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Friday, June 3, 2011

The Big Blue Neighborhood Blight

Do you have any of those neighbors?  You know the ones.  They don't pull their foot-tall weeds, or they always leave a bunch of junk out in their yard, or maybe they keep a big ugly blue cargo van out front and never move it!

I have a terrible thing to admit.  We are those neighbors.  Let me clarify.  We are the neighbors with the big ugly blue van.  To make matters worse, we are on the outer end of a cul-de-sac, so everyone gets to see that rusty old van numerous times, everyday, as they drive by.

My husband uses it for work, sometimes.  Our driveway is too steep to park vehicles.  And, it could fit in our garage (it's been there before), but we have too much junk!   So, it got planted out front.  I was OK with that.  A big ugly blight for a short period of time is no big deal.  But, my husband lost the keys!  We searched seemingly everywhere...nothing.

So, there it stayed, for one month, two months.   One of our neighbors in the cul-de-sac was trying to sell their house.  I could just imagine their daily joy over having all prospective buyers pass that van.

Finally!  I was cleaning out my closet and found those elusive keys in a coat pocket.  I called my husband to tell him the glorious news.  "I have a key!" my husband yelps.  Very randomly, a spare key had been discovered at his work, at the approximate time of my discovery. 

I kindly demanded requested van removal, but my husband didn't seem as concerned about our neighborhood eyesore.  He was planning to get something fixed on it soon and would move it then.

This Tuesday was the special day.   The van was moved!  I could just imagine the cheers of celebration as my neighbors arrived home to see the big blue blight missing.   I suspect there were numerous parties thrown in honor of the occasion.

So, it's gone, at least for a few days.  Now it's time to pull those foot-high weeds.
Not actual van.  If only ours were so lovely.

Grumpy Mom Goal of the Year: Try not to be one of those neighbors.

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