Most of the time, I just do my job (s) and read a lot.  Recently, my reading has been cut into by the requirements of being the President of the Board of Directors of our Condominium.  We have had agreement among the members of the Board to regularize somehow the parking of additional cars on our property.  We have spaces for one car per Apartment and eleven spaces for guests.  Naturally, the owners of more than one car appropriate a space which they come to think they own.  We have changed that and required all apartments to keep three decals for use for guests, not for the second or third cars.  Unfortunately, our first crack down on cars without the proper identification parked in Guest spaces went off WITH a hitch.

It is difficult to get people used to change.  We have been posting notices for months about new regulations and that these decals would have to be displayed on cars parking in Guest parking spaces.  Yesterday, a couple of us – including a Spanish speaker – went about identifying those cars that did not have the proper decal.  We called the Towing Company and they came with two trucks and proceeded to tow away the cars.  Two owners of those cars (that did not have the proper identification) came screaming down to prevent the towing.  One was towed but she managed to pay a fine and got her car back.  That was particularly unnerving.  Another intervened and persuaded the tower to unhook his machine and go away.  Two cars were towed and one unruly person came and almost pushed his way into our apartment while Carol answered the door.

I wonder about the futility to try to educate people about forthcoming changes.  They seem to live in another world and not care about the planning and announcements that we make for them.  I wonder about the need for me and Carol to involve ourselves in the democratic process of being parts of the duly elected Board of Directors of this Condominium.

I wonder a lot about the woman whose husband drinks and abuses her – he was the one who hangs around each day and does no work but drinks a lot on the weekend.  I wonder about the man who threw his wife out of the apartment and we got involved by trying to find the correct social agency to call for help.  I wonder about the young families who are trying to raise babies in a building specifically constructed as part of a senior citizen complex.

I wonder a lot about the fact that the crook who built our building stole parking spaces from our neighbors giving them to us so that decades later we have been sued for those spaces by people who are not interested in coming to an agreement ending the dispute.  I wonder a lot.