28 August 2014

Happy Thursday!

For about a 30-minute stretch today, the parking lot was better known as the pavement of despair. For whatever reason, motorists were especially upset today about not being able to find open parking spots during the middle of a sunny afternoon in August. Cars were consistently lined up from the main road to the parking lot intersection and all the way around the loop. While things were really chaotic, I had to stay in the intersection to keep traffic flowing and create spaces for pedestrians and buses to get through. In the middle of the busy stretch, I saw the car that had parked illegally in the grass all morning back up and leave. I turned around to resume directing traffic. After a bit, I noticed another car had parked in the illegal space. I caught a glimpse of the owners just as they entered into the mob of people at the main entrance to the restaurant. I didn't pursue them to warn them about the possible ticket because I had much more important things to worry about...like directing traffic in a congested parking lot.

Fast forward an hour to when my favorite law enforcement park ranger, Brian, drove in, stopped, and asked me if everything was going alright. I told him it was, but that we did have several illegally parked cars throughout the parking lot. Brian is pretty good about taking the time to write tickets, so he was all for giving cars illegally parked in the grass a $75 ticket, including the one right in front of the restaurant. As he was finishing up the process for that car, the ladies returned from lunch. Naturally, they were upset about the prospect of a ticket.

The first argument they made was that an "official-looking" person told them they could park there. After Brian questioned them on this--and made sure it wasn't me who told them that--they admitted it was just another guest who had never seen a car ticketed in that spot.

The second argument they made was that they figured since I was only 50 feet away directing traffic, it must mean that it was alright to park in the grass. If I would've warned them, they would never have parked there. I was there to respond to that argument by telling them that my job is not to warn people about getting tickets but to keep traffic flowing safely. In their specific case, warning them was a low priority during the moment I could have. I probably wouldn't have responded to the argument if the person was 20 years younger and had the testosterone level of an angry middle-aged male. I figured based on the age and size of the ladies I wasn't going to find myself in too big of a pickle anytime soon.

Brian, being a reasonable guy, only gave them a written warning and warned them to not park where it is obviously illegal to do so, even if some random person says it is alright. I thought that made a lot of sense.

The point of all this: if you see a grass patch in front of a restaurant that is large enough for your compact car to park in, it that doesn't mean you should do it. Park in a real, designated spot like everyone else needs to.

I'm looking forward to September and the end of the pavement of despair season.

I went into Bar Harbor tonight to get fudge for tomorrow and to hang out with Luke and/or Sabrina. I tracked down Luke at the soccer field in front of the YMCA. We kicked the ball around for a bit until the darkness became "advanced darkness" as Spongebob Squarepants would say. Afterward we walked around town and caught up. I do enjoy having the ladies on the ACMNP team, but it is awfully nice to have another dude out here. Luke's a good guy.