Although, it’s a short week, Judy has lots to do.  She has students performing at the 5^th grade graduation on Wednesday.  Thursday, several of the teachers are getting together after school to video a humorous tribute to the faculty and staff that are leaving BISS at the end of the year.  Friday, she has students performing at an assembly.  Busy, Busy, Busy!

The BISS graduating 5th graders.

Since I’m finished at school, my three days are spent a little differently.  I’m trying to balance my busy schedule with table tennis outings, swim sessions, and the occasional grocery outing.  Tuesday, I went to the park for some table tennis.  There’s always new people and experiences, and they’re beginning to get comfortable with my presence.  One lady has decided to teach me Chinese.  She can hardly play without stopping, pulling out her phone, and searching for a word to teach me.  I worked in a swim session, and a haircut later in the afternoon.  I also walked over to Solana Mall to get some of Judy’s watches fixed (batteries), and to tighten up the diamond in her wedding ring.  The watch repair shop is gone?  The jeweler looked at the ring, brought a manager over to look at it, and then shook me off.  I’m not sure what the issue is, but they didn’t want to have anything to do with the ring, or repairing it?  This was not a productive visit.

Wednesday, I went to the TT club.  I’ve been there in the middle of the day when it was hot, and there weren’t many players.  I’ve been there on a Saturday evening when it was crowded.  Today, I arrived at 9:00 am, and there was a big crowd.  It wasn’t as busy as Saturday night, but most of the tables were being used.  I walked down to the middle of the playing area, where there’s a grouping of benches.  I set my stuff down, turned around and someone was offering me a chance to play.  He was really good!  Everything I hit to him, he calmly returned it.  As we played, he was smiling, and even began to look bored.  The longer we played the more he began to probe the weak areas of my game, and the ball kept coming back at me right at the weak spot.  On the positive side, I’ll improve, but my ego is going to take a beating!

Thursday, I went back to the park, searching for my self-esteem.  Again, there were some characters around.  One guy rolled in on his bike, pulled out a small jambox, turned the volume way up, and started singing along with what I think were Chinese traditional songs.  Someone finally convinced him to turn down the volume.  Then one of the guys I had been playing TT with, walked by, showing me what looked like a weird bike chain.  I turned back to the table to play, and a loud pop had me jumping out of my shoes.  The “weird bike chain”, was what I would call a bull whip, and he was snapping it like a circus performer getting control of his tigers.  It consisted of a handle, then a chain similar to a bike chain (about 10 feet).  At the end of the chain, a length of rope was tied in, for about 2 feet, and the last foot of the whip was an even smaller piece of rope.  It was a strange looking thing, but boy, it could make a lot of noise.  He could really handle it!.

Later in the day, I managed to get to Metro for some groceries, and followed that up with a swim session.  Judy and I finished up the evening with some episode of season 2 of “Major Crimes.”