Two Hineyholes in a Hummer
In order to use disabled parking legally you need to have plates with the logo or hang your placard in the front window. As someone who needs to use disabled parking, I see perfectly able-bodied people use these spots all the time and more and more they are getting brazen about it. No embarrassment, no guilt when they are caught.
There are those people who have a disability and take advantage of it. These are the ones who park in front of entrances and no parking zones or even in the loading area of an already filled spot, hanging the placard in the window as though it is some sort of acceptable excuse for deliberate inconsiderateness.
KInda like the lady who parked a huge duel-axis pickup 3 feet away from the entrance at the hardware store a few weeks ago. She told me I was rude because I muttered under breath, 'Some people don't have to use parking spots'. She was was talking to someone on her cell phone and interrupted her conversation to tell me I was rude. She pointed to her placard ferociously and said she was disabled and was picking something up. She toid me I didn't need to be so rude and ruin her day.
I would agree. You must be far more disabled than you look.
And there are those who have a placard and either refuse or don't display it properly and expect people to simply know they have one.
It's been happening so much that all I can do when I see it is mutter under my breath or or shake my head.
So yesterday, we stopped off at our neighborhood Walgreen's. I noticed a brand new, spit-polished and detailed Hummer, shiny clean rims and all. I looked at the plates, no logo. As we pulled into the other disabled spot, we both looked past the passenger on the cell phone to the rear view mirror. No placard. As I got out of our truck, I looked back over at the truck and shook my head as I walked into the store.
Once I got to the pharmacy, I was treated to an unhappy man yelling at the Pharmacy Tech. He called the kid a jerk and was a complete hineyhole. Why? Because he couldn't read his own prescription bottle right. He insisted the expiration date was 11/31/08 and he insisted the tech look at it. "Sir, I see 10/31/08 not 11/31/08".
Uhhh... DOOD... there is no 11/31/08, even in a leap year.
So after Mr. Hineyhole finishes his tirade and tells the techit was his responsibility to let him know when his prescription expires, I did my business and made my way out of the store, several feet behind Mr. Hineyhole.
Guess which vehicle Mr. Hineyhole got into? Yep. The Hummer.
As I walked over the truck and was getting in, Mrs. Hineyhole had some words for ME.
"Maybe next time I'll take my autistic son in there and you can shake your head at him!".
Well, if he's as big a hineyhole as you and your husband I just might, CHICK.
"Huh?" is what Manthing asked me as I was getting the truck. When I explained to him what it was all about, he told me they had a placard on the dash, not hanging in the window.
The times I have forgotten to hang the placard, I expect people to look at me weird or at the very least shake their heads a what a hineyhole I appear to be. They don't know I forgot. I certainly don't cop an attitude and hang out of a car window yelling like a fish wife at a total stranger because they shook their head at my vehicle
So here are a few tips to follow if you are ad disabled parker:
If you have a placard use it.
If you don't, don't park there.
If it says 'NO PARKING', don't park there.
Don't get ugly because other people can't see the placard you refuse to hang or you think you can park anywhere because are disabled.
And don't use your kid as your weapon...for anything.
Just cause YOUR KID is autistic, doesn't give YOU special privileges.
AND
If you mutter under your breath, make sure you do it quietly. ;)
