Rudy’s recent post about curiosity reminded me of my last weekend.

Our neighbours who own the empty lot next to us have finally started building their house on it. Over the last couple of weeks they’ve excavated the driveway and the basement area.

I decided to take a walk around our property on Sunday and after winding through the forest I ended up looking over at the development going on next door.

I could see a very large tarp covering the entire basement excavation. The tarp seemed to be resting on top of something large that was about 15 feet higher than ground level. It looked like it might have been covering the excavated dirt pile. Consider all of the rain, snow, and wind we’ve been experiencing, this was a good idea.

It was difficult to visualize though because it was twilight and I was using a flashlight to navigate the forest. I decided to go closer to get a better look.

As I approached the excavation from between the trees surrounding the site, I could make out that the tarp was indeed on top of something very large. It looked large enough and stable enough to walk on. So, in order to get a better look, I did. I stepped on the edge of the tarp.

Picture Wile E. Coyote running off the edge of a cliff, windmilling arms and legs, then dropping like a sandbag to the bottom. Now picture me doing the same thing except I didn’t have time to windmill anything.

The part of the tarp that I had stepped on had nothing but cold air under it. It gave way like wet paper under me. The thing that stopped my fall about 4 feet into a 20 foot pit was part of the scaffolding that had been erected in the pit. This is what the tarp was covering.

I managed to eventually extricate myself from the pit. That took some work because of how steep the walls were. Once I got out I tried to affix the tarp back to the edge of the pit so that it would look undisturbed. I then limped back home for the tongue-lashing.

Moral of the story: When snooping around the neighbour’s place, do it during the day so you can see better.