In my third week of parking in an under-repair and, hence, under-resourced parking system, I know what’s what. As Mary Tyler Moore said, “I’ve been around. Well, maybe not around, but I’ve been nearby.”
If I arrive during daytime visiting hours at the hospital, I wait for at least 30 minutes as cars enter the parkade on a one-out, one-in basis. Waiting in a line of indefinite duration is something I lack the bandwidth for at the moment. OK, then – early it is. But how early?
After a few unintentional experiments induced by daily and ten-minute-ly variations in rush-hour traffic that are new to me in my retired state, I find the answer: If I target arriving 60 minutes early, I will arrive between 45 and 60 minutes early and be sure of a spot on the roof of the low-ceilinged, dingy parkade. As I navigate the tight turns through the construction areas, I reflect that this parkade was likely designed before so many of us had SUVs. Even when there are spots available on the second-to-last floor, I prefer to keep going up to the tippy-top, where I can often back into an end spot along one of the concrete walls. This lets me protect my driver-side door from getting boxed in by a later parker who does not perfectly bisect the lines delineating their narrow stall. Not that I’ve ever seen that happen; not that I’ve ever done that.
This situation-specific knowledge is not useful in any larger context: As far as I can see it’s not transferable to other life challenges. On the other hand, for these few weeks it makes the difference every morning between a stressful parking experience and a resigned one. I have stopped hoping for a pleasurable parking experience.
Nonetheless, as I left my car one morning last week, I was greeted by an atypical sky, both in reflection and in person, as it were. It’s a sky I wouldn’t likely have noticed from street level, or been in the right position to photograph if I had.
Even problematic parking has its moments, I guess.
As hard as it can be at times, there is often a bright side to (all?) things
Jim R – Yes. The Big Guy often says that nothing is all good or all bad. I’ll remind him of that!
“Moments” always hover, waiting to be seen.
Barbara – 🙂 Look up, look waaay up.
A new meaning of “in the cloud.” Until now I thought it meant digital files storage.
Tom
Tom – I figure jargon, like many (most?) abbreviations, can be multi-purposed. As Humpty Dumpty said, “The question is, which is to be master – that’s all.”
Reading this I had visions of being the Executive Producer of a new reality television series, a la Storage Wars, Cupcake Wars, Shipping….etc.
A quick search proved that Parking Wars has been done already by A&E. Hopes dashed. Soon you’ll be done Isabel.
Ken – How rude for someone to have stolen your idea. And yes, on to the next phase soon enough.