Sunday, February 24, 2008

Calling all Brain Cells

I have noticed that since my surgery, that I am not the smartest knife in the drawer (as my DD would put it.....yes, smartest instead of sharpest, silly girl).

Case in point, this last week I managed to do, in over 200 weekly trips to Oakland, what my husband did in 2 just trips. I got a parking ticket (oh boo hoo, I'll get over it)

Now in my husband's defense, he parked next to a broken meter and thought the warning sign "You will be ticketed if meter is expired, even if meter is broken" was just some sort of verbage put there to scare away people who dared to park next to a not-so-obviously broken meter. He soon found out otherwise.

In my case, however, well.....I have no defense. But I still blame that surgery! I swear that some of my brain cells are still "under". It's the only thing I can think of! So here I was in Oakland last week, pulling up in front of my son's doctor's office. Normally I pull into the "double parking zone" while DS hops out and heads into his appointment. I then drive off to find friendly, free parking a few blocks away. This day, however, we scored the jackpot. There were 3 open spaces in front of the office!!! I pull into the front space and DS hops out. I plan to park, but look up and see a meter. There weren't meters at the other spaces, and so I think, "Du'h, I'll just back up and park at the spaces without the meters," totally forgetting the new parking system in Oakland. The new system is no meters.....you simply swipe your credit card at a central machine, receive your parking permit, and then dash back to your car before the meter reader can start writing a ticket (I've seen people get tickets while standing at the central meters!). Now I knew this when I pulled up, and planned to go to the central meter. But, I guess seeing the old parking meter there threw me off. After backing into a "free" space, I got out and walked to the doctor's waiting room where I sat, all smug at my "brilliance". After the appointment, we walked to the car where I found my parking ticket, snuggled into it's bright green return envelope (sure....parking is inconvenient, but paying the ticket is?), stashed under my windshield wiper. Oh why wasn't it raining buckets on that day? So I look at my ticket, look at where there is no meter, and say out loud to DS, "This ticket says that I have an expired meter? How can I have an expired meter if there is no....." Click! The lighbulb goes on!

All I could do is laugh at myself, and go home and pay the blasted fine!

1 comment:

Keleia said...

So great to read your blog! I've missed "chatting" with you on Scrapbook.com. I've pretty much switched over to Faith Sisters, but wanted to give you a hearty greeting! Come check out my new blog and give a hello to me! Blessings, Keleia