May 02, 2005 :: David vs Goliath

I drove down to the Georgetown Harbor last night for a dinner date at Tony and Joe's. It's a fairly decent seafood restaurant right on the Potomac river, and the Harbor area is popular on Sunday evenings. When I got there, I decided to park in the surface parking lot by the river.

There was a huge line of cars waiting to exit the parking lot... maybe 20 or 30 in total, probably all from a movie across the street that had recently let out. No line headed in, though, so I pulled into the driveway for the parking lot.

This particular lot is not well-organized. There are 3 rows of parking, but not many passages between them, and the first row was packed and a stream of cars turning across my lane into the exit lane blocked my passage. I waited as my headlights shone directly into the obviously embarassed and slightly guilty face of the woman driving the car blocking my way. As the exit lane shuffled forward, she inched out of the way.

Now the way was clear, so I prepared to go past the blockade to the back of the lot, where I could navigate. Behind that woman, though, was an H2 Hummer. He started to block the lane, and I thought, what an asshole! But he stopped, presumably, I thought, because he just discovered my presence. Being in a black car, low to the ground, after dark probably didn't help. But I did have my headlights on, so that's really no excuse. So when he hesitated, I pulled forward. He also pulled forward, and ran his tire up on my front bumper.

At this point I'm thinking.... WTF?!? I know this fool (who we've already determined to be an asshole) didn't just try to punk me and hit my car in the process! I sat there for a moment, before getting out to establish damage. He also got out of his monstrous battle tank to look.

Thankfully, the tire did no apparent damage, I guess because the weight of the vehicle hadn't been pressed upon my bumper. He apologized and let me pass. I'm still undecided as to whether he is an asshole or he really did not see my car, about 5 feet away from his own.

posted by Rainmayun at 3:55 PM -