No Parking

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - I've been pretty busy these last few days. I am now working at the hostel and end up spending a couple hours a day doing housekeeping to get my bed for free, so my day is definitely shortened. I don't really get out of the hostel until the afternoon anymore. And I'm still in the habit of being the last person awake in this place night after night.

Today was no different. Up really late last night after almost no sleep the night before. You see, here in San Fran, parking is one of the most valuable commodities in the city. I park in the "Secret Spots" on the other side of the city. It's an easy bus ride, it just takes a little time. These are some of the few spots in the city you don't have to pay an exorbitant fee for. The only catch is that the streets get cleaned once a week, so your car has to be moved every couple days, depending on what street you are parked on and when the street cleaning day is. My street cleaning time was Monday morning at 6am. Unfortunately, I didn't remember this until sometime after midnight on Sunday as a group of us were walking out of No Country For Old Men. The buses had stopped running. No city for forgetful young punks.

So, here's the plan. Go to bed right away (I still ended up being the last one awake despite this careful plan). Set my alarm. Get up at 5am and catch the first bus at 5:21. Make it to my car with 8 minutes to spare and get it moved.

Check.

It all went smoothly (despite my urge to say, "Screw it," and not get out of bed) and I was sitting in my car. At this point, I decided to crash in some 2 hour parking and take a nap then cruise back to my old spot and leave my car parked for another week. This seemed better than moving to a Wednesday spot and having to trek to the other side of the city in a couple days. I did just this. No problem. I'll be up at 8am when the No Parking ends and grab one of the many spots. I napped fitfully for an hour and decided to just go park. It was 7:30a.

Except I can't. Because every damn spot is already taken. Savages! Scavengers everywhere! An entire street, several blocks long, completely filled. Now what? I drove around for a long time after this and found nothing. Every secret spot was filled. This plan has gone horribly awry. And I need to be back by 10:30 to start housecleaning.

Closing in on 9am (I've been driving around these blocks for quite a while by this point) I find an empty block. The cleaning time is from 8am to 10am here. I grab a sliver of concrete on the opposite side of the street and park. The prayers begin. First, I hope that my car doesn't start sliding down the hill. I'm on quite an incline and I still have no emergency brake. Yes, I'm in San Francisco and I know that's a terrible idea. I tell myself this very thing every day. Second, I hope no one needs to get out of these two driveways I'm mostly blocking with both my bumpers.

This street cleaner needs to hurry up.

While I wait, I see other people pulling up on my side of the street and sitting. They can't all be doing the same thing I'm doing, can they?

Sure enough, around 9:30 the street cleaner cruises past and a massive wave of cars pull quick U-turns to the other side of the street. It was quite a sight. I got my spot, no worries, but I have become very concerned with the parking situation here. Dave urged me to ditch the car and get a motorcycle. It's starting to sound appealing.

Anyway, I got back much later than I intended. It turned into a 5 hour ordeal. Craziness. The rest of the day was all over the place. Definitely didn't go according to plans. I ended up cooking dinner for the hostel. Monterey Chicken. It was a big hit. That felt good.

On the way back from the store for supplies, I grabbed this for you, Tom. The pictures weren't turning out, so here's a short clip.



Late that night I snapped this picture. I'm guessing the guy didn't park his bike looking that way.