Andy put on a show for Larry and Virginia.
They were in Alliance to visit Larry’s brother and me.
They’d just arrived from Grand Island, where they’d stayed the night rather than driving the eight or so hours from Lincoln to Alliance. They’d gone to a Husker home game the day before, and they were tired!
Andy snooped around the table…
…while Larry, Virginia. and I chatted. (Larry and I have been good friends since third grade.)
In the meantime, Andy decided to check out the new grass.
As a Persian, eating the grass is problematic because his whiskers push the grass away from his mouth when he tries to eat it.
He tried to think about how to eat this desirable treat!
“Hi!” He finally noticed Virginia was watching him.
He started to leave…
…but that grass was too tempting!
I enjoyed the chat with my friends, if being a bit concerned Andy was putting on too good a show. I assured them that I don’t eat off this table! Well, I do, but food and utensils don’t touch it. Cat people know the routine.
Time to leave the table.
Andy bid Virginia and Larry goodbye.
He returned later to try to eat the grass. I help him by holding blades for him, a tactic that works sometimes and sometimes not.
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Tomorrow’s post is about Andy’s trip to the veterinarian this last Monday.
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When I came home from the veterinarian appointment yesterday, this car was parked going the wrong direction, blocking the lane to my apartment. That was 11:55 am.
I had to go around two blocks and drive the wrong way down a one way lane to get to my parking spot.
While waiting to see how long the car would be there, the USPS mail carrier had to drive her van over the grass to get around this car to get to the place she parks it while delivering mail.
I talked briefly with my mail carrier, who, like me, finds this matter of lane blocking instead of parking in one of the public parking spots on either end of the lane an inconvenience. It requires that one drive on the grass or come in from the wrong direction till the parked car is moved.
The alternative is to block the offender’s car with your car by entering the lane from the right direction or driving around it on the grass!
I’ve done both, but the mail carrier has a route to complete and a methodology that necessitates coming up my lane from the right direction.
Awhile back, apartment management sent residents an f-u letter** outlining what would happen if we were reported to be parking on the grass, driving on it, or taking longer than fifteen minutes to park on the lane to unload groceries or take care of business.
** (“fu letter”, a strongly worded, insensitive, offensive missive bound to offend everyone who gets it!)
The penalty for first abuse on the grass business: $35. After that, each new incident becomes more severe till they throw sulfuric acid on your car and kill your pet. Well, maybe not quite that extreme, though the letter was very insensitive and lacking understanding.
I note that every time, the ambulance is called to this lane, including three times for me and the same number for my next door neighbor, it always comes down the wrong way and parks for as long as the medical emergency takes to stabilize, then get the patient loaded. Guess which direction the police car comes from? Yes, the wrong one again! Public Transport: yes, the wrong direction again.
While I was typing this at the door after the yellow KIA Soul left: a black compact pickup drove by, going the wrong direction.
What about the apartment maintenance pickup? Yes, occasionally, we see them driving on the grass or parked on it.
FedEx and UPS? They generally come from the correct direction.
How long was the yellow KIA Soul blocking the road, facing the wrong direction? Forty (40) minutes! And that’s just how long I was home to witness it.
I spent almost 36 years in various quality functions in a hydraulic and industrial hose factory. One of the basics of making rules, standards, laws, or specifications is that they must be realistic and they can be fairly and consistently enforced. If they aren’t realistic or can’t be fairly and consistently enforced, you don’t have a rule, standard, law, or specification, you have chaos, a mess, disrespect for the issuing authority, and routine abuse of a regulatory system, however disagreeable it may be! You know, like here at Serenity Lane Apartments.
It as nice of Mr Andy to be sociable with your friends.
Not so nice of parking offenders and your management company!
Could you possibly complain to the police that Individuals with Disabilities law is being violated?
Your parking and roads sound a little confusing. Maybe you should have reported the car to your manager.
It was moved before I could, but I documented it.
It is wonderful to see old friends, especially ones going back to grade school! Andy did his part to entertain. 🙂
I am sorry that the parking problems are ongoing. What a pain!
I enjoyed having Larry and Virginia visit, and Andy definitely put on a good show!
It’s so funny when cats put on a show for visitors! Well, not when they do what Le Roi does. But other cats.
Andy definitely put on a surprisingly good one!
Glad you had a nice visit with friends. Management should have had the Kia towed.
The KIA person learned her lesson apparently because it’s getting parked correctly now.
The friends’ visit was most enjoyable!
