Exchanges with People that Make Your Brain Hurt

[2littlemonkeys]

That actually reminds me of a completely different, very brain-hurty city sticker problem. We used to live in the same city as you (I'm assuming. Lots of wind?), and both our cars had years' worth of Chicago city stickers on our windshields, since those bastards were almost impossible to remove. Eventually, we moved out of state, about a 3-hour drive from the city, right before the new city stickers were released. A few weeks after our move, my husband had some business back in our old city. He'd already registered the car in New State, and it had a New State plate, which should indicate that he did not live in Chicago.  But he still got a City Sticker violation for the car when it was parked on the street. We assume the officer had seen all the stickers but the new one, and he'd been in "gotcha!" mode, and written the violation--including the license plate number, for an out-of-state plate!--without thinking.

That's not the only brain-hurty part, though. It took us over a year to fight that ticket. There was a lot of runaround: "But you didn't have the sticker!" "But we live in Michigan! We don't need the sticker!" "But there was no sticker!" Argh.

Ugh, that stinks.  I'm impressed you were able to fight it successfully! And yes, that is the city of which I speak.     Those things are hard to get off.  And now you can get dinged for not removing the previous year's stickers.  I don't know how my husband gets it off but I bet it includes a razor blade, some Goo Gone and a lot of swearing.

[Luci45]

  I don't know how my husband gets it off but I bet it includes a razor blade, some Goo Gone and a lot of swearing.

That's exactly how to get the city stickers off!

We used to peel the protective paper off of the sticker and before we applied it, cut a piece of Baggie the size of the sticker then about 1/2 " narrower, put that on the sticker leaving about 1/4 " on the side edges to stick it on the window. Then we removed the thing every year and only had those small strips to remove, if we felt like it. Some years they were clear so we put the new sticker right on top of the old edges.

[Elfmama]

I was going to post this in the Special Snowflake thread but then I realized it was more brain hurty than anything.  Though the guy was still kind of SS-y for the attitude.


In our city, every car must have a City Sticker. 

What do visitors to your city do?  How does a cop tell whether this is a resident car or a visitor's car?  If they take the time to run every plate that doesn't have a city sticker, when do they have time to do actual police work?

[BabyMama]

I just joined an organization and was talked into heading the fundraising committee. As the group has recently encountered events where funds are needed, I sent out an e-mail with some suggestions for fundraisers that could generate more immediate profits (like an Internet auction where we could sell something right away, like a rather than, say, a fundraiser dinner that would need to be planned several months in the future.)

I got an e-mail back from one of the members saying she didn't want to sell tickets and didn't want to ask people for money. What did you think raising money for a nonprofit entailed...? 

[Sebastienne]

I was going to post this in the Special Snowflake thread but then I realized it was more brain hurty than anything.  Though the guy was still kind of SS-y for the attitude.


In our city, every car must have a City Sticker. 

What do visitors to your city do?  How does a cop tell whether this is a resident car or a visitor's car?  If they take the time to run every plate that doesn't have a city sticker, when do they have time to do actual police work?

Out of state plates usually get a bye. For the six years I lived there, as well, cars without any city stickers (i.e., cars that didn't advertise a history of living in Chicago) were also usually okay. But heaven help you if you moved out of town, kept your IL plates, and didn't remove your earlier stickers!

Every day I didn't get a ticket for anything felt like a little blessing. I got ticketed twice in one day when someone stole my front license plate (because that's something you can obviously fix in an hour). Parking tickets seem to fund the entire city. Which is why it felt like the biggest win ever to actually get our ridiculous ticket repealed.

[VorFemme]

I was going to post this in the Special Snowflake thread but then I realized it was more brain hurty than anything.  Though the guy was still kind of SS-y for the attitude.


In our city, every car must have a City Sticker. 

What do visitors to your city do?  How does a cop tell whether this is a resident car or a visitor's car?  If they take the time to run every plate that doesn't have a city sticker, when do they have time to do actual police work?

That explains why it could take three to six MONTHS to get a police report for an accident in Chicago (when I worked for a car insurance company)...except for the one accident where an anorexic blacked out and hit the parked & unoccupied vehicle belonging to a police muckety-muck in front of the muckety-muck's house......that one got to us in a week.

They were too busy with tracking everyone's city parking stickers.....

[2littlemonkeys]

I was going to post this in the Special Snowflake thread but then I realized it was more brain hurty than anything.  Though the guy was still kind of SS-y for the attitude.


In our city, every car must have a City Sticker. 

What do visitors to your city do?  How does a cop tell whether this is a resident car or a visitor's car?  If they take the time to run every plate that doesn't have a city sticker, when do they have time to do actual police work?

