I can park here? Really?

You know things are on the slow side at work (or everyone has ADD) when the new parking assignments comes out and the buzz begins. Whatever work was being done came to a dead halt. Adobe Acrobat was sprung into action and the happiness and anger was heard. Parking at work is a weird thing. There are 4 areas you can park in. Only 3 are by assignment and those are by seniority, not by authority or the job you do. Thus it is possible that the CEO would have a crappy parking spot, if an assigned one at all.

Where you park can be a status symbol. You have the Holy Grail of parking, the underground. A heated area that is accessed by opener only. At one time you didn't need an opener but that changed with heightened security after 911.

Next is the covered Mid Level parking. There are two sections to this. Old and new. Or simply front and back. Those who have a parking assignment don't necessarily care which section they are in, as long as they are in a covered area. Makes like so much easier not having to walk in rain or brush snow off the car at the end of the day.

Then there is the slums or the open air parking. No assignments up there. It is a free for all. This is where the newbies park. Or part timers. They get no respect.

I had been in the back section of the parking structure. Spot 221. It is a good spot. Straight shot in, a couple slots from the divider. It is a good beginner spot. I will miss it.

Beginning Tuesday, I will have spot 18. This puts me right at the entrance to the building, one spot off. I scouted #18 yesterday. It looks good at first sight but there is one potential flaw about the spot. It faces out to open air. How is that bad? Same reason as the open air. Rain and snow. When they assigned spots, they figured out what spots where better than others. Proximity to the building entrance apparently is ranked lower than total enclosure. Thus, associates with more seniority are further away from the entrance than I. They are totally away from the elements. Totally enclosed. They have to walk another 15 yards to get in. I don't know if that is good or bad. My spot has a wall on the front left fender to help shield me from any precipitation. I looked at what drifting of snow occurred and it looked minimal. Bottom line....I believe I scored big time! My only concern is in the summer (if I am still there), will the rain actually whip in and get the convertible wet if the top is down. I doubt it.

Then again, parking will be redone again at the end of April and it may be a moot point.

I got stuck behind two different panic drivers on the way to work. You know these clowns. They hit their brakes any time, any car, whether it is in their lane or not, touches theirs. A car can be 5 car lengths ahead of them, in the left lane and they will hit their brakes even though they are in the right lane. Panic drivers annoy the heck out of me. If you get caught behind them, you can expect to see a lot of red. And it will take them forever to accelerate again. If you cannot get out from behind them, you are due for a miserable drive.

It is bad enough to get stuck behind one. But when you clear one and cruise ahead just to get stuck behind another, that is the pinnacle of driving frustration. I cleared the first one, who hit their brakes because of merging traffic. Didn't matter that no one was changing into their lane and that the merging traffic had their own lane. Nor the fact that their wasn't a car within 20 yards in front of them. They felt the need to slow down to 20 from 50 anyway.

I was able to escape the clutches of the truck that was panic driving right away. He got scared by the merging traffic by the stadium, that was still on the ramp, not even close to touching him. Dipshit!

I shouldn't bitch about them I guess. I was just happy that I didn't have to shovel the end of the drive today. One of my tenants decided that they didn't have to move their car, which was parked on the street and plowed around, until after all the streets were cleaned. Once I was done clearing my mother's house and then mine again, I went inside to feast on pizza and beer. I noticed the clown go out and try to get his car moved. I watched and found it to be funny. Yeah, I could have gone out and helped but I was pretty damn tired. An hour of shoveling, mainly heavy plowed snow, will put a good work on the body. A beer and entertainment was exactly what I needed. But after he finally got out, I just looked and thought I might be screwed. If they plow again today, a good amount of that snow will end up in my drive. Maybe I should go and drag his ass downstairs and make him shovel it. If I had a plow on my truck, I would actually plow it into a pile so it wouldn't end in my drive.

Even still, there is now an area of the street that is unparkable thanks to this clod.

And finally, I may spend my weekend drinking and just getting blitzed. I am mad and depressed. Check this out Aww..a baby hippo story
Great! Now a baby hippo is going to be getting more than I do. WTF???