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How am I going to make it right?
Jan. 23rd, 2005 11:05 amToday is a "lifting" day, which is supposed to be weights, the nice warm weight bar that sits on the radiator in the kitchen that I use while wearing my boxers. But today the lifting bar was a snow shovel.
I snagged the snow shovel left in the foyer and walked down two blocks to shovel our car from the space where I left it on Friday night. It was parked in permit parking, but I didn't care at the time because I figured all permits would be buried under two feet of snow so it would be hard for cops to check, plus I figured they'd have more important work to do in a blizzard, or at least I hope they would. Indeed, there was no ticket.
Chicago has this "tradition" of people using chairs to block out street parking spaces they've shovelled, because it takes days and days for the side streets to ever get plowed (if they do at all). I hate this. Ok, I think it's understandable when it's snowed more than a foot, but even then reserving spots should only be for short periods of time. If I spent an hour digging my car out to go to the store, I would want to come back to the space I worked so hard to shovel. But I think if I'm gone for more than 2 hours, that expires. I mean, I wish people would see it as "one car, one spot of shoveling". I dig my car out, I leave the space for someone else, in return I can park somewhere else that was dug out. Fair's fair. Maybe it's just because the people on our street take it way too seriously. They leave their chairs out a week after a snowstorm, after the whole street has practically been plowed or melted. This one house put out their furniture when it snowed half an inch. Half an inch! Mtherfcker, you didn't even have to shovel that! Now you're just being greedy.
Our block is not permit parking. The one north of us has been since we moved and the one south of us became permit last summer. Over half the time there's a spot right out front or at least around the corner, so it's not a big deal. But other times I find myself really resentful of those permit parking blocks. I mean, it made more sense when I lived in Lakeview, a neighborhood where tons of people visit from all over the city to get their gay on, but it seems different on our quiet residential street here in Logan Square. Why are people so adamant about where people park and why only people on a certain street? There's such this air of "keep out!" and "not on our block".
I'm sure I'm completely projecting. I'm sure I wasn't getting strange looks this morning like I thought, as I shoveled the mounds of snow out from underneath the tires. I'm sure no one cared that I have parked my car there even though I was not part of their exclusive block of neighbors. But I still got certain satisfaction out of knowing I shoveled out a space for that block and didn't stake any claim of ownership. I left it for them. A gift from the lowlife down the street.
It immediately paid off when I circled around the block and came to our house and their was rockstar parking right out front. It wasn't very well-shoveled -- whoever was there did just enough to get out. But there were no chairs reserving the space. Which was enough for me.
I snagged the snow shovel left in the foyer and walked down two blocks to shovel our car from the space where I left it on Friday night. It was parked in permit parking, but I didn't care at the time because I figured all permits would be buried under two feet of snow so it would be hard for cops to check, plus I figured they'd have more important work to do in a blizzard, or at least I hope they would. Indeed, there was no ticket.
Chicago has this "tradition" of people using chairs to block out street parking spaces they've shovelled, because it takes days and days for the side streets to ever get plowed (if they do at all). I hate this. Ok, I think it's understandable when it's snowed more than a foot, but even then reserving spots should only be for short periods of time. If I spent an hour digging my car out to go to the store, I would want to come back to the space I worked so hard to shovel. But I think if I'm gone for more than 2 hours, that expires. I mean, I wish people would see it as "one car, one spot of shoveling". I dig my car out, I leave the space for someone else, in return I can park somewhere else that was dug out. Fair's fair. Maybe it's just because the people on our street take it way too seriously. They leave their chairs out a week after a snowstorm, after the whole street has practically been plowed or melted. This one house put out their furniture when it snowed half an inch. Half an inch! Mtherfcker, you didn't even have to shovel that! Now you're just being greedy.
Our block is not permit parking. The one north of us has been since we moved and the one south of us became permit last summer. Over half the time there's a spot right out front or at least around the corner, so it's not a big deal. But other times I find myself really resentful of those permit parking blocks. I mean, it made more sense when I lived in Lakeview, a neighborhood where tons of people visit from all over the city to get their gay on, but it seems different on our quiet residential street here in Logan Square. Why are people so adamant about where people park and why only people on a certain street? There's such this air of "keep out!" and "not on our block".
I'm sure I'm completely projecting. I'm sure I wasn't getting strange looks this morning like I thought, as I shoveled the mounds of snow out from underneath the tires. I'm sure no one cared that I have parked my car there even though I was not part of their exclusive block of neighbors. But I still got certain satisfaction out of knowing I shoveled out a space for that block and didn't stake any claim of ownership. I left it for them. A gift from the lowlife down the street.
It immediately paid off when I circled around the block and came to our house and their was rockstar parking right out front. It wasn't very well-shoveled -- whoever was there did just enough to get out. But there were no chairs reserving the space. Which was enough for me.
