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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Someone deserves a ticket

I think I'm feeling a little ornery this week. First the shot of the discarded coffee cup on the floor, and now one of this doofus parked right next to the fire route sign.

Maybe I shop at grocery stores* that attract mindless, self-centred noobs who are too lazy to find a real parking spot or dump their trash in a garbage can. Maybe I subconsciously seek out the selfish among us so I can have a moment of quiet, sanctimonious superiority as I walk by. Maybe our neighbourhoods are destined to be taken over by those who flout anti-idling bylaws, fire zone parking rules, common sense and basic decency, and we should just give up and accept that we'll simply never win.

Either way, I don't know if the guy in the driver seat saw me pull out my BlackBerry and take this admittedly lameoid shot. I'm betting he didn't, as looking out the right-hand side of the car to read signs and look out for the welfare of others seemed anathema to him. I'm sorry I didn't knock on the window before I disappeared into the night. If anything, it would have been a timely reminder to an apparently oblivious soul that life isn't always about him.

Your turn: What's the right way to respond in a case like this?

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* It's Thematic's grocery week this week. Click here to dive in.

5 comments:

  1. I increasingly see these kind of stuff - coffee cups & milkshake glasses in supermarkets aisles, apartment stair cases. Is it a direction that depicts decrease in the civic sense of everyone or a callousness of a few that may become unbearable. Seriously upset :(

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  2. I once left a note on the windshield of someone parked in the "wheel chair spot" at Angelo's. It said, "This spot is for the physically handicapped, not the mentally handicapped like you!"

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  3. I think this isn't all that bad. The driver was in his vehicle, and therefore not really "parked". If a firetruck pulls up, he moves, and realistically, he would have heard the truck coming and had been out of the way before it was a problem. Pretty simple. Firetrucks stand out. If it was a handicap spot, that would be different, as cars with handicap drivers aren't large red trucks with lights on the top and sirens blaring.

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  4. people who fail to use their legs will miss that ability when they need it most. I like parking further away than I need to.

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  5. Carmi, unfortunately it's not a matter of you going out looking for them, schmucks like that are everywhere.
    As for that situation being not "all that bad", I disagree. Seconds matter when emergency vehicles are involved and I've seen morons like that so oblivious to the world around them that they don't notice the emergency until the very last second. There's a reason that sign is there, and should not be ignored for even a moment.
    What to do, that's the big question. You could have knocked on his window, but he probably would have just told you to f-off or come up with some lame excuse like "My wife just ran in for a second." Either way, he'll do the exact same thing next time.
    Would parking enforcement do anything if you sent them a picture that showed his license plate?

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