Tuesday, June 19, 2007

bumper cars

%#!*%$@$# birth center parking lot!

This happened to my car just hours ago. There was no available street parking, so I had to park in the birth center's miniature 4-car parking area down a narrow alley. Now I'm quite familiar with this parking lot because Eliza was born at the birth center, and I always hated it with a passion, but it has been more than a year since my last well-woman visit, so I'm out of practice inching the car back and forth, forth and back until after five minutes of frustration, I finally manage to squeeze back out the alley. Only today it went like this:

crank the wheel right
inch back
crank the wheel left
inch forward
...repeat many times...
crank the wheel right yet again
inch back
CRUNCH!

Bam, right into the stone wall. When I got home, I saw my bumper had separated. C is going to kill me. Maybe I'll suggest a fixed bumper in lieu of a birthday present.

5 comments:

Elaine said...

I still remember the first time I did that to my car (not there though... I'd rather walk three blocks than park in that lot) and thought Mark was going to be mad. He wasn't.

Hopefully C will surprise you as well!

chanale said...

I hope so, too! I thought about parking blocks away, but I was already running late, and Eliza has been going through a phase where she refuses to hold my hand - not a smart idea in Hillcrest rush hour.

Ironically, I originally parked in the larger lot next door because all the spots were filled at the birth center, but then I read the scary notice inside about how much the neighboring businesses love to tow. So the receptionist told me to park in their lot and block someone in since I'd be done in a flash.

If only I'd risked towing!

Anonymous said...

Oh girl, how about some completely unsolicited advice? GET the birthday present! Knowing what you want/need for a present -- you absolutely deserve a nice birthday gift -- accidents happen and the aesthetics of the car can wait.

I remember doing something similar when my car was fairly new. I was a brand new mother with baby Micah screaming in the back seat. I parked right next to a large concrete pillar in a subterranean parking garage and backed out to hear a crunching noise along the rear passanger side of my car, and two years later that nice little (big) boo-boo is still there! ;-)

veganmomma said...

Hmm, I have a huge scrape on my silver civic from that very lot! I blamed it on the pregnancy but I know that that lot just sucks! Sorry to you. We will have to compare damages someday.

chanale said...

Reiko, Sara - I almost feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one scraping up my car.

I'll get the new Harry Potter book if Chris didn't pre-order it for me. I'm easy to please. What I really need are a new computer or camera to replace my half-broken ones, but that's not going to happen.