It’s been a couple of weeks since I played table tennis. The weather is gorgeous and I don’t know how many more of these days we’ll have. I noticed last night, delivering food to Anna and Javi, the bike area seemed to be cleared out? Since our bikes were chained together in that area, I’m a little concerned about where they might be. Lilly calls the UHN Management office and finds out that many of the bikes were moved into a basement area. If someone isn’t regularly riding them, and they aren’t picked up in the next couple of months, they’ll be trashed eventually. We wander through the maze of the dimly lit basement area and find our bikes, still chained together. After unchaining them, she helps me take them back up top where I can get to them easier. Looking around the walls of the area, there is a sign describing what they were going to do, but I couldn’t read it.

I change into my cool weather bike riding/table tennis gear and head over to the table tennis club. There aren’t many players, but eventually, a couple of guys decide to try me out. They both started off slow, and then gradually added spin and speed to their game. About the time I begin to think I could “hang” with these guys, everything speeds up and spins more. There are so many styles and spins, and each player is different. I’m getting better, but there’s no substitute for years of playing like most of the people around here.

After a couple of hours, I’m exhausted. I make the ride home, and fall into my chair, ready for a short nap. After dozing off, I wake up, do some planning for classes tomorrow, and wait for Judy to get home from the dentist. She lost a crown yesterday (chomping on a caramel). She had a 5:00 pm dentist today, but arrived early at 4:30. They took her back immediately, after explaining to her that she was early. The dentist took a look, decided it could be easily put back on, and did it. She paid 210 RMB (about $38) for the procedure, and was home by 5:15! Unbelievable!