WFMW - Garage Bumpers

The other day I saw a tennis ball hanging in someone's garage and was reminded that we used to do that as well.

This is a great trick to use to help prevent you from driving your car into your garage wall (or the water heater or whatever). You'll need some string, an old tennis ball, a couple of thumbtacks and a helper. Have the helper guide you to where you want the car to be. Then, attach the tennis ball to one end of the string, place it on the windshield, and attach the other end of the string to the ceiling. Next time you drive the car into the garage, stop when the tennis ball hits the windshield.

As I mentioned, this is a great trick, particularly for the family car. However, if a car leaves the garage and little boys stay home, it turns into a fantastic tool for batting practice and whatever else a child's imagination can conceive. Then the ball falls down and loses its usefulness.

Our current home has parking mats or bumpers, which are a bit more durable and do the same job. Instead of watching for a ball to hit the windshield, you feel when the tires go over the bump. Every time I enter our garage I'm thankful for them.

We ordered them from some online store, because that's the only place we could find them several years ago. However, now it seems they're more readily available, and probably quite a bit cheaper at a different place.