The Weed

Ok, many of you who have been to our house have seen "The Weed". For those of you who have not been to our house, "The Weed" is a gigantic weed that is growing in our neighbor's front yard just on his side of the property line. This weed has been growing since we moved into this house 2 years ago. Our neighbor, who we affectionately refer to as The Bohemian, is a very strange man of about 30 who has long, frizzy hair and appears to be afraid of people. He has not lifted one finger to do yard work since we've lived next to him. It is because of "The Weed" that we've had an invasion of weeds in our brick walkway. "The Weed" has been a constant source of frustration for us and we've long been plotting ways to get rid of it. We've recently had friends over and they mentioned that the first thing they noticed when they pulled up to our house was "The Weed". This was the final straw. On a Monday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, Joel decided that he wasn't going to take it anymore. He marched over there and pulled the weed up himself. When he brought it back over to our side of the yard we realized just how big it really was. It must have been at least 8 feet tall. Joel quickly tried to break it down so he could hide it in our trash can. (But not before I could get a picture of it!) The trunk was so wide and strong that he had to try gardening shears to cut it down. Our shears weren't large enough to do the job, so Joel had to step on it repeatedly to break it down. Once it was broken down and safely stored in our trash can, we realized that all the struggling we did to break it down had left various leaves and dust all over the sidewalk and road. The Bohemian usually comes home from work at around 3:30 in the afternoon and it was getting close to that time. So, Joel ran in to get a broom to sweep up the evidence. With that done, we gathered everyone up and ran inside so we wouldn't be outside when the Bohemian arrived home from work. I was very nervous that whole evening because I thought he was going to notice that his weed was gone and he was going to suspect us and come over to yell at us. I had decided that if he came over to see about "The Weed" I would simply tell him that the wind blew it down onto our property so we disposed of it. Well, as it turns out, the Bohemian didn't come home that day or any day for the next week. When he did come home, he never seemed to be bothered by the absence of "The Weed". I think we are in the clear. Now if only we could get rid of all of the baby weeds growing on our property. ARG!!