July 08

The word "FAIL" has become a catchphrase among young people. It's a fair and accurate -- and brief -- descriptive word; it's sort of the "NOT!" of the new generation. There's even a blog dedicated to it. So when I saw it on a parking meter, the bane of my existence as a street parker in an urban area, I couldn't help but think how appropriate it seemed.

My life sometimes feels like a big fat "FAIL", but I keep plugging along. What was a leisurely job search, a "what-if" exercise in the current perilous economic climate, may be taking on a new urgency soon. Keep your fingers crossed and let's hope this one is FTW (For The Win), as the kids say.

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July 01

If I had to come up with a title for this photo, I think it would have to be "Dueling Parking Tickets."

Seeing parking tickets in Boston's Back Bay is as common as seeing grass in a park. Parking Enforcement Officers (to call them "meter maids" seems both dimunitive of their jobs and pejorative) are tasked with enforcing the byzantine series of laws governing parking in the city. Traffic Rules and Regulations, the official City of Boston document governing parking, is 49 pages long. It's full of interesting information, such as Article IV, Section 17, Item 1a: "If the parking regulations at a particular location change due to time, then a second parking ticket may be issued after the expiration of ten (10) minutes from the time the first parking ticket was issued."

Seeing two tickets on one car, undoubtedly two perfectly legal tickets according to Traffic Rules and Regulations, is a bit more unusual. It's also noteworthy enough for a Photo of the Day on a rainy, slow Wednesday.

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June 04

Posting parking meters two days in a row still isn't as bad as all those flower pictures, is it?

What can I say, except that today offered pretty slim pickings photography-wise. I've been kept fairly busy with life and the assorted crap that comes along with it, so getting the camera out and actually finding something noteworthy is problematic.

Today's pic comes from my many circuits of Back Bay city blocks looking for non-resident parking this evening. I do this pretty much every day, so it's applicable to my everyday life. Some days it's easier than others to find that final spot of the day; other days, I have to bite the bullet and pay to park in the garage next door. And there's the ever-present risk of out-of-order meters, with their one-hour limit, and Boston's "move to another block" rule after your meter expires.

It may not be interesting, but it's my life. (Hey, I think I just coined my new blog catchphrase!)

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June 03

Summer is remodeling season in Boston's Back Bay, as evidenced by this casually-placed hard hat in a tree.

Remodeling means construction, which means construction trucks taking parking places and other spaces being cordoned off for deliveries and pickups -- even the occasional double-parked enormous construction vehicle taking up more than its alloted half of the already-narrow Back Bay streets. Boston doesn't have that much on-street parking in the first place, so losing five or ten spaces on adjacent blocks has a knock-on effect for the entire neighborhood.

Fortunately, construction workers arrive early and knock off early, so if I can find a space initially, it holds me over for two hours when more spaces are free.

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May 27

You have to admire the lawless insouciance that inspires a driver who's earned a parking ticket to casually crumple it up and toss it in the gutter with his other litter.

Having earned many parking tickets in my life -- and suffered the consequences of untimely payment of same -- Careless Charlie's casual tossing aside of the ticket suggests to me that he's not from Boston. Back Bay does get a few tourists now and again, so it's quite easy for them to run afoul of the labyrinth of parking regulations and overlapping jurisdictions that hold sway over Boston's precious few on-street parking spaces.

As for the littering ... well, that's just inexcusable.

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April 22

It's street cleaning day on Castleton Street in Jamaica Plain, and the meter maids were out in force today. There were seven cars on one side of the street, which runs about the length of a football field, and six of them had parking tickets. Thus is the joy of on-street parking in Boston.

These cars are lucky. In heavily-populated areas like Boston's Back Bay and South End, the cars wouldn't have just been ticketed, but towed. Those poor car owners get to pay for the ticket, plus the cost of towing and impound, before they can get their car back.

Fortunately, I live on a street without any posted street-cleaning days, so I don't have to do the on-street parking shuffle, because it can be a giant pain in the butt.

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