Ranty rant rant ranty rant

So I hate street parking. Like, with a deep, burning, visceral hatred.

One reason is that every morning when I wake up, my first conscious thought is "I really hope my car didn't get broken into, vandalized, or hit by a drunk driver."

But the most irritating reason is by far the inane and arbitrary of city services: street sweeping. This event occurs on randomly assigned days in the month; first Tuesday and third Tuesday? Second and fourth Monday? First Wednesday of the month? It's like Russian Roulette with parking tickets!

And the best part? It punishes you for using public transportation if you have a car. I've ponied up the $48 more than once because I forgot it was a street sweeping day and took BART to work, instead of driving. Thanks City of Oakland, I've learned my lesson! No more saving the Earth on Mondays and Tuesdays.

It also ruined my plans to sleep in on this work-free Tuesday morning. Thanks to a doctor's appointment and a surplus of sick leave I didn't have to go to work at my usual time. I did however, have to drag myself out of bed before 8 this morning to go circle my neighborhood at 15 m.p.h. trying to find an empty spot on the Monday sides of the street then trek the approximately 40 blocks back to my apartment in the chill morning fog. It was super!

So to sum up, street sweeping sucks. Alert the media!