I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough of living on the ice planet Hoth.
As Winter Storm Fern was on her way a couple weeks ago, I watched the forecast for days knowing one thing: parking would be an even bigger nightmare once this weather system was finished with us.
After Fern dropped a foot of snow on the Island, I spent two days digging out the driveway of my garage, which is around the block from my house.
It’s not a fun walk on the frozen snow to get there and back, especially with groceries, but I had decided that in the interest of my own sanity that I wouldn’t spend any time fighting for already-scarce parking spots on my actual street.
Of course, someone in the neighborhood back by my garage keeps parking in a makeshift spot opposite my cleared-out driveway. Just close enough to basically make it impossible for me to back out of the spot and turn my car around without turning the whole exercise into something out of a DMV road test.
I’ve had to inch down the street backward in order to leave the neighborhood on one or two occasions because of this.
It’s a dead-end street so I guess this driver figures that nobody goes in and out of the area on a regular basis. My cleared-out spot and the big orange cone clearly aren’t hint enough.
Or maybe that other driver figures that nobody will notice a car parked in an awkward spot across from what can be a desolate-looking garage without a house attached to it.
Well, I’m noticing, friend. And, yes, that’s an active driveway. The dug-out spot. The car. The cone. Do the math.
But I’m trying very hard not to let it become my obsession.
I know that a lot of folks these days are stressing over parking spots, what with the mountains of frozen snow everywhere. At least I don’t have to go hunting for a spot two or three times a day.
I should be thankful, right?
Still, a little neighborly courtesy would be nice. Whoever it is that’s parking back there can surely tell that they’re making my exits a little more difficult.
No, I haven’t put a note on the vehicle. Like I said, I’m not trying to make this whole situation the center of my life. And I’m very big on preserving peace in the neighborhood.
But it’s getting very trying out there.
I don’t want to blame Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
I don’t want to blame the good folks at the NYC Sanitation Department.
But we have to do something to get rid of this ice and snow. Enough of waiting on Mother Nature to do the job.
I know that the five boroughs have been facing what for us is an extreme weather situation over the last two weeks.
It’s been years since we had such a significant snowfall. You forget how much of a pain in the neck (and the back) that much snow can be.
On top of that, of course, we’ve had the Big Chill. With weeks of temperatures steadily under freezing and often dropping into the single digits, the snow hasn’t had a chance to melt.
Sanitation can only do so much. I’m frankly glad that they’ve been able to at least pick up my trash and recycling.
And hard as it is to believe today, I know a time is coming when there will be no snow on the ground.
Then we can get back to our normal angst about parking.