The Leaning Tower of Hassle

I have one of "those" neighbors. The kind that thinks there is nothing to small, or large, they can ask of you. No, he's not one of those that takes and takes and takes, and never gives back. This guy would drive 300 miles out of his way to pick you up if your car broke down. But in eleven years in this house, are car only broke down once and we were less than ten miles away.

Oh, we ask the occasional thing of him. We're really not big "askers" of things, not big borrowers. He is.

To start off with, he thinks the Internet is unholy and wants nothing to do with it; as far as it being in his house. I don't think he even allows a computer in his home. So every time he needs something posted on craigslist, printed out, or purchased online he asks us to find it, print it, or post it for him.

Most of the time it's not a big thing, just a small irritating thing. However, once he asked me to print out an entire book on teaching your child to drive. It was over 800 pages -- printing on both sides. He was nice and gave me a ream of paper for my effort, two would have been better. Hell, some friggen laser toners would have been nice.

But I degress, as usual.

This post is about our shared mailbox pole. In our neighborhood, the mailboxes have to be on the side of the road where his house is. Our mailbox is one of three on a single post in front of his house.

About two months ago, he askes Steve if I really need the bigger sized mail box I have. I searched for, purchased, and installed this mail box myself because I needed the extra width to fit the size of patterns I mail out. Steve asked me and I told him, "Yes."

A few days later, Scott catches me outside. And asks me hisself, if I really needed that large of mailbox. He proceeded to tell me that he wanted to replace the mailbox post with a fancy wooden post and use matching metal type mail boxes, maybe some wire to tie the theme of the mailbox in with his yard. I told him I was sorry but I really needed the mailbox.

A few days later he ask's me where I bought it. He decided it was a decent looking box and he'd just buy two more to match it. At least that way all the boxes would match again. I told him where I got it.

He called me at least three times over the next few days as he tried to find one just like it. He never could. Then he asks me to look on the internet and find one for him. I did, at only $35 each and shipping -- he bought two.

The next few days while he was waiting for the mailboxes he bothered me about the numbering I used on my box. Where did I get it? How large were the numbers? Do I have any left?

Then he spent a day digging a GIANT hole and cementing this huge shiny piece of tree about 18-21 inches round into it. The mailboxes finally comes in and he centers a 2x4 over the tree stump and places all three matching mailboxes on the 2x4, complete with matching numbers.

Our driveway is directly across from the mailboxes and everyday as I leave my home I get a perfect view of the mailboxes that had to be just "so". The mailboxes that had to be "perfect".

The mailboxes that dip about 5 inches lower on left than the right.