365 Things to Smile About Day 298. Parking Oops!! Lol!

I am starting to go out on lessons by myself now.  My supervisor believes I have the skills to work with clients without his constant supervision and I am very excited for his trust in me!  However, I am not sure I am as trustworthy with parking!  I am used to metered parking.  And if there isn't a meter there or a no parking sign..then an open spot on the street is fair game!

I found the perfect spot right in front of my client's apartment building and did a fairly ok job of parallel parking.  (If the front or back of the car aren't sticking out I call it a win no matter how stupid I looked getting there!).  So I proudly parked, got my stuff together and went in to get my client.  As we walked around the block talking about cane technique and working at listening to traffic at intersections and the like, I realized about halfway around the block I had made a serious parking blunder!  No meter's doesn't mean free parking in Richmond.  On a main street like the one I was on it means look for the gray box somewhere in the middle of the street, pay for parking there and put the ticket in the front window!!!   My client noticed my "oh crap!" moment when I realized what I had done and figured it out when they discovered the box I was hanging my head in front of was one of those payment boxes!  Having had a license before their vision impairment, they kindly explained how it worked to me!  And it sadly wasn't the first time I had heard of these frustrating gray boxes!!

Fortunately the police officer on the next corner assured me that they hadn't checked in this hour yet and I still had time to get to the box and pay!  My client was greatly entertained that they had been able to teach me something and was enjoying a good laugh as I got the payment ticket in my window as we passed my car!  Thank goodness no parking ticket and after that little fiasco I doubt I will ever mess up like that again!  Lol!!