blessmyendeavors

I went shopping with my mother, who has congestive heartfailure, and thus, a handicapped parking tag for her car.  That is the only concession she makes to her illness.  She’s stubborn that way.  We went to a local discount superstore and couldn’t find a parking space near the store.; all the handicapped places were taken.  Ok, this happens.  I found a general parking space only 3 places from the entrance she wanted to use, so parked there.  Now, myself, I will park at a distance from any entrance due to a desire to exercise, and the added bonus of less traffic; both vehicular and pedestrian.  I tend to be a bit of a snob about it, and am scornful of people who will make 3 trips around a lot to find a place ten feet closer.

Knowing this, you can imagine my surprise when a car stopped, and a perfectly healthy-looking man took it on himself to yell at us for taking his parking space !  His arguement was, since mom’s minivan had a handicapped tag, it was her DUTY to park only in handicapped parking, thus leaving that prime general space for people like him.  He didn’t care that all the handicapped spaces were full.  I suppose we should have sat in a firelane, patiently waiting for a handicapped parking space to open up, or..perhaps we should have removed the tag from the rearview mirror and hidden it to not offend the healthy, but far lazier, patrons like him.  I had to grit my teeth, and settled for simply commenting that his heart might like the walk from the vacant space four places further out.

Just when I think I’ve heard it all, I’m surprised again by people.