allie on your side

judging by the placards hanging from their rear view mirrors, my neighborhood is chock full of handicapped people. that makes sense on some level because there are a fair amount of elderly people who reside here, and by extension many people driving said elderly people. so those elderly people get preferential parking because they are handicapped, and those driving the elderly similarly get preferential parking because they are driving handicapped persons. fine.

but what drives me buggers are those people who are not actually handicapped and are using those placards anyways! these people smugly hang their placards and bound out of the car, seemingly free of any physical limitations or elders. to be fair, perhaps s/he really is playing by the rules and has just dropped off his/her loved one, and is now off to meet Mom; perhaps they have a less visibly noticeable condition, but sometimes I really doubt that. i would also say it's a little suspect when wandering down a street block and noting that 50-75% of the cars have the little blue sign hanging.

awhile back i saw a large van pull up into a handicap spot in front of a grocery store. as always, i noted the appearance of the driver, and saw that she was a young woman, long blonde hair flowing in the midday breeze. i became an angry bird, indignant that yet another able bodied citizen was out there flagrantly disregarding parking policy, and well, maybe even crossing over into the hazy realm of moral turpitude. (after all, the hypothetical paraplegic would now have less parking options as a result of this violation). i noted all this while taking an endless scenic tour of the parking lot, circling because there were no available spots. indignation was high, my friends. and i really had to use the restroom.

the next time 'round i saw the door to the van in question swing open.

aha! i thought. i will catch this girl in the act and everyone will see and we will all judge and feel morally superior and haha!

then a crutch swung out of the door and i saw that the woman had only one leg. and not just in a cast, but really, one leg, in the most permanent way possible.

oh.

::ducks head in shame::

so in conclusion, while i think that there are a lot of fakers out there, I also believe that there are a lot of non fakers, too.