Thread: Shades of The Plank

The Plank is an absolute crack up

Originally Posted by fenderbelly

https://www.facebook.com/20989673613...9396557522267/

A similar thing happened to me, I had to put a truck into a driveway and there was one car in exactly the wrong spot, I double parked blocking the road for a little bit but the car's driver seemed to be nowhere around and I was blocking the Princes Highway in Eden and that had no future except a ticket from Trevor Plod. I had noticed two people standing across the road talking as I drove away went around the block and came back in the opposite direction, drove over the centre dividing island breaking every road rule I can think of and parked in the driveway. As I got out of the truck one of those two people walked across the road and drove the car away and yes it had been illegally parked.

I had the opposite happen once.
I had to get to site early to take delivery and set up a 1000kVA generator. These things are big. Permanently mounted on a semi trailer. They park it, we hook it up and the factory has power for the day.
When I got to the site(5:00am), the only place we could park the generator had cars already parked there. I managed to find the owners of all but two that were parked at either end of the space. One belonged to a rep of the factory who had left for the day and the other was a van belonging to my civil crew. They had left it there overnight but weren't due back till around 8:30.
The truck driver paced out the gap and had a good think about it. "I'll have a go" he says.
Best bit of parking I have ever seen. He reversed the truck into the spot, stopping just short of the rep's car then jack knifed the trailer till it swung in in front of the van. It was about 1" from the car and the raised platform on the trailer was actually over the nose of the van, a couple of inches from the windscreen. He disconnected the truck and left. I made sure he had plenty of room when he came back to pick it up later that day.

This happened to me recently. I was going to a medical appointment and parking is always a premium around that area. I saw a Mazda 3 pulling out from a parked position and wondered if I could get my much larger Rodeo into the spot. I knew it would be tight but I got it in there and when it was centrally between the other two cars there was probably just over half a metre either side of my car. I thought that was a pretty good effort.

When I got back to my car, the vehicles in front and behind mine were different from the ones I had parked between and there was less than half a metre clearance both at the front and back. So I figured there might be a couple of backwards and forwardsing to do to get out so I backed up as close as I dared to the BMW behind me, ran forward to as close as I could to the car in front, then backed up to the BMW again.

Suddenly this woman banged on the front passenger window of my car. "Do you know how close you have been going to my car? " she demands hysterically. I reply that the first time it was less than half an inch, but I had to stop about an inch short the second time because she was standing in front of the reflection in the shop window I was using as a guide.

I then gave her some sound advice about legal parking distances, drove forward, back and forward and out.

Cheers

Doug

Not many people know about using window reflections, very handy.

Originally Posted by rwbuild

Not many people know about using window reflections, very handy.

20 years of experience in the National Intelligence Community - second nature to me. It has allowed me to make a difference in more situations during and since my service than I would care to think about.

Cheers

Doug

Edit: But come to think about it - how smart was it to back up so close to the container that the car in front was able to box you in?

Was instructing a learner driver using a semi trailer. We were attempting a reverse parallel park when a car parked in the spot we were aiming for. The student asked for advice. I replied just ignore him he will move. Boy I have never seen such a panic when the trailer kept reversing towards the parked car. I don/t where the biggest skid marks were.

This is Los Angeles very near the LAX airport. It is the street that runs parallel to, Century Boulevard, the street that is the main entrance to the airport. This side street has a cross traffic turn lane down the center. Parking is an absolute nightmare in the area.

I was moving into a new office in the area and rather than incur the expense of movers, I just loaded my office files and stuff into the back of my pick up truck and moved from the Orange County Airport area to the LAX airport area. I got my son to help.

In front of the main entrance I parked in the cross traffic turn lane with my flashers on. It was starting to get dark as it was late in the evening. My son says, "You can't park here." To which I relied, "It's not a big deal." We're unloading and moving stuff onto a dolly on the sidewalk. The LA Police Department shows up and the conversation goes like this, cop "You're not going to leave your truck there, are you?" Me, "Nah. Just long enough to get the stuff upstairs. We're not even going to unpack." Cop, "Not a fun thing to do on a Friday night." as he drove away.

My son says, "How the h*** did you do that? If I had just shut off my motor they would have given me a ticket." I only chuckled silently. He is now 47 but still doesn't understand.

When heading into city (groan) for shopping or appointments I always take the ute loaded with a couple of pallets and boxes tied down, thing is though boxes are empty. and always use loading park areas.

Originally Posted by Tonto

When heading into city (groan) for shopping or appointments I always take the ute loaded with a couple of pallets and boxes tied down, thing is though boxes are empty. and always use loading park areas.

This time it was downtown LA. I had a fiber network analyzer that I needed to deploy. In the shipping container it weighed about 63Kg. I drive into the loading dock area and ask the attendant where I can unload. He points, I park and then I struggle. I have a hand truck but getting the whole thing up the .66 M difference from my ute (Pick Up Truck) bed and the dock is a real chore. The attendant comes over and helps. I ask if I can leave the ute while I drag the analyzer upstairs. He asks how long I'll be. I tell him that at the worst it will be a few hours. He tells me to leave the keys for the ute and he'll move it as necessary, adding "Don't park in the building as they will try to hit your for a full day after three hours and a full day is $50."

After my work, I come back to find the ute at a shallower dock so I can roll the analyzer directly into the ute. My keys are in the ignition of the ute and the attendant has been replaced by the next shift.

For the rest of the week, my manager was complaining about the $50 he had to pay for parking while at the site. When I did my expenses for the week, my manager noticed no parking my expense form. He growled that I left the parking off the expense form. When I told him that I didn't pay for parking he responded with something like how the eff did you get away with that? My answer was, "Respect."

Harley Davidson motor cycle parallel parked, car in front and car behind. Woman in Morris Minor comes and parallel parks beside Harley! Bikie comes to find bike completely parked in. Lifts bike up onto footpath and rolls forward out of the way then returns to Morris Minor and lifts rear onto foot path then front same! Continues process across footpath and between two buildings, barely the length of the Morris apart. Writes a note and leaves it under the wiper.
It's amazing what one can do when one is cross.