Parking

A little while ago our neighborhood redid our roads.  Although I thought they were looking fine they felt the roads needed a new seal coating.  To do this they split the neighborhood into thirds.  Each third took turns parking in the other two thirds of the neighborhood.  Since we would be unable to get in or out of our garage for 24 hours Brent and I both had to park on the street.  Knowing this I parked my car as close to my house as possible the afternoon before.  I had to run errands, grocery shopping to be exact, during that 24 hours.  Not so bad, I was able to park almost as close when I returned and  I just loaded the stroller to capacity and hauled my groceries home.  That night I had to run to a friends house.  Since it was in the evening and everyone was home from work I was not as luck finding a close parking spot.  I grumbled as I searched for the closest place to park, then walked a few hundred yards to my house.

This experience made me very grateful for my garage!  It reminded me of a time when I was living in LA.  I did not have a garage, or even a parking space for that matter.  I was left to find parking on the street.  At the time I was working doing in home elderly care.  I was working 12 hour shifts.  Sometimes I got off in the middle of the night.  One particular night I found myself exhausted after a long days work, a long week of working and insufficient sleep.  I circled and circled looking for a place to park.  There was nothing.  The further and further I got from my apartment the more devastated I got.  It was cold, it was dark, although I lived in a pretty safe area I was still walking alone at night in LA, the further away I got, the less safe I felt.  At one point amid my desperate prayers I was in tears.  I knew it was silly and I was over reacting but I was just so tired.  Finally I found a space, probably close to a mile from my apartment.  With a prayer I made the trek to my home, grateful to make it there safe and sound.

I'm glad we had new seal coating done on our streets in our neighborhood.  I was complaining about how awful it was going to be to not be able to park in my garage for 24 hours.  Then I remembered what it's like to have no where to park.  Now I'm more aware of the blessing a garage and easy parking is!