This basketball.
When Bossy and her husband bought their house, the first thing Bossy’s husband did was put up a basketball hoop in the front yard for Bossy’s 9-year-old son. That basketball hoop received a lot of action for many years, until basketball took a back seat for Bossy’s son.
And then one day Bossy drove under the hoop with her Honda’s bicycle roof rack sporting several bicycles, and as Bossy drove she heard a slow snapping sound followed by some crunch and before she knew it she had pulled down the backboard and net.
The headless pole lived in front of Bossy’s house for another bit of time, until the last of the remains were finally removed. But this basketball was left behind.
Mostly the basketball lived in the garden shed, but it made a sudden appearance in the front yard last fall, spontaneously revealing itself around the same time Bossy’s son moved away to college. No one knows how it got there or why, but without discussing it, the family left it where it was.
The fall and winter passed in this way, and occasionally Bossy found herself photographing the ball, and attaching emotions to it.
Bossy thought the ball would probably be put away come spring, as soon as it had to be moved in order to mow around it, and yet here it remained. And remains.
The family now thinks of it as a pet, and have named it Wilson.
Gail Kimball says
June 18, 2009 at 9:25 amI would have named it Spaulding, but that is me. Sad to think of the lonely basketball just waitng for his boy to come home.
Lesley says
June 18, 2009 at 9:30 amThose petunias are doing well Bossy!
Heidi says
June 18, 2009 at 9:36 amHopefully the tree swing is still getting some action!
Debby says
June 18, 2009 at 9:37 amBossy’s Great Dane isn’t just great, she knows when to leave the other pets alone.
Bush Babe of Granite Glen says
June 18, 2009 at 9:44 amI’m quite sure there is a Toy Story sequel in the making, based loosely on this blog! I hope you are careful to mow around it?
🙂
BB
MariaV says
June 18, 2009 at 9:49 amIt looks like a Kareem to me, Bossy.
corrie says
June 18, 2009 at 10:06 amWilson… you are so funny!
I still have a ball we bought the summer we went on vacation to the Rhode Island shore with our first little baby who was 9 months old (and we made our second baby).
That ball has somehow remained still after ten years … (not bad for a ball bought at the grocery) … and I seem to have grown sentimentally attached to it.
So.. if Wilson is taken I’ll have to come up with my own name for it.
P.S. I love love love the blue petunias in the blue pot!
Chesapeake Bay Woman says
June 18, 2009 at 10:23 amWhat with having to dodge kamakaze branches and being linked to such bittersweet memories, I’d say Wilson is just like an old ball and pain.
Grandma J says
June 18, 2009 at 10:26 amHow funny, because Grandma J has a basketball named Wilson too! Is it possible that Bossy and Grandma J are distant cousins, once removed by a pair of balls?
Grandma J can’t believe she said that.
David says
June 18, 2009 at 10:55 amHopefully without the bloody handprint.
Meg at the Members Lounge says
June 18, 2009 at 11:12 amThe council is heartened to see the petunias have taken off.
Good companions for Wilson……
BH says
June 18, 2009 at 11:14 amIt should pleas you all to know that Wilson is a very happy, most content basketball.
BH
Domestic Goddess (in training) says
June 18, 2009 at 12:40 pmBefore I read the last line, I was thinking you should introduce it to Tom Hanks’s Wilson and they could make very lovely Volketball babies. But, in this case, if they are both Wilsons… they will have to adopt. I have a hockey puck that needs a good home, if they are interested.
Reeb says
June 18, 2009 at 1:08 pmHow does Wilson keep from becoming a deflated Stella toy, like the other basketball that apparently shall remain nameless?
I want blue flower pots.
Amber Star says
June 18, 2009 at 1:31 pmThere is a little bitty soccer ball that lives in our backyard. It was lots of fun for our grandson and is waiting for him to return. He is only 7, so it isn’t like he has gone off to college or anything. 😉
reen says
June 18, 2009 at 1:43 pmHow funny, I had named it Wilson in my head before reading that you did so.
Love those colorful petunia pots!
foolery says
June 18, 2009 at 3:28 pmAnd every morning Mr. Bossy Husband is out in the yard with a baggy on his hand, picking up scads of tiny round basketballs and muttering to himself.
Deborah Non Blogger says
June 18, 2009 at 9:06 pmAh!….his name so HAD to be Wilson! So funny!
Elsewhere says
June 19, 2009 at 6:03 amI thought Wilson as in House…