Parking Wars : A Follow Up To "Dude, Where's My Car?"

First, read the "Dude, Where's My Car?" post.....

I took pictures of the lot this morning.

The picture above shows the side of the lot that I enter. You see there are no signs facing the entrance that inform people that parking is prohibited. There is a 30-minute parking sign on the left in front of the utility pole, but that sign is for the area in front of the business, Neff's Lock and Key. When I park in this lot I pull in directly beside that little brick wall. There is a sign that you can see by the brick wall - that sign reads "Customers Only."  Though I am not a customer, I never even saw that sign until my car was towed because I did not look for one - since placement of a sign should be upon entering the lot. Even if I did see that sign, it's clear that there are no customers there between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. when I would be parked there. The one vehicle you see in the lot is a van and trailer that are always there - they must belong to the owner of the lot.

Now see the other side of the parking lot.  This is the side that I exit.  Even if I would use this side as the entrance, there again are no signs showing that parking is prohibited.  Again, notice all the cars that are parked in this lot.....you can see how heavily used it is and how my car being there would really pose a problem for anybody's else's parking needs, right??

Everybody that I talked to today from PCF (that's the company I work for) said that carriers and employees have been parking in that lot since the Lancaster depot first opened up several years ago.  Some even went to say that not only have we never been discouraged from parking there, but we have been given explicit permission to park there!  All of those years of PCF parking there and nobody had ever been towed.....until now.....and of course, it's Nate Beck!

My points of contention:

a) Poor signage.

b) No indication (memo, phone call, or any kind of "heads up" notification) to PCF that our employees and carriers may not park there.

c) An established history of PCF employees and carriers parking there - us parking there is nothing new.

d) Unreasonable to enforce at that time when nobody else is using the lot.

e) I did not park there to screw anyone out of a spot.  I did not park there with cruel intentions.

f) I did not even park there for my own advantage....In fact I parked there out of kindness to allow room for others to park in PCF's lot.

Dude, Where's My Car?

As the last paper carrier left the building of the newspaper depot at 5:00 this morning, I grabbed a bin of newspapers and was about to deliver a portion of a vacated route.  I then exited the building to find.....NOTHING!

My car was gone!

I called the police to tell them that it was either towed or stolen and they said that a squad car would come out to me.  I looked around the lot where I had parked the car to see if there was a name of a towing company, but I could not find any.  What I did see is a sign I had never seen before in the back of the lot that mentioned something about Customers Only and the possibility of towing.

I then called one of the carriers, Danny, to see if he noticed my car there when he left the building around 3:30.  I chose Danny because he is a) accessible, b) caring, and c) observant.  I chose the right person to call!  Danny said that yes, my car was still there around 3:30, but that he did notice a tow truck frequenting our vicinity lately - and he was able to tell me the name of the company.

I called that company immediately and sure enough, they were in possession of my vehicle.  However, in order for me to retrieve my vehicle, I would have to pay $200!

Now, here's the deal with the lot I was parked in.  Typically on Mondays I park in that lot - it is directly across the street from the newspaper depot.  I park there on Mondays not for my own convenience, but because the papers are usually later on Mondays and I like to make sure there is enough space in our lot for all of the carriers to fit.  I feel like they should have spaces closest to the door since they are hauling papers out of there.  We have a very small lot that is already occupied by 2 large trucks from a company that is attached to our building.  In addition, parking is prohibited on one side of the street, and the other side usually has another large vehicle occupying it.  In other words, parking options are very minimal.  (and sorry, I am too tired right now to supply diagrams!)

I have been at that depot for over a year now, and I have parked in the lot across the street from the depot quite often.  When I pull in at 1 a.m., the lot is generally empty.  When I pull out at 5 a.m., the lot is still generally empty.  There are no other businesses in our vicinity that are open during those hours, so my car is not impeding anyone else's ability to find a parking spot.

More than that, though, I have never noticed any signage prohibiting anyone from parking there.  I have never seen a sign upon entrancing or near the spot I park in that tells me that I cannot park there.  I did just notice the aforementioned "Customers Only" sign today as I was looking around, but that sign was in the rear of the parking lot so I had never before encountered that sign.  I will say, however, that I wasn't looking for a sign because I never thought to look for a no parking sign - because why would parking be restricted during hours when nobody else would need that lot?  Perhaps such a sign does exist and I just never saw it.  I am planning on looking around the lot tonight for signage, and I will take pictures if I feel like the signage is not sufficient.

But fine, okay, let's assume that I did park illegally (since I apparently did).

#1 - So what?  As mentioned before, the car is in nobody's way.

#2 - How about somebody sending local businesses a memo stating that their employees are not allowed to park there AT ANY TIME, and those who do park there are at risk of being towed?  Clearly, the owner of the lot has a problem with people parking there because they have instructed this towing company to patrol the area - and they have only begun to patrol it to a great extent recently.  So common courtesy would be to first warn people not to park there!  Maybe even put a little note on my car if my car's presence specifically has been a problem.

