Dibs!

Back to blogging about some observations for a bit.

Last week (February 1) Chicago was hit with a blizzard and 20 inches of snow were dropped down upon the city in less than 24 hours. It was quite incredible. On Wednesday (February 2) the digging out process began. The bf and I dug out my car pretty early in the day, before lunch, deciding it would be best to play in the snow as soon as possible to get the car out. The road had not yet been plowed, so there was only the snow that fell surrounding my car. It took the two of us a little over an hour to dig out the car.

In Chicago, once you dig out your spot you are permitted to claim "dibs" on your spot by putting out whatever you can find to "hold dibs" on your spot. Most neighborhoods respect the dibs, and after this storm there were very interesting items to claim dibs.

A sampling of what I observed around my hood & commute:
- Ironing boards
- Buckets
- The newly distributed phone books still in the yellow plastic
- Cardboard boxes

We didn't have anything to hold dibs on my spot, so when I returned to work on Friday, I lost my spot...which was fine since there were additional spots in my neighborhood that others did not claim dibs on.

Here comes the interesting thing. I had found a spot nearby, and I kept getting that spot over the weekend when I would go to yoga and come back. There was nothing holding the spot (unless the coke can that was rolling around really was meant as dibs). I started parking in that specific spot on Friday evening...last night when I came home from work, there was a bucket hold that spot for dibs. That was the first time there was anything there holding that spot.

In my opinion, you can't claim dibs on a spot a week after the storm hit. I just don't think it's fair. Would I love my prime spot that I dug out last week? Absolutely! But I did not think of a creative way to hold dibs on my spot, and I'm not there during the day, so someone else can use the spot. I am having a hard time believing that someone would claim dibs a week later. There is no way of knowing if the person claiming dibs is the person who actually dug the spot out at this point, though I'm sure if it's not that person, the individual will move the dibs holding item (I might consider it if it were my spot).

I just found it amusing and decided an observation blog should be written regarding this. I know that out on the east coast in Boston dibs are very common, and much more dangerous than it is in Chicago...however, I still don't know if a week after a storm if someone would claim dibs then.