Good timing is everything... (December, 21)

Good timing is everything...

   This summer, when I moved to my new condo, I had to bring 3 cars with me, while the condo parking lot was designed to park up to two cars parallelly in a row, like a ROM memory  - first in, last out.

   I easily thought that I could find a third parking spot somewhere in the neighborhood. Meanwhile I was going to park three cars in a row putting their bumpers as closer to each other as possible.

   First of all, it wasn't easy to find a spot nearby. When I was walking my dog, I checked all parking signs, made a lot of phone calls, but it was all in vain. No vacancies at all.

   It was also hard to park all three cars or, when some stubborn member of our family wanted to drive his own car, and it was unfortunatelly the first one to enter the parking and, eventually, the last one to go out, all three owners of our cars had to go downstairs and rearrange cars in the right order. We had a lot of problems. Usually, in a normal family we could even share cars and we wouldn't need three of them. But if we put our needs, abilities and wishes on the chart, it would be like this. We have a compact Toyota Porte, a small Suzuki and a very expensive French Renault.

The oldest driver - he can drive any car but he prefers only his French baby and hates any domestic japanese cars.

Me - I can drive any car but I don't like to be responsible for the French baby, because if I scratched her, the oldest driver will pursue me to the end of my days.

The youngest driver - he can drive any car but we don't allow him to drive anything but the old Porte, our scapegoat, full of scratches and dents.

With those complications we can’t easily share each other’s cars.

   So when I go out, it doesn't matter what to drive. But when the youngest is going to drive, and his car is in the end of the row, that's the problem.

   While we were parking our mini fleet in one row, we got a complaint from some jealous neighbor of our condo, that we should obey the rules and park

designated quantity of cars within designated white lines...

   When a landlords committee representatives came to me to deliver the complaint in person, I was going to ask them for their professional help with getting a good parking spot nearby. But actually they came to me with the same offer. They found one park spot for my small Suzuki, just 7 min walk from the condo. 

   I made a call to that realtor and made an appointment. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the one who should park his car far from condo was me, because the spot was skinny, and only my precious Suzuki could fit there. But I had no choice. Next day I went to the realtor to sign a contract.

When I stepped inside their office, the old lady was talking on the phone. I quietly waited. When she hung up and turned to me, I was surprised by her

words. She said, that a good parking space near my condo just became free, because the customer who rented it, just called them.

   Due to rental rules the better spot will be available to rent starting on February. But still it was good, because until February I can just park my Suzuki outside and then, when I switch to the closer spot, which is good for any car, I could ask other members of our family to take turns parking there. So my small baby Suzuki finally will rest at the condo parking spot, protected from bad weather.

   It was really good timing to go to the realtor. Recently there were several new condos built in our area, and parking lots within walking range all became full. Okinawan families have at least! two cars for the family and they need extra parking space for their numerous relatives who come to visit on weekends and holidays.