Well, there are officers who do sticker checks, I see them on our street every day.  I suppose if you have an IL plate and no sticker, they check to see if you're a city resident or not.  They don't seem to bother with the OOS plates unless it's becoming apparent that someone has moved from OOS and not properly registered their car.  I think we have 90 days.

Sebastienne, I hear you on the parking tickets.  And just about everyone I know has received at least one phantom ticket.  That's where you get a ticket but don't know about it until the warning plus an extra fee for not paying on the ticket you never got comes to your house.

[LEMon]

I guess I can understand the ". . . when she was alive" thing because even though the fact that a loved one is deceased may be obvious to the speaker, it's not always immediately memorable or obvious to everyone else.  I would have to stop and think a minute to remember which of my best friends' grandparents are still alive, for example - even when the deaths were fairly recent.  "My grandmother loved going to musicals" could imply she's dead, or she's now in a nursing home and can't go anymore, or she has dementia, or she was so upset when "Cats" closed that she couldn't bring herself to ever attend a musical again.  The ". . . when she was alive" cues the listener in to asking follow-up questions like "What was her favorite?" instead of anything like "What does she do for fun now?" or "Does she hope to be in one someday?"   

Thank you for explaining this.  I had been trying to think why I felt the "... when she was alive" wording was helpful, and this explains it well.  I'm one of those oblivious folks who would ask, "what she likes to do now?" and would be very embarrassed to hear she was deceased.

[jpcher]

Had a good one yesterday.

I was in the card store and there was a woman engaged in a discussion with a clerk about tea roses, of all things.  She was convinced, and vehement about it, that the flowers are called tea roses because of their orange - brown color. 

I didn't get involved but I was always under the impression that the flowers were named because their fragrance was reminiscent of tea.  They come in several colors, as I understand it.

I was always under the impression that they were called tea roses because they were smaller and more delicate . . . you know, the perfect centerpiece on your tea table at tea time when you used the fancy, delicate china and served the small petits fours and finger sandwiches.

 

[Jones]

Jpcher-- me, too; like tea lights.

[WillyNilly]

Had a good one yesterday.

I was in the card store and there was a woman engaged in a discussion with a clerk about tea roses, of all things.  She was convinced, and vehement about it, that the flowers are called tea roses because of their orange - brown color. 

I didn't get involved but I was always under the impression that the flowers were named because their fragrance was reminiscent of tea.  They come in several colors, as I understand it.

I was always under the impression that they were called tea roses because they were smaller and more delicate . . . you know, the perfect centerpiece on your tea table at tea time when you used the fancy, delicate china and served the small petits fours and finger sandwiches.

 

As far as I know "tea roses" smell like roses; Tea roses refers to miniature roses.

[mw8242]

Re: parking
I live in a city that you have to have resident parking stickers. If you don't you can park at a metered spot or one of the parking garages. There is no free parking in town. If I have out of town visitors I can buy $5 guest passes up to 7 at a time. The town makes a ton of money from parking. Stickers are $20 for the year but there is never enough parking. I've regularly driven around 15-30 min looking for a spot. Love my city but parking drives me nuts!

[Elfmama]

Every day I didn't get a ticket for anything felt like a little blessing. I got ticketed twice in one day when someone stole my front license plate (because that's something you can obviously fix in an hour). Parking tickets seem to fund the entire city. Which is why it felt like the biggest win ever to actually get our ridiculous ticket repealed.

Next time you get a ticket for something that you can't fix immediately, leave the original ticket in place under your wiper.  They shouldn't ticket you again if there's one on there already. (Says the lady who avoids cities whenever humanly possible.)

[Midnight Kitty]

Re: parking
I live in a city that you have to have resident parking stickers. If you don't you can park at a metered spot or one of the parking garages. There is no free parking in town. If I have out of town visitors I can buy $5 guest passes up to 7 at a time. The town makes a ton of money from parking. Stickers are $20 for the year but there is never enough parking. I've regularly driven around 15-30 min looking for a spot. Love my city but parking drives me nuts!

I wish we could do that in Waikiki.  I hear people complain that there is so little free parking.  I say, "I have to pay for my parking space and I live here!"  A covered parking stall in a secured building is worth $15,000 to $20,000.

I don't know why people think that their car registration entitles them to park free anywhere.  I wish we had resident parking stickers, but even then, I don't think there should be any free parking in Waikiki; Space is too dear.  If you don't want to pay for parking, take a bus, bike, walk, take a taxi.  There are lots of options.

[mmswm]

One of the silver linings of the big black clouds in my life is the fact that in this city you get to park for free anywhere (except private lots) with a handicap parking placard.  It definitely makes parking downtown and at the beach a far more pleasant experience.