Day 174
What math word did the acorn say when he grew up? Gee, I’m a tree!
Ha … sorry. Bad joke. But today’s conversation with my neighbor was no joke and it has me wondering what I can do to help.
Tim (neighbors on both sides are named Tim) to the south came by today asking me if his truck bothered me? I didn’t know what that meant. So, without thinking too much about it (cuz it was early and I was in my robe and feeling like I probably looked like Winston Churchill in a periwinkle robe with breath like a dragon) I responded, “What truck?”
Apparently, he has a truck … which he parks on the street … when he’s not using it … which is roughly between 6:30 pm and 5:30 am. I wasn’t even consciously aware that he had a truck. So, no … the truck is not bothering me.
But, apparently it is bothering someone else in our neighborhood as he has, in the last week, received two $50 tickets for parking his vehicle on the street.
I live in a town, I’m finding out, that loves stupid, old rules that do nothing but keep nice people from tidying up their property or gaining some privacy or living a nice, normal, quiet life. Kind of like Stepford, but without the robots.
Now, understand, my neighbor and I are both corner houses … there is a cemetery across the street. I am the ONLY one for a full block that can even see a truck on the street … and that’s if I look past the bushes and crane my next out a window. Stupid. His truck is bothering NO ONE.
And why, you may ask, doesn’t he just park his truck in his driveway? Because he has a very narrow 2 car drive … and his wife drives a minivan and parks it in the drive as it’s easier for her to get the baby and toddler in/out when needed and both cars won’t fit. And why is the driveway so narrow? Because when they built the house someone had the brains to build around the 75 foot, 150+ year old Oak tree that is next to the driveway instead of taking it down and extending the driveway. It was here before the house … obviously. It shades his entire house … and my garage. It is enormous … and breathtakingly beautiful in a tall, leafy, acorn-laden kind of way.
We live in the SW Woods … NOT the SW area of Cement and Driveways.
My neighbor has been told to cut the tree down. Make a wider driveway. Pay thousands of dollars to do both of those things. Oh, and of course, there would be a hefty fine if he didn’t get a permit!
The forestry guy came out today. Too bad I missed him. He would have gotten a large piece of this newcomer’s mind. A LARGE piece. Instead of coming over and seeing this gorgeous specimen of a healthy, old Oak tree and saying, “Gee, this is a gorgeous specimen of a healthy, old Oak tree and I will help get a provision to the ordinance to give you an exception so that you can park your vehicle, which is bothering no one, in the street instead of cutting down this big, 75 foot or taller, 150 year or older living, beautiful squirrel and bird nest highrise.”
But, no. He said, “Yeah, when you cut it down just make sure you don’t leave the scraps around for longer than a week or we’ll fine you.” Or something along those lines. Seriously.
I am sickened. Fences, mulch, trees, stupid parking ordinances … the city hasn’t heard the last from me.