Parking Meters

On a lovely, sunny afternoon in September, I parked my car near a large lawn on campus where a friend loaded his bike into the back of my car. We discovered a frisbee. We both had things to do that afternoon so I loaded the parking meter with some change, enough for about 26 (do I really remember that?) minutes. Of course, once one is involved in a game such as this, time fades away. I realized we were there considerably longer than planned and paid for, but with no parking attendants in sight, we kept playing. Finally, our arms exhausted, we wandered back up the hill to the car, where lo and behold, there was a man on a bike in a uniform, looking at my flashing red "EXPIRED" meter. As I approached the car and opened the door, he said to me "You know you're meter ran out." My relpy, "I do now" and shut the door.

More such meters line the restaurants near campus. The row of parking spaces was empty, and I pulled into the last space. Collecting change, I walked to the meter. The slot for my space read:














and the slot was jammed full of coins. I used the next meter over to pay for my parking.