Basketball weekend

I'm pretty much hobbled and may have thrown my back out, but it was a good weekend for sports. I've had a slight reprieve in work that let me get back to the basketball court. Yesterday I played for 2 and 1/2 hours, but mostly with kids. It's hard to find adults that still play basketball in India.

Today was much different. I had heard a rumor that people play at 10am (painfully early for me, since I work a night shift), so I set an alarm and headed over to the court. Sure enough, there was a five-on-five game. I got to join in for the final two games. I have been playing / practicing a lot on my own, and it paid off. There were two teams - a group of late 30-somethings, and the some early 20-somethings that just graduated from the Karnataka state team (like a European national team). In the first game, the 30/40-somethings got blown out. But then I joined their team, and we went up 13 - 4, then won in a landslide! I shut down their best player. I had a great day.

I've lost a lot of weight in India - mostly muscle mass. I'm scrawny now. But I had forgotten how weighing less can translate into jumping higher. I jumped up to block a guy's shot, and he ducked, and I landed sitting on his back. I jumped over him! Amazing. Like I said, I had a great day performance-wise, at least for me.

After the game, the team threw me in a car and took me to a restaurant that one of the players owns. We sat on the patio and had some tapas and fresh-cut fruit. A very relaxing way to end two hard-played days of basketball.