Every time I use on-the-street parking in Toronto I admit to getting a little apprehensive. Even after buying a parking ticket I still walk up and down the street scanning street signs for indications that I am allowed to park where I parked. Even when that fear is settled there’s another part of me that worries about being towed for something irrational. Maybe I parked too close to a fire hydrant. I don’t know. Then there’s always the underlying fear that some random fuck will ding my car, or smash a window to grab something random, or puke or piss all over it. All of this is irrational, I’m sure. All the same, I just want to be sure that my vehicle is safe. It’s not a high-end car by any means. Still, I don’t need the stress of wondering how to fix the car if something bad happens to it Bah.
Tag Archive: parking lot
Parking to the minute
Kudos to parking enforcement. Those guys are freaking on the ball. I was up the street by about 2 blocks and knowing that my time was up I decided to run back to my car. As I was running I thought: “there’s no way there’s someone there to ticket me right away.” Well, when I got to my car there was the guy scoping out my car. Lucky me then for making it back within 3 minutes of my time ending. What if I didn’t run? Geez. I need to plan things out better.
Parking neurosis
In the parking lot at the station, I found a spot but it was a little bit tight. As I turned in, I was really cautious because I kind of felt like I was driving a little too close to this low red car on the right side of the space. I didn’t hear any metal-on-metal scraping, so I knew that all was well. That’s one of the things I remembered from a random episode of Canada’s Worst Driver: if you ever hear metal-on-metal scraping, STOP!
When I got out, I just wanted to take a look at the red car to satisfy my mind. I knew I didn’t hit it, but part of me was just screaming out “what if, yo?” So I ventured over to the front expecting to see nothing, but holy shit, there was this big scrape along the front bumper. I froze and cursed a bit. After a mild bit of panic, I smartened up and took a look at my car to see if I caused the scrape. I looked closely and saw nothing. I walked to the other side and didn’t see any reason for alarm either. I went back around to the front of the other car knowing full well that it wasn’t me. However, I had to check around my car just one more time. After one more round I was satisfied and started walking to the station. After about 20 steps though I stopped and turned back around to head back.
Oh man. Such neurosis. I ended up driving to the other side of the lot to find a new spot. I didn’t want to take any chance that I would somehow be associated with that scrape. Who knows if the owner of that car was aware of the scrape at all?
Yeesh. I need to find better ways to channel my obsessive quirks.
To park where no man has parked before
I left work a little early today to make it to church to get ashes. With the snowstorm raging I knew it would be slow going. I was hoping to make it there with enough time though so that I could at least find parking. I did make it there with about five minutes to spare. I figured that the main lot would be full so I turned into the lot of the school next door. That was full as well though. There was a section of the paved part of the playground that was open, but there wasn’t anyone willing to go in there. I guess the snow looked just a little to thick in the area. Anyway, I turned and made my way out. As I came around, I was starting to run late so I thought that I was willing to take my chances with that snowy area.
I looped around and signalled to get back into the school lot. There was a car stuck in the slush right at the entrance of the lot. While I waited for it to get out of the way, I was blocking the only lane through. There was a bit of honking going on. Whatever! Patience, man! Well, eventually the car freed itself. I made the turn and was determined to not get stuck like that other car. Eh…well…as you might expect…I got stuck. I rolled down my windows to get a clear look at my sides to make sure there weren’t any approaching pedestrians. I started spinning my tired trying to get traction. No luck. My car was blasting a Bob Marley song that the radio station was playing. The juxtaposition of the reggae song and the slush/snow kind of made me laugh out loud. A pedestrian passed by and started cheering me on. I started turning my steering wheel back and forth. All the way left! All the way right! Spin spin spin! Eventually, I rocked free. The passer by laughed out loud and reminded me: “time to ease up, man!” Heh. Yeah.
I pulled up to that snowy area and even in those few minutes no one decided to go in there. I didn’t care anymore. I drove in and to my surprise the depth wasn’t all that bad at all. After parking, I left the car and headed for the church. I looked back at my path and thought that there was something somewhat gratifying about being the first guy to make tracks in the newly fallen snow–to park where no man had parked before. My entry in there was the invitation: I wanted people to drive in and park there because I had shown the way. OK, so maybe that’s a bit over-dramatic but I still got a bit of enjoyment out of it.
ETA: has? had? I guess “has” is more in running with that clichéd expression. Whatever.
Sloooooow motion
Man, it totally feels like everything is going in slow-mo today. I left home late but figured that I could catch up to my usual time checkpoints, but the route I took prevented that from happening. To my surprise, a couple of the roads I took had heavy construction, and everyone on the road moved at a snail’s pace as a result. By the time I got to the station lot, there were only a handful of parking spaces left. I was lucky enough to actually get one of them. The train was sluggish too, waiting at each station for about a minute before moving on. Maybe there was a medical emergency or something. Who knows?
Work itself didn’t really move any faster either. I was subjected to a barrage of tickets relating to trivial issues. It seemed like there would be no end to it. However, yeah, the end did come. I left work early because I’d had enough.
The end of the week is near, and I’m ready to just let go and unwind. Time to hit CTRL + R/F5, yeah? Refresh!
Parking cheat
Yesterday, I drove over the Warden station to park in the North lot. As I turn in to the gate, there’s this minivan pausing a few metres before the gate. As I pulled up behind it, it rushed forward towards the gate arm and stood there running. I pulled up to the automatic card swiper/token collector and waited. Oh hell no. I wasn’t going to swipe my card and let that guy in. So, I waited for about a minute. The minivan must have realized that he wasn’t getting in for free, so he backed up. I stood my ground. I wasn’t going to move. There was a perfectly good way around the booth for him to turn his van around and leave. We waited another while before realizing I wasn’t going to back up. By this time, there was a line of cars forming behind me. He finally gave up and turned the van around and left. That’s when I swiped my Metropass and went in.
So, I’m wondering what the guy was thinking I mean, what if the guy behind him was actually going to pay by cash? If he went in, that would be like stealing $2, right? Even though the Metropass gives me free parking there, in principle, I don’t have to let anyone else into the lot. I paid for the right to park there; I’m not about to let someone get a freebie.
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