ONE FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE

There is one exercise in futility I have managed to avoid most of my life; it is frustrating and almost always ends in a feeling of failure for me. I'm talking about parallel parking.

The genius is a master at this. He pulls up even with the car in front of the empty space, begins backing and turning, and at just the right moment he shifts the steering wheel around and backs the car smoothly in.

On the other hand, I end up hitting the curb and having to rock forward and backward several times while impatient people waiting to go around me angrily honk their horns or at the least give me dirty looks. I'm exhausted when I get through, usually sweating and swearing, and I don't even want to get out of the car.

I cannot imagine how I was able to pass this part of my driver's test when I was sixteen. Then I had to use a car with a stick shift and no power steering!!

What made me think of this is that last week I had to go to two stores and I spotted a perfect place right halfway between where I wanted to go. The only problem was it was a parallel place, and to make matters worse, it was on the opposite side of the road from the way I was headed. Without bothering to think things through, I whipped across the road and headed in front first. That's always a mistake; I was doomed before I started. I must have gone up and back, up and back, sixteen times, trying to avoid hitting the Jaguar behind me and the Caddilac Escalade in front. Finally, I stopped when I thought I had done a reasonably good job and got out of the car. It was then I realized that I was about a yard and a half from the curb.

I quickly hurried into one of the stores before anyone connected me to the car.