Parking in 'Paradise'

The pictures above are quintessential 'Amishland.' The rolling farmland fading into distant forested hills, warnings of buggies, and the occasional covered bridge. No doubt, the countryside is beautiful.

I joke often on the job about parking the work van. I have learned to avoid pulling into people's driveways and joke if I pull in front of a house with a three-car garage you can bet money that I am going to park in front of the garage bay that someone wants out of.

There was one time when I pulled into a driveway of a farmhouse that had a detached four car garage. I thought, 'you are NOT going to get me this time,' and pulled off to the one side making sure not to block any access to any of the bays. I went to the house and proceeded to do my job. About 40 minutes into the job a woman approached me and asked if I could move my van. I laughed and told her I had made every attempt to NOT block anyone. She explained that there was a driveway I couldn't see that ran behind the garage and someone was back behind there. lol

Yesterday I was doing 'line-maintenance.' This involves taking Signal level measurements and adjusting some things in those strange metal boxes you may see hanging from a 'telephone' pole. One of the locations was at a pole in the middle of a now-barren corn field. I had to park the van along a rural road and carry the ladder 150 yds or so to get to the pole.

I was up on the ladder at the pole monitoring the signal when I noticed a guy walking across the field. It was the farmer. I climbed down the ladder and walked towards him as it was obvious he was coming to talk to me. I had also dropped my wrench and needed to find it. As he approached I joked, 'You coming out here to help me find the wrench I dropped?' He laughed and said, 'No, sorry, I came out to ask you if you can move your van.' Unbelievable. I was along a rural road in the middle of nowhere.

His tractor was pulling a 'manure-spreader' and even though I was pulled off to the side of the road as much as I could be; he couldn't make the turn he needed to. I laughed and moved the van. Another spin on the 'three-bay-garage' rule; sometimes you just can't win.

Hope you all had a good day.