Friday at 4:10, I pulled onto the parking lot of the Gas Station Chicken Store to get my scratchers. Imagine my chagrin to find a white sedan parked in the lone handicap space. No placard, no handicap plate. I looped around the diesel pumps to get to the parking space in front of the handicapped, the one next to the FREE AIR hose. I parked nose-to-nose with that white sedan.
As I was clambering out of T-Hoe, getting my knees into walking mode while clinging to the door, a man came to the passenger side of the white sedan. He was probably early 40s. A slim guy, with no discernable different-abledness. He was putting a case of beer onto the passenger seat.
When I hobbled past him, taking a 50-foot detour thanks to his entitledness, he gave me the side-eye. I'm hoping he was embarrassed enough that he won't park there again, but I seriously doubt my inconvenience had that effect on him.
White Sedan Man then walked around to the driver's door and got in. I made sure to take extra time walking across the rear of his sedan. You know. I wouldn't want to stumble and hurt myself, from walking that extra distance. I was sure he couldn't get hurt while sitting there with his engine running, waiting to back up and leave.
I don't begrudge a working man having a case of beer for the weekend, ten minutes after getting off work on Friday. But it seems to me the logical place to stow that case of beer would be on the seat or floor behind the driver's seat. You know, so when you got home, you could just step back and open that door, and get your beer, and carry it inside. Seems kind of awkward to have to walk around the car and get it from the front passenger side.
UNLESS, you know, you might want to tear open that cardboard case on the way home, and have a beer while driving...
I did not observe such behavior. I'm just speculating, because I can, and I'm disgruntled from having to walk extra distance to get my scratchers, what with White Sedan Man taking my rightful parking space.
Surely a person who would take up the only handicap space in order to carry his beer less distance would not be the kind of person to drink while driving. Right?
Of course, he intends to drink and drive!
ReplyDeleteIt just made me wonder. He took up that handicap space to walk less distance, yet he walked all the way around his car to put that case of beer on the passenger seat.
DeleteIf he DOES drink and drive and has a long way to go, he may some day NEED that handicap parking place.
ReplyDeleteSo true! Let's hope he doesn't make anyone else need it!
DeleteOh I'm pretty sure he's going to rip into that box as soon as he gets onto the highway, or even just out of the parking lot. Here is Australia there's a really hefty fine if you are caught drinking while driving.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up for Missouri, and still don't know all the details. It depends on the percentage of blood alcohol, and looks like the penalty is up to 6 months in jail, and up to a $1000 fine. Also, it depends how many prior convictions a person has for the same offense, with penalties becoming more severe with each one.
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