I'll have the #1 combo, upsized with a diet coke

My husband picked me up for lunch one day (before the ugly scrambled egg episode last week) and we headed to the sandwich shop that we patronize at least a couple of times a week. There were too many cars and not enough parking spaces there, so we decided to drive a little further down the road to Arby’s.

When we pulled back out into the road we got behind a car with a disabled persons license plate. An elderly woman was riding on the passenger side; the driver was an elderly man. He was driving slowly and cautiously in the left lane.

We didn’t have far to go to get to Arby’s, so we stayed behind them. Their left turn signal indicated they were going to turn in for a roast beef sandwich too.

Like most fast food restaurants, the Arby’s parking lot is designed around the drive-thru lane. The parking spaces were secondary to the drive-thru lane in the planning, I’m sure.

If you park in the spaces away from the building, you have to walk through the traffic in the drive-thru lane. There is a high probability that a collision could happen here, and the bump-up would be on your flesh and bones. Ouch.

If you park in the spaces close to the building and the drive-thru lane gets backed up, then you have difficulty backing out. In that case, at least you are in your car and any bump-ups would most likely be to your car and not you. While there is not really any good place to park in such small lots designed around a lane of circular traffic (kind of like a NASCAR track – in more ways than one!), I think parking next to the building is a little safer.

Anyway, still traveling slowly, we pulled into the parking lot behind the car with the disabled person license plate and the little old man driving. There were three parking empty spaces up close to the entrance of the building. Two of them were handicap spaces, the other one was just a regular space.

We waited as the little old man driver hesitated to make a parking space decision and then maneuvered the large sedan into it. He passed up the two handicap spaces and chose the only regular space there. Of course.

We drove on by the two remaining handicap spaces, on over to the far side of the lot. We walked across the lane of traffic lined with eager drivers who give new meaning to the term FAST food.

I think maybe the little old man thought he would save the handicap spaces for someone in greater need than they. And, I guess I want to have that same mindset; the one that leads me to think of others that are less fortunate even when I myself am ailing. You know, it always makes things look better and often makes a lot more sense when I take the focus off of me and my problems!

"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:23-24