Basketball, part 3--the concrete saga

Weather conditions are perfect; the hole is perfectly prepared; there are twelve 80-pound bags of concrete taking up space in the garage...it's time to do it.

 Supervisor Marty checking the stability of the wheelbarrow.

 Noah mixed many batches of concrete.  Hard work!

 Supervisor Marty testing the water quality.

At about 7:00, it became apparent that we weren't going to have enough concrete.  I was sent to Farm & Fleet on a mission to get eight more bags.  It took me awhile to find it, because it was one of those things where you have to take a tag to the cashier to pay for it, and then pick it up at the loading dock.  I bought ten bags (just to be safe), figured out where the loading dock was, and waited.  Finally went searching for someone and found a guy who told me that they ran out of concrete. So I had to go back inside to get a refund.  Various frustrations later, I was on my way to the hardware store down the street.  It closed at 5:00.  The Farm & Fleet guy had  told me to check Walmart, so I went there.  They don't carry concrete. 

By now, it's after 8:00, and I'm driving to Lowes.  I'm dirty and wearing my grungy clothes, because I'm supposed to be home, mixing concrete.  I hope I don't run into anyone I know.  I buy ten bags of concrete and wait ten minutes for someone to load it, because I can't even begin to pick up an eighty-pound bag.  Neither can the woman with "LaToya" tattooed on her, who makes a half-hearted effort.  Neither can LaToya and I combined.  One little man comes along and does it.  Meanwhile, right there next to me appears my roommate from my sophomore year of college, whom I haven't seen since college.  She's clean and well-dressed.  And then there's me.  It's after 8:30 when I get home, and Mike is waiting for my load. 

By 10:00 p.m., we realize that the ten extra bags aren't going to be enough to fill the form and make it level with the driveway.  So I start asking all my facebook friends who are online.

A lady from church who lives close by has a couple old bags of concrete in her basement, so Mike goes to get them.  

They are full of big chunks of rocks.  It's Noah's job to fish out all the rocks.  He finally punches out at 11:30 p.m.  This morning, Mike gets up early and buys one last bag of concrete at the hardware store and finishes the job. 

So, if you're doing the math, that's a total of twenty-five 80-pound bags of concrete, which is 2000 pounds.  There's a literal TON of concrete under there!  We might have knocked the earth off its orbit a little.