Day + 146, Visit to the Cardiologist

This morning I took a trip to Boston Medical to visit the 'Lipid Clinic'. The goal of the visit was to contruct a plan to deal with my high triglyceride level. As you may know, my triglycerides are quite high. I was scheduled to meet Dr. Ballady, a cardiologist, as well as see a nutritionist to tell me all that I probably could no longer eat my favorite things.

BUMC has two main parking garages. A small five-story parking garage is tucked away near the emergency entrance and doctor's offices, while the larger 8-story facility is a couple blocks away on Albany Street. If you need to come to BUMC, here's some advice: by 9:30 in the morning, both of these garages are full by 9:30. If you have a doctor's appointment here and need to park at one of these garages after this time, prepare to be stuck in parking garage purgatory.

Ahhh. Parking garage purgatory is an interesting phenomena. It is the unfortunate side effect of a parking garage operator who does not put up the "lot full" sign until it is too late.

When a driver looks for a spot in a parking garage, the pattern is to drive up (or down) into the garage to find an available spot. If one reaches the end of the garage without finding a spot, the plan is then to drive back to the entrance in hopes a spot has opened up. You repeat this behavior until you finally spot someone getting to their car, stalk them until they get into their car and leave, then take their spot.

When a lot no longer has any empty spots, the number of cars roaming the lanes inside the garage starts to increase rapidly. As cars fill the garage, congestion begins to occur, causing a cascade effect. Eventually, it gets to a point where you can no longer move between floors because of the traffic inside the garage. Thus, we call it parking garage purgatory!

Well, it happened to me -- first in one garage, then in the other one. I almost ran out of gas. I finally made it to my appointment a half-hour late. I profusely apologized for my tardiness at registration, fearing that they would not believe my tail of woe. "What happened?", the woman at registration asked. "Were you stuck in the parking garage?"

So, it was all good. Anyway, sorry about the digression. Oh, yes, the cardiologist. Well, all of this writing about the parking garage has tired me out... I'll finish my story tomorrow.