Monday, March 12, 2007

Certainly no need to check the calendar today

courtesy University of Georgia Parking Services. Not really my car Moms unite against Daylight Savings Time! Who's with me?

After a nearly 30-minute struggle to drag (literally and figuratively) my children from their beds this morning, I finally get them to school. As I'm changing Opie into his slippers I spot a police car through the side door. "Look kids, a police car!" "Why is there a police car at our school, Mommy?" "I don't know...OK, time to take Opie into his class!"

You know what the police car was doing? Giving me a parking ticket. Directly in front of the school. Where I (and every other parent) have been parking every morning and afternoon for three solid years. Granted, right underneath a no parking sign, but I uh, guess I thought it didn't apply to me or something. Also: this block contains the school on one side, and TWO houses on the other. What's with the draconian parking laws?

Wanna know how much a parking ticket is in Mayberry?

$10.

24 comments:

Amanda said...

Ugh. That's lousy. Have you ever tried to contest a ticket? Sometimes the clerks take pity...

In a stroke of sheer genius hubby and I took the girls for a walk in knee deep snow. Ok, maybe it waas more cabin fever then, but now genius the girls slept the sleep of battle weary warriers. No struggle with the change in time.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a mom, but I'm right next to you on the protest. HATE IT!

Bea said...

It is just so wrong, this early Daylight Savings Time. Since Bub was born, I've always counted down the days until it's time to spring forward, because by that time the sun was rising at 6, and the time change meant we could go back to getting up at 7. Now, it means getting up in pitch blackness (really great way to save energy, huh?). sigh.

Mom101 said...

Yikes. I thought they only do that at the end of the month.

Daylight savings? Only made worse when your kid is still readjusting from a 3 hour time difference in LA. But still, gotta love the daylight...

Summer said...

That woulda cost you $50 in DC, and at my son's school (which has been open for all of 2.5 months now) the parking enforcement people circle like vultures. A friend got a ticket for having her bumper hanging out one foot into a no-parking zone, written during the perhaps 10 minutes it took her to walk her daughter into the school. This is what you get in a city that isn't able to tax the incomes of most of the people who work here....

I HATE the time change, too. Painful, it is.

Movin Mom said...

NOTE TO SELF:

take parking signs serious.

I love that it stays lighter later but I despise the mornings. It took everything in me to pull those kids outta bed this morning.

The only plus is that green grass and flowers blooming is around the corner....right?

Mrs. Wheezer said...

I don't mine daylight savings. It's the whole jetlag-without-having-gone-anywhere aspect that gets to me... Can't we just pick a time and stick with it?

Lisa said...

HATE Daylight Savings Time too. There aren't enough hours in the day to begin with... And then we LOSE one? Gah!

Jerri Ann said...

That is hysterical, $10 is even more hysterical. Listen, I'm being rude and obnoxious today. I"m trying to prevent from going to work outside he home so I'm whoring my new site where I intend to write ads for $$$. Will you go see me over there? http://www.lifeinreality.com You know, normally I blog at http://www.acracknlife.squarespace.com and I have ads on it already...please don't be mad at me

Damselfly said...

Here, here. I hate DST.

I got a stupid ticket last year. I was parked in a real parking spot, but because the back of my car hung over the sidewalk, I was impeding pedestrians or something. If you ask me, the parking spot shouldn't be there in the first place, because any car would have been over the sidewalk ... but that's how they make money, I guess ... and now I'm rambling but basically:

Sorry you got a ticket! And on one hour less of sleep!

Magpie said...

I hate the whole messing with the time thing too. But I laughed out loud when I got to the price of the ticket! It's a benefit of small town living, that $10 ticket!

Patois42 said...

You had my sympathy. Until you told me it was $10. Write a check for $50 to carry you through the next 15 years parking there.

And I am so with you in solidarity regarding Daylight Savings.

Anonymous said...

Boo! I hate parking tickets. Even $10.00 ones. Better than $20, no doubt, but still, piss me off. And at school? Don't they know you have to park there because you have Things To Do? Whatever.

Karianna said...

Thank goodness it is only $10. But oh, what a day to have that happen!

Scribbit said...

Daylight Savings time is hands-down the stupidest thing ever invented. It's even worse here in Alaska because we have 22 hours of daylight in the summer as it is so who cares about "saving" it. It's not as if we get more, it just throws everyone's sleep schedules off. Can you tell I'm grumpy from losing an hour?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, for $10, I'd definitely take my chances :o)

And daylight savings is kicking my ass. As if I wasn't already ready for second lunch and a nap by noon every day...

MamaMaven said...

Wow, 10 whole dollars? Around here you can't PARK for that much, let alone get a ticket resolved! It does suck though, what is the problem?

I thought I loved daylight saving time, then I experienced this morning with my girls. I am loving it a little less!

SUEB0B said...

$10?? That is beautiful. I used to live where there were parking meters IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE and no off-street parking and it was $14. And that was 15 years ago.

Lady M said...

I was all indignant for you, until I got to the ten dollars part and had to laugh!

We have too many devices in the house that need to be changed over with the time. Lots (like the computers) are supposed to automatically do it, but not with the extended weeks of DST this time!

Bon said...

y'know, i was living in hope for daylight savings time to come...because then, i figured, O would sleep until blissful 7 instead of wtf-am-i-doing-up-at-this-
godforsaken-hour 6. no dice. he seems to have dropped yet another hour of sleep from his body clock entirely...and 6 now feels like 5 to my poor beleaugered self.

moo.

i'm with ya, sister. and my sympathies on the ticket. :)

Radioactive Tori said...

My daughter has testing this week at school. Because the week we have to drag them out of bed and their internal clock is messed up is the very best week to gauge how much they have learned.

That stinks about the ticket!

Amy said...

I totally agree. Why does the day feel shorter now? Could it be because it is still night when I rise? Ugh.

Parking ticket? At school? In Mayberry?

Gah.

Anonymous said...

Kyle once got a ticket outside Happyland. Went to West New York city court and fought it - and won. I forget how much it was, but definitely more than $10.

I don't mind DST - I just want it to be in effect year-round. The time change is what sucks rocks for me.

Unknown said...

I *would* revolt except I love driving home in the non-pitch-black so much, I just can't.

Sorry about your tickey.