Rakkity made it to the court last week, and handed two racquets to the “little” rakkities, Patrick (6′ 1″ and 180 lb) and Katie (fit horsewoman and soccer player). “I hope you’ll be gentle”, he thought, putting his left hand into a protective nylon splint as he entered the court for this 3-way game.

The usual rules are for dad to play left handed, but that wasn’t an option yet. After a few volleys, it became clear that dad’s right back-hand returns were less than optimum, (even painful), so in a spirit of generosity, he offered to stop using backhands at all.

Patrick’s left hand was rusty, and he could barely stay even with his sister, but Dad was killing the ball pretty well, and won the first game 15-6-6.

By then, P & K had learned to return the ball to Dad’s backhand, and they stayed closer, scorewise. Several times, dad went towards the ball on his left, ready to hit it back-handed, then remembered at
the last second about the no backhand rule, and had to spin around to hit forehanded. Usually it was a wild swinging strike, leading to much levity on the court.

Except for those hilarious failed righthand/backhands, the game was uneventful and dad won again,14-10-10.

This was a great victory for king rakkity, but he kept in mind that a 3-way game is easier than a 2-way game, and besides, he would have been slaughtered if P. was playing right handed, and if K. was 3 inches taller.

It’ll be a while till rakkity can meet the Dominator on the court. By then maybe the Dom will have gained another 10 lbs from inactivity and his game will have faded. In the mean time, 3-way games with the kids will be fun exercise and training for that future day. And maybe rakkity will find a good fat recipe book to give the Dom for Thanksgiving.
r.

Nubus, my mother’s cat.

Jeff and Karen’s tomatoes.