The other day I was going out to dinner with a friend, and as I hadn't been out of the house in almost a week wanted to stop in the store on my way. It was pouring rain as I made my way around the parking lot looking for an empty handicapped parking spot.
I could see a vacant spot a couple of rows ahead and drove in that direction. A red van pulled out in front of me from one of the parking lanes, and proceeded to 'my' parking spot. First come, first serve I thought, until I drove by the van and saw that the driver was young.
I watched as three young people, in their early twenties, got out of the van and walked to the store. One of the three did have a bit of a limp, but still managed to walk with what appeared to be speed and ease. I continued on my way and found another parking spot a short distance farther from the store.
I was curious, and checked out the van but there was no disability parking permit on the dash. I know I've talked before about 'invisible' diseases, and making judgments because people do not look disabled, but I really don't think there was anything seriously wrong with any of these young people. I think they wanted a parking spot close to the building because of the rain, and didn't care who they inconvenienced.
It made me mad, I'll admit, because I was already tired with the effort of getting dressed to go out. It was damp and my joints ached. If I hadn't found a parking spot fairly close I would have given up on any shopping, gone straight to the restaurant and read my book while I waited.
I guess you never have the parking police around when you need them. Which is annoying because they once gave me a ticket when they didn't see the permit on the visor. That mistake, though it didn't end up costing me money, did take a great deal of my energy to go to the town hall, with it's horrible parking, in order to show my permit and get the ticket nullified.
And there ends my rant of the day.
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