Where Would Jesus Park?

One of the things I did not like about our last neighborhood (which I mostly loved) was that there were so many cars parked on the street. Now, I am someone who particularly hates cars parked on the street. To me, it represents everything I hate about hoarders:

No room in your garage for your car cause it's stuffed with crap = parking on the street 

It was bad. There were usually 19 cars down our street at one time. (Yes, every day I counted.) When we first went to look at the house I thought, "Is there a party going on?" It was Tuesday afternoon! I was such a fool. But I thought houses with alleys and THREE CAR GARAGES would mean LESS parking on the street. 

Oh no. Alleys lead to MORE parking on the street. People are way too lazy to drive down the alley and park their cars in the back of their houses. 

One of the only spots without a car on our street was in front of our house. Until one day someone parked there for two days straight. But he wasn't visiting us, he was visiting the people across the street. I marched over there and said as politely as I could, "I don't want us to get off on the wrong foot but is there a reason your guest is parking in front of my house?" She apologized and said she would have him move in front of her house. 

And then NEVER spoke to me again. It was quite awkward. 

I'm in jeopardy of a having a similar parking pickle in my new house. I love that in my new neighborhood, people rarely park on the street. They use their garages and their driveways. It's a beautiful thing! You might find a car parked on the street every 12th house or so. Some streets have NO CARS parked on the street. 

And then you get to MY house. 

For the past three weeks there has been a constant stream of cars parked right in front of my house. Sometimes it's just one. But usually there are three. And almost always there is a big black truck with a trailer carrying some large plastic water tank. When people come by my house they say, "Oh, who is visiting?" or "Do you have a friend over?" That is how much these cars are in front of my house. 

The situation (so I've heard from another neighbor) is that the people next door to me have family staying with them while they are in between houses. I get it. It's temporary. But I don't know how temporary cause so far it was been 22 days and it is DRIVING ME CRAZY!! 

I think part of the reason I am frustrated is that they have a FOUR CAR GARAGE and a big parking pad. But nobody seems to use that. They would all rather park right in front of my house. Usually one car is in front of their house but the rest are in front of mine, uncomfortably close to my mailbox. (I should add that, the way our houses are set up, they don't really have a stretch of street in front of their house for more than one car.) 

I don't really have a leg to stand on though. The street is not my property, right? They are allowed to park there. My only reasons for complaining are 1). I am tired of looking out my window and, instead of seeing our lovely neighborhood, I see a parking lot and 2). If I were to have people over (which I have in the last three weeks), they can't park in front of my house. 

But the thing is my neighbors are really nice. They seem to be the type of people who would not mind at all if I had relatives who parked in front of their house for weeks on end. And I guess that is why they didn't think it was necessary to come talk to us before and say, "Hey, we are going to have our family staying with us for X amount of weeks. I wanted to let you know that they might park some cars on the street, some in front of your house. Oh and one of their cars is a giant black truck with a trailer on it that carries a strange plastic tank of water on it. K?" 

I just feel like that would be the Christian thing to do. 

In a few weeks I am going to have a birthday party at my house for Leo. If the cars are still parking there I am going to have to say something. But I don't want it to end like my Frisco parking fiasco. So I have been practicing what I could say that would be very diplomatic, kind and reasonable. 

"I know you are good Christians and so are we, so that's why I want to say in the nicest way possible…can you move all these damn cars?!!" 

"See, I really don't like hoarders and so that's why I don't like cars parked on the street…"

"You're so lucky you have a FOUR car garage! We only have a two car garage but it's okay because we just have two cars." 

"Where would Jesus park?"

I'm still working on it.