Temporary Redneck (Day 1)

After my airport odyssey, I arrived in Boulder Creek around 11am on Saturday. The tournament had been under way for two hours. Thankfully, either to A's email, or due instead to the a small waitlist, I still had a spot on a team! This year was the 15th running of the tournament, and the theme basically centered around the idea of "15 minutes of fame." Team names were things like "Pet Rock", "Chia Pets", "Edsel", "Members Only", etc. I arrived to find that I was in the right place (there are two sets of fields, some about six miles distant), and that my team was called "Where's the Beef?" I ran over and proclaimed myself "fresh beef", and suited up to play.

And that's when the pain began. I figured that I'd try to jog a bit to warm up and get the blood flowing. That turned out to be completely superfluous, and in fact, somewhat detrimental. It was fin hot. Eitch Ay Double-You Tea. It was basically "on one point, off for two." My body was working so hard just to stay cool, and here I was adding on the load of running around like a ninny. It's a wonder that I (or others) didn't flop over from heat stroke or heat exhaustion. I did have to do quite a lot of running my head under the faucet, though. No surprise; the car thermometer claimed 112 when I went in search of food (and 60lbs of ice) midafternoon.

We had another game after the one during which I had arrived (which was my team's second), then a bye, then a fourth match in the fifth slot of the day. This one was really fun. We were on the west side of the field, which was gathering shade, and a breeze had come up. Both teams played a hard-fought match in the somewhat cooler weather. Unfortunately, we came up two points short. We ended the day 2-2, but we had beaten both of the other teams which were 2-2, so we were ranked 6th overall (of 15). There was also a "win chain" in our pool; a complete circle of team A beat B, B beat C, C triumphed over D, D won out against E, and E beat A.

After the last match, it was time for the showers. We get to cruise on into the school gym a little bit down the road at San Lorenzo Valley High. As I was finishing up my shower, another guy who had just arrived asked "did you get any hot water?" I replied, "after how hot it was today, I didn't even try." All of my toiletries had been in the car all day. Brushing with hot toothpaste? Not hot. Hot shampoo? This ain't VO5! Melty deodorant? Non-stick. And worst of all is hot Listerine. Tingle AND burn? Yikes.

I got dressed in my work clothes (all I had with me, silly business trips) and headed to the party, held at the Brookdale lodge. The keg had been tapped, and a few of my old cronies (players with whom I've played in pickup games for years in various cities) were hanging around. Chatted with them for a while, gave a listen to the cover band, then headed for the campsite. Set up my bivy with the aid of my kickass hand-crank flashlight. I didn't have room in my backpack for my work gear, a pad, a bivy, and a sleeping bag, so I settled on pad and bivy. And tights, if I really did need them for the cooler temps. Turned out not to be a problem in the slightest. Had a pretty good sleep overnight, until sunrise on day two....