I was sitting with some friends outside of Wild Wing one night last year when I saw the infamous…I can find a closer spot driver. This guy…who obviously thought very highly of is Nissan 350Z…circled the parking lot over 14 times before finally settling in and parking his fine piece of automotive genius (j/k to all of you 350Z owners…its a cool car…just not quite “I need to take up multiple spots” cool). This is an example of a driver who just can’t stop until they find a parking spot closer to the front door. At least…in this instance…I can at least relate. We try to park close when we have the bikes racked to prevent theft, so maybe he just wanted to make sure that no one was going to scratch his precious baby.

The version of this driver that completely annoys me is the lazy driver. It’s that driver who just can’t stand walking 4 spots more to the front door. They hate it so much that they will waste 20 minutes of their day looking for this fabulous, perfect parking spot when they could have parked 5 spaces down and would have already been in the store! It cracks me up every time. Are you seriously that lazy that you can’t stand walking that much farther? Is it really that important to you to find a closer spot that you will waste 15 minutes to find something that saves you 30 seconds?

It really says something about American society as a whole when we have multiple drivers in one parking lot participating in this act of stupidity. I think it would actually do a lot of people a lot of good to get out and walk a little bit more. Maybe…you could put down your cell phone, the Big Mac and stop yelling at your kids for 2 seconds to realize that you would actually save more time during the day if you were not so freakin’ lazy! Get out of the car and walk an extra 10 steps a day!

As you watch these parking spot snobs circle aimlessly around in search of the holy grail of motor vehicle storage lines, it is funny to watch their faces as they get frustrated when spaces are taken that would have been perfect in their mind. They pass up 4 spaces before that point that would have been just as good, but they can not stop in their quest for the perfect upfront spot.

These same drivers brag to their friends and family about the spot they found at the mall, grocery store or local Wal-Mart. They wear these fantastic positions of achievement as a badge of courage as they run their next errand in search of parking bliss. No one on Earth could possibly have the luck they do in crowded parking areas…because they are just that good. No you aren’t! You just work really hard for something that…in the end…does not really matter!

There should be a 2 circle rule. If you circle 2 times and can’t find a closer spot, you have to take the next available that you pass. If you circle more than 2 times, you will be forced to part at the end of the parking lot and walk carrying weights on your back all the way to the front door!