There are times, when you are retired, that you will just sit in the shade, watch the things around you and think. The other day, while doing this, I was thinking about what I wanted to write about when I noticed the traffic and a lady trying to park her car. I then recalled the article I wrote for an on-line publication last year dealing with inattentive drivers and another on seniors and driving. I don’t want to rehash those articles so I will write about the traffic around Imperial Plaza, a gated senior community.

One would think the traffic would not be really bad here because, although the place have a little size to it, a caring person would naturally drive slowly. Wrong….speed is the name of the game and speed and/or stop signs go unseen, mostly. It is getting to be worst and worst with an accident expected any day now. I have sat and watched vehicles go through stop signs as if it wasn’t there and other traffic, not at that moment, coming from the other direction and never slowing down or come to a stop in order to see if the intersection is clear. I have watched vehicles coming from the front gate toward the Dogwood building and never slowing down before going around vehicles doubled parked before entering the blind curve to go to the rear of Dogwood. There will be an accident and it’s coming soon.

I sometimes sit on the benches at the rear of Dogwood and it’s rather funny how people park. There are more than a few vehicles with the sides scared with another vehicle’s color embedded within the long scraping dent(s). I don’t know if these dents come from happenings here at Imperial Plaza or elsewhere but, from the closeness of the parking of some vehicles, I can see how it may have happened here.

Thinking about the parking, I have seen people pull in and out of a slot three or four times and still the vehicle is not in straight or even in the center. Some of these people could not park correctly if their lives depended on it. I have seen where they would pull in correctly and redo it with an ending being positively wrong. I watched one lady, driving a new Cadillac, try to park on the end where there was a side curb. It wasn’t pretty and she never got it in straight, like the other vehicles. When she took out her walker and hobbled up the walkway, I understood why she was driving the way she did.

I can’t think of a solution to this problem although I have sat and sat thinking about it. I remember a gentleman telling me how mad he was that the doctor insisted he stop driving. There should be more of that or a lot of people are going to injure themselves, someone else or worst. As far as the speeding is concerned, all I can think of are many speed bumps, especially at the stop signs. This is private property and anything can be done, within reason, and should before someone gets hurt.

Getting off the topic, here is something that have come to my attention a few days ago. Remember when I first started writing about the troubles we are having here at Imperial plaza? When I wrote about the turnover of a lot of loved and experienced personnel? Well, it’s still going on, full steam ahead. Our head of Activities have resigned and we will miss her. I wish her well and hope to see her again. I do not know the reason she resigned but when frustration sets in, there is no recourse but to go elsewhere. I’m afraid we have not seen the end of this yet because I know of a couple more people that are thinking of doing the same thing.

Well, I guess I will sit and think and, maybe, I will come up with solutions to the many problems around here. Anything can be fixed with clear, thoughtful thinking, instead of jumping before you think about it. That is done far too often and that is why things are the way they are. With that I will stop and remind you to read my spiritual blog also ( faithingodministries.net ) every other week and comment/follow them. Both blogs appear on my Facebook page (in part) and all you have to do is click “read more”, which will take you to the blog’s site automatically.