According to the DC Department of Transportation website, our block is NOT zoned residential. Neither side. My guess is that the sign says “residential” because they don’t make custom signs for our weird un-zoned street. I printed out the DDOT search page showing that our block isn’t zoned residential, and we’ll be contesting this ticket.
Tag: Harvard Street
Now theyve done it
The DMV told me to get a petition to have our street zoned residential. The woman I talked to was very nice, but completely failed to address my concerns. “Is there another street nearby that’s not zoned where you could park on Tuesdays?” Honestly, I don’t know. And I won’t find out. I was parked 15 feet from my front door, and I got a ticket designed to keep commuters from parking all day in residential zones.
I’m going to contest the ticket. I’m going to write my councilmember. I don’t know if I’m adequately portraying how ridiculous this ticket is. It means that I’m subject to a ticket, every Tuesday, unless I drive around and find some other street to park on that isn’t zoned.
This isn’t over. I will not pay this ticket. If I can’t park on the street where I live, then there’s something deeply wrong with the system.
OMG I have DC tags!
Finally. My car is registered in DC, complete with tags, until 2009. I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about that any more.
My experience at the Georgetown DMV was pretty good. I was there at 8:07, and they open at 8:15. The line was longer than 95 M St. All the employees I dealt with were exceptionally friendly and helpful. The woman giving out numbers actually joked with me. A woman waiting also loaned me a pen, which I had forgotten to bring. One bit of advice – the Georgetown DMV has a bunch of clipboards to write on, but about three pens, so bring your own. They also don’t validate parking, which was no problem for me, since I rode the bus. But it might be a problem for other people who relish the idea of driving into Georgetown at 8AM.
I got my number at 8:33AM, and walked out the door with my tags at precisely 9:00. Well done, Georgetown DMV.
I have to say, my experience with the DC DMV has been entirely pleasant. Dealing with Capital One to get my title was a hassle, and there is still the matter of the $100 failure to register ticket that I have to contest, but the DMV has been very good.
And, just to top off a fabulous day of working from home, a little later I’m going to fish a stool sample out of the litter box and take it to the vet so we can try and determine if the cat’s recent behavior issues are medical or (As we suspect) psychological.
It happened again
The disaster magnet once again worked its magic. I went out back yesterday to retreive the trash can before someone stole it, and I saw a note on the disaster magnet. I suppose I was being nosy in going to look, but I couldn’t help it.
Someone had hit the car. Parked in the driveway. Who gets their car rear-ended while it’s parked in the driveway? The person left a note, but seriously.
Even funnier, perhaps, is that I went out to retrieve the trash can after the salesman who was supposed to meet me to talk about installing garage doors at the back of the driveway stood me up. We want to put in doors because our driveway is currently the only one without them, which means that everyone turns around in our driveway. And sometimes hit the cars parked there.
Anyway, there wasn’t a lot of damage (And the car still hadn’t been repaired from last time, so he can get it all taken care of at once, that lucky guy). But it’s enough to send you to Zipcar.
Whoa, there
What’s going on at Mount Vernon Square Metro? I’ve been riding the Green line to there and picking up the Yellow line to get to Pentagon City since March. Yesterday, the Green line train overshot its normal stopping point by about half a six-car train-length. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal, except that I usually sit in one of the back two cars – they tend to be less crowded as everyone stuffs themselves into the middle few cars.
I refuse to run for a Metro (Which is probably a little silly, but I don’t care.), but I will walk briskly. Which I did, and I made it before they closed the doors.
Then, this morning, the Green line train stopped at about that same spot, half a train-length past the normal spot. The Yellow line picked up at the normal spot.
What is Metro trying to do? I don’t appreciate it. I’m a creature of habit, which includes standing in the same spot on the platform every day. And I expect the train to cooperate.
Lawyers Have Heart 10K
I ran the Lawyers Have Heart 10K yesterday. It was much more miserably hot and humid than the weather forecast had suggested. But my time was 56:04, only a minute slower than my previous 10K, which I ran in much cooler weather.
This race was much more crowded than my other one. The first mile was tough – not only were we baking in the sun, but it was like driving in rush hour traffic. There was always a slower person in your way, or a faster person cutting you off. But it cleared up later on.
I wore my flag football jersey in honor of our end-of-the-season cookout later that day. You probably can’t read the back of the jersey, but the name is FISTROCK, which is a reference to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode that lampooned the movie Space Mutiny. The jersey was cooler before BLASTBODY moved to San Fransisco. But it’s still cool. To me, at least.
Anyway, I had one moment during the race when I wasn’t sure I was going to finish. Have you ever had one of those where it’s quite clear that your internal temperature gauge is just about into the red? When your body sends a little message to your brain saying, “Hey, stupid, if you don’t cool us off pretty soon, we’re going to shut down.” I had less than a mile left, and I was again baking in the sun. But the feeling passed, and I finished the race. It helped that the last quarter mile was in the shade, downhill, with a breeze.
Support the American Heart Association by running
By participating in this event, you will not only help to strengthen your own heart through exercise, you will also help raise funds vital to the education programs and research of the AHA
On June 9th, I’m doing my second 10K. The first one was a success. This one is going to be hotter, and I’m going to the DC Improv the night before, so I should be all ready to run at 8 AM. Then we have our flag football end-of-season barbeque. Should be a good weekend. I may sleep all day Sunday, though.
I have to wonder how much this race actually helps the American Heart Association. It costs $30 to sign up. I get a t-shirt. They have to pay some people to run the event. I can’t believe that any more than $5 per person actually goes to help the cause.
On the other hand, I’m really running this race for me. If I want to help a charity, I’d rather just give them money.
Not deleted
It was all Windows’ fault. Windows FTP seems to think that it shouldn’t notify me if I’m overwriting a .htaccess file. So I overwrote one, and killed Typo (The blogging engine that I use for From Harvard Street). It’s fixed now.
Also fixed – all the permalinks to Harvard Street posts now redirect to the corresponding pages at Complaint Hub. So if you’ve linked to a post, the link still works, it just takes you to Complaint Hub instead. I’m quite proud of myself.
Or, deleting a blog
From Harvard Street seems to be missing at the moment. I’m working on it. It’s late, though, so it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Combining two sites
It turns out it was kind of silly for me to manage two blogs. I mean, who needs two blogs? So I’m combining them. If you’re a regular reader of this blog and From Harvard Street, you’ll see some posts you may have read there show up here. They should all be here, in fact.
All the comments from Harvard Street have not been transferred over. They aren’t gone, though, and I may eventually transfer them. If I get really motivated, I might even redirect the permalinks to Harvard Street posts so that they go to the corresponding Complaint Hub posts.
Anyway, if you have any questions, just ask.