Staying Within The Lines

Some people just roll on out of bed with a wish for confrontation.

I’m talking about regular people with blatant disregard for the common decency rules of life. Yeah … they’re out there. And I saw one. I took photographic evidence.

But not so much to report anyone, more so to laugh.

You see, about an hour before I saw this dude, I had pulled into a lot and did my very best to park this loaner I was driving into a spot. Now seeing how I’m not used to parking this bad boy Toyota Sienna, it took me about three attempts to completely stay within those double white lines. Yup.  I was putting it in drive and reverse, drive and reverse, and then drive and reverse again, with all eyes from the AARP Crew looking at me from the diner across the way. Just sipping their coffee and staring at me through their bifocals.

My parking job doesn’t have to be perfect and my tires don’t have to be equidistant from the lines on both sides. I just have to be in the slot, I want to give people enough room to open their doors. I just don’t want to be a jackass. That’s it. So after my multiple failed attempts and a triumph that took 5-10 minutes, I moved on and went to run some more errands and that’s when I saw this dude.

I mean he wasn’t even close. And you guessed it … it was one of the last spots on the lot.

Now normally things like this really burn me out, but under this new Super-Soul Sunday everyday vibe I’ve been flowing on, I ended up cracking up. This dude did not care. Not one bit.

I mean I’d understand if we were at the ER and it was a life and death situation, but I was at the 99-Cent store, there are plenty of Cup O Noodles.

So when I saw this Volvo, I just paused for a minute and laughed. This dude is living by his own code.

You see out here in the traffic congested city I live in, there are parking rules that people let slide because you know what the drawbacks are, for example an SUV parked in a compact-only spot will probably get his door scratched or dented by the other cars. That’s a given. If you park in someone’s driveway, you might get hit, or towed before you roll out of bed early enough to move your car,  it happens. You take two spots instead of one, you might get a nasty note on your windshield or a confrontation in your future.

People are aware of the consequences. They know. This guy knew, but he didn’t care.

Growing up in this city I take these rules fairly seriously. I don’t want to  be a jackass. So I tend to stay within the lines. The fact that I worked so hard to park my loaner car an hour before and then see this Volvo-driving nut just handle this spot like a dictator cracked me up. I mean who thinks that way. I just had to laugh. I couldn’t react any other way.

Buen Camino my friends.

 

 

 

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40 Accidentally On Purpose Random Acts of Kindess Before 40 … No. 9

People dream of having something like this in their neck of the woods. Some people never even get a chance to see it, which is hard to believe. But it happens.

I do feel lucky having it within driving distance.

Nothing like the beach to set you right.

Peace always seems to find me here. It’s a place of refuge and I enjoy it whenever I can. Every weekend during the summer, and some weekends in The Spring you’ll find The Guat family spraying on the Coppertone 75 and putting on their board shorts, bucket hats, and flip-flops.

We’re beach people. Most definitely.

So it occurred to me that I could spread a little more sunshine down here on the coast. Yup, this was the next stop on my 40 Before 40 Tour and some unsuspecting dude or chick would love going to the beach even more because of me.

🙂

Because no matter how amazing the sun, sand, and waves can be, fighting traffic to get there and then battling over a parking spot can totally burn you out. It makes you think twice about going there. Luckily for me The Guats leave at the break of dawn to avoid that disastrous Southern California traffic and we always find a spot within walking distance from the waves.

But there are those people who get a late start or for some reason just operate on a different clock where they sleep too long and end up sitting in traffic and going from parking lot to parking lot trying to find a space.

Regardless of the reason I thought I’d cut these people some slack, and brighten their day. So when they found spot #270, pulled on in, set her in park, and unloaded all the plastic buckets, shovels, blankets, and Tommy Bahama beach equipment purchased from Costco and walked on over to the parking kiosk … they found some Guat magic written with a Sharpie marker on the back of an envelope, at the foot of the machine.

FREEEEEE PARKING! YES! FREE!

Duuuuuuuude! Today is your lucky day. If you parked in space #270 parking is on me. All day parking.

Take the ticket and enjoy your day at the beach 🙂

🙂 40 Random Acts of Kindness Before 40

As we drove away I saw her approach the machine, pick up the note, look around confused, and then smile.

Yeah … that felt pretty good.

To The Person Who Took My Parking Spot …

To the person who selfishly took my parking spot even though I was right behind the other car, waiting, with my blinker on, honking at you, and pointing …

To the person who created a non-Zen like environment so early in the morning even though I was trying so hard to maintain a Namaste existence …

To the person who caused me to circle the block four times before I could get another parking spot two blocks away …

To this same person who I saw at the doctor’s office ten minutes later sitting comfy cozy in that green plastic chair seven people ahead of me …

To this same person who smiled at me as I walked into the room  …

To the same person who I wanted to tell “Are you kidding me!” but all I could do was look at you because my two-year old and five-year old were with me.

Yeah … this is for you …

 

Image via LeFunny.net