Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Another Parking Story.

Here I am with yet another empty promise to blog more often. Considering my last sporadic post involved a vehicle, I figured this one might as well too. Here's how it went down:

I rolled into Charleston, South Carolina and promptly located the Hampton Inn. It was only mid afternoon, so the parking lot was nearly empty. I found an empty row of spots, perfect for the truck and trailer. I pulled up far enough that my front bumper ended up just over the line of the last parking spot on that row. This little maneuver is something I always do to ensure the spot in front of me remains empty, allowing me to get out later. I checked into a room and got some work done before I decided I needed to go get some dinner. As I rounded the corner, I saw that some dipshit had parked his stupid little car in what was left of the end parking space. Seriously. That parking spot was clearly occupied by the front end of my truck. Just because it was an abnormally wide parking spot doesn't make it okay to park there too. There was no way he could have opened his door all the way. And he had no excuse. The parking lot was still largely unoccupied. It's not like this spot was any closer to the building than any of the 50 other empty spots. Normally I would have quietly voiced my annoyance under my breath, backed up to get out, and left it at that. In this case, however, someone had also parked directly behind me, albeit in a legit parking space. I clearly was not going to be leaving anytime soon, so I decided to go back up to my room and just order a pizza.

But first I pulled my truck forward a little more. Passive-aggressive at its finest.

I went back to my room chuckling at how difficult it was going to be for this guy to get back in his car. I would have been satisfied had it ended there. I guess it was just my day though, because about an hour later, I went back down to my truck to get something. This time upon rounding the corner, I saw the guy trying to open his car door. I held back a smile as I opened my passenger door, grabbed what I needed, and then shut the door and locked the truck. As I started to walk away, the puzzled man made eye contact with me. The confrontation went like this:

HIM: Hey, uh, do you think you could back your truck up a little?

ME: (looking behind the trailer) Not so much, there's someone right behind me.

HIM: Oh.

ME: How'd you get out of there in the first place?

HIM: I just did. It seemed a lot easier earlier.

ME: Weird.

HIM: (still clearly puzzled) Yeah.

ME: There wasn't anyone parked here when I got here. I didn't think anyone would park here later, my truck's kinda taking up a bunch of that spot.

HIM: (now a little defensive) Yeah, well it's a big spot, it's on the end.

ME: Doesn't look that big to me.

HIM: I guess it's easier to squeeze out than to squeeze back in.

ME: Apparently. Good luck with that.

HIM: Yeah, have a good one. (as he started crawling in through the passenger door)


In this rare case, my friends, two wrongs did make a right and I hope that guy chooses his parking spaces a little more carefully next time.