Food Reviews Moved!

So I don’t bore people who want to read about food with my random rants.  Go here:  http://30secondfoodreviews.blogspot.com/

If anyone knows how I can chang the widths of the Blogger layout, let me know… Haha.

Posted by tastethehappy Posted in: 30-Second Food Reviews No Comments » January 2009

Vancouver + Snow = Very Bad

It’s been a while since I’ve written, but I have plenty to rant about. 

Vancouver received the most snow it has seen in decades during the month of December.  So much snow, the city didn’t know what to do other than push it off to the side and hope for the best.  Bad conditions and bad drivers is obviously a bad combination.  I stayed indoors for most of my two weeks off of work.  But when I did venture outside, oh, the idiocy I saw.

Cars parking in the middle of lanes because snow wasn’t plowed properly.  Drivers not yielding to oncoming traffic so you’d have to squeak by slowly.  My boyfriend’s street became a single lane and I was caught on it once with a car coming towards me.  I had to back up almost the entire length of it with the guy right on my bumper to boot.  This leads me to the main rant of my boyfriend’s landladies and/or neighbours.

Now, obviously if you’ve shoveled your street to clear a spot to park your car, you wouldn’t want anyone to take it.  So you put a bucket to reserve your spot.  My boyfriend’s roommate’s girlfriend has been parking in the back driveway of the house, a spot where I’ve always avoided because the landladies have yelled at people visiting for parking there (like one of our friend’s father).  I guess she’s been able to park there ’cause she’s been able to make it up the alley despite the snow, while the landladies I guess haven’t been able to, so they’ve moved to parking on the street in front of their house.

The couple of times that I saw their car parked there, there was plenty of space for a second car, however they parked right in the centre of it all.  So the few times I’ve dropped by, I’ve parked around the corner in spots where I hadn’t really seen cars in very often.  No one’s complained.  However, tonight, I decided to try my luck and park in front of their house.  Though really I was in between two houses.

I drove down the street first to see how the spots were.  There was space for two cars.  However, there was a single bucket in that space.  It was perfectly in the centre, dividing the space into two perfect parking spots.  I drove to the end of the street and did a u-turn.  But at the intersection I noticed another car doing a u-turn as well.  I wasn’t sure whose car it was, but I think it was the landladies’ because while I was parking, they slowed down next to me and I assumed stared at me, but I didn’t bother looking at them.  I parked behind their bucket.  So there was a space large enough for a special bus (oh yeah, the landladies are TERRIBLE drivers).

I got into the house and talked to the boyfriend to get him to check for me if it’d be okay to park there.  And by check, I mean, scout the street and see if the next door neighbours would care.  He went out there and said that I left plenty of space, and that one of the neighbour’s cars was gone so they were probably out anyway.

Three hours later, I take my leave, and for the second time parking in that spot, someone’s left a note on my windshield.  The first time, it was from the neighbours.  Which was fine.  Except that it was one of the few times I also had used that spot becauase I try to park further up normally of course.  But this time, I couldn’t tell if it was from the neighbours or the landladies, though I’m leaning more towards the landladies.

It was written on a computer and it stated how the street is for residents only and that because of all the snow accumulated, I shouldn’t park there.  The landladies’ car had returned and was parked in front of the bucket, meanwhile two of the neighbours’ cars were gone and with buckets in place.  My boyfriend said that normally the neighbours put out their buckets, but the spot I was in only had the single bucket, which would indicate shoddy parking-spot-saving.

In the end, there’s nothing I can do obviously.  I wanted to leave a note for them (if I knew for sure that it was the landladies) pointing out the fact that enough snow had cleared to allow for more cars to park now, and that leaving a single bucket in space that a full-sized bus would fit in for their single car was stupid.  The City of Burnaby’s website also lacks information, so I can’t argue the residential-only parking side of the argument.  Though I’ve been parking on that street for the last seven years, so I think it’s quite okay.

I really wouldn’t care much if it was the neighbours, I really don’t want to inconvenience them.  But the landladies have it out for my boyfriend despite the fact that a lot of the “trouble” they think he’s done, his roommate has actually done.  So it’s just a matter of fairness.  I hope karma kicks in and when he moves out, they get shitty tenants.

Well, there you have it.  My first rant of the new year. 

Posted by tastethehappy Posted in: Random Life Tales No Comments » January 2009