READING BETWEEN THE FINES

This is a habit I developed some time ago. There are times when we get more than our share of complaints over parking fines.

We do have parking meters in our city. And I do not plan on changing that part either. Nope I like the revenue.

But some people are not crazy about them. Mainly when they get a parking ticket. That tends to get less than smiles.

And you can depend on people not taking time to say thank you for the ticket. What they will do is lie.

The stuff they come up with is amazing. Heart attacks, aliens, even being a secret agent, anything except I messed up.

None of those has really impressed much. But they do make for good conversation at times.

Perhaps not quite the type of entertainment I enjoy very often though. Not in any way. And you can be sure that means I will hear it a lot.

What that is when they insist upon talking to me. If the clerk doesn’t give them a break then it is go see the Mayor.

Am I thrilled to hear all the crap? Not in any way. What I am is bored. So it makes for some form of entertainment.

This is when I try to make it a game. I spent the time listening to their story, trying to act concerned.

Then have them fill out a form to be reviewed by our parking committee. Course there is no such committee.

But they don’t need to know that. Instead they will just accept the form. That always buys me time.

And naturally when the form comes in when say we never got it. So they have to apply for a replacement.

Then when the do provide a second one we put in a file for a month. If they call we say it was in committee.

In the end, they don’t get out of the fine. But they sure have lots of time getting pissed off about it.

Which makes it all worthwhile.