ACCOUNTANT BY DAY

Okay, so just a minute ago the dog was hanging out in the living room window like she always does, and she started to bark and it turned out that these people were putting a big fat “<—- FOR SALE” sign in my yard for the house next door. It kind of pisses me off that they’d stick this thing at the edge of my yard without even knocking on the door to ask if it’s all right, and now I’m giving some thought to whether I’m justified in being annoyed. What etiquette governs a signage situation like this? I mean, their little red sign is very close to the stop sign, so I’m wondering whether technically the presence of the stop sign makes it common property, but when we had that issue with code enforcement a couple years ago, the guy with code enforcement clarified that we were responsible for keeping all the area up to the street cleared of weeds. So to my way of thinking, if I’m legally required to maintain it, that patch of grass is mine even though Wyandotte County has parked a traffic sign there. Therefore it looks like these random strangers in their white Isuzu have violated my property rights by staking a sign in my yard.

What to do about it, though? I guess I could just leave it there, but I hate that idea because I’d be silently condoning their action, which I basically consider the superlative of shitty manners. If they had asked my permission I know I would have said yes, so really the only thing that makes me want to forcibly remove it from my property is the rudeness inherent in not asking me if my yard felt like hosting their stupid sign. I have a lunch date with some friends today and I’ll ask their advice before I do anything. They’re in the real estate business so they should know whether it’s kosher to put signs in other people’s yards and whether I’m totally overreacting to what is only a minor discourtesy.

But I’m really leaning toward yanking that stupid thing out this afternoon and throwing it away, or holding it hostage, assuming there is nothing legally wrong with doing that.