(Sort of) back in the swing of things and trying something new

On Wednesday after I went back to the round robin in Enfield for the first time in a couple of weeks, I did something new.

I slept through the haircut that I got later in the day. Part of my fatigue came from returning to activity after pneumonia and part was from skipping my morning coffee because my stomach was upset.

You can definitely lose a lot after just a couple of weeks out. Or maybe it was three. I don't remember exactly. Especially at a "certain age."

A few days earlier I had gone back to yoga. I took it easy, telling the instructor that I might go into child's pose. Even so for a few days after, my arms hurt.

I usually like to do some kind of exercise every day, but I didn't want to push it. On one bitter cold day I thought of going to an exercise class at the Y but thought better of it. Maddie was glad.

On Thursday I finally gave in and tried Pickleball at the club. I had kept saying I didn't want to do it because I couldn't see the exercise in hitting a wiffle ball on a small court. Then I realized I couldn't say I didn't like it if I hadn't tried it.

Extra racquets were available for us newbies, and after trying it for a while, I could see that if you learned the rules and figured out how to hit the ball (especially the serve), it would be fun. You have to learn to stay out of "the kitchen," the area next to the net, except for a short amount of time, kind of like the zone in basketball.

Almost 30 of us were there, with play on four courts and people waiting to come in. I learned  how Pickleball came to be and read afterwards that it got its name from the family dog, like so:

"The sport was named after the the family cocker spaniel, Pickles, who was a canine of one of the co-inventors of Pickleball. Pickles chased stray balls and then hid in the bushes, so they named the game after him."

A sport named after a dog is a good sport.

A few of us watched some of the advanced players, who were really making the ball fly back and forth. I didn't realize how popular it has become. Some people play every day at various locations. I wouldn't want to do that, but I signed up for this coming Thursday.

I thought I was doing more listening than exercising, but still, as soon as I got home and pulled into the driveway, I fell asleep in the car.

Being sick for that relatively short amount of time definitely took its toll.