Wish I Knew Where My Car Was

I woke up this morning to the sound of voices downstairs. Ben was having a meeting about a play he’s writing for next year, which I vaguely remember him warning me about. I got dressed, went downstairs and offered coffee, then started the brewing process. As the water was boiling, I glanced out the window and saw it was a beautiful day outside. I ground the coffee and cleaned out the grinder, but something nagged at the corner of my brain and told me to look outside again. Oh yes, that’s it. There’s an awful lot of parking spaces in front of our house and an awful lack of orange and red.

“Ben, where are our cars?”

We dashed outside (and then Ben dashed back in to apologize to Ali), and went over to the permit parking sign, which had a phone number. About an eternity later, a woman answered and I explained our cars were not in front of our house and I really hoped she had them: an orange Honda and a red Honda. She put me on hold and we went back inside.

(If you’ve never woken up to find your car missing, you may find it difficult to understand why the thought “Oh please, I hope my car was towed” is a good one.)

The lady came back on the line as I poured the water over my coffee grounds. “Okay, one of them was a Toyota?”

“Both Hondas.”

“Oh, right. And one of them was white?”

“Orange and Red.”

“Oh. Let’s see… Black Honda, Silver….. Ah yes, orange Honda. Silver… mumble mumble… And a red one. Yes, we have them.”

Relief. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t really think someone had gone through the lot and walked past the Lexus and the SUVs and decided to go take a 2000 Civic with a dent in the front and half a set, mostly consisting of pool noodles, in the back. But when you’re staring at empty parking spaces, the imagination wanders.

It turns out that sometime around the 15th, we were supposed to get new parking permits. They gave it extra time for everyone to get the new permits up, and then began towing last night. We had heard nothing about new permits except that they might be coming sometime soon and our landlord would keep us updated. Which she did not. I left her a voice mail, which she usually returns as soon as she gets out of work, so we’ll talk details this evening. Fortunately neither Ben nor I had work outside the house today, although he does have an appointment in Bethesda this afternoon. Also fortunate, Ali should be able to help us retrieve the cars.

What a way to wake up!