Pet Peeve Number Two: The City Of Los Angeles

Okay, my Pet Peeve No. 2 isn't really the City of Angeles, it has more to do with how Los Angeles has been treating the Miser Family. Not. Very. Well. To say the least. And I've been trying to be positive these days, as I've somehow surmised that having a positive attitude can actually help you and your loved ones during the New Depression. So having Pet Peeves is not really being very positive. But I also refuse to be Pollyanna-ish, always happy, because that just seems fake to me. You know who I'm talking about: those eternally happy, optimistic people who you just want to see clubbed over the head like a baby seal. (I'm suddenly turning violent, which makes sense when I think about what the City of Los Angeles did to us.) They had the audacity to sneak over to our house in the middle of the night (okay, it was 5:55am on a Sunday morning, same difference for all intents and purposes) and issue us a parking ticket! For parking our car in the same exact spot that we have been parking in for 20 years! It's a little spot behind our house in a driveway next to the alleyway. We've parallel parked our various vehicles in this spot over the years, and we are not blocking the alley in the least bit. Anyway, the ticket, issued by one "Officer" L. Thomas states that we are in violation of "Standing in Alley". It is for $53.00. Wow. That's a lot of money. Especially now, in these depressed times. Sparky is going to fight it, but he knows from past experience that we will have to pay it no matter what. The City is always right when it comes to parking violations, even when they are wrong. There is absolutely no justice in this town when it comes to ugly things like this: no reason given for the rules changing; no suggestion as to do next; no way to have input on the real problems of the alley like dumping and graffiti. It seems like two things are at work here. First, the City is out of money and needs to raise revenue using whatever means possible (issuing suspect tickets); and second, this L. Thomas must be working on some sort of commission basis whereby he/she/it has to sneak up and down alleys and side streets in the middle of the night when all are sleeping, just in order to meet his/hers/its quota. Sometimes it just feels like this City is after us, and our best bet is to move to a small town somewhere up North. Someplace where they don't issue parking tickets to people unless their meter is expired, or they are parked in a "No Parking" zone, or parked in the middle of an alleyway. That is where the City of L.A. makes me want to go.