The Extreme Vigilance of our Public Servants
Today, I went out to the car and found a ticket for an outdated emissions sticker. (I knew ours expired at the end of October, so I was in the wrong).
I got in the car and drove to my haircut appointment, and when I came back there was another ticket for the outdated emissions sticker, $41 penalty, as well as a ticket for parking longer than 2 hours (my bad). Ouch. I realized I'd better go get the emissions test done today, but it was already dark and I didn't know if that would be possible. I resolved to get home and see if Pep Boys would be open tomorrow.
So I go park at my last errand -- I went to Ross Dress-for-Less (or RD4L as we call it) to get a pie pan. Sidebar: Yes! You can get a pie pan at RD4L! You can get almost anything at RD4L.
When I came out I found the third ticket for the outdated emissions sticker. Total for the day: $144.
That's the end of this little story, have a lovely evening all you people out there. (I am now in Ignore-Bad-Things mode, given the laughability of this situation. So, now would be a good time to tell me something I don't want to hear, in case you've been waiting for just the right moment to do something like that...)
Update: After I posted the above tale of woe, I realized it was almost nine o'clock and I had better take Carmen to the dog park before she flipped out ninja-style and attacked me. I took her in the car, even though it's only a little over a mile away and we usually walk, because it's cold out and I wanted to get home and be warm. So we go in the car, and since it's nine p.m. I park in a slightly optimistic parking space, thinking it's late at night on a very quiet street on a Saturday, with no one around. Forty minutes later, I come back to the car to find a PPA car pulled up behind me issuing me my fifth ticket of the day for a grand total of $185.
I should feel lucky that he missed the fact that my emissions sticker is out of date, and only issue me the ticket for being partially in a no-stopping zone. Instead, I do not feel lucky. I feel like a complete asshole. I am completely humiliated, but also completely in awe of the Parking Authority. I wouldn't have thought it possible to get five tickets in one day if one was TRYING to. I am now numb to all parking-related emotions. Tomorrow, when I go outside to find what will surely be yet another emissions ticket, I will simply put it in my purse with the rest of them and head over to the Pep Boys.
I got in the car and drove to my haircut appointment, and when I came back there was another ticket for the outdated emissions sticker, $41 penalty, as well as a ticket for parking longer than 2 hours (my bad). Ouch. I realized I'd better go get the emissions test done today, but it was already dark and I didn't know if that would be possible. I resolved to get home and see if Pep Boys would be open tomorrow.
So I go park at my last errand -- I went to Ross Dress-for-Less (or RD4L as we call it) to get a pie pan. Sidebar: Yes! You can get a pie pan at RD4L! You can get almost anything at RD4L.
When I came out I found the third ticket for the outdated emissions sticker. Total for the day: $144.
That's the end of this little story, have a lovely evening all you people out there. (I am now in Ignore-Bad-Things mode, given the laughability of this situation. So, now would be a good time to tell me something I don't want to hear, in case you've been waiting for just the right moment to do something like that...)
Update: After I posted the above tale of woe, I realized it was almost nine o'clock and I had better take Carmen to the dog park before she flipped out ninja-style and attacked me. I took her in the car, even though it's only a little over a mile away and we usually walk, because it's cold out and I wanted to get home and be warm. So we go in the car, and since it's nine p.m. I park in a slightly optimistic parking space, thinking it's late at night on a very quiet street on a Saturday, with no one around. Forty minutes later, I come back to the car to find a PPA car pulled up behind me issuing me my fifth ticket of the day for a grand total of $185.
I should feel lucky that he missed the fact that my emissions sticker is out of date, and only issue me the ticket for being partially in a no-stopping zone. Instead, I do not feel lucky. I feel like a complete asshole. I am completely humiliated, but also completely in awe of the Parking Authority. I wouldn't have thought it possible to get five tickets in one day if one was TRYING to. I am now numb to all parking-related emotions. Tomorrow, when I go outside to find what will surely be yet another emissions ticket, I will simply put it in my purse with the rest of them and head over to the Pep Boys.
posted by Dubin at 8:07 PM
3 Comments:
That's amazing! It remind me of (but far surpasses) the time my family went on a sightseeing trip to D.C. when I was little. My older sister stepped in dog poop and a half hour later, a bird shat on her. My parents said it was good luck. Can this be good luck?
Pep Boys?! You've got to check out 11th Street Auto. Back before I junked my beater and became a two-bike man, they kept 'er running for next-to-nothing.
"Chang will run and fetch the old man with the ladder, who will climb step over step, inch over inch, and carry me out of the well."
Tikki Tikki Tembo no sa rembo cherrie berry rushie pip perry pembo.
I love that book!
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