It’s nice that you had some company, and that Andy seemed to appreciate their presence. That apartment management sent that letter to residents about parking and didn’t put a sign up for non-residents about the parking rules shows their lack of logical planning. The lane is so narrow that it shows management just wanted to save the money they would have to spend in order to have the place safe.
Andy is surprisingly comfortable with the rare guests. I’m glad for that!
As for the lanes, the apartments initially were built in WWII to house workers on an airbase outside of town. After the war, they were used for housing an expanding population. Anyway, like many wartime projects, speedily built projects sometimes took shortcuts. Here, narrow lanes that had a slant toward the center served as gutters for rain instead of proper drainage systems under ground. There are signs about parking on the grass. Stopping on the grass to unload groceries, for example, fits into an ambiguous zone, ss dows drivingbon the geass to get around vehicles blocking the lane.
Sweet grass & folks ♥️
Having worked at UPS, then, you know that the drivers have very specific rules for how long they are on the delivery routes, how fast they drive, and other details. They get behind on deliveries, and there are consequences. Having to work around people like the yellow KIA Soul driver complicates the UPS delivery person’s life. I know they would drive on the grass rather than get behind and suffer consequences with the boss! I am unaware of this actually happening with either UPS or FedEx people, yet if the USPS lady has to drive on the grass to get to her necessary parking spot to use to complete her deliveries efficiently, the others surely would do the same. Just a guess.
I agree with you about rules having worked at UPS. Create an illogical rule that creates chaos rather than correct function, and watch things fall apart or self correct with work arounds.
Ohh… it’s been a LONG time since I accepted cats had been on every surface and their fur is always in my food (even the freezer!). I share utensils and dishes with them, though not with their food.
I’d love to see mgmt fine the ER vehicles!
Yes, I resigned myself to living with kitty hair and Andy on the table a long time ago! He has his own plates that are his mostly because I have no use for the smaller ones on my set. I was asked why I didn’t use paper plates, and it is simple: the weight. Andy licks the food up. Paper plates wouldn’t stay in place, and I’d be tracing them down all the time.
I still have lots of small paper plates from when I had fewer cats and fed all gushy food outside. Now the indoor cats are fed on 2 cardboard serving trays (replaced every few days), and the outdoor cats eat off the walkway (I sit on the porch and toss a fork-full to each cat).
Once I had to put a litterbox in the kitchen, I stopped cooking for anyone but myself. It’s okay to risk making myself sick, but not others!!
Isn’t apartment living fun? [sarcasm] From the pictures you’ve posted, the lane in terribly narrow and doesn’t allow much space to get around an errant parked car. I’d almost be tempted to do some mischief (letting the air out of the tires was a teenaged favorite) except it would just delay the inconsiderate driver’s departure. But what would the office management expect you to do if there’s so little space for parking near your own unit to unload groceries or get Andy back inside? If I recall correctly, you once fell after parking in your “legal” spot. I felt incensed for you and thought at the time you should have called a lawyer specializing in ADA issues. If the management ever does fine you for parking on the grass, you should get a lawyer asap. It’s not just petty but a bit on the sadistic side to expect someone with an oxygen tank to get from a distant and poorly maintained parking space to his apartment with groceries or a kitty in a carrier.
“the lane is terribly narrow”
Yes, apartment living or dealing with fascist HMO zealots can be problematic!
The lane is one car wide. Even parking there for fifteen minutes for legitimate reasons inconveniences people.
Yes, you remember correctly. I’ve fallen several times on that poorly maintained lane and parking spot – I gave management a copy of that post at the time – and this will join the evidence file with them!
Lighting is another issue. A cougar was shot in Berea, a small settlement nine miles north of here. Cougars prey on the old, the weak, and the injured, any of those conditions properly describing me! When I go to my car in the poorly lit parking spot on dialysis days, I feel a bit like cougar prey, if one were to show up nine miles south of the last sighting!
people with yellow cars are always suspect… that is so awful when people think the whole world is their parking lot…
I own the same model and color car. As a result I alwyas obey the speed limit, traffic rules, and such. Afterall how many yellow Should do you think there are in a town of 5 thousand. It’s an attention magnet.
I had a yellow car once and one VW called “phoenix red”
that I’d call orange. People see you coming! Only red is more conspicuous.
It is good to catch up with such long-standing friends. For you, that parking nuisance could be downright dangerous.
Indeed it is! I will make sure my apartment management gets a copy of this post, noting it’s posted on Facebook and goes out to thousands workdwide.
A good plan