I was surprised when they were back after a few minutes.  Barb said the mosquitoes on the trail ate her and Julia alive.

So they decided to walk on the bike path along the railway tracks.  Barb was really impressed that such a nice walking area was so close to home.  It was shady from all the trees and there were lots of people out walking their dogs.  Barb said it was like the Garden of Eden.

Julia Garage Sale Finds

Julia found a shelf, table, cupboard and filing cabinet at a garage sale.  We had them in the garage for most of the summer.  Then we cleaned up and threw out the cupboard, the table and the filing cabinet.

Barb found the shelf unit to be very useful for her fabric.  So she kept it.

Julia also found a free lawnmower at a garage sale.  Barb thought it was great.  She threw out our lawnmower even though the used lawnmower, Julia got at the garage sale, was older than the one we had.  The newer old lawnmower had broken wheels that Julia and the next door neighbour tried to fix but couldn’t.  So Barb was very happy to get a new older lawnmower and Julia was very proud of her find.

Sarah Comes Back to Life

Sarah’s iPhone was broken.  So she borrowed an iPad from a roommate.  Unfortunately, it slipped out her hand one of the first days she had it.  The iPad landed on the kitchen floor and the screen broke.  That made her life even worse.

Meanwhile, I was busy researching how to break into an iPhone to get Ali’s sister’s iPhone transferred to Sarah.

Sarah came home for the weekend. 

Barb and Sarah spent some time talking to people at the Apple store about transferring Ali’s sister’s phone but found out that it was impossible unless Ali’s sister could remember her Apple password.  Ali’s sister somehow had a different password for that iPhone because the Apple people verified the password Ali’s sister was using worked.

I worked hard but wasn’t able to break into the iPhone because of the new security system that comes with the latest operating system.  There were instructions on how to break into the old operating system.  So I tried to re-install the old operating system. You needed a very old installation of iTunes and if you re-installed the old version of iTunes on your computer you would lose all your music and podcasts.  Since Barb’s computer didn’t have iTunes, I installed the old version of iTunes there but still had no luck.

That night Sarah’s iPhone mysteriously started working again. 

She was back in business.

Barb went to a computer repair shop in the morning and had the screen replaced on her roommate’s iPad.

So Sarah no longer wanted to kill herself.  It is amazing how technology now controls us.

Sarah’s iPhone Nightmare

Sarah drove from Deep River to Kitchener for Ali’s sister’s wedding.  She had a couple of other students with her who she dropped off in Toronto.   

There was a lot of last minute coordination required.  The wedding party used their iPhones so much that all their batteries died.  So Sarah let them use her iPhone.  Sarah had a good time at the wedding. But after the wedding, Sarah’s iPhone died too but it wasn’t the battery.  It was really dead.

Sarah was in a mess because she had to get hold of the people she was driving back to Deep River to tell them she was running late.  She had their phone numbers on her broken iPhone.  She eventually sent a Facebook message to her roommate in Deep River to get their phone numbers.

 

She was very upset because her whole life was on that phone.  Sarah borrowed Ali’s sister’s old iPhone but she couldn’t get it transferred over because Ali’s sister had forgotten her Apple password.

With a severe lack of sleep from the wedding and a disastrous broken iPhone, she told Barb when she got back to Deep River that her life was over.

Frustrations with Recreational Fastball

This year I am the captain of a team in the Glen Cairn Men’s Fastball League.  We have a mediocre team and it is a lot of work and frustration running the team.

One of the things that I had trouble with was running the team for the league tournament.  There were a few guys who couldn’t make the tournament that weekend.  So for the Friday night game we only had nine players.  We were winning 10-0 in the fifth inning and were up to bat.  Our shortstop struck out looking.  He drew a line on the ground indicating where he thought the pitch had been thrown.  The umpire gave him a warning.  As he was walking to the dugout, the umpire told him that, if he said one word, he would be thrown out the game.  He turned and smiled at the umpire and the umpire threw him out the game.

We tried to continue the game with eight players.  However, the captain of the opposing team said we must default the game because, if we start with nine players, we must end the game with nine players.  The umpires said that this was a gentleman’s league and that rule might not apply.  However, the captain went and got the league president, who came over to the diamond, and said the rule did apply.  So the game was over and we lost 10-0.

I was furious and Barb was fit to be tied when I told her later in the evening.

The next day we were playing a close game.  In the last inning with the score tied, our second baseman fielded a ground ball with a runner on third base and, instead of throwing home, threw to first and let the winning run score.  He said he didn’t know the score at the time.

In our final game of the round robin on Saturday afternoon, both of our pitchers couldn’t make it because they were in a wedding party.  So I started a fellow on the team who said he had pitched as a kid.  He allowed 10 runs in the first inning.  In the second inning, I went in to pitch.  I held the score down but we got mercied 13-0.   

Since we lost all of our round robin games, we didn’t make the playoffs.  If we had not lost the first game by default, we would have qualified for the B playoffs.