original post date: december 13th 2006
A little background…I have lived in the same apartment for 3 years and have paid for my covered parking spot for the entirety of those 3 years. The parking situation near my apartment is horrific. There are a total of 5 uncovered parking spots (not including one handicap spot), for the visitors of at least 80 apartments. Explain to me how that makes sense? I have stayed in this apartment because I have refused to let them raise my rent because of that exact situation. Now… the policy on covered parking it just as ludicrous as having 5 spots for 80 apartments. If a car parks in your spot, the apartment complex must come out and place a sticker on the car. Keep in mind that the office has to be open for this to even happen and everything always happens after-hours when there is nothing you can do. Once the car has been stickered, the driver has 24 hours to move the car. Waaait…what? No, you heard me – 24 hours. Who the hell stays in the same parking spot for 24 hours? The answer is, no one! The car can only be towed, again through the apartment complex once the car has been there for 24 hours. So basically, if you come home and someone is parked in your spot there is jack-shit you can do about it except to park 20 miles away from your apartment and hope you can remember where you parked the next day!
The point of the story…Late one Tuesday night, after a night of shooting pool and partaking in a drink or 2, I come home to find a car parked in my spot. The 5 uncovered spots and the one handicap spot all have cars parked in them for the night, naturally. I'm pissed! I honk my horn and hope that the jerk that parked in my spot will come out and move. Alas, no! No one wanted to own up to the white Lexus, so I resort to parking in the only spot that is open, 20 miles from my apartment. The next morning, I am leaving for work and the bastard is still in my spot at 7:50am. Now, I am fuming pissed but there is still nothing I could do about the situation. I leave mad. When I return home, the car is gone and my anger had subsided.
Just yesterday, when I got home from work and one of the 5 uncovered spots that was closer to my apartment was open so I parked there – out of personal convenience. Plus, had one of my friends decided to drop in, I had my covered spot open so they could park there and not have to hike to my apartment. Not to mention, I knew I would be leaving at 8:30pm to go shoot pool, so I would not be in that spot all night.
I leave to go to the pool hall and I notice the very bane of my existence, the white Lexus, in my parking spot – again! All the anger I had, had previously came rushing back to me. At this point, I was ready to call a tow-truck and just have the damn thing towed! So I pull right behind the car and honk my horn in hopes that this time, the jerk will make an appearance as it was 8:30pm this time and not 2am like the previous time. Nothing. I call my friend Brad and have him look up tow trucks online so I can get them to come out. In the midst of it all, I realize that a random tow-truck company is not going to come out and just tow someone on my good word. How do I prove it's my spot? How do I even prove I live there? As if I still had a copy of my lease anywhere handy! So I am seething.
Just then, on the 3rd floor, an apartment door opens and a guy carrying a beer comes sauntering down the stairs. I'm thinking, "Oh please be the guy parked in my spot. I just dare you!" He walks right past me and goes to get in the drivers side of the Lexus. My strategic parking job, parking so close to the back of his car so he could not get out without me moving my car first, was the perfect set up for an altercation / confrontation. And do you know what this tool says to me? He says, "I'm so sorry, I was in a hurry and just needed a place to park." This sends me through the roof, as he had no intention of leaving that spot until the next day, the same thing he had done before.
Me: This is no mistake that you parked here! You have done it before! Him: I'm sorry, again – I was in a hurry! Me: That's total bullshit because the last time you parked here, you were still parked here when I left for work at 7:50am! You mean to tell me that this is a mistake? Him: Yeah, it was a mistake. (I'm still on the phone with Brad at this point) Me: I am on the phone to the tow-truck company right now! Him: Oh no, please I will move my car right now! Me: Do you realize that I pay for this spot and the last time you parked here, I had to hike to my apartment? Him: I did know someone paid for the spot, but I didn't think that it was that big of a deal! Me: You better be glad that I'm on hold with the tow-truck company or I would sit here until they towed you! If you EVER park here again, I will not honk my horn; I will just have you towed! (Which if you remember correctly, that can't even happen, but I was definitely threatening it!)
The transaction between the tool and me couldn't have been any longer then 30 seconds, but it was a very liberating 30 seconds.
The story becomes humorous to me for this fact: I was not going to park in my spot right then, I was leaving to go to the pool hall. It was the principle of the matter at this point. I just knew that when I returned home at 2am – which I did, I would have been ultra pissed that the car was still there, in my spot. So after he moved his car, I drove out of the apartment complex right behind him. Ha! What he must have been thinking! Who cares! When I came home, my parking spot was WIDE open - just the way it should be!
Moral of the story… don't park in my spot!
Monday, July 20, 2009
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