If I’d known how much walking I’d get to do around noon today, I would have stayed in bed later this morning, instead of getting up for an early workout. I can use extra sleep almost as much as I can use extra exercise. I got more of the latter today, so I’ll have to make up the other another time.

It all started when I got the call to pick up a new medication for Mom, which I was more than happy to do. I could easily swing by the pharmacy on my daily errand run, then zip over to Mom’s and drop it off. Right? Part one was easy, even though there were more than the usual number of idiots on the city streets this morning. Part two was easy. I got from the pharmacy to Mom’s in short order with no added trauma.

It’s what came in between that made my neck muscles stiffen. The pharmacy is in a medical building which is part of a megahuge complex that includes a hospital. It has almost everything all those thousands of patients need, in fact, except enough spaces to park their cars. I drove around the lot for half an hour, and all I found were more cars waiting for people to back out of spaces than actual spaces themselves. It’s not that I saw a space I couldn’t get to. I saw nothing.

There’s no on-street parking on that block, or the next block, or the one after that. Keep going and you find another large parking lot, half empty, but reserved for county employees and people on jury duty, because it’s at the county administrative center, where the jail and the court and the county clerk’s office all are. There’s plenty of parking for those people, but none for the rest of us poor slobs.

Before I could give up completely, I came across a street with part of the curb painted green. Signs said that two-hour parking was allowed. I looked for other signs, something to tell me that I was excluded from these spaces, too. Not seeing such signs, I boldly parked there and took off on foot for the pharmacy. I could still see it from where I parked, but only because it’s in such a huge building. The walk did me good, but as I said, I’d already worked out earlier.

Anyway, mission accomplished, and I also got to take Mom a container of the chicken noodle soup I made in the slow cooker over the weekend. It actually turned into two dishes in one, because I dumped in too many noodles. They soaked up all the liquid, and when I skimmed them off there were still too many. But I had a bowl of tasty noodles for lunch yesterday, and some leftover soup (with added broth) for dinner tonight. Plus, added bonus: I learned a lesson for next time. Take it easy on the noodles. (Also, further added bonus lesson: Don’t go to the medical center at noon, if you can possibly avoid it.)