Since Ruth’s passing, I’ve exercised several errors in judgement. Most are simple tasks run amuck by my failure to think things through. When she was around, we shared daily conversations about life. We discussed our plans for the future, travel, thoughts on the kids and grandkids, current events, politics, and personal economics. We set one another straight when we thought the other was headed in the wrong direction.
Last year, Ruth considered selling our Florida home because the market was out of sight. We’d be able to double our investment and walk away with a sizable chunk of change. She thought downsizing would be a good option. That’s when I said, “I don’t want anything smaller. And if we had a pile of leftover money, what would we do with it?” She didn’t have an answer. Having money for the sake of having money, made no sense to me.
I haven’t had any of those conversations since September 27th. I hold personal conversations in my own mind, and most of the time I agree with myself. The problem is, I’m sometimes wrong.
The week prior to heading to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving, I went online to reserve a spot at our favorite parking lot near the Orlando Airport. I didn’t have my credit card handy, so I had to put it off until later. Later was too late. When I tried to reserve a spot the day before, there were none left. In a panic, I called the lot and was told the reservation line was closed, but there were non-reserved spots left. It would cost me $16.99 a day instead of $8.99.
I made a point of arriving before 5:00 a.m. for my 7:20 flight. As I drove up to check in, I noted a line of cars and was thankful I’d made my early arrival decision. The check in lady asked if I had a reservation. I told her “no” but that I had called and was told there would be room for non-reservation parking. That’s when she said there had been a policy change about an hour prior. “The daily rate is $99.00. Are you still interested in parking?”
I took a deep breath and rather than saying “What the 5#@!,” I said, “What choice do I have? My flight leaves in two hours.” She checked me in and wished me a Happy Thanksgiving. I had a wish for her too, but I kept it to myself.
I returned from Palm Springs five days later. Rather than punch in the four-digit code for the gate to open, I drove up to the lady in the booth. I told her I didn’t get a ticket when I checked in. She asked for my telephone number and entered it into the computer. That’s when she said, “Oh! Your total, including tax, is $583.56.” And then she said, “I’m going to fix that.”
She punched a few keys and said, “Your new total is $100.13. I gave you the $16.99 rate.” I said, “Thank you.” Then she told me, “We instituted the $99.00 rate to discourage people from parking as we had very few spaces left.” I didn’t say it, but I thought, “All you did was piss a lot of people off on Thanksgiving.”
I’ll probably use the facility again. I’ve got two trips lined up that will require airport parking. I’ll do a better job of planning, login well in advance to reserve my spot, and sleep better because I’ve planned ahead. If Ruth were here, she’d remind me of my error and make sure I didn’t make the same mistake twice.
She’d want me to exercise better judgement. And to tell you the truth, she’d probably just laugh when she found out I put the ice cream in the refrigerator rather than the freezer when I put it away last night, but I’d have to clean up the mess myself.