10.20.19 — The DW Sunday Column: Hey Buddy — Nice parking job

A sideways parking job in an empty park should be no big deal — but…

Each morning the walk is exactly 2.16 miles to the mountain top and back. Each morning my walk passes the park that at sunrise is mostly empty.

Each morning, there is a gentleman that parks his truck in the park, in the parking lot, sideways. It is a four door, big pick up. It takes up about 3 to 4 spots. Of course, there are roughly, oh, I would guess 25 parking spots still left. Nine times out of ten, the truck is the only vehicle in the lot.

So why would this bother anyone? I mean, what is the big deal? Especially for me, since I don’t even park my car in the lot, I just simply pass by the lot each morning.

But then you start to think, why would someone park that way? It is like a person who parks his Corvette in the back of the lot, taking up two or three spots, so no one stands a chance to scratch his car. It is like the person who parks their full-sized red Audi into the spot at the airport with a sign that reads, Compact Cars only. It is like the person who parks in the handicapped spot, but you don’t see plates or stickers to prove that they should be able to park there.

So, on this day, on this typical morning, the person is coming out of the truck…parked sideways, taking up four spots. Instead of the sidewalk you cut into the parking lot….I need to get to the bottom of this….goes through your mind…as you walk past the 10 empty parking spots to get to the truck.

As you get closer, you wonder, what the heck do I say. Am I mad? I don’t think so. What exactly am I hoping to accomplish? For a second you think about the scene in Happy Gilmore and feel like saying, “the price is wrong, Bbbb- Bob Barker.” You think how funny it would look for two old guys wrestling in the middle of the park over a parking spot, when there are about 25 spots left open.

“Nice parking job”….comes out of my mouth. I mean tone is everything. I think, perhaps I hope, I made it sound inviting, asking for a conversation. At the very least, the comment was filled with sarcasm.

“Ha, ha, I know, hey….my poor little boy…..I have to carry him out of the truck every day..”

Oh crap, I think, what did I get myself into? A little boy who needs help. This is the sarcasm train I chose to put on the tracks today? Geez, what an idiot.

Well, it was not quite like that.

As I looked to my left, I saw a big black dog. Laying down, looking beat up. Whew, the boy we are talking about here is a dog.

“He has gotten into a few too many fights with the Coyotes. He can no longer jump out of the car. You should have seen him before, he would dart out of this truck and go for the rabbits and to the trail.”

We talked more. The kind gentleman, who parks sideways for the benefit of his poor, broken down doggie went on to say he lost one his other dogs recently. He said his dogs have been coming out every day to the park then the trails in the desert to run…and they love to challenge the Coyotes…and sometimes they lose…but boy do they look forward to it. He tells the stories of his tough little doggies with a source of pride.

He points to the other dog with him and says he probably only has a little time left, as he is slowing down. Of course, the one he carries out of the truck doesn’t exactly seem like he had too much time before he reaches the big dog pound in the sky.

Geez, now this poor guy (the human), who has been coming here for years with three dogs, is down to two. Soon one, then none. This poor gentleman will carry his large sized black Labrador looking doggie out of his sideways parked truck until his last day on earth.

Oh well, at least now I know.