I don’t ask for much in life, but what little I ask, I expect to have. I’d like to own a house one day, but I can’t afford to yet, so for now I rent, and one of the few things I require when renting is my own parking space. Lack of a parking space is a deal breaker for me, so I’ll never rent by the beach, where spaces are first come, first served.

So here I rent, and I get one parking spot assigned to me and me only. I expect it always to be available for me.

Tonight, it wasn’t.

Back in the day, when I lived in Vista, this would have been the worst thing in my life to happen. I lived in a huge complex that never seemed to have enough parking spaces, whether they were assigned to a resident or designated as visitor spaces. Towards the end of the day, after normal working hours, the spaces would disappear, and even the sides of the road outside the complex would fill up until the only open spots left were a full block or two away, up the hill, and clear on the other side of the monster complex.

At the time, I was still doing the three-hour commute. I’d be out of the apartment by six or seven in the morning, and I’d be back home by seven or eight in the evening. During winter, I wouldn’t even see the light of day touch where I lived. Not on a weekday.

The neighborhood, while it seemed nice when I first looked at the apartment, was not the sort I felt comfortable walking around in at night on my own. There were a couple of homicides in the area while I lived there, so I didn’t feel safe outside of the apartment. The only exception was the path between my parking spot and my front door … because my spot was clearly visible from the bedroom window, where H.E. would often wave at me as I left for work, and my path from the spot to the front door was visible from my office window.

So naturally, it was important for me to have my space to come home to after a long drive in the dark from work. Whenever it wasn’t, I’d get royally pissed. It meant having to search the neighborhood for an open spot after a long and stressful day, driving around in circles all evening, and then walking along unlit streets to get home. Having H.E. there with me helped. Sometimes I’d double park for a bit, and he’d go looking for a space for me as I settled in at home.

But whether we found an alternative space or not, we’d call the towing company right away with absolutely no mercy towards the person who parked in my space. My space is my space. You park in it, you pay. I had to be ruthless about it because it was a really big inconvenience for me and sometimes put me in kind of a dangerous situation if anyone parked there. Plus, the space was clearly marked as assigned and that if anyone other than the resident assigned to that spot parked there, then they were subject to be towed.

And there were repeat offenders who paid no attention to polite notes on their windshield to park somewhere else.

So I towed.

After a while, I towed even if I knew the people meant to be there for only half an hour more or even if I didn’t need the space right away or even if my car was in the shop or something. I was merciless. It was the only way to make it clear to everyone NEVER to park there.

I’m sure the tow truck company made a lot of money off of my calls alone. I had them on my speed dial.

Tonight, the situation is somewhat different. There were plenty of open visitor spots when I came home, so the car parked in my spot wasn’t as big a deal as it might have been in Vista, though I still had to walk some distance in the dark. It irked that anyone would park in my spot, of all spots, when there were so many others available, so I noted the car model and license plate number for future reference, and I wrote them a polite note letting them know that the spot is assigned to a resident and please not to park there any more. But when I told H.E. about it, he was ruthless in the old Vista way.

“Get ’em towed,” he said.

So … the moral of the story is never, NEVER park in my spot. I don’t park in other people’s assigned parking spots, so I expect people not to park in mine. If you do so, be prepared to pay the towing company just to get your car back.

You have been warned.

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