Monthly Archives: August 2010

Handicap Parking Complaint

Disability Issues, Handicap Parking

Yesterday I went to – make that tried to – see a new doctor. Trouble was that when I arrived, there was no visible handicap parking.  Turned out there were two pavement-painted signs with cars parked on them and not a single slash line to accommodate walkers, caners or wheelchairs. When I called the doctors office reporting my plight, they suggested I park on the little, narrow street behind the parking garage. Two big ditches on each side of the street and lots of traffic. Sorry, folks, I’d be dead by now. When I got home, a message on my answering machine told me to please reschedule, and they would send someone down to park my van. Where? And do you think I’m going?

The sign handicap parking is right much of the time. Parking my van is when I feel VERY handicapped. (Yes, I hate the word, too, but it’s the government’s term.) It’s time for the committee serving persons with disabilities for the city of Houston to get on board, understand the parking needs, and translate that into information for builders who hire contractors to stripe parking lots and parking buildings. They need to know that wheelchair vans unload on the right side (a few from the back) and require eight feet for de-vanning. They need to know that if the slash lines are on the wrong side, you have to back into the parking slot, and this is very hard in traffic. I know because I do this, and you can still hear the honking from inpatient drivers waiting for me to squirm my van into that straight-on space.

I’m a writer and go to the post office a lot. The US post office in Town and Country does not now and never has had a van parking place despite my complaining to the management every time I go there.  After ten years, I actually quit complaining and just try to diagonal park using two spaces. This is a dangerous practice because to get to the ramp I have to wheel behind parked cars, some trying to back out.  I do this at the dentist’s office and many other places. Oh, well. I always like to live dangerously. Best places to park are Office Depot, Randalls, Rice Food and my church. Thank you.

The city either turns a blind eye to this issue or just doesn’t understand the problem.

Anyone else have this problem? What are you doing about it?

books, Disability Issues

Naomi Here:

My cat just died at approximately fifteen years of age. He was black, and when he arrived twelve years ago he was as spooky as you’d expect from a black cat, and he came with a readymade name: Weird. I nicknamed  him Chrysler because in the daytime he slept under my Chrysler van. Skittish and fearful, he’d go into hiding when a stranger entered his domain, but he liked me and kept me company in the kitchen. And he sat on the back of my office chair peering at the computer screen while I wrote a couple of books. And here’s my secret.  I talk to cats, and this one was a good listener. As he got older, he mellowed out, becoming less skittish and more listening, and I talked out many projects and told him many secrets. He knew the characters in my books and the joy of selling them, and he learned a lot about disabilities and the wonderful people in the programs I work with.

In retrospect, I believe that Weird (Chrysler) had many of the traits people have as they get older. They mellow out and become better listeners. Thanks, Weird, for teaching me. I’ve mellowed out, but I can improve on my listening skills.

To be fair, I must say that Weird belonged to my son, Paul, who moved away. Although Weird remained with us for years, he was always Paul’s cat when he came to visit. Paul took Wierd for walks as most people take a dog, and Weird slept on Paul’s bed. When we evacuated for hurricane Ike, Paul was the one who came up with calming cat nip for a scared cat.

Weird and Getting Old
Weird the cat