Pea Pods and Parking
This is two stories in one. One person is involved in both stories. When I lived in the townhome, I encountered some interesting individuals. In our section of the building, there were 4 units. In contrast, the building next to us had 6 units. All of these units had one car garages. Most people used their garages for their cars. Some used it for storage. There was enough space where you could park two cars in the driveway. You had to be careful to park your cars very closely together, otherwise you would be blocking the sidewalk with the second car. If you parked across the sidewalk, you were supposed to get a ticket for blocking it. But I never saw the police ticket anyone, even though it was the law in the city.
All of the units had an upstairs. The bedrooms and bathrooms were all upstairs with one half bath being downstairs near the garage side door. Some had 3 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths, while others only had 2 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths.
Pea Pods
This story is about the woman who lived next door. Her name was B. My unit and her unit were next to each other divided only by a strip of grass. As you can see from the photo above, my driveway was on the right. The circle signifies where the pea pods were.
The subdivision hires the lawn maintenance, which takes care of the mowing and any cutting of the bushes and trees. B decided to plant pea pod plants to grow the vegetable in the area between the townhomes. She was an older woman in her sixties. The rules stated that you were not to plant anything in that area. What she did was illegal. If you wanted to grow anything, you were to put the items into pots and grow them on your back porch.
Once that plant took off, the vines started to infiltrate the one hedge that was on the left side of our garage. The lawn maintenance people were supposed to trim the hedge on a regular basis. They did not. I finally had to contact the management company for the HOA to tell them to tell maintenance to trim it. By then, B’s pea pods had taken over that hedge and destroyed it.
The squirrels hung around the large tree in front of my place. They were always running up and down the tree. I have several photos of them. Then, one day I saw some kind of weird substance had been pored onto my driveway near the pea pods. I got the hose out and washed it off. Then, the large tree had the same substance. Then, I figured it out. B had sprayed the substances to try to keep the squirrels away from her pea pods. I had seen the squirrels chomping on her pea pods quite frequently. She figured if she put the substances down, that would save her pea pods.
I don’t think she had any pea pods left to eat once the squirrels got on them. Nothing like having free food out there for the taking.
Her Nephew’s Car
The HOA changed the rules and you could no longer park on the street. This was for the safety of the residents. There were so many people parking on the road that fire trucks and garbage trucks could not get down the street. When I moved there, I could hardly get out of my driveway when people were parking across the street.
B’s nephew came to visit her multiple times. I talked to him one time just to say hello. When he would come over, he would park in her driveway. Her car was always in the driveway right up against the garage. I believe she used the garage for storage.
One day, he came over and parked between our driveway and her driveway on the street. He was blocking half of our driveway. They went out in her car. He should have parked his car in her driveway but he didn’t. That was a costly mistake as you’ll find out.
My Mom called the tow company and told them that a car was blocking our driveway and in the street. They told her, they would be right out to get the car.
We kept watch from my Mom’s bedroom window, which overlooked the driveway and the road, for the tow truck. Twenty minutes later, B and her nephew returned home. We thought that he had gotten away with it. But he didn’t move the car. He went into her place and stayed awhile.
During the time he was in her place, we kept saying out loud, “Hurry up tow truck!”
Ten minutes later, the tow truck arrived. It was a rollback wrecker. We were so excited that we were witnessing his car get towed. All the time that it took to hook the car up and put it onto the wrecker, we thought they would come out and stop him. No one came out. He hooked the car up and drove off with it. LOL
We stayed watching until her nephew came out about thirty to forty minutes later. This was at night so it was pitch black dark out. He finally came out and found his car gone. We could hear a bunch of yelling. The next thing we know, they are walking down to the HOA president’s townhome. I’m sure they started complaining to her about being towed. I don’t know what she could do. B and her nephew took off in her car and the HOA president and her husband headed off in their car. I think they both went to the tow company to try to get them to release the car. I think they probably thought with the HOA president, they would release the car and he wouldn’t have to pay. But once a tow company has your car, the only way to get it back is to pay big bucks. B and her nephew came back in her car and then she had to take him home. The HOA lady also came back. It looked like they were unsuccessful in getting the car back.
He could have saved himself a bunch of money by just pulling the car into her driveway. As you can see from the photo, there is plenty of space. And with her car gone, there was ample space.
Her nephew never came back to visit her ever again!
He probably couldn’t afford to get his car out again.
Until next time, happy reading.
-Matt