Empty Does Not Mean Available

Last night I got home kinda late and was surprised to see a strange car in my parking space. The first thought to come to mind is "hey, some jerk parked in my space". Then the second thought seeps in, "Oh, maybe somebody is visiting one of my roommates and he said it was ok for them to park there." So I walk in and Chane is by himself. "Do you know who is in our spot?" His reply, "I have no idea whose car that is." So I revert back to my first thought again, "jerk!". So then another thought seeps in and it's like, "well, maybe it was some emergency that I would be sensitive to had I known, maybe I just caught them during that little window of time they needed to put there car somewhere". Anyways, it stinks for Harrison cuz it means he doesn't have a spot when he gets home from work. So I call him and give him the heads up. I felt it was too late to bother the manager about it so we take care of this problem ourselves. We decide we're going to box him in, heh heh. I write a firm note:

"This is not your parking spot! --#118"

Now jerk knows where to come when he wants to leave. By then Harrison got home and parked his car right in front jerk's so he can't leave. It's really not so mean of us to do that considering Harrison doesn't have a place to park now and the most convenient spot is to block this other guy. Anyways, I'm trying to rationalize the nerve of someone to just take the liberty of parking in someone's spot and not even care about the inconvenience they are causing others. Not to mention, we pay extra money for those spots. Then I was trying to imagine how this person will react when they find they are being inconvenienced by not being able to leave when they want to. Oh, the irony! Basically, I just wanted this person to never think of doing it again and it was pretty harmless to get that point across. He comes by, we let him loose, no harm, no foul. Jerk feels silly and never does it again. Anyways, it was getting pretty late and I'm starting to think that jerk isn't going to leave tonight. Either he decides he's staying the night cuz he doesn't want to bother ticked people at a late hour or he just has the audacity to take our spot for the whole night and who cares what we have to say about it. It didn't sit well with me either way. No emergency is worth that inconsideration. I think of my first thought again. Still in the back of my mind, there must be a good reason for this.

The next morning, Harrison has to leave early so he takes off so the car is no longer blocked so the guy may never have known of our little lesson. Then I go to the garage to leave for work a couple hours later and I notice the car is still there. However, now is a good time to bother the manager about it so I go find him. He and the construction guys are working on the building renovation so he's outside working on the building. The owner happens to be there too. So I tell him someone's parked in our spot. He starts asking all the construction guys and I say, "No since last night." One of the construction guys says, "You should key is car up and down really good." and the owner chimes in "Or use the tab from a beer can." Ha ha, "thanks for the tip," I said. So they go down with me to the garage and they laugh at the note I left. Maybe they laughed cuz of its simplicity or its lack of profanity. I'm not really sure. They just said, "yeah, that sums it up right there." Wow, these guys really wanted retribution for me, ha ha. I was telling them that we just boxed him in and parked anyways, but it was still annoying. Then the manager says, "Hey, I'll just move my car and box him in." Ha ha. It was so funny to see all these guys want to stick it to him.

Then the owner says, "I'm going to have these big fat stickers made up for all the tenants. You put them on the window and it takes like 2 hours of scrubbing to get it off." He seemed quite resolved to do this as if it were the last straw. Then he says, "I can't wait to stick it to the first guy that does this." Then the manager recognizes the car and remembers that this is the son of the couple that used to have this spot before we moved in and he probably didn't know. So the manager goes up to tell him to move his car. Meanwhile I'm still listening to the owner, "Ok, this one was probably a legitimate misunderstanding, but some people just do it and they don't care who they inconvenience and that's why I'm going to get those stickers made up and give them to all the tenants." I can only imagine feuds starting up at the complex over this kind of thing, ha ha. The manager comes back and it turns out it was a misunderstanding. He said he woke the kid up and he was all groggy and stuff. His parents were out of town so there was no way for him to know. So he said he'd be right down to move the car. So the manager takes off the note and hands it to me and says, "Save this for the next one." Ha ha. The funny thing was the guy never saw my note nor did he know his car was ever boxed in. He was told to move and he did it. Things probably turned out for the best. I guess I know better now than to cross the manager and owner of our building, ha ha. Those guys really like to stick it to people.

Anyways, I'm not sure if that was a blogworthy story or not. I had a few laughs this morning over it. Hope you enjoyed it.