Everybody loves their car. Why not? It is a symbol of freedom. It gives you the ability to travel to and from work. You can take a day trip to the beach. If you have a truck, you can use it to do work around your yard or even do work you make money at. Or you can just go off-roading for the heck of it. Whether you have an older car or a shiny new one, your vehicle is something you usually take pride in. When we get a new car we wash it regularly. We change the oil and other fluids. We like to think of our car as a reflection of us. So why do we put them in harms way over something as silly as a parking spot or carpool line. I'm as American as they come but parking lot and carpool wars are something that just baffles me.
Let's start with a nice, leisurely trip to the local grocery store. As much as I hate shopping, I like to sit in the parking lot and watch the parking wars. Seeing two able bodied people in their luxury yacht try to out blinker the other while some old lady tries to back out of a prime parking spot is just the most asinine thing there is in this world. These two parking lot specials would risk wrecking their over priced car just to get the special parking spot. And it would never even cross their minds to get out and help the old lady load her groceries or direct her safely out of her spot. Then there's the handicap parking tag insanity. There are perfectly fine people that obviously go tell their doctor that they need a handicapped parking pass because they have a cold sore or something. Hey everybody look at me, I'm special because I have a handicapped parking pass and the only thing wrong with me is I snore really loud. What's wrong with walking across the parking lot from a normal parking space? If your pride and joy cost a whole years salary, why risk it just to take a few less steps in life?
Then let's drive on over to every dad's nightmare, picking up kids at school in the war zone known as the carpool line. We live in a drive through society. So having a lane at your kid's school to pick up your child seems like a great idea. Apparently the same people that get fake handicap parking tags don't want their precious little bundle of joy to take more than five steps in a day. It seems the parents of the slowest child always get to the front of the line. Or my favorite is the parent that parks in the carpool lane to go inside the school to argue about their kid's lunch money. Then there's always the smarter parent that thinks they can go against the traffic flow to beat the system. What's wrong with parking your behemoth gas guzzler and having your kid walk to your car? Or better yet, park your car and walk yourself on over to get your kid and walk back.
A little walking never hurt anyone. So when you go to the store today park your pride and joy all the way out by the highway so everyone can see it. Avoid scratches, scraps, and door dents all while getting some much needed exercise. In the end your car will thank you with a long productive service life. Have a great day and watch where you park.
