"Happy Anniversary! A Day in the Life and Other BS celebrates 4 Years!"

Woo Hoo! Happy Anniversary to me! This past Saturday was the 4 year anniversary of my blog, “A Day in the Life and Other BS”. Truth be told, when I began my blog back on December 6, 2010, I never imagined that four years later I’d still be blogging. I really thought that if it went a year I’d be perfectly happy. I love to write but I’ve never been a disciplined writer, so I figured after a year I’d tire of the project and it would wind up like so many other short stories and novellas that I started and never finished. But lo and behold here it is nearly 2015 and the blog rolls on!

Of course if I had tried to continue at the pace that I began with that first year I probably would have burned out. I was trying to put out my blog six or seven days a week. The second year it went down to five and this last years four has been my goal but some weeks I only post three and I’m okay with that. After all I’m not publishing a newspaper.

Sometimes I chose to post an PP (previously posted) blog. There are a few reasons for this. Usually it’s because of something I’ve heard that day or maybe seen on TV that reminds me of something I’ve already written about and not necessarily because I don’t have time to write or anything to write about. Although that has happened, it isn’t the primary purpose for pp’s. Other times, particularly if it’s an event or occasion that occurs annually, I use a PP if I’m satisfied with what I have previously written. Usually I’ll do a little updating and rerun the post. Why reinvent the wheel.

Although the idea for “A Day in the Life”  as a tribute blog for my departed buddy Brian was floating around in my head for quite awhile. It took a true life incident in a parking lot packed with Christmas shoppers and my wife to actually get the blog rolling. After the incident I turned to my wife and said,” This is the kind of shit I would blog about!” She in turn said ” stop talking about it and do it.” I went home that night and wrote my first post and put “A Day in the Life” online a few days later. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy doing it! Thanks for reading.

Just a Thought…

My first ever blog post   “Parking Lot Etiquette”

In our society we are taught from an early age that laws must be obeyed and rules must be followed. Failure to do so results in consequences befitting the infraction. What then of the unwritten rules of etiquette, the code of polite behavior. What happens when someone breaks these rules? What is the consequence of their actions? This question leads me to the story I’m about to share with you.

This past weekend my wife and I decided to do some Christmas shopping at Victoria Gardens. When we arrived we found the parking lots jammed. It seemed that most Southern Californians had the same shopping idea. We drove around and round the parking lot for quite sometime looking for a parking place. “It’s all in the timing,” I kept telling myself.

To my left I spied a car (#1) with the trunk open and a woman putting packages into it so I stopped and waited for the car to pull out. In front of me several cars were slowly moving down the row searching for spots. The first few drove past me knowing that I was waiting for the spot but the third car (#2) stopped short, just as the woman began to back up. As luck would have it car (#1) backed out to her right so that she would be driving away in my direction. By doing so she not only blocked me from turning in quickly but gave the driver of the other car ample opportunity to steal the spot. All the while my wife was saying “she going to take the spot, she’s going to take it.”

Undaunted by my wife’s concern I waited for the woman to pull away, certain that the other driver wouldn’t dare break the rules of parking lot etiquette and steal the spot, after all, she had seen me sitting here waiting from at least a dozen cars away. In fact when she turned down the row I was already stopped and waiting.  She wouldn’t be that thoughtless, would she? Well when car #1 finally finished backing up and pulled away I discovered the woman driving car #2 was indeed stealing the spot from me. She was nearly two-thirds of the way in, but in her haste to get the spot first she had pulled in at a ridiculous angle and would have to back out of the spot to straighten her car. I just couldn’t believe it!  Had she no scruples!  How dare she!

Now you have to understand I am not a vindictive man, at least I never thought I was. Without thinking I instantly pulled across the row right behind her and pulled in so close that I actually nudged her vehicle so that she couldn’t straighten out her horrible rush, park job. I opened my window and called out to her,

“Excuse me lady, this is my parking spot I’m sure you saw me waiting for it.”              No response. 

“Excuse me!” I called again.

She finally turned around. “I had my directional on,” she said sleepily, as if turning

her directional on half a block away magically made what she’d done okay.                  

“Ah I really don’t care,” I answered, “I was sitting here waiting long before you even turned down this row.”                                                                                                      

“I had my directional on,” she said again.

By this point I was getting more than a little perturbed. Just who did this woman think she was.

“Listen lady I want you to move your car out of my spot now!”                                      

“You hit my car! I’m going to call the police,” she replied.

“By all means call them,” I responded. “I’d love to hear what they have to say.”

 She just sat there.

Funny but during the entire altercation which probably lasted no more than a minute or two, not one horn sounded, even though I was blocking traffic and there were several cars waiting to get by. It seemed like the other drivers knew that the parking lot rules of etiquette had been violated and I was not letting it go unnoticed. I was dealing with it. I sat there for a few more moments looking around at the traffic jam I was causing. At that point I knew I wasn’t going to win this battle, but I was determined that if I couldn’t have the parking spot neither could she. I leaned out the window and in my best bad ass, slightly crazed voice, said to her,

“Okay lady, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen here, I’m going to drive away right now but believe me I’m going to come back by here in a few minutes and if your car is still parked here, (I paused here for effect)  I’m gonna f**k it up.”                              

I’m not sure why, but yeah, that’s what I said. I stared at her for a long moment, grinned menacingly and drove away.

Yes, I know I crossed the line. Up until that final statement I had managed to keep it civil, calling her ‘lady’ instead of what I really wanted to call her, and though I had no intentions of carrying out my threat, I suppose I shouldn’t have made it, but I was frustrated by her lack of respect for the parking lot rules of etiquette and I was simply standing up for myself and the countless others who simply shake their heads and drive on when this happens to them. Besides, when all was said and done I was able to leave Victoria Gardens with at least some sense of satisfaction, for when I drove back by the parking spot a few minutes later her car was no longer there. She had moved.

Imagine that…