Thoughts and Dinner Plates

Last week I spent a lot of time thinking dark and bitter thoughts, some self-pitying, some terrified, some somewhat apocalyptic. None of these stopped me from noticing the enormous roses blooming all over town. The long weeks of intense rainfall followed by a week of summer heat wave has sent every flowering plant around into overdrive. Even the scraggly standard roses my neighbour planted along their side of our shared driveway strip are covered with bright rose blooms the size of dinner plates. Well, bread plates maybe. Anyway, they are very robust. One of them is also sprouting a long branch which is clearly coming up from the roots and should not be there. It takes large amounts of will power to not sneak over to their side of the driveway and cut it off. As part of their gardening spree last summer they also planted some insanely fast growing bushes that I go out regularly and trim. Just on our side of the property line. I planted two retaliatory shrubs - spirea - so by next year I can sit back and let them duke it out undisturbed. I should ask my neighbour if I can prune her rose? I imagine myself deliberately hanging out in the front yard at key times of the day, pretending to prune so I could be there, naturally, when she shows up, and I could say admiring things about her roses and then casually offer to take care of the unwanted shoot. Is this too wierd?