Almost Lucky

Left late this morning fore an eye doc appointment, but managed to find a non-metered parking space and made it to the appointment in time.

Then I cruised over to the financial district and found another sweet parking space, though it was a 30-minute meter. I felt lucky, so I plugged the meter and grabbed lunch. I checked the car after lunch - no chalk and the meter had run out, but no ticket.

From there I headed to SOMA for another errand and found ANOTHER cherry parking spot, non-metered. Finished that errand and went to meet a friend for coffee. I parked my car a couple of blocks away, had a nice chat and a lovely cup of tea.

By about 4pm we decided to start our weekends & said so long. I headed back to my car and on the way, a strange feeling came over me... I'd gotten cocky. My luck was about to change.

I turned the corner at 1st and Mission and sho-nuff, she was gone. Baby Volvo had been dragged off to City Tow. Dammit! So close to a perfect parking day! They didn't even need that lane today - there was hardly any traffic! Shitty shitty bastards!

I hoofed it to 7th & Harrison and wow, it sure is easy now to buy your car back from the most secure lot in town. The office is clean and they have a high-tech Take a Number robot - a touch screen kiosk.

You touch the "button" - a tiny button on a 20" screen - and out pops a big number on a piece of paper you could put a grocery list on. What's all that extra screen and paper for?

A very nice man helped me right away and kindly put $189 on my Visa card. A few moments later I had my receipts and he told me where to retrieve my car.

About ten minutes later I was back in my car and ecstatic. Nothing had been stolen - everything was in order - I was just out $189, the cost of being stupid.