Parking Ticket

A few months ago, Teresa gave her 1998 Oldsmobile to Cameron since he is now 16.   When she stopped driving, it was just sitting in the garage in Douglas.  The car is mechanically in good shape and only has a little over 50,000 miles on it.  However, it has been "hit" a few times.  As Teresa told me, "she doesn't understand why people keep hitting her car!"  (That was when we knew it was time to have her stop driving.  I think that losing the independence of being able to drive is probably one of the hardest decisions that has to be made as people age.

Although Cam is 16, he still doesn't have his license and he isn't really anxious to get it.  I don't understand that, but it is what it is.   He still rides his bike to work.  However, I know that he will need transportation down the road and this will be a good and reliable car for him.

It has been parked in front of the Gilbert house for the last few months.  Kerri and Cam drive it every now and then.   About a month ago when I was still in Douglas, "I" got a parking ticket for parking too close to the stop sign.   Now we have lived in this house and parked in the same spot for the past 25 1/2 years.   Obviously, the police officer was bored that Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday we went to court and spent almost two hours there.  Most of the people there were for speeding, etc.  But there were three or four parking tickets similar to mine.  One little old lady in a wheelchair had gotten one the same day.  Her daughter had taken her to Urgent Care and didn't put her handicapped parking sticker in the window because they were in a hurry.  So she was there along with all of the rest of us!  I also had Kerri come with me as I told her "I might throw her under the bus with the judge since I wasn't even here when it happened!"

I decided to ask for a hearing on this as I feel it was a ridiculous ticket.  Believe it or not, I have never had a speeding ticket of any kind and didn't want to pay the reduced fee of $75 (from $145).  So I go back to court in August.   I am hoping the officer doesn't show up for the hearing.  The judge actually kind of shook his head when I went up there.   Almost all of the other cases were ones that people can go to traffic school for, but this isn't one of them.

Fortunately I have the time right now to go to court and fight this!   Looking around our 

neighborhood, there are many cars parked in front of houses or next to houses by stop signs.   Not quite sure what the problem was, but I don't think we were blocking anyone's view of the stop sign!