Bringing Indiana to Florida

Somewhere between the YMCA and the sheriff's gym closing during the quarantine, and maybe a little lack of exercise imagination, Tom decided he needed a basketball goal. It isn't the first discussion on the topic, but having grown up in basketball territory, I know what is required, and a sloped one-car driveway, isn't it. Topic dropped.

Until quarantine.

I shook my head, reminded him of the minimal space between neighbors, and the four cars parked at any given time on the sloped driveway. Unless he planned to block in the area behind and to the left of the goal, I didn't see how a basketball goal would work. I suggested the kind seen throughout our neighborhood--one that can be moved--because the street would be a halfway decent court, especially now when everyone wasn't racing up and down.

He didn't like the idea, and on the first weekend, he began digging.

Within a few days after that, a basketball goal was delivered to our house in a huge box that had to be stored under my car while he contemplated how much concrete he would need to get the thing set up.

He settled on 200 pounds, ended up needing 600 pounds, and with Oleg's help, he mixed and stirred and poured concrete until he had a piece of the pole in the ground next to the driveway between our house and my neighbor's.

He nixed our suggestions of handprints and signatures and insisted it would take a week to dry. It took a little over one day in our record-setting Spring temperatures despite two days of rain, but he followed the instructions that accompanied the goal and left it for a week.

Eventually, he added to it.

And finally, the day arrived for him to begin building the backboard. He built it, unbuilt it, built it, unbuilt it again (he blamed the directions), and after several hours in the raging heat, and with Oleg's help once again, he finally finished and attached the backboard.

So far, we have yet to hit the neighbor's house. Or, if they have, they have not told me about it, and as long as more than one person is there to rebound, the cars have been spared--somewhat.

Darcy: "But if you do shoot by yourself, it's a great cardio workout chasing the ball before it hits anything or rolls down the driveway."

Okay, maybe I can admit Tom was right about the basketball goal. I did request he raise it to regulation height after several days of dunking, and I think it looks damn good outside my house when I return from my morning walk, and maybe if they keep practicing, I won't have to worry about the neighbor's windows and cameras.