Friday, June 20, 2008

Kicks keep getting harder to find



Oh, me. Some days I wonder if I’m really mature enough to be graduating and going off to college next year. But then I remember what college kids are really like and I’m okay.

Today I was tossing around a tennis ball with my sister’s new puppy, Annabelle. (This isn’t her in the picture, but it’s the same breed.) The ball’s gotten kind of muddy and gross, so I tried to figure out how to wash it without:
a) Killing the washing machine
or
b) Letting the dog get a mouthful of soap. Yum.

So I pulled up my ol’ buddy Google and typed in “how to wash tennis ball.” Is this where I went wrong, or was it somewhere earlier in the process? We shall see.

I must say, the tennis players’ forum I stumbled across was most interesting. Apparently, one can wash tennis balls in the washing machine, but the forum educated me on a much greater level. I present the most informative (and highly entertaining) responses:

  • “I'd say tolerate the dirty or new balls, washing them is not a good idea IMO.”
    • hummer23
  • “After washing, the balls may look a bit pale, bald, and even appear to shrink a bit. But the dryer really firms up the bounce nicely….this may lead to knocking the stuffing out of your balls, exploding [upon] impact. So unless you can tolerate exploding balls, may want to just wash your really dirty balls.”
    • Ronaldo
  • “The structural integrity will only be compromised if the balls are left soaking wet for some time. If they get wet, just leave them out to dry in the open.”
    • jonolau
  • “I've seen someone brushing his balls :o It wasn't a pretty sight, all the fur was being taken off.”
    • carpetgrub
(Oh, look! Our good Ronaldo returns with an even better nugget of wise experience!)
  • “After washing and drying my balls, they were a bit fluffy so tried to shave the fuzz off the balls. Ended up with hard bald balls that were tough to handle.”
I'm sure that problem is far more common than you think, Ronnie. Far more common.

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