Do you ever wonder if you’re the only person who notices those “little things”?
My main reason for this post … got the idea a couple weeks ago …
My small apartment complex is located, not in a “residential” district, but right on one of my small city’s main streets. It’s one of a handful of really old complexes, built back when my city was considerably smaller than it is now, that are still operating on a main thoroughfare (and it’s in better repair than the other two). My apartment “complex” (all one building comprising 16 apartments - I call it an “apartment complex” rather than an “apartment building” because all of the apartments have ground-level entry, though some of the units have two floors, including mine) was built pre-WW2, judging by the genuine icebox I have in my kitchen (though mine is built-in, not standalone). Heh. I remember that my grandmother always called her refrigerator “the icebox”.
Anyway, given that my building was built in an age where a lot of people probably still didn’t have cars (and hey, it’s technically right downtown, with everything within walking distance), the parking lot is stupidly small. So I park on the street.
And here is where I leave off my endless exposition and get to the point:
On the street, directly in front of the building, is a small amount of on-street parking. Oh, there is more just a bit further up and down the street, and across the street, but I’m talking about that bit directly in front.
Jeez, instead of trying to describe it, here’s a damned picture, from Google street view:
http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/parking.png
(I was gonna just give the Google Maps link, but … well, I’ve never been shy about giving my real name here, but damned if I’m also gonna hand out my home address).
Yeah, my building is wedged in between an IOOF hall (on the left) and a strip mall.
But look at that parking right in front of the blue building. The white car was actually my car at the time Google went by in 2012. And … whichever neighbor parked his Jeep behind me had the right idea — what I’m getting at.
Look at the yellow-painted parts of the curb. That’s what we have to park between. I’ve been living here for almost four years, and I seem to be one of the very few to notice that there is enough room there for …
Two and a half cars.
So, when I park, if there is somebody already parked in the forward position (where my car is parked in the photo), I leave several feet between myself and that car. I park so that my rear bumper is just inside the yellow paint on the left.
Why?
Because, if I pull forward enough that I am close to the forward car’s rear bumper, some other dumbass neighbor driving a compact car is going to see the remaining space behind me and think, “I can fit in there!”
No, dumbass, you don’t fit in there. The back end of your car is well into the yellow paint.
And also, dumbass, you have trapped my car and I now cannot pull out without smashing both your car and the car in front of me.
There is not room for three cars there!
We haven’t had the “third car” problem in a while, but people parking in the rear position continue to pull as far forward as they can. And that makes things difficult for somebody trying to park in the forward position, should that spot be vacant. Like, okay that spot is open, and I am going to have to back up to get into it, without backing into the car that’s already there.
Fortunately … if you look at that photo - see that little dark bit on the sidewalk, peeking over the front end of my car? That’s a water line access panel, and just to the left of it there is a line on the sidewalk, and I’ve figured out that, as I’m backing into that spot, I just need to align that line with my side mirror, and I’m good.
Anyway, anything similar in your life that you’ve noticed, but nobody else seems to?