July 16, 2011
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Meterious
Yesterday I parked at a meter that had 27 minutes still left on it. That was nice. But in a way it also wasn’t nice. Because now I knew: I had a source of wonder, and I would never know the truth. Why would someone leave 27 minutes on their meter? What happened? Something unexpected? What was in their head as they pulled away? Why on earth would someone leave so much time on a meter? Surely something dramatic had occurred.
Here are the possibilities I ruminated as I rushed off to my meeting.
A. The person is very nice and loves when they park at meters with extra time, so they added a few just before leaving. An anonymous pay it forward.
B. The person had parked to be at Starbucks (right by the meters) and once they had drank their first sip of espresso remembered it was Friday instead of Saturday and they had to go to work.
C. The person was a Jaguar-driving millionaire and they max out every meter they park at without a thought. This in fact was a personal fantasy the millionaire had as a child when his parents parked at meters. “Someday I’ll be so rich I won’t even have to think about how much to put in. I’ll just put it all in every time! And I’ll have my butler do it! Change is filthy!” The butler part didn’t work out though.
D. The person only likes carrying around quarters, and they thought one quarter might not be enough, so they just went with two. Or maybe they forgot which ones were quarters and which ones were dimes.
E. The person was someone who loves Starbucks coffee, but had a very bad experience there. Last time they had had to wait a very long time for their macchiato. As a sardonic and disgruntled jibe at the slow Starbucks service, they vastly overfeed the meter “just in case”.
When I left, there were five minutes left on the meter. That’s in the range of reasonability. But 27 minutes?
As it is, we will never know what happened.
What other possibilities did I miss?
Comments (9)
lol! So many possibilities! They could also have met a friend they hadn’t seen in awhile at the Starbucks and they immediately decided to go somewhere more exciting than a coffee shop. OR they could have noticed that their nemesis was in the coffee shop and decided that they really didn’t want coffee that much anymore! O_o *ponders*
Or maybe they were someone like me who had never before used a parking meter and weren’t quite sure how it worked.
@Ooglick -
There is nowhere more exciting than Starbucks. But maybe they didn’t know this.
The meters at my school usually have at least 1-2 hrs remaining on them (10 hr max, 75 min/quarter). And yet I regularly see cars being towed.
The only logical explanation is that the meters are rigged by towing companies.
The last time I used a parking meter it was only a nickel for half an hour. I probably took about 10 minutes.
I like the Jaguar-millionaire theory though.
i like to put a lot extra because i do not like to be rushed. i do this when i spend time with company..
It was clearly a guy and a woman — the guy was driving. He got out, plugged the meter with enough for 30 minutes. The lady wouldn’t get out of the car. By the time the meter was at 28 minutes they had left and were talking about the weather or something, but the guy was imagining himself walking down the sidewalk going to wherever he had intended to go.
i have a feeling that they parked at starbucks only to walk into urban outfitters for a bit of window shopping. probably starting out with the average amount of time in the meter +/- 56 minutes. after spending a few minutes running fingers through the fibers of overpriced shirts and gaudy jewelry, said person wanders to table of books, where he/she comes across a book entitled, “hipster puppies” which blew their mind. a puppy as a hipster accessory? yes.
without further to do, he/she was off to the pet store to try on puppies.
@Ooglick -
Haha! I love the nemesis idea. I think that just took the lead as best theory.