It’s not like me to spew venom, but since we’ve been training the little one to sleep through the night, neither of the adults in the house have gotten much sleep either and unlike lil Ashtyn, we don’t get to take a nap in the car on the way to daycare or sleep for 2 hours when we get there. So we’re both a little crankier than normal. Don’t get me wrong, Ashtyn gets funner every day with the things she does and she gets out of every situation by smiling. Her new game is to go to the steps and look back at us, then the second you get up to go grab her she starts laughing and going up the steps as quick as she can.
Last night when I was watching her as well, we were up in her room and she kept wanting to play with the night light. Babies and electricity don’t mix well so I unplugged it and slid it to the middle of the room. Ashtyn is fascinated by lights so she crawled over and grabbed it, crawled back and started trying to plug it in. That was the end of that game, but it goes to show that she’s putting two and two together now. “This thing here needs to go here for the light to come on.”
Now, what I’m upset about today isn’t the lack of sleep. That assumed when we had her – babies cry at night. What I want to talk about today is a growing epidemic and one that has infested NISC to the point where I need to write on it. It’s parking or peoples’ lack of ability to do such. This isn’t New York where most people never learn to drive and the ones that do, don’t learn until they are in their 20’s. This is North Dakota where either:
A.) You grew up on a farm.
B.) You grew up in a small town and worked on a farm.
C.) Had relatives that had a farm and visited or worked on it.
Or
D.) You’re from North Dakota and it’s assumed that one of the first 3 are correct.
One inalienable right that we have is that we drove at a young age and take great pride in being able to back and/or park a vehicle into the tightest spot possible. If you worked on a farm it’s a given that you can back a grain truck to an auger or maneuver a trailer for unloading. But as the number of farms have dwindled, so has the number of people that grew up or worked on one and hence, our ability to park. Like anything you use it or lose it.
When I started at NISC 9 years ago, the ratio of parking spots to people was fairly high, maybe 2 or 3 to 1, but as the company has grown that ratio has probably dwindled to 1.5 to 1 and the prime spots by entrances is less than that. To some though, that hasn’t stopped them from thinking their car is in need of at least two of them. Here is a pic of the bang up job some people did this morning. A classic case of “Monkey see, Monkey Do Parking”. One person on the line gets slightly off and then several more poor parkers just continue the mayhem until you have someone come from the other side and park correctly. Essentially creating the hated “half spot”.
Yes, I know, its winter, lines are tough to see, but still, don’t you say to yourself, “Hmmmm. I know the lines are straight but I’m not” and realize that something is amiss? Evidently not, because I see it every day!
Here is another case of the “Overconfident Parker”. The one who says “Look at me, I can’t park, but let me back in to prove that I can’t.” Sometimes we need to say to ourselves, “I admit I have limitations, I need to pull in head first.”
This one is just blatant disregard.
Finally, my favorite situation. “Fruit Basket Upset”.
This is where people park from all sides and at all angles, with multiple spacing problems. They could have just as well blindfolded a 10 year old and had him Valet park the lot for the day. Pitiful.
You’re probably saying “You work with these people, aren’t you afraid of retribution from them?” Not really. Only about 3 people read this and those with parking deficiencies have been admonished in the past. It’s kind of a running joke now to take phone pics and e-mail them to the offending parties.
Awareness is the key and the first step is admitting you have a problem.
