Parking Cars

Years ago, in sudden hurry, I had to drive up to the Frankfurt airport to dump someone off.  I parked my car in the adjacent parking garage, and did the hour in the airport.  Then I walked back out and to the parking garage.  There, I had this sudden reality.....I could not remember the floor, or the section that I parked the car.

The Frankfurt airport parking garage is roughly six levels, and twelve sections to each level.  I ended up spending around seventy minutes walking around and eventually found my car.  Ever since that event, I always write the floor and section down before I leave the car.

This brings me around to this story that came out in Germany yesterday.  Some Italian guy came up for the Oktorberfest in Munich a few weeks ago.  He found parking in a more remote part of town, and caught a subway train to the fest.  He ate hearty food all day, and sipped some fine German beer.  By late evening....he'd had enough.

The problem now develops.....he didn't remember where the car was.  He spent a number of hours walking around with no luck. The next day?  No luck.  He had to return to Italy without the car.

Over the past month, he's return five times, but had no luck in finding the car.  He put an ad finally in the paper, and advertised a reward.  Someone spotted the vehicle on some street, and called it in.

I sat and pondered over the story.  It's the kind of reality that guys get into.  We plan on the outer fringes of an event.  Getting down the finer details? Well, that's traditionally not what we are famous for doing.  If it hadn't been for the advertisement.....the car might have sat on the street for months, if not years.  Course, it'd make you wonder if 2,000 cars are abandoned on the streets of Munich.