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Pagosa Springs

_____________________________________________
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 9:18 PM
To: Bill Taylor (E-mail); David Taylor (E-mail); Tom Taylor (E-mail)
Subject: 30a Lunch on the river.

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Racquetball

Thursday. I’ve been thinking about racquetball. I think I had a backhand breakthrough
just before I left on this trip. The backhand is supposed to be the most
natural stroke in racquet sports, but given that we all grew up hitting
balls with bats from one side, we tend to favor the forehand. I’m happy
with my forehand shot. It is mechanically sound, consistent, and I think
it’s as good as it’s going to get. The backhand, I’ve been working on, but
it is still a level below the forehand. Given that it is supposed to be the
most natural stroke, though, that just doesn’t seem right. Also, given that
every once in awhile, I hit a monster shot off the backhand, leaves me
convinced that there is room for improvement. If only I can discover what
goes right when I hit that occasional great clean powerful shot. I think I got it! It’s all in the wrist. You have to come through the ball
flat at the point of contact, just like you do with the forehand, but after
that, it’s all about the wrist. If you keep the wrist flat after you pass
through the ball, it restricts the follow-through. If you let the wrist go
right after impact, and let it roll palm up, it allows a full follow-though,
which provides that missing ingredient for a smooth powerful shot. It’s not quite ready for prime time. If you let the wrist go a little too
soon, you just hit the ball into the floor. It’ll take a few thousand more
hits, just drilling, so it happens naturally. But when I do get it, look
out. Although my new backhand may not actually result in any more
points scored, it will make a better noise when the ball hits the wall. Judy thought she would have loads of leisure time on her hands, but not so.
She is busy every day with errands, people to meet, meals, laundry, hot
springs; you know. She’d better quit messing around and stay home and do
some laundry soon. The clothes hamper is full. Motorhomes always have a propane hot water heater. It’s not very big, but
it has a very fast recovery. When we bought this motorhome we were pleased
to discover that not only do we have the propane hot water heater, we have
an electric one as well. When we’re plugged into shore power, we don’t have
to use any propane for the hot water heater at all. If we want to take two
showers in a row, though, and make sure we have plenty of hot water, we can
run both hot water heaters at once, and improve the recovery rate. In fact,
the recovery rate is so good, I got to wondering if I could run it out of
hot water at all, so I took a hot shower, and timed it. A ten gallon hot
water heater, electric and propane both running, fifteen minutes. It took a
fifteen minute shower to run out a ten gallon hot water heater! I’m
enjoying the luxury of full hookups. Did I mention my new birding binoculars? My new wonderful birding
binoculars? Thanks to our friend David from Wild Birds Unlimited, they were
waiting for us at the Pagosa Riverside Campground when we arrived. My old
ones were 8×35. These are 8×42. The 8 magnification is the same, but the
42 relates to more power at the light gathering end. Good optics. Great
clarity. An additional bonus is the close focus range. These can focus on
something only five feet away. Judy’s, by comparison, can’t focus any
closer than twenty feet away. She sometimes finds herself too close to
birds to see them well. Not me! It’s nice to have binoculars specifically
designed for what we’re using them for. A scrub jay visited the feeder today. We had a nuthatch on the tree, a
grosbeak on the seed feeder, and a hummingbird on the hummingbird feeder.
Then the hummingbird flew over to the seed feeder and landed on it. The
grosbeak flew to the hummingbird feeder. It reminded us of Annie and Rags.
Neither will eat their own food. They each just want to eat whatever the
other one is supposed to be eating. Now the white-breasted nuthatch is on the seed feeder again. What’s he
doing on a seed feeder? He’s not a feeder bird. He eats bugs from the bark
of trees. Nevermind. I just looked him up. He likes sunflower seeds too.
We’re feeding Wild Birds Unlimited “no mess” seed. It includes sunflower
seeds. No shells. No mess on the ground. Ooh. Just spotted a house finch. That’s the first one we’ve seen here. I
never heard it, so I didn’t’ even know they were here. Oops. There’s a brown-headed cowbird. A two dozen deer day.