I should have known better because I listen to The Clash

I fought the law, and the law won.

Just so everyone in Ottawa knows. Or at least the person who reads this blog knows and can spread the information - there is a 3 hour parking limit applied to the entire city of Ottawa whether there is a sign posted or not. I hate when beaurocrats manage to write bylaws that have catch alls. Jerks.

So whether or not there is a sign posted if you park somewhere over 3 hours, you'll get fined. Whether or not you're, you know, actually taking a parking space from someone, blocking a fire hydrant or within a meter and a half of a driveway (funny how that one never gets ticketed). Fair enough, I saw their little by-law and I paid the damned $30. I should have gone to the bank and got them to give me $30 in pennies which I could deliver unrolled, alas I only just thought of that. But I give it to you to use any future parking endeavours you undertake.

I don't feel justified here because I got ticketed on a practically empty street in The Glebe. It's not like my car was in the way or taking up space during a local event or something.

The place you go to fight these things is not exactly centrally located either. I chose Nepean because it's by Algonquin College (which I could locate) and I don't ever want to go to Orleans which is the other location. Oh I'm sure you like it, but like Kanata I need something like the Senators or a really good bbq-pool party plus transportation provided to get me there.

When I first showed up there were no people in line to pay parking tickets so I got my forms to fill out and an info sheet. I sat down to fill them out and when I read the info sheet I discovered the whole 3-hour limit thing so I got up to begrudgingly pay the fine. Naturally there were two people ahead of me and the woman at the counter was insane. The attractive woman behind the counter was getting more and more frustrated and none of us could really blame her because the person "paying" the fine couldn't really finish a coherent sentence. She wanted to see the guy who gave her the fine. Claimed she spoke to him on the phone and he was cancelling the ticket. Then she wanted to go to court but she had missed a few court dates. Then she wanted to pay the fine but wanted to know if she could get her money back if they cancelled the ticket. It went on and frickin' on. So by the time I got my turn I was really nice to the woman at the desk who seemed to have suffer just a bit too much at 4pm on a Friday.

I hope I never get a noise violation.

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