I got my mind all befuddled. It's street cleaning week. There on Monday, at 12:45, I heard the street sweeper and cursed under my breath. Ran downstairs to move the car before the parking violations gnome showed up to give me the $10 fine. And I was too late.
I looked around for other cars to blame. It couldn't be my fault alone. Who forgot to warn me? But other cars were ticketed as well. And the trustiest neighbors' cars weren't even on the street at all. Dang it. Zelda or Bruce or Valerie would have warned me. But their cars were gone. Gone fishin or whatever they were up to on this hot hot day.
I moved the car out of habit--it was too late to get the street swept in front (it's a brand new street, for Pete's sake, without any leaves or crap on it), and the ticket would keep me from getting ticketed...but I moved it and brought the ticket in.
Today I pulled up and was wrangling Billy out of his carseat when I noticed one of my elusive neighbors across the street getting out of his car. He's moved in but we haven't been introduced.
"It's street cleaning day on your side," I warned him. He looked up and down, confused, looking I suppose for the sign.
GOOD LUCK BECAUSE THE SIGNS SUCK. They used to say "No parking even dated Tuesdays" on the south side, and "No parking odd dated Mondays" on the north side. Then the city got cheap and decided once a month was fine. So they came by and slapped a SECOND sticker on top of the words even and odd. And the signs, like they had some sort of spell cast upon them with these stickers, instantly faded. Now they have the big P with the line through it at the top, and the bright and shiny SECOND sticker. Nothing else is legible any longer. No parking second. You must park first or third? It makes no sense.
I think it's a ploy to raise funds for the city. Perhaps to replace faded signs.
I explained, with a little less temporal lobe issues than I did here, the issue with the signs and the street cleaning. And he smiled at me nervously and waved. "Thanks!"
I'm that neighbor. Again and always and for the first time. Ah well.
3 comments:
Hi, Bridgett - It seems to me that you could (should?) contest this ticket, if the signing is so poor that you have to go by word-of-mouth to know which days are the REAL no parking days! We have a similar problem with faded signs that say no parking near the mailboxes in front of my house. The ticket is $95, so it's not a small thing! (No worries about street-sweeping though: that only happens twice a year!)
Jan, in Portland
We got a hefty ticket once for parking too close to the stop sign in front of our house (we're on a corner). We should have contested it because there are no signs saying anything about parking too close to the stop sign.
We have to pay to park in front of our houses here in our neighborhood.
I saw (I think) on fb that you couldn't get your permit because your last name didn't match your husband's? Insane. We have it very easy. Many municipalities have parking stickers for overnight use...
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