Tag: #Tickets

  • ODDS and ENDS: Traffic Tickets, IG is Harmful, and the Sadness of a Bald Man Getting a Haircut

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    It’s Friday, which is normally the day I that have to do the Alt Side Parking dance in the City. We had taken the car to get inspected at the start of the week, and the parking spot we found was Friday 9:30 to 11am. That time really didn’t work with my schedule, so this morning I went to go get the car and move it to a place where I knew I could get an 8:30 to 10am spot, which is much better for all the stuff I needed to get done today. Anyway, when I got to the car this morning, I had a ticket on the windshield for “Illegal Plastic Cover on License Plate.” That’s a thing? I say that because the car has been in the city for a long time. Long enough for us to get a couple of other parking tickets, all while that plastic cover was on the plate. So… why is it worth a ticket now?

    The one story this week that went by that I say got no traction was the leaked internal report from Facebook that Instagram is harmful, even toxic, to girls sense of worth and self-esteem, even though Facebook had been denying that for years. Wait?!?! Corporations lie? I will compare this story to the one about cigarette companies knowing that smoking was killing their consumers. It’s the same thing how alcohol companies know they need alcoholics to stay in business. Doing the right thing and making money really don’t go hand in hand. As someone who has a daughter, this only makes me want to keep her off of social media as long as possible.

    I need to get a haircut, I am a balding man, and this is an uncomfortable issue that comes up every three months or so. Not the way you think. I am balding, and I am okay with it. I knew it was coming since I was a little boy, as my father, and grandfather were bald, and also my grandfather on my mother’s side. So, there was no avoiding this. What makes getting a haircut uncomfortable is that I have half the amount of hair, and yet I am charged the same amount of money as if I had a full head of hair. I should at least be getting some sort of discount. The barber doesn’t have to work as hard on me, as my only options are short, or shorter, or no hair at all. I think 25% off would be fair, as I feel like I am subsidizing full headed men on their haircuts.

  • Again, Parking in New York City

    I have a love/hate relationship with parking the car in the City, and also a strange affinity for waiting in the car for the street sweeper to go by.

    I have issues when it comes to parallel parking, so I have to find a very specific type of spot for me to put our car in. Mainly, it has to be a spot I can just pull into, and not have to parallel park. As you can imagine, it is difficult to find these pull in spots, thus I am resigned to spending 10+ minutes badly parallel parking, blocking traffic, going up on the curb, and doing this “front and back” rocking of the car until I can settle into the spot. It’s an awful spectacle to behold.

    As for waiting for the sweeper to go by, that’s more like a coordinated dance of cars. If things go right, I said “if”, then everybody pulls out and then pulls back in, following a nice orderly fashion. Some people are even willing to help guide your car back into your spot. If we work together, we all win.

    And then there are days like today, when I sit in the car, waiting for the traffic cop and sweeper to go by… but they never show up. I got to our car early, and sat, and waited. Normally, you can see the traffic cop coming down the street checking to see if people are on their cars, if not, the car gets a ticket. Then, usually five to fifteen minutes later, the sweeper truck comes by. This fanfare usually happens within the first thirty minutes.

    Not today.

    A whole hour went by, and nothing. That left the final thirty minutes, which only made me edgier. Was this their plan, to catch people off guard? I checked 311 on parking rules, and they were in effect. What was happening? What would cause both the cops and the sweeper to be delayed?

    When we reached the end of time, 10am, I and everyone else on the block emerged from their cars, with a look of confusion. What is going on? Is this a trick? Do we have the day wrong?

    I mean, good things don’t happen when it comes to parking in New York.

  • Parking Car Meditation

    Once a week, I sit in our car for about an hour and a half, waiting. Waiting for the street sweeper to go by, and also waiting for the traffic cop to stroll along as well. Most of the time, the sweeper comes through early, and all of us in our cars do a do-si-do, getting out of the way of the sweeper, and thus returning to our spots. Then we sit in our cars for the cop to stroll by and ticket the cars that didn’t move for the sweeper. You would think these two actions would happen in tandem to each other, but actually, they can be an hour between them. Hence, the sitting in the car.

    In this time of waiting, I have adopted the habit of reading the news off my phone, then an article or two from the latest New Yorker. I will end with writing in my journal, all the while listening to music, which to be honest, is now the only time that I have to listen to music.

    I have been doing this for close to a year now. Sometimes the wife takes a turn moving the car, but I would say that I take care of it 75% of the time. And in this time of taking care of the car, I have yet to see the same people each week. You would think since we all live in the same neighborhood, that I would at least see some repeat people.

    In all of this car sitting, I keep coming back to the same question; what do these people do for a living? I mean, we all have to have the ability to take an hour out of our mornings from 8:30am to 10am. For me, I’m unemployed/Stay at home parent, so that’s an easy answer. I am sure some of people are in the same boat as me. But even in normal times, people had jobs. What do they do with their lives?