#3 - $200?  What the shit is that?  I am now down $200 for parking in a spot that did not even give me an advantage.  Like I am so rebelious that I just parked there for the sake of parking illegally and trying to get away with it?  Haha, look at my premium spot - it is further away from the building from everyone else's and now I must walk even further in the freezing cold while often toting several newspapers!  The tow truck driver then was also telling me how lucky I am because if he would have towed my car to a different lot, it would have been even more expensive AND I would not have been able to retrieve it right away - I would have had to wait until 8 a.m. to get my car back......so he actually said that I was lucky!!  Thanks so much for doing me all of these great favors, Joe Dirt.

Once I found out that the towing company had my car, the tow truck driver said he was back in the neighborhood and he could give me a lift to go to an ATM and to take me back to my car.  Just as he was there, the cop showed up as well and realized that the tow truck driver did call it in - thanks so much to the police for telling me that they knew it was towed and not stolen!

I am, I suppose, relieved that the car was not stolen, although perhaps I would be in better shape if it was!?!  I will try to recoup some of that $200 from the lot's owner, but I really don't expect to get anywhere with that.  My only chance of winning that fight is if there really is insufficient signage, and I really don't know because I am the most unobservant human being on the planet.

By the way, I will no longer be parking in that lot.

My Life Sucks......And I Love It!!!

It has been a long damn time since I have taken to this blog......In fact, the last time I was on here it was to delete a bunch of posts.  At that time I was thinking to myself, "Man, I'm tired of putting myself so out there" - and I had a lot of personal stuff in this blog.

I realize, though, that it doesn't bother me to share the personal things, as I'm not hiding anything.  So come on in, and get to know the real me!

I have recently been inspired to start writing (and sharing) again.

This first piece focuses on a wave of negativity that I've been feeling lately, as I've been reflecting a lot upon my life.  I, yes Nate Beck, the eternal optimist, had even begun to question my future's outlook, and I had even begun to submit to a new word in my vocabulary:   HOPELESSNESS. 

It seemed like for a while that no matter what good I tried to do in order to combat all the bad - whether that bad was from my own doing or from an external force - that it would always be coupled with something else that would keep me down.  That's what was driving this hopelessness.

I have experienced no great event that has snapped me out of this hopeless feeling, so I cannot pinpoint the turning point, but Nate Beck is back on track, baby!  Eternal optimism rules again.

But how do I do it?  How can I be so optimistic when my life sucks?  And people, I mean it.......

MY LIFE SUCKS!

-  I am divorced, and have been for 3 years now.
-  For the last 3 years, and from here on out, I have not been and will not be the full-time dad I have always wanted to be for my kids.
-  When my wife left, she moved right in with another guy - they are now married.
-  It wasn't too long into their relationship that my kids started calling this other guy "dad" and neither the ex nor him did anything to stop that in spite of my requests and expressions of disapproval.
-  I've been, more or less, replaced.
-  Bad decisions I have made have put me in this place, and have also put me in a lot of debt.
-  I cannot undo these bad decisions.
-  I work 2 jobs, sacrificing A LOT of sleep, so that I can survive, pay off the debts, and pay child support.
-  I don't get too much respect at either job.....the boss from the part-time job is simply an ass, and the big cheeses at the full-time job dismiss me because I'm not a brown-nosing ladder-climber mastered in the art of small talk and BS.
-  I have very little extra time to do things I enjoy doing, or to accomplish tasks I need to accomplish.
-  I live in a house that I never really wanted in the first place; and now that house is on the market as part of the marriage settlement agreement.
-  When the house sells, I will owe a good chunk of money on it and not gain anything.
-  I am alone.  Sometimes that is a good thing, though.  But being this emotionally alone and physically deprived for this long has begun to take its toll.
-  I constantly wonder if my love will ever be reciprocated.  I constantly hope that it does, and that tortures me.  (So even my own optimism has a way of creating negativity!)


THAT'S HOW MUCH MY LIFE SUCKS!


But for as many things that I do not have, both material and nonmaterial, I remain positive by focusing on the things that I DO have. 

I also have come to accept how my life has gone down.  I have accepted that my own wrongdoings have played a major role in putting me where I am.  And I have accepted that external negative forces are a big part of life, and that we just have to deal with it and fight through it all.

So what do I have then?  This list is very little, but it really is a lot.

-  I have two daughters who love me.  No matter how much I miss them when they are not with me, they make every minute I'm with them count.  And these kids of mine are so amazing!
-  I am loved by my family and by my close friends, and I know they will have my back.
-  I am fortunate to have not just one job, but two jobs.  In a tough economic time, I have two jobs that are sufficient for my financial needs, and fitting enough for my schedule.
-  I have a mind that will not be broken by the negativity that comes my way.  It is comforting to know within myself that I will always do what I have to do to get by in the short run, and to ultimately succeed in the long run, no matter what challenges may try to obstruct me.

With all of these things that I DO have, it makes it pretty easy to remain the eternal optimist, and to accept and love this life of mine.