Hanging a Garage Tennis Ball Without Denting the Car

Garage tennis ball rests on windshield of an SUV in the garage.

My lean-to ladder was not gonna work yesterday to hang a garage tennis ball. I needed a fold-out step ladder and don’t have that at our house in Hawaii. So, I was a little bit nervous about stepping on the hood of my brand new car and denting it or maybe pushing out the windshield with my bare feet. It also occurred to me that standing on a footstool to reach the car was not a stable launching pad, either. Not to mention, keeping balance, yes, somewhat tricky.

I held the ball, string, hook, and pen in my hands, with a scissors in my mouth. Well, let’s just say thank goodness the garage door opener on the ceiling was handy and available to grab. Stepped very gingerly, slowly and carefully. Never quite planted my feet firmly on anything, balanced more on the edges.

At my age, breaking a hip, that does not escape my thoughts. Suddenly, I had visions of me lying on the garage floor with geckos dancing over my bloody body and cracked head. Unable to move. Unable to call out for help. Yup, encouragement not to fall.

It’s odd that I hung a ball at all. To be honest, I used to make fun of people who hung garage tennis balls. I could not understand why they couldn’t figure out how far to pull into the garage. I thought only the mentally deficient hung a garage tennis ball.

But you know what? I have changed my tune. For me, I don’t have a lot of room in front of my car in the garage. This means when I pull up close to the wall, I can’t walk in front of my car to get to the laundry. I need that path wider to carry a laundry basket. I don’t walk in front of my car in Sacramento. But I do in Hawaii. Here, I need a shorter distance between the garage door and my trunk. And a longer distance in front of my car.

The answer? Well, what other than a garage tennis ball? I bought a Genie ball online with complicated instructions that involved using a lot of math to compute how far down to hang it. It also involved calculating the distance from point A to point B and point C. To the tip of the garage door.  They designed the system to align perfectly so closing the garage door moves the ball up to the ceiling.

I think they were worried people would walk into the tennis ball otherwise. However, when I pondered this situation, I could not foresee any time when I would be in the garage and my car was not. I suppose my husband could take the car to the grocery store, and I’d have a sudden urge to do laundry, but that is unlikely.

Seriously, how much trouble can you get into smacking your head on a garage tennis ball anyway?  The ball I bought is made out of some sort of silicone. If it sits on my windshield for months, so what? I do not think it will harm glass or melt.

I am proud of myself that I didn’t bother with the A to C and just hung the darn thing from the ceiling. It works like a charm, too. So what the hey that I am a Sacramento Realtor with a ball stopper in her garage. Now I probably fall into old fart territory.  When I screwed the eyelet into the ceiling, I noticed a hole next to it. Hmmm. Yes, I had forgotten. Obviously, the sellers had a tennis garage ball and they took it with them.

Darn it all to hell anyway. After all the discussions we had about what stays and what goes. They are not allowed to do that. That garage tennis ball was a fixture! LOL.