Yes, it does make a difference and it does matter.

About a year ago I wrote an article about the perfect parking spot.  It illustrated a parking spot of the kings, one that exemplified all that I strive for in perfect parking.  Good spot, good location, nice sunlight times; it was a match made in heaven.  However, after the honeymoon things started to go downhill.

• I wrote this article before Winter happened.  Later that month my parking spot cushion (the area I stepped out into, a little dirt patch) became a muddy graveyard of sticks and dirt.  I forgot to take a picture, but it looked something like this:

  

• Sometime in later Winter someone started to TAKE MY SPOT.  They didn’t know it was my spot, but like my own creature-of-habit tendencies they pulled into that spot every day, and I had to adjust.  The problem is that a second set of offices share the same parking lot area and these spots are closer to them then they are to our building, so they take it.
• In Spring these birds started to appear and hang out in the tree that acts as the primary source of shade in the afternoon (to cool the car).  Bird droppings soon became more annoying than a seatbelt that couldn’t be cooled fast enough, so I gave up on the spots under the tree.
• In late Spring I moved to another spot under another tree that was less populated.  Around the end of Spring the tree started dropping little sticky cherry-like fruits that left marks that were super hard to scrub off.  I had to move again.

  

• In Summer crows started to hang out in the parking lot, so trees or locations around larger trees were becoming dangerous locations, and these birds dealt critical damage to car cleanliness.
• By this time the ratio of distance traveled vs. accommodating elements was becoming a serious issue.  I was now walking across the parking lot or having to park in some random spot which I didn’t like.  It became a serious manner.

However, this story ends happily, as I finally found a good parking spot.

I managed to find a parking spot that was marked “Reserved.”  I noticed no one every parked in it, and even though it was “Reserved” for someone, that someone never used it.  And everyone else seemed to avoid it too since they didn’t want to take that person’s reserved spot.  So I decided that it was “Reserved” for me.  I now park in it daily.

I am fairly certain that next year I’ll be telling you how this parking spot fails, but in the meantime it’s the best I can do.  I know it’s such a small difference in my life, but every day I get off work and I know my car is going to be the first thing I deal with.  So I like to know that when work is finished I get to step into a cooled-down, same spot, no mess, close proximity parking spot.

Or maybe I should just walk.