Category Archives: Sports

Tennis Balls on the Doorstep

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I really liked the contrast between the reddish door and the yellow tennis balls.

Door and Tennis Balls at Newks

I was on a field assignment (a.k.a. an art quilt class) recently at the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch in New Braunfels, Texas. While other people were wielding their rackets on the tennis courts, my classmates and I were inside the conference center studying the theory of color and design. What I was doing inside seemed much harder than what they were doing outside. My idea is that if I take enough classes, eventually I’ll learn something. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’m already signed up for three art quilt classes next year.)

 

Foot Bath Required

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While walking around a tennis ranch (where I was studying the theory of color and design in the conference center), I spotted this sign. As a non-tennis player, I jumped to the conclusion that this requirement was to keep the tennis courts clean and in as good a shape as long as possible. But I didn’t know what a foot bath was. I looked around.

Foot Bath (1)

I’m thinking this is the foot bath. Or rather, the bottom-of-the-shoe bath. It doesn’t look particularly well used. But as I’m not a tennis player and didn’t ever see anyone use this while I was out and about, I don’t really know if people are supposed to clean their feet or their shoes before entering the courts. Maybe they play tennis barefooted? The sign says “Foot Bath,” not “Shoe Bath.” [Deep sigh.] I’ll probably never know. So many mysteries in this world, wouldn’t you agree?

Foot Bath (2)

In The Distance: Black & White

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Kayaking is fun!

Kayaking is fun!

Here I am kayaking on the Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. The river runs from Kerrville to the Gulf of Mexico. It was my first time kayaking, so I didn’t travel very far. Maybe next time I can take a bit longer and make the first big bend in the river, which looks really far away.

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: In The Distance

 

The Main Attraction

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Story #29 for Story A Day Challenge May 2016

29 The Main Attraction s

The Main Attraction

“No such thing as just luck, son. There’s good luck and bad luck. One can turn into the other pretty quick, too. Do your best to make your own good luck, that’s all you can do.” Wright’s grandfather was always full of advice, mostly based on his own bad choices throughout the years.

Wright stopped at the corner, waiting to cross the street. His reflection in the shop window showed that he looked a lot like his grandfather in his younger days. There were lots of photos of his grandfather, John, as he had spent several years on the professional wrestling circuit. John still had some of the posters with his name on it as the main attraction: Big Bad John.

And that was Wright’s ticket out of town, he had decided some years ago: professional wrestling. He was a pretty good size, Wright was, and fairly quick. He’d done all he could to get into shape, but without even a high school football team (the town was that small), he’d been mostly on his own in that effort.

As soon as he was old enough, he started working on the farms and ranches, any physical job he could get with two things in mind: earning money and staying in shape. The small town was like so many of them across the country: old and decaying. It wasn’t dying, exactly, but it hardly felt alive. It didn’t provide many job opportunities and even fewer that could be called career choices. Wright was not interested in staying around for a lifetime of poverty wage labor. This was not a good place for him to be.

And now he was rewarded for taking his grandfather’s advice by making his own good luck: he’d been accepted to the professional wrestling school in Calgary, Canada. It probably hadn’t hurt that he could say his grandfather had already taught him quite a lot about wrestling. Big Bad John may have been retired for years and years, but he was remembered.

The one thing that bothered Wright – silly, he knew – is that he hadn’t decided on a name for his professional persona. Not that he’d need it right away, but still, he didn’t want anyone else to choose it for him. Crossing the street, he saw the crumbling sign he’d seen a million times before but hadn’t paid any attention to: Battle Ax.

Oh, yes, Wright smiled. Battle Ax, only with an ‘e,’ making it ‘Battle Axe.’ Wright daydreamed about seeing posters advertising Battle Axe as the main attraction. Maybe this town isn’t a good place to be, but when I’m famous, he mused, it will be a good place to be from.
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