About two months ago, I mentioned my neighbour’s mysterious truck under the tarp.

Well, last weekend, the truck moved out of his back yard to the front street. At some point in time, I discovered that the truck belonged to a friend of my neighbour. The story is, that he bought the truck, but didn’t want his wife to know, because she had explicitly forbid him to buy a new truck. So the truck was hidden away under the tarp for two months – I’m sure his wife was completely fooled by this little trick.

My neighbour was complaining to me that he was getting tired of lying to the wife about what the old gentleman had done with about $25,000 that used to be in their bank account, and was only going to store it for another month or two. “Four months is about as long as I can let him use my yard, and lie to his wife.”

Now, none of this is really any of my business, but I have found it to be more than slightly amusing.

But now, the truck has been parked in front of my house for a week. Right in the middle of “my space.” Legally, I have no claim over that area, but it annoys me.

I approached the subject sort of cautiously, and remarked that the truck was finally out of storage, because it had been parked in front of my house for a week. I should know better, because subtle is not a concept my neighbour generally understands.

“Yeah,” he says, “the old guy wanted to take it for a drive and make sure the battery was charged up and keep the engine lubricated so it wouldn’t seize up. His wife still doesn’t know he bought the truck, so we decided to park it in front of your house in case she drives by. She’s starting to get suspicious, I think.”

“Uh huh… you guys don’t think she’ll know that it’s his truck parked in front of my house?” I asked, with a slight emphasis on the “parked in front of my house.”

“Well, if it was in front of my house, she would probably know for sure. Besides, sometimes I like to park in front of my house and not in the driveway if I plan on going out in just a little while.”

“I do too,” I said. “I was going to park out front today but there’s not enough room behind the truck, and I would block your driveway. If I park in front, it puts me too close to the hydrant and stop sign, and I might get a ticket or have a vehicle towed away.”

Of course, he came up with a solution to my dilemma. “I’ll talk to him when he gets back in town and see if he can pull the truck ahead a couple of feet. How much room do you need?”

Count to ten (or a hundred) Maybe a more direct approach is needed…