WotD: cheer on

1. anfeuern
2. aanmoedigen
3. hacer la hinchada a; echar porras a (Mex.)
4. animar
5. encourager
6. annog yn ei flaen
7. tóg gártha molta do
8. (po)kibicować
9. 응원하다 (應援하다)
10. 為...鼓氣 wèi...gǔqì

It's all fun and games until someone retains a litigator

I think I just won a contest of Liberal Flinch with my condo mates.

A while ago now, our immediate neighbour Scooter hung a basketball hoop out back above the two parking spaces that our condo association owns. Fine and all, except that he hung it on the neighbour's garage. He cheerfully showed us how it could be folded up in order to conceal it from the landlord if she ever deigned to inspect her property. Whatever, that's between them.

Then about two weeks ago, I came home and found two adolescents shooting hoops unsupervised. The only family in our condo with kids is Scooter's, and these weren't his. I said nothing until the next time I saw them, when I asked if they had permission to play there. "Ernie said we could." Ernie is one half of the gay couple that lives closest to the alley. He and Scooter are good friends, so I figure that's between them. (I'm more than a bit worried about liability, but I figure I'll bring it up at the next condo meeting.)

Now it's this past weekend. The two kids quietly shooting hoops have become a half dozen shouting up a storm. In the space of a half hour, their balls (I don't know what they're playing, but they're using two at a time) have gone into the common garden twice. As I hand one back, I warn them not to keep doing that. The next time a ball goes over the fence, I take it someplace where I can keep an eye on it until Scooter finds it. The next day, Ernie has to break up a fight.

I'm now pretty thoroughly annoyed with the situation, but remember how granola our condo is. I'm sure Ernie and Scooter feel they are Making A Difference by letting these kids play here and I'll be damned if I'm going to be the Big Bad Bourgeois Pig who won't let the poor little brown boys play on his Precious Piece of Property. So I put up with several nights of noisy games lasting until dusk. (More than once the kids have to be told--by Ernie or by Scooter--to break it up and go home.)

Last night, as monshu and I relaxed on the porch, I was seething inside. At one point, I found clear evidence that the boys were hopping the fence to fetch stray balls--footprints in the garden and broken plant stems. So typical of our neighbours to take on a liability without consulting the rest of us and then not be around to monitor the consequences. Then, at last, this morning I saw that a discussion had at long last broken out on the association e-mail list.

The opening salvo (from Crazy Neighbour Lady) was a Good Liberal masterpiece, concluding with the lines "We need to look at if we want to have our back be a gathering place for b-ball? Like I said they are nice kids and were polite when I asked them to watch their language and the volume." Scooter's wife voiced stronger reservations (I take it they've disagreed about this before), and then I felt I could chime in with my liability questions. At the end of it all, Ernie informed us that he and Scooter had already taken down the hoop and told everyone the fun was over (though not without reminding us once again that they were "really good kids").

So I guess that's the end of that. Now to wait for the next goodhearted and wrongheaded maverick move from the Granola Gang.