They have this really cool ball machine at Tejas Pickleball.  It runs on a rechargable battery and has an app that does all kinds of amazing things.  You can tell the ball machine where it has been placed on the court, tell it what kind of shots you want including a shot series that you particularly want to practice.  How to rush the net and then get back quickly for a lob then back to a deep shot.  You can collect a bunch of different routines and link them together and practically play a game against the machine.  It is really amazing to do.  But it requires focus and effort and a lot of brainwork and time.  I have the app and know how to use it and, give that time and focus, can run it through its places.

So I requested some ball machine time.  The guy running things set me up with a block of time but opened it to anyone else up to a total of four people.  Three others signed up.  I got there and was in the process of setting up the machine and linking the app when two them showed up and said 'hey, I think this M button will run the maching just fine' and proceeded to take over and use the machine in its lowest possible usage.  Just same ball at same place over and over.  They were extatic that it worked and were running around like elementary school kids (they are likely a few years younger than me).  Didn't ask my opinion, didn't acknowlege that I had any place on the court or operating the machine.

I left.

Next time I need to figure out a way to lock everyone out and use the machine the way it is supposed to be used.

It was really not a happy event for me at all.  Monday I'll talk to the big guy and see if we can figure it out.

I bought a month of YouTube TV yesterday.  Actually a month plus five days for free.  Buyer's remorse set in almost immediately.  I got it so we could watch some of the football playoff games.  At $90 it is an expensive ticket.  We did watch the news yesterday for the first time in a long while.  It is much easier to speed read than speed watch.  The older I get the less I'm able to tolerate the news.  

Today is going to be hot.  Monday will be cold.  That time of year.  

I set up a couple of hours of pickleball ball machine today.  There are others that decided they wanted to join me so we'll see how it goes.  I need some reps without thinking about just winning the point.  Hopetully it will be a good session.  I need to increase my accuracy to reduce my annoyance when I am playing.

Toby continues to get better.  He's coughing less and less.  Beaux is over his respiratory but it seems he has contracted hook worms likely left over from when he was in his previous situation.  I asked the doc if the parasite could be dormant for a couple of months and apparently that is frequently the case.  Fortunately it is a one pill now, one pill in three weeks and all done kind of thing so no big deal.  

I actually think that the respiratory bug they both got was also from when Beaux was in his hoarding situation.

He is actually well and  we have some anti-diarrhea med that is already fixing the problem along with the anti-parasite.  So it is an easy fix. 

Beaux's personality continues to come out.  He jumps up on the bed and plays around and is increasingly affectionate.   He still hasn't discovered toys but has pretty much figured everything else out.  Toby is happy that Beaux doesn't understand playing with toys.  

Tomorrow is going to be interesting.  One of my three networking friends is LDS and his son just came back from a year as a missionary.  Son is going to give a presentation about it and apparently they officially welcome him back.  I'm about the last person to latch onto this kind of stuff being a follower of Christopher Hitchens as much as anything but Tyson is a good person and has been one of my longest lasting friendships and it means a lot to him.  So we're going to the ceremony at the church.  First time in an LDS church.

Otherwise just glad to have the two weeks of Christmas be over.