It worked out! It wasn't a blizzard, but it was snowing when we got up at 7 am on Christmas Day. It snowed off and on over the course of the day, and it was magical.
I didn't get any footage of walking around and catching the big flakes on my tongue, because I spent my phone time, eh, facetiming my folks.
The place had a ping-pong table, and while it had been a decade-plus since I played, and the paddles were of substandard quality (they had no rubber at all, just hard plastic uniformity on both sides), I got back into playing easily, and even discovered something:
That's Cass playing Corrie. But I learned that Cass has an incredible innate skill for the game of table-tennis. His grandpa is a good pon player, and so is his dad, and his mom has a fundamental ability with nearly any form of sporty or physical activity.
On the first day he played, his ability to get to the ball was natural, but his paddle play was erratic and his spray percentage was high. On day two, his returns were surprisingly good half the time, his strike form had vastly improved, and his spray percentage had been halved. On day three, his serves were getting seriously good, and not just for an 8 year old---for most anybody, his backhand (which I was trying to coach him on) was improving, his spray percentage was nearly zero, and basically unforced errors were his only problem. His ability to read my spins and English-on-the-ball were hampered by my ability to actually accomplish them---the low quality paddles were to blame for that issue---but overall, after three days, he was a very competent ping-pong player.
I was both very proud and mildly surprised, but I'm not sure I should have been surprised. Cass and his mom share some taking-to-a-sport gifts.
Merry Christmas to me.
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