Volleyball again


Abigail’s hiatus from playing volleyball has ended and she was back in action last weekend. She still practiced in the areas of the game where jumping was required during that time. The doctor cleared her for full participation week before last and the time off and physical therapy she had cleared up the pain in her knee, which was from overuse.

I made the trip with Abigail and Kari to Midland for a two day tournament, Abigail’s first action since the hiatus.  We drove there Friday evening, though we could have waited until Saturday morning because Abigail’s team didn’t play until the afternoon.  We didn’t know that, though, until plans were already made.  Midland is a three hour and forty minute drive from here, which is not too bad but not trivial either.

Abigail’s team is one of the clubs in town called Extreme.  They had been playing Division II teams and beating them easily so they stepped up to Division I for this tournament.  Though they held their own in the games they played, they weren’t able to win any the first day.  In my view the team wasn’t playing very well.  It wasn’t any one individual.  They just didn’t seem to have their A game and paid the price.

On Sunday they turned things around and played pretty well.  They managed to win a match, which was gratifying.  Their final match was against a pretty good team, one of the better-coached teams I’ve observed.  Their coach was an oriental, Japaneses or Chinese, a tall slender fellow who really worked his team in the warmups, giving some insight to how they probably practiced.  This team handled Abigail’s team but didn’t blow them out.  I had watched that team play another match and had been impressed with them.  I was concerned when I found out our Extreme team was playing them that it might be ugly but it wasn’t.  Rumor was this was a team of 18-year olds, too.  In the second game the Abster scored a kill shot on them which gave our side considerable satisfaction.  Their opponents had made it very difficult to do that throughout the match and Abigail had been on the receiving end of a couple of those so no doubt she took considerable pleasure in returning the favor.

There are 55 miles of sagebrush, oil wells and not much else between Midland and Lamesa.  About the point of no return I remembered I hadn’t gassed up before leaving Midland and was alarmed when I looked at the gas gauge.  I was relieved when we finally rolled into a gas station in Lamesa.

Sunday through Tuesday we got a respite from the cold that gripped us for much of the previous week and into the weekend.  Tuesday’s weather was unbeatable and I enjoyed working outside.  I managed to haul off a couple of loads of tree trimmings over Monday and Tuesday.  Next week  is supposed to be balmy so I’ll be able to continue that.  Winter is a good time for tree trimming if weather allows.  Wednesday it started turning cold but I still  put in some time at the Bluff.  Thursday and Friday I holed up in the shop out of the cold.