Motorist

Dear Indigna,

Today in a parking lot some “seasoned” driver pulled just a few inches too far into my space to allow me to back out. As I waited for him to move, not only did the person next to me pull out of her space (the one I thought he was waiting for), but another person pulled into the space, shopped at the grocery store, and pulled out again before I managed to use her space to back around his car and escape! Is there anything I could have done differently in this situation? I feel like a chump for just sitting there with my car running, in reverse, waiting for a guy who turned out to have suffered a sudden fatal heart attack to move his car.

Peeved,
Newark, NJ

Dear Peeved,

My answer depends on what kind of car you have and what kind of car was blocking you. Could you have backed into the offending vehicle, shoving it out of the way, without damaging your own vehicle? In the alternative, perhaps if it were a case of Mini Cooper vs. jacked-up Ford F250, you could have simply backed your car out underneath the fellow’s “car” and been on your way, a scenario which would substantially decrease my sympathy for you. In either case, I think you had alternatives to the thumb-up-your-ass option that you chose.