Parking Violation

-
Today I make my annual non-charitable contribution to the Parking Violations Bureau of the City of Traverse City.

I knew my meter had run out, but I was out of change, enjoying a brewed coffee in a cushy chair, and finally making work progress. What were the chances that a meter cop would bust me in the 10-minute window before the five o'clock free parking?

My cousin in Grand Rapids recently told me that she just adds coins to her parking meter using her phone app.

Cool! I looked it up. Apparently, we can do it here in TC, too, at a couple locations: https://parkmobile.zendesk.com/entries/21603354-Traverse-City-MI-Parkmobile-Info

Popular posts from this blog

My Fruitive Challenge Diet: Day One!

-
Image
I’m excited to begin my Fruitive Challenge today! It’s a big leap of faith because I had never imagined myself committing to a 100% Whole Foods Plant Based diet! But here I am doing it. I thank my brother Gregg for recruiting and motivating me to give it a try. He’s been eating this way for several years now and he looks much healthier than I do. Here he is advertising his restaurant, Fruitive , on Instagram. Here’s the catch though, for the first two months of the diet, I’m also committed to eating SOS free diet, which means no added salt, oils, or sugar in the food I consume. I have been pretty worried about that part of the plan because I love my salt, oil, and sugar, but I have to say that I had a really good first day of it. I ate fresh fruit for breakfast, rice and salad for lunch, and a rice and beans bowl for dinner. The trick for me is to add a variety of no salt seasonings to taste and to toss in a mix of vegetables including avocado. I had one mishap worth mentioning though...
Read more

Egg McMuffins with a Side of Humble Pie

-
We pull into a McDonald's drive thru for a late night snack on our drive back home from a holiday trip. I order Egg McMuffins with ham for everyone because they're cheaper and have fewer calories than cheeseburgers, and because Laura has never tried one before. In front of us is a car with a personalized license plate that says "PRINCESS" using a creative combination of letters and numbers. I laugh aloud and crack a lame joke about the chances that Royalty is placing an order on the royal credit card. When I pull up to the window to pay, the cashier says, "Don't worry about it. The lady in front of you paid for your order."  "What!"  "The lady in the car in front of you just paid for your order!"  "Wow, that's great!" I say, but m y face flushes red as I recall my judgmental comment. I glance over at my wife and say,  "If she only knew what I just said about her!"  I look up and catch the benevolent pr...
Read more

It's EUROVISION time!!!

-
Eurovision is an annual European song contest that my wife and I and about 100 to 600 million other viewers watch each year. The back story: Tomorrow is the anniversary of me meeting Laura in Cambridge!... About a week after we met, I invited her to come to my place for a Eurovision party, but she had to decline because she already had plans to visit her grandmother. She's made up for it by watching Eurovision with me nearly every year. (I should add that we especially like to make fun of the show because, suspiciously, England never wins!)
Read more