Thursday, July 26, 2012

USTA codgers

For the first time in a year or so I played in a USTA league tennis match. There is a division in USTA for men over 60 - Super Seniors it's called. I agreed to play on a team of players rated 4.0 tonight at Fort Snelling, a place that I played twice a week all winter. The courts are somewhat different in the summer, because they take the bubble down and play takes place outside. That means that wind is now a factor in play. It's a new team for me, but I've played with many of the players before over the last ten years or so. Tonight my partner, Ahto, and I played against a pretty good team who play out of White Bear Lake, a team of players that often have won the leagues they play in. There are only three teams in this league drawn from all over the Twin Cities. I guess by this age most players have given up tennis and moved on to golf and shuffleboard. The guys that are left are hardcore, but still codgers. It'll take a while to get used to playing with Ahto, but we were competitive before losing 6-4, 6-4. It was windy. It was fun and as I told Ahto as we left the courts, we are all winners just by showing up and competing. Ahto is 66 and agreed immediately. I love this game.

The heat wave has dissipated a bit and I have a few photos that I've taken in the last few days. I've mostly been playing tennis and doing some walking around the neighborhood and some of my favorite parks in the Twin Cities.

My flower planter after being upgraded by the Girl From The North Country (GFTNC) a couple of days ago. The colorful flowers that were originally in the planter were flooded out by a couple of big rainfalls. They look quite a bit better now that there are new colors in the pot.

A single sunflower growing in the neighborhood not far from home.


A native American mask posted near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis, taken in a walk by the falls over the weekend with the GFTNC.


I changed my blog's header photo today. The white heron's image was captured about a year ago as it stood in shallow water in Lake Como.

3 comments:

Retired Professor said...

I do like the new header photo. It didn't look much like Florida's flora, though I see him fairly often in PC. Or his cousin.

Golf or shuffleboard? Hmmmm.

The planters look nice. Kudos to PW.

I like that mask -- don't see faces like that around here. (Except on the occasional old woman on the beach.)

BDE said...

I also like the new header photo and the mask. Nice post.

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