Mighty Neighborly

I know I haven't posted about knitting in awhile. Why do so many of my posts start out this way? Sooz took some nice pictures at last knitting group, and I'll post those soon -- promise. Leisl turned out beautifully.

So if not about knitting, what am I writing? It's a shameless rant about a silly thing that has me momentarily riled up.

I met a neighbor today who I've wondered about for some time. Other neighbors have mentioned run-ins with this couple, but this was my first encounter. Let's call her "Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV".

Returning my parents' minivan after dropping my dad at the airport, I turned onto the street where I usually park. How convenient, it seemed, that my neighbor was just walking out of her house and climbing in her car to vacate an ideal pull-in spot. I turned on my blinker and waited patiently, giving her plenty of room to maneuver. And I waited, patiently, waiting.... After several minutes I'd waited enough and pulled up along side to parallel park behind her. She sat in her Lexus SUV watching me.

Back up a moment, set the scene:
These neighbors have converted their garage into, it looks like to me, a home office. It is definitely not a garage, and the driveway is obviously not in use. Also, you should know that Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV had helped herself to two parking spots with her one big car. There was about 3/4 of a spot in front of her and about 3/4 of a spot behind her where the last 1/4 of your car would block part of their unused driveway.

After Red House Navy Blue Lexus SUV watched me carefully park my old minivan behind her, she got out of her car to inform me that I couldn't block her driveway. I, of course, apologized, as I did not realize that driveway was in use. RHNBLexusSUV let me know that though they did not use the driveway it was still Theirs. She had checked with the city. I requested -- as politely as possible while staring incredulously -- that she might kindly pull ahead a few feet so that I could avoid impinging on the not-in-use-driveway. She, standing right beside her car with keys in hand, said that wasn't convenient because she wasn't sure she was leaving right now and walked into her house.

Right. So I got back in my car, realized with certainty that she hadn't left enough room to park in front of her SUV, and circled the block to turn around and park facing the other way across the street. As soon as I'd parked, RHNBLexusSUV came out of her house, hopped in her fancy gas guzzler, and drove off.

I'll write a nice entry about knitting tomorrow.