It seems the answer is anywhere you like… so long as no one is living in it.
A man lives on a street and his house conveniently backs onto the corner of another street where he chooses to park his white work van (no longer in daily use); his blue work van (pretty much in daily use); and, a caravan (which seems to get towed away for one long weekend, if that, each year). He only has an averaged sized house so his Parked Things back up behind other people’s houses, who may have other things they would like to see there.
The Parked Things take up the whole corner and for the unsuspecting motorist can create a huge blind spot having to veer into the the wrong side of the road only to be met by some other unsuspecting motorist driving on the right side of the road. However it is the unsuspecting pedestrians who probably have most to fear.
The vans I can cope with but it is the caravan which succeeds in raising my blood pressure almost every single day (but especially on Fridays when the wheelie bin gauntlet must also be run). It is not quite close enough to completely obstruct the driveway but close enough to mean that it always takes me two attempts to get the car off the road. Granted this might have something to do with my own driving but no, really, it’s the caravan.
At one stage there was a small wooden boat attached to the caravan at the end closest to my house which caused me no end of concern. It seems he has now built a tardis-like shed in which the wooden boat resides, but it looks like he has dug up some of the pavement to make it look like the shed isn’t actually over the boundary of his house, so maybe it is actually that big.
Imagine my dismay when last night as I was heading out in my car, I found ‘Caravan Man’ (as he is affectionately known) moving the caravan closer to my house due to the arrival of a skip behind his neighbour’s house. Apparently this is a temporary measure… I hope it gets moved back again soon before my car meets it in an unhappy way.
There was a short period of ‘no-caravan’ in the interim between an older (and smaller) caravan and the new beast that is there today. Someone (and really it wasn’t me… honest!) was putting stones through the windows and letting the tyres down. ‘You just can’t keep caravans round here the way you used to’ Caravan Man opined one day… but it hasn’t deterred from keeping the new shiny one outside.
I phoned some official Government department to find out if there are any rules about parking caravans but it seems so long as no one is living it then it can be parked wherever it likes.
Which means I can’t really do anything about it… which means I’ll just have to rant to let off steam instead and pray really hard that I don’t hit it… accidentally or otherwise!
Why don’t you move into it? Then it would become illegal and you could get it towed.
Of course, next time it’s gone for the weekend, put a blog alert out and we’ll all swing by and park there till it comes back and gets parked somewhere else.
By: WhyNotSmile on May 8, 2009
at 9:11 am
My blood is boiling on your behalf, sooo maddening! I can relate to the ‘high blood pressure’ feeling, as I get it every time the farmer decides to obscure my lane with his enormous vans. There MUST be something you can do!! If I ever have time again I will make it my business to do some research on your behalf! We’ll stitch up that crook good n’ proper!
By: Debs on May 10, 2009
at 9:28 pm
Whynotsmile – I like your moving in idea though not sure if someone might have a problem with my breaking and entering before they get to the someone living in the caravan part.
Debs – your farmer is infinitely more frustrating in that you never know quite where or how he is going to strike. The caravan is just there…
By: andmilestogobeforeisleep on May 14, 2009
at 11:20 pm