Are there any other kind?

I work in a 3 story office building near Thousand Oaks, California. Also nearby is the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall, a typical American automobile shopping district, with all the auto dealers cheek by jowl in an area of a few blocks, right next to the freeway. Recently, it seemed that the Hummer dealer was faced with a problem, to wit a large number of unsold Hummers, and nowhere to put them. Solution? let’s take over the parking lot of this nearby office building (i.e., where I work).

So, for a couple of days, they were like ants tending their larvae, shuffling Hummers from place to place, until a large section of our carpark was entirely brand new, unsold Hummers. Well, better for them to be stuck in a parking lot, than actually driving around town, I say. Unfortunately, most of them are gone now. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean they were all sold though.

Another Hummer story: Recently, I was photographing at the Santa Monica pier. There’s a carpark actually on the pier, over the water, and I was waiting in line to enter. For some reason, the line seemed not to be moving. At the entry gate, was a brand new black Hummer, with a couple in front, and two kids in the back. The driver got out, and was discussing something with the carpark attendant. There were gesticulations and angry exchanges, and the Hummer driver got back in, backed up, and drove his Hummer away.

When I got to the gate, I asked the attendant what had happened. “Oh, the Hummer exceeds the weight limit for this pier.” he smiled as he waved me through, in my tiny Volkswagen Jetta, and I parked with maybe a hundred other equally reasonable vehicles. The weight limit for the pier is 6000 pounds per vehicle. I was tempted to feel righteous, but realized that the weight limit is purely for practical reasons: They find that heavy vehicles tend to loosen the iron spikes that hold the huge wooden planks to the pier. The structure itself can easily handle more weight, and if it had been constructed differently, there would have been no problem accomodating the Hummer, no matter how badly it polluted.

For more Hummer related info, see fuh2