Comments on: Things that Bother Me: Vol. II

By: alyce

alyce — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:31:12 +0000

most days I appear or work at appearing perfectly normal. It’s an act. I have a brain tumor in the right aspect of my pons which affect my balance among othet things but I would rather use a shopping cart for balance so as to blend in. yes I park handicap with my placard unless there is another close spot simply because I have been known to fall in the street while crossing. go ajead & judge me as shit. maybe that other normal looking person is in a similar boat. one last thing. my neurosurgeon has on document one major hemorage & several small ones & has stated that one more major one will most likely leave me a vegetable. I can make it from a close spot to a cart. I don’t choose to fall & I turned down the scooter they wanted me to get. Oh yeah, my tumor is inoperable too. see cavernous hemangioma in rt. aspect of pons for mor info.

By: ryan

ryan — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:54:51 +0000

They need to put seperate spots for wheelchair users. Even though others have needs, wheelchair users have no back up. If they are blocked in, thats it, they cant get in and move their car.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:10:14 +0000

I have had the blue placard for several years now because of the pain of six blown disks in my back. They can’t address the disks until they address the underlying problem of scoliosis which requires an 18″ metal rod in my back. I have resisted the rod. I take pain medication in order to deal with the pain.
However, once in a great while I feel better than normal and can walk further unassisted. Most days I have a limit on how much walking I can do. I may be able to get into the store unassisted, but cannot get back the same way. If I can get a basket (preferable the shorter smaller ones) I can use it like a stroler and relieve some of the pressure on my back. To some who would look at me, they might think that I am doing OK; I wish it were so. I would gladly give up the blue placard and disability check to get my health back. I would love to be able to walk without the horrible pain that no one sees.
I also see seemingly perfectly normal people using the parking spots. I do not judge them for the most part as there could be some problem not seen. It reminds me of a handicapped girl berating a woman for parking in a spot over at a Randalls supermarket. The hapless girl had no idea the woman was a cancer patient. Pain is so subjective. But the placards are also too easy to get!

By: Gruffydd

Gruffydd — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:04:23 +0000

I’m in Orange County, CA and it is just SICK how many able bodied people park in the handicapped spots, put the placard on the mirror and run into Starbucks….I hate it and hope that CA goes to license plates only.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:31:33 +0000

I am a 60% disabled veteran with Texas dv plates. I personally don’t use handicap parking for two reasons. First, I know that there is someone out there who is worse off than me. Even when my knees are killing me, I know that I can limp the extra distance in the parking lot to get to my car. Second, people don’t hesitate to tell dv plate owners that they can’t park in handicap spots with dv plates. I find it hilarious that veterans, not specifically me, are scrutinized while people who use another personâ€™s documentation are given a free pass. For that reason, I carry copies of DOT code 681.008 and 502.254 in my glove box just in case I guiltily feel the need to use a handicap spot.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 01:21:07 +0000

I am an AK amputee and Memorial day I pulled into a handicapped space at a restaurant. Only several bicycles were chained to the ramp’s railing but they were in the HP space. Well I pulled to the left parking partly on the diagonal yellow lines between the two HP spaces, which is illegal. Not long after I noticed the cyclists leaving. One man could not wait and dragged his bike in front of my car almost scraping the finish. Then he drops his bike on the pavement between the two cars. That did it. After checking to see if he scratched my car I told the group that Handicapped Parking meant just that and not bikes or pedestrians. They did not believe I was serious. Hopefully, they got the message. Sadly, many people are just plain ignorant!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 25 May 2006 22:00:31 +0000

The part that gets, is people who don’t even have a tag or plate, but park in handicapped spots. I have a blue placard, which is good for 2 more years, and it has been 1.5 yrs since my injury. I just got around to driving, this week. I’m thinking of making cards to leave on windshields, of the cars who neither a placard or plate. Yes, there are perfectly appearing people who have them, sometimes it’s due to endurance, or mental instability, that changes.

By: judy ramsey

judy ramsey — Fri, 19 May 2006 23:13:56 +0000

why is it we can deploy our men and women at the drop of a hat, but to get their body back takes almost 2 weeks.

By: Carly

Carly — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:17:35 +0000

Having had a legitimate handicapped tag — a blue one, even — I know I spent most of my time legitimately using that tag looking totally mobile. But, I had had some major work done to my knee. My tag ran out 2 months ago, and I walk to work and school. Just because someone appears fine, I don’t always assume they’re abusing the tag. I was walking on my own without a brace within a few weeks of surgery, but the added steps from parking at the back of the lot at HEB or elsewhere were still more than I could handle most days, particularly when stacked up at the end of a day spent running errands.

Part of the problem, of course, is that stores and the state don’t really utilize red tags at all (I’ve never seen the differentiated parking spaces that are supposed to exist), and there really is no middle-ground placard for someone who, while generlaly quite mobile, is still recovering and rehabbing an injury that would have qualified them. It’s an all-or-nothing system.

By: eliz. s.

eliz. s. — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:07:41 +0000

This post was included in Austinist’s best of the local blogs for the week.