Pull Off to Drop Off

Wednesday . . . morning.

Was up for about a half hour before the boys crawled out of bed. It's now 6:25. Coffee in hand. Blend of regular stuff with some French vanilla. Cream only. Extra large mug.

Fire up the iMac.

Poke John. Poke Gail. It's just what we do. Read comments on comments.

One message of blog encouragement - thanks Kim. One and a half of chastisement/encouragement - sorry Heather, sorry Justin.

Boys begin fighting over how to use the coffee table in the living room. Sonwun is feeling motivated. He's off to get dressed for school. Sontoo apparently won the coffee table battle and is playing his toy piano and singing and dancing. Too loud. But cute.

Okay, brain starting to work. I've been wanted to talk about the school parking lot for a while. It drives me nuts on a daily basis. It's too small and some people just refuse to follow the rules. Now, I remind myself a little of Michael Keaton here, in the Mr. Mom movie of the 80s.

(Quick aside here. I belong to an on-line community of Stay-at-home Dads. Pretty sure I've mentioned it before. Anyhoo, there are many of them who despise the term Mr. Mom. Personally, doesn't bother me. And I liked the movie.)

In the movie, Keaton loses his job and becomes a SAHD. In the beginning, as he struggles with the new role, he causes problems in the school drop-off zone because he just doesn't understand the rules. By the end of the movie, after his transformation into "Mr. Mom" he's the one with the stop sign, directing others in the proper parking procedure. (There's more to the movie, of course, but this is somehow relevant to me this morning).

Okay, cool, just found the video:

Now, parking lot at Sonwun's school. It's basically a three-lane loop. The PROPER procedure is for cars to enter the lot, pull either to the left or right (leaving centre lane of loop open) and drop off the kids. Then pull back into centre lane to drive around and exit. Pull off to drop off. Pretty simple.

See, this way, we don't all have to wait while each car stops in the centre lane to drop off the kids. There is simple logic here. But, every morning, after I pull over and boot Sonwun from the manly mini-van, I pull back into the centre lane, only to find three cars stopped while the kids unload back-packs, sleds and lunches; struggle with doors and kiss their parents good-bye.

This slows the rest of us down and has a tendency to back the traffic up right to the street, making entrance and exit dangerous and difficult. I realize it's a small thing, but it pisses me off. It chips away a small piece of my sanity each morning. And I don't have much to spare.

I think this morning, when I take Sonwun in, I'll bring my video camera. After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video . . .

Okay, it's now 9:03 a.m. Took the video camera in the manly mini-van to drop Sonwun off at school. And, as Murphy would have it, everyone followed the rules. So just forget it.

Okay, only a thousand more words to go: Hydroponics day 22.

Have a great Wednesday!

Stupid People Give me Gas

Well Happy Tuesday.

And Tuesday means . . . anyone? Right, preschool for Sonwun. You're learning the schedule.

Anyhoo, I will admit dropping him off makes me just a little tense. And it's not because I think he's going to have any problems or not enjoy himself. It's the temporary parking that we preschool parents must employ for drop-off and pick-up.

It's really not complicated. I would guess there are about 15 vehicle-sized spaces in the little roundabout area near the preschool door. Everyone must park on the right, as there is not sufficient room for parking on both sides. And there are about 25 students in preschool. So yeah, generally there are more cars than spaces, but it usually works out okay as parents arrive and depart at different times in the 10-minute drop-off window.

Now I should point out that stupid people give me gas, migraines, occasional sleeplessness, hammer toe, pain when standing, runny discharge, pain when sitting and a tendency toward violent thoughts. And there are a few stupid people on this planet.

I almost ran into one last week while attempting to park, but I didn't want to dent the truck. I was pulling in to the preschool roundabout and noticed there was one big space left, between two trucks, with plenty of room for two more cars; three if we packed 'em in tight. As I pulled in, there was one white car ahead of me. No problem.

The driver of this white car, however, decided that the best place to park would be right smack in the middle of the remaining space, leaving not quite enough room for one more vehicle in front of her and not quite enough room for one more vehicle behind her. We're talking dead centre.

I stopped myself just (and I mean just) short of unleashing a string of words that my four-year-old son need not be familiar with, stopped, and just stared as this large woman struggled to free herself from her vehicle, gathered her child and clomped off toward the school.

Now I realize it was partly my mood, but it just really pissed me off. And it nearly caused a stroke when she did the exact same thing at 3:15, pick-up time, after preschool. Fortunately, at that time, there were other spaces available.

My point? I don't have one. It's just what's on my mind this morning.

Have a great day!