February 06, 2018
Love your neighbors. Sometimes, this is vexing, a real problem, but that was what I was taught. This core value was put the test this morning, over a very first world problem. The issue? Parking. Another hurtle, in the risky venture of relocation.
It snowed here, it is Canada in the wintertime, prime snow season and street clearing continues, complete with wailing of sirens and tests of wills.
The diatribe actually commences the night before. I arrived home from school and noticed orange signs that snow removal would be, from “7-19 heures.” Basically making one side of the street a “no go” or in this case, no park zone. This would occur and it did early, early, in the morning.
It is a massive undertaking. The armada included machinery of all sorts. Tractors, trucks, trailers, snow blowers, tow trucks and air raid sirens. The sirens, deafening, enough to wake the dead, in the very serious work of the snow removal business. They warn you, very gravely indeed, that your car will be towed if you do not move it and be gone from the snow bank in a few minutes. UP at at it. Tea-less, therefore caffeine free, I leap into the nearest layer and then another layer of outer ware.
Her Majesty Lucy, is put out that I have not put her there. I did remember to take my purse, “just in case. Which was almost the case, as the first round & about in the neighborhood, a gentleman almost rear ends my little red car. “Close is only good in horse shoes.” my mom declared possibly in my youth. Prior to all that, and starting out, once again, pulled out of the snow bank that was going to be removed and soon, to clear the windows of the bantam car again. What can one say, wintertime driving in Canada.
Forward! we GO Drive down the street and around, again. On the correct side of the law, I spy a car “warming up” remote started by its owner. There was going to be a space! Beating the familiar path, went once more. Anxious not to miss it, I pull in to wait on the wrong side of the law, Supervise his cleaning the medium SUV and children going to school. That done, I reverse up and into the space. Perfect! I shut down the engine. OUT I pop.
A white, little, emphasis on, small car, littler, than my red one, stops and rolls down the window. She inquires of me on the street now, “if it was possible to pull up?” “Anything is possible!” was my response. It was obvious to MOI, her bantam white car could and eventually did.
While waiting for Moi, to get back in and pull up, and in the “mean” time a HUGE SUV tries to pull in the spot taking it from the lady whose car would fit.
Then the yelling started, “PULL UP!! a man with a jack Russel, screamed. If I had, I would not ever get out of there again, as the car in front looked like it was long abandoned. I explained that to the man with the dog, and he starts and several times, tells me in a loud voice, that I am and I am not kidding, “stupid” then “ I am too old to be driving” and he “will have my car towed”, as “parking is for the neighbors and they pay the taxes for the street.”
His brother, as the dog walker and the driver have a genetic look about them, joins the chorus, of claiming “was too stupid” and all the rest. My retort was “your being insulting helps this situation, how?” He pulls out after I refuse to pull up. The fiat spider, pulls in.
Lucy does get her walk, just a brief one, she wants to play in the snow, in front of the giant SUV with European plates, has found a parking spot. This is, it seems, in front of the home they live in, as I see the Jack Russel dog being walked went in. The driver of the SUV and the brother, helping one of his neighbors clear snow off her car. While doing so, is avoiding my eye. The snow is being cleared as we type, and the day is just an hour old.