When YA and I out together, I drive 99.9% of the time. She likes to keep her car pristine which means driving it as little as possible; I get nervous being in the passenger seat when she drives. So, me doing the driving is better for both of us.
Of course YA doesn’t think that being the passenger relieves her of the duty to backseat drive. She wants to me move to another lane is the traffic is too slow for her. She wants me to move back to the right lane sooner if our exit is coming up. She wants to make sure I’m going at least the speed limit at all times. She thinks I leave too much space between us and the car in front of us. For those of you who have met YA, you know she is not shy about sharing my “failings” with me. Ignoring her or “I am aware” are my usual modi operandi.
Parking is often an issue for her. She is forever instructing me to back into parking spots so we can pull straight out when we leave. Since I detest backing into parking spots (can’t even remember the last time I did), I always decline. I’m pretty sure that the time it takes for me to back in is longer than the time to back out into the parking lot. YA is adamant that it would save time. I told her once that I didn’t want to stress myself out to do something would only save a nano-second. She quickly replied that all those nano-seconds over a lifetime might add up. Pretty fast thinking on her part but how would I ever know if it had added up? I doubt on my deathbed and I’ll get a sign that I had 25 more minutes because of the times I backed in.
I was thinking of this last week when I was at the Dunkin drive-though very early. The only three cars in the lot were parked in the very farthest corner from the building and all were backed in. My first thought was that you must really be glad to be done with work if you need to roar out of your parking spot head-first at the end of your shift. Made me laugh a little. Second thought was that management “suggested” it to employees so that it would be clear that employees weren’t hogging the good customer spots. This was the case in a few malls that I’ve worked at over the years. Third thought was that it was a coincidence; you all know I’m not that great about coincidence. But I’m not going to ask.
What about you? Pull in or back in? Any good parking stories?
pull in unless you can pull through. you know the spot where when you pull into your spot the spot in front of you is open too and if you continue forward you are in launch mode for you rapid departure. backing in people have a mentality that says their time right now is not valuable but maybe when they leave theyll have a mission and the 3 seconds to back up will be beneficial to have already looked after.
once i pulled into a parking lot on hennipen and lake. small lot behind the kinkos i think. when i came back the lot was full and i had a guy who thought parking behind me so i couldnt back out was ok. as it turned out it was. i simply put my car in reverse snd pushed his car into the lane behind me far enough so i couldnt get out. i smiled thinking about his discovery when he returned
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I usually pull into a spot forward. I don’t mind backing out. If there is an empty spot ahead of me, Robin always wants me to pull forward into it and, to mollify her, I do. Here’s the thing: if I am parking somewhere where I expect to come out with a shopping cart full of purchases and perhaps load them in the back, it’s awkward to load them into the car if it’s backed in. Even if you are loading something into the back seat, the doors open the wrong way if you are backed in. You have to take your purchases past both the front and back doors to get to the opening.
Ten years ago when we were in Wales and I was driving on the left side while sitting on the right I discovered how difficult it is to back up while looking over your left shoulder. Your orientation feels all wrong.
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