When I went to the ER for my hand in December I got a parking ticket. I’d put all my change in the meter but it wasn’t enough. And of course, you can’t leave the ER waiting line to go move your vehicle, even if there was some place to move it to, which there wasn’t.

So anyway I got a delinquent notice saying all sorts of nasty things, towing my vehicle, putting boots on it, etc etc.

I stopped by the city courthouse, different from the county courthouse for future reference, and parked in a spot hoping I could get in and out before I got yet another ticket. There is NO place to park downtown that isn’t charged, literally.

That freaked me out. Security confiscated my keys due to my mini leatherman. An inch and a half blade is too dangerous. I asked if the metal toothpick was forbidden too..I’ve really got to learn to subside meekly. If I had been born a slave I would have died a very young slave. I don’t think I’m smart enough to have learned to keep my self blank.

So anyway, after waiting outside for an hour and frantically moving my truck from the parking to the convenience store down the corner, I bought a candy bar so I was a customer and could park there, I finally got my turn to talk to the city clerk.

This is where it gets sort of weird. I knew the guy! It took us a while but I’d been part of the same middle school math tutoring group the past year.

I told him my circumstances, he said that since I only had the one ticket I was in no danger of getting my truck towed. It will go to collections in may and may have an additional $10 added to it by then but that’s it. He said I could also come back in may and start a payment plan on it to keep it active.
Try not to get any more tickets and don’t let it stress you out.

Whew.
Now…I’m parked at the pyschs office. I’d like to be able to get some homework done but I haven’t been able to stay in the relevant reality long enough to get anything done. I haven’t had enough of a down time to recover yet.

Back to my deep breathing calming exercises.

And one of the two reasons I was looking for a new spot is also here.

Linda is crazy. Whacko crazy. Mean crazy.
But for whatever reason she’s latched onto my truck.

If I’m within 1.5 miles of this intersection, in any direction, she’ll find me*; and sit or stand outside my truck orating with a very loud voice using language not fit for proper discourse.

I want to keep my distance from her because she does draw quite a bit of attention to herself and I can’t afford to have other peoples annoyance at her bleed onto me.

*i wonder if the war on drugs/terror/full bottles of shampoo still need sniffer dogs? Or maybe Vietnam could use another unexploded landmine sniffer? Just paint everything white and in the shape of a little white truck and she’ll be able to hone in from across the country.

The security guard tried to tell me it was for my own safety. So I left the well-lit, patrolled (however irregularly), quiet parking lot and spent the rest of the night on then edge of the highway, in the dark, with cars roaring past at 70mph plus. But I’m sure I was much safer on the highway.

You know, I’m not happy about it but I accept that businesses at so scared of being sued that they won’t allow anyone to park in their empty parking lots but when security guards try that crap I get pissed.

I tried a new parking space more off the beaten path yesterday. But the guy who already claimed the area had some very defined ideas. Then he was taking too much of an interest in my truck and belongings for my comfort. I admit I’m paranoid about such things these days.

So this evening I decided I’d go ahead and trundle off. Unfortunately, the road that the old guy insisted I use to enter/exit the area was impassible for my truck. So after backing down a non-lit sand/gravel road in the dark, downhill, I had to nurse the truck back up the hill. Then I did a very very tight 4-corner turn so I could drive down the road I entered on originally. It was an even less defined road so I didn’t want to chance backing down it.

I’m sure I woke the fellow up and I feel a bit bad about that but since I won’t be heading back there I hope he’ll forgive me eventually.

Right now I’m in the hospital back parking lot where I have an appt tomorrow morning.
I scared off several deer when I pulled in. And there’s a family of coyotes yipping out across the brush land.

..or as wild as the outskirts of town can be. 🙂

Thanks to my buddy Sam who let me camp out in his driveway for several weeks and use his electricity and wifi!

But now it’s time to face the world again, unfettered, unelectrified, unwified, and any other words I can mangle.

Posts will be few because the schools and libraries are mostly closed this week and I don’t currently have minutes on my wifi hotspot.
Choices choices.. gym application fee or wifi? showers or communication with the world? which would YOU choose? 😀

Last night I stayed behind the library, not the one I got kicked out of.

A woman that I’d met before, previously homeless, now in an apartment, came over to talk to me. She told me of a way I can get a cell phone for free and some amount of minutes, so I will still be able to deal with all the oficials I need to deal with.

Right now I’m at the school across the street. The library is closed for the break but they have a few computers set up in the hallway for registration/research purposes. So I’m typing up a quick note. 🙂

As I mentioned in an previous post, I stopped by the library.

The city parking system is a pay at the machine then stick the slip of paper to the window.

While it is risky, one option is to use a receipt from previous parking and hope that the parking police just do a visual drive-by rather than specifically checking the meter or individual tickets.

Another possibility I noticed is for overnight parking.
There is an option to leave your vehicle in the lot overnight (Don’t drink and drive!), in this option you have to pay for the time previous to closing and then, apparently, you can park fee-free until opening hours the next morning.
Since there is a 3 hour limit on the machine I imagine timing would be a factor here.

Technically, you should be able to park at any of the street parking free during the non-fee hours. I haven’t checked the machines on the street yet to see if this overnight parking sticker is just a library feature or city-wide.
Even if city-wide, it might be worth paying a nickel to start the timer for a hassle free nights sleep. And if a person had a few dollars they could pre-pay for a few hours into the next morning.

The noise from the drunken party goers didn’t stop until about 3am but no one bothered me.

The guy who was taking money for parking did come and inspect my camper but since I was already there (or because it was dark and quiet maybe) he didn’t bother me either.

I was hoping that because it was used as parking for 6th street (the bar and club street for the younger crowd) that any police that came by might choose to believe that I had partied to hard and taken a cab home and would return the next day to get my truck.
Regardless, no one harassed me.

I think now I’m going to go to the library. They charge for parking during the day though so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stay more than an hour. And they chain off the lot at closing so no one is able to park there overnight.

I’m parked outside the downtown post office. Even though there’s a sign that says “30 minutes limit”. I drove down this afternoon so I could pick up my mail. Now traffic is hellish. This is not a good time for my gas guzzling, barely moving camper to be on the roads.

I hope that I won’t draw any attention until some time this evening when the traffic dies down.

Since it’s Friday though I may be able to park here longer than I was thinking would be possible.
I’ve noticed that this parking lot is used by people going to the clubs, eateries, and events happening in the evenings downtown.
Twice I’ve seen some man at the entrance taking money from people parking in this public lot. I assume that the police don’t have an issue with this because I’ve seen him several times.

So I may just hang out and see what happens.
Worst is that they’ll tell me to leave.

But it’s still noisy here.