Late Night Walk

Providence Skyline at Night

Me Calling the Number on the Sign that Said:

I Guess they mean it...

We decided to take a break from eating left overs and drove into Providence last night to see the movie Dallas Buyers Club with Matthew McConaughey at our favorite theater the Avon (www.avoncinema.com) which is located on Thayer Street street on the East side. Anyone who is familiar with the area knows that it has great restaurants large and small along with a number of shops that cater for the most part to the college crowd in Providence. This always makes parking a bit dicey so we parked in our favorite not well known about parking lot a few blocks away. The one with the signs that stated if you park here we will tow you. We knew the signs were just a threat because we had parked there for years and the lot was always full and no one was ever towed.

I guess things have changed. When we arrived at the lot, it was apparent that new brighter lights had been installed and the lot was empty except for one car. So I parked right under one of the lights thinking this is a great spot. As we’re walking away congratulating ourselves about how smart we were to find this off the beaten path parking spot, we figured the lot was empty because everyone was home for Thanksgiving. If only.

Walking back after the movie, which I enjoyed (9 out of 10), we yakked about the movie and what we liked and didn’t like. The night air was 28 degrees and cold enough to make you shiver. Well me mostly because I wore a light jacket unlike my much smarter better half who was dressed for the cold. As we rounded the corner to our parking spot I was thinking how nice and bright the parking lot is now with the new… “hey, where’s my car?” It was gone the lot was empty. And it isn’t big like the lots at Disney so I knew I didn’t go to the wrong spot. Crap. It was towed. And right on that new light pole where my car used to be was a sign that basically said, “If you park here…” The sign I never saw and probably would have ignored anyways.

So we called the number on the sign that they were nice enough to leave and were given walking directions to the car jail and “Oh by the way, you’ll need $138 to bail it out. Cash only.” How convenient. I was in the bank parking lot where there was an ATM. They planned this well I thought.

So we set off in the direction of the tow company which was fortunately a little over a mile away. Me in my light coat. My better half in her nice warm coat. I did my best to laugh about it given there wasn’t much else that I could do. We walked down the streets and across a dark interchange and park which is under construction with the walkway guided only by some plastic netting to keep the drunks from falling in the mud. And over the river like the Goldilocks absent the woods. It was here that my humor went down a bit. The wind was whipping up the river. It was cold. I had a on a light jacket. My car was waiting for me to dig deeply into my wallet to bail it out. In the middle of the bridge my better half stopped and said “Let’s stand here and admire how pretty the Providence skyline is at night. When will we ever get to do this again?” I’m like “Really?” Yup, really. “Really?” “Uh huh.” So we did. I must be going to heaven.

After walking some more and bailing out my car later, I just laughed. It was an expensive night. But I had good company, we saw a good movie had a nice walk and got to admire the Providence skyline at night. What could be better?

Enjoy your weekend.