Parking Can Be A Handicap

My message today is for the person who wrote a message for me on my car’s rear window, the person who doesn’t understand how hard it is to park a van with a wheelchair ramp.
There are never enough spots, and there are almost never van parking spots with eight feet of slash lines to let me get out of the van. When I have to circle the lot again and again, I wait until two regular spots open up and I park across both of them at an angle giving me two things: 1 enough room to get out of the van and 2. to prevent anyone from parking next to me so I can’t leave when i want to. Did that today at the grocery store where there were plenty single slots. This tells me that I didn’t prevent anyone from getting a space, but that the man who wrote on my window is a grump.

Since sitting low makes me invisible to drivers, I took my life in my hands wheeling through traffic coming and going. When I got back to my car,  someone had written, “Great job parking” on one side of the window and “Wash me” on the other.  Had my car detailed three days ago, you know, the day before it rained.

I have a suggestion for the man who didn’t like my parking. Instead of getting your finger dirty on my window, try writing the owners of the malls to get them to provide more parking, and get city council to regulate how the stripes and slashes can be painted. Wouldn’t take much time. Maybe two years. There is a lot to be said about it, and many ears are closed on the subject.

While I’m on the subject: the worst parking is Houston Town and Country Post Office that has absolutely not one van parking place. Forest Park Westheimer Funerals have a few parking slots, but no place to park your wheel chair in the chapel or the mausoleum except the aisle. (Guess who goes down the aisle.) Additionally, there is only one, crude ramp to make any graves or services accessible.  How do people get by with this?  I chose not to buy burial plots there, but I think they didn’t notice.

Just finished my Christmas shopping, so I’m thinking of going down to Car Masseusse to get my car cleaned up again so as not to offend anyone.

About Naomi

I am a writer and Christian educator who works in several genres with a specialty in materials for persons with disabilities. The Long Road Home Romance Collection includes one of my books (11/14), and I just finished the first draft of a Quick Look handbook to help persons who teach an inclusive classroom. I love playing and listening to classical music, fishing, doing family things, and, in spite of my non-interest in identifying birds, have come to name them because of my bird watching husband, Bob. My children and grandchildren, because of their expertise in different fields, have broadened my lens for looking at the world.