About 5pm or so this evening I noticed one of the Giant truck drivers parking his trailer in the alley behind my place. Now, they have never done this before so I figured something must not be right. A few hours later and the truck is still there so I put on my investigator hat and went sleuthing.
First thought was to call the police but I like the Giant being there and I know they’re not doing so well since the bridge construction began (and they certainly weren’t the most profitable store before that) so I don’t want to cause them any trouble if I can help it. I *like* having a supermarket 50 feet from my back door.
Second thought and a much better one was to walk over and ask the people in the store what the story is. Of course, this required me to put on shoes and walk 50 feet. Oh, the things I suffer to bring you the news of Nelson Ave.! 
I got to the store and asked what they knew and apparently I’m like the third person there. Clearly I wouldn’t get the scoop if this were a real news story. Though I did get the scoop on the armed robbery at the CVS a while back! No one at the store seems to know what the deal is but they make a few phone calls and finally tell me that the truck is broken and the driver is right around the corner.
It being a nice evening, I walk over and find the truck replete with driver and – most importantly – a repair man fixing the truck. They were working on the air line which provides air pressure the the air brakes (See a pattern? Lots of air here!). The driver joked that it probably wouldn’t be so good for him to have driven down the alley with no brakes. The repairman corrected him and said that the default for the brakes are to be “on” so he wouldn’t have been able to drive down the alley. The driver told me that the police had driven by twice and talked with him once so *someone* called the police (and, Kerry, if you’re reading this, it wasn’t me!)
Safety discussions aside, by the time you read this the truck driver and his trailer will have been on their merry way. I feel for the driver – he said he lives in Aberdeen and is going to end up in a hotel this evening instead of getting home to his wife. Poor guy.
Never a dull moment on East Nelson Avenue!