#unforced errors

S2x09 - Omelette

Anytime someone tells me they got a parking ticket it makes me think of the one time I got a parking ticket when I completely, unequivocally didn’t deserve it.

For the record, it was just the one in over thirty years of driving. All the other ones I completely, unequivocally did deserve.

I’ll tell you about my one bout of innocence in a minute. But first a Pro Tip.

Tickets, whether for parking or moving violations, are unforced errors when you’re adulting, especially when you’re newly married.

They’re an unexpected hit on your bank account, let alone your driving record. They put pressure on individuals juggling their bills, on couples just trying to make their way in the world.

For example, it’s not that tough to forget to renew the registration on one of your cars. But can you really afford the 136 buck fine for that lapse of attention?

Could you afford it if the fine was 228 bucks?

School zones, too. You may be used to 30, 35 miles per hour on arterials near your home. But when the school zone lights start flashing, if there’s even just a kid wandering around in that school zone any other time of the day, the speed limit snaps to 20 miles per hour.

Can you afford 234 bucks out your bank account right now?

Or running yellow lights. Legal, I know. But you do it often enough that eventually you’re actually running a red light.

48 bucks.

Could you have used that money for something else?

Plus, it’s a habit. So those $48 buck tickets add up, count against you on your driving record. 

Moving violations are like that.

Don’t like coming to a complete stop at stop signs?

Also 48 bucks.

Not too particular about where you park or for how long?

50. Depending on details and whether or not you get towed.

Not worried too much about how fast you’re going?

You could be contributing anywhere from 125 to 423 bucks to your local government for that privilege.

And so on.

Unforced. Errors.

The product of not great habits and not paying attention.

Doesn’t cost you money in school... but when you’re adulting yeah.

It does.

Of course if you’re independently wealthy... no problem.

You can afford these kinds of mistakes. 

We, on the other hand, have run ourselves into a number of violations over the years, none of which were helpful. Early on, especially, it such tickets out of the blue were pretty stressful. Pressure, you know? The kind you don’t really think about when you say “I do”.

And trust me, no matter how mad we may have been about a particular incident...

We had only ourselves to blame.

I hate that.

Not great habits.

Lack of attention.

Unforced errors.

Money.

It happens to everyone.

And it’s extra special not great when you’re new adulting. Definitely not helpful when you’re getting a marriage on its feet.

Is what I’m saying.

Now the one time I didn’t deserve the parking ticket I got... 

I’d parked pretty far away from this one gig. At the end of the block was a temporary No Parking sign. Just the one. So I parked at the other end of the block.

End of the day, I come back for my car and it’s nowhere to be found.

This actually takes me a while to figure out because 99% of the time I’ve simply forgotten where I parked. In this case, though, the whole block of cars got ticketed and towed earlier that day.

Even me down at the other end.

So I call my dad for help. Then I call the police to find out where my car is. Then my dad drives me there.

Yeah.

Time and money.

Next day I’ve gotta work there again and, driving passed that same block, I see there’s something like twenty temporary No Parking signs set up from one end of the block all the way to the other end. With yellow tape also running the length of the entire block.

Me?

I’ve still gotta ticket burning a hole in my pocket.

So I call the city.

Is there a law, a rule, a city code that specifies the length of city block a single temporary No Parking sign controls?

I mean, if the answer is “one sign controls the whole block” then why did twenty show up the next day?

If the answer is anything other than one...

Doesn’t the city owe me the money?

Of course that particular honor comes with its own price. Time... at the very least. Maybe more money.

In the meantime, your life is on the move.

So when I started getting bounced between city departments...

I caved.

And yes.

I am still kinda sore